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POPSMcCain Team Shoves William Ayers Cover-up Into The Spotlight Some highlights: While the University sits on the complete Annenberg Challenge records, several months ago I was able to obtain certain key records of the Challenge - including board minutes, annual and semi-annual reports and financial records - from Brown University's Annenberg Institute. Brown housed the national Annenberg Challenge program that was set up in 1993 by a gift of $500 million from Walter Annenberg. While the material I was provided is helpful it is no substitute for the complete documentary record that is apparently housed at the University of Illinois and thus that public University should immediately make available to the public those records. Below is an analysis of what I found in the documents I was able to obtain.
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POPSThe Male Brain, Explained "We have been assuming that the ways in which emotions are organized in the brain are essentially similar in men and women," but they aren't. Parts of the limbic cortex, which is involved in emotional responses, are smaller in men than in women. Additionally, scientists at McMaster University have found that guys have a smaller density of neurons in areas of the temporal lobe that deal with language processing. Appreciate his naturally upbeat nature Does he seem to be "up" most of the time? It's not your imagination: Male brains produce 52 percent more serotonin (the chemical that influences mood) than female brains, according to a study done at McGill University. And studies show that fewer men than women suffer from depression. Remember his brain is his largest sex organ The preoptic area of the hypothalamus is greater in volume, in cross-sectional area and in the number of cells. This area of the hypothalamus is in charge of mating behavior.
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POPS'Green' chemistry may get the midas touch I imagined 'green' chemistry would involve copper but...They think the size of the Gold particles may make them reactive due to quantum effects. I wonder how that theory extends to smaller particles or even mono-atomic (single non-metallic atoms powdered or in suspension) gold. I bet we'll find out.They regularly seem to be finding uses for gold, that are completely unlike any use it has had before. Still, all it can take for any element to be used in a revolutionary way is a new approach. Gold just happens to fascinate us so particularly.
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POPSEat Organic - But Not For Better Nutrition Go ahead and buy that organic apple if you want. Just don't think you're getting more nutrients out of it than an apple grown with the aid of pesticides. According to a new study by researchers out of the University of Copenhagen organic foods aren't any more nutritious. That may come as a surprise to shoppers worldwide who have grown the organic food and beverage market into a multi-billion dollar industry. Of course, if it's pesticides you're trying to avoid, organic food is the smart way to go. For help determining which foods tend to carry the highest pesticide loads and are your best bets for buying in the organic version, check out the Environmental Working Group's wallet friendly food list: http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php
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POPSGamers Make Better Surgeons Yet another study, by Fordham University, measured the effect of learning a new video game on problem-solving skills in middle school aged children. It found that "playing video games can improve cognitive and perceptual skills." "Certain types of video games can have beneficial effects improving gamers' dexterity as well as their ability to problem solve - attributes that have proven useful not only to students but to surgeons," the researchers found. There are actually "games" where you perform virtual operations, BTW.
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POPS'Beer goggles' are real - it's official As well as changing perceptions of attractiveness, alcohol also encourages us to engage in behaviour we would otherwise avoid. In a study by Robert Leeman of Yale University students reported they were more likely to engage in risky sexual acts after drinking - which could be due to alcohol lowering our inhibitions through a direct effect on the brain or by providing a convenient excuse for such behaviour.
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POPSBig-brained Animals Evolve Faster a substantial body of evidence has confirmed that animals with larger brains, relative to their body size, have more developed skills for changing their behavior through learning and innovation, facilitating the invasion of novel environments and the use of novel resources. Despite the progress, the role of the brain in the adaptive diversification of animals has remained controversial, mostly due to the difficulties to demonstrate that big-brained animals evolve faster. Now, ecologist Daniel Sol of CREAF-Autonomous University of Barcelona and evolutionary biologist Trevor Price of the University of Chicago, provide evidence for such a role in birds in an article in The American Naturalist. Analyzing body size measures of 7,209 species (representing 75% of all avian species), they found that avian families that have experienced the greatest diversification in body size tend to be those with brains larger than expected for their body size.
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POPSIce Volcanoes of Titan May Habor Life For almost thirty years, scientists have known that complex carbon compounds called tholins exist on comets and in the atmospheres of the outer planets. Theoretically, tholins might interact with water in a process called hydrolysis to produce complex molecules similar to those found on the early Earth. Could tholins formed in Titan's atmosphere react with liquid water temporarily exposed by meteor impacts or ice volcanoes to produce potentially prebiotic complex organic molecules — before the water freezes? Laboratory research by Catherine Neish, a graduate student working on her doctorate in planetary science at the University of Arizona, suggests, not without controversy, however, that, over a period of days, compounds similar to tholins can be react with water at near-freezing temperatures.
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