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POPS"Dumber in English" Biophysicist and author Stefan Klein wants to ensure the future of German as a language of science. Our academic language is on the verge of atrophy, he says. ... Anyone who only encounters scientific research in a foreign language pays a heavy price, even if he is a master of the idiom. "We are dumber in English" – this was the conclusion that researchers came to in Sweden and the Netherlands, where children were introduced to English on their first day of school. Lectures in English are part of every subject, but nevertheless, the test results are about ten percent lower on average than in courses taught in the mother tongue. In English seminars, students ask and answer fewer questions; they give the overall impression of being somewhat more helpless. Neither students nor teachers are generally aware of the problem, because they all overestimate their expertise in English. The entire article is interesting.
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POPSResearcher Links Storytelling, Math Ability This study suggests that building strong storytelling skills early in the preschool years may be helpful in preparing children for learning mathematics when they enter school. ''It is also a nice finding, I think, because storytelling is something every parent can easily do and foster with their children, without the need to buy any fancy toys or materials,'' said O'Neill. Given these findings, O'Neill is continuing in further studies, also funded by Science and Engineering Research Canada, to explore more precisely what aspects of storytelling are linked to aspects of mathematical ability.
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POPSStudy Of Countries I do not claim that sites such as this are the be all and end all of research regarding any given country. But still they are fairly comprehensive. If any given country or nation intrigues you then I recommend further research. If this site creates a even greater thirst for knowledge then I will have done something useful.
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POPSCup of tea may help boost memory! "Drinking regular cups of tea could help improve your memory, research suggests." Both green tea and black tea inhibit enzymes that help produce protein deposits in the brain which are associated with Alzheimer's disease. Green tea's inhibitive effect lasts longer. Good news for those of us who love to drink tea, particularly green tea. I'm going to brew a pot right now...
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POPSAmbitious Project: find two unknown species of fish each week The discoveries have been coming to the surface at the rate of two species of fish unknown to science each week. And the scientists believe that they are still far from documenting all the different marine species. Advanced sonar equipment that can map oceanic areas 10,000 times larger than previously possible recently detected a shoal of eight million fish in a school the size of Manhattan off the coast of New Jersey. Images of the shoal revealed it pulsating, fragmenting and reforming as the fish moved through the water. When the census is completed it will form a snapshot of ocean life that scientists will use as a reference to monitor the impact of the fishing industry and environmental change.
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POPSThe anatomy of sarcasm Very interesting article that gets into the various parts of the brain that play in a role in determining whether someone is being sarcastic.
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POPSThe Earth's Tropical Beginnings "When you start hurting the tropics, you are cutting off the source of species for other places." --Stuart Pimm, an evolutionary biologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina
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