Facial expressions of emotion are innate, not learned, says new study

piggy submitted, created time 1 week 4 days (www.eurekalert.org)

Facial expressions of emotion are hardwired into our genes, according to a study published today in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The research suggests that facial expressions of emotion are innate rather than a product of cultural learning. The study is the first of its kind to demonstrate that sighted and blind individuals use the same facial expressions, producing the same facial muscle movements in response to specific emotional stimuli

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Natural selection does not explain cultural rates of change

sea-maid submitted, created time 6 months 4 weeks (www.pnas.org)

This abstract tell us that Rogers and Ehrlich find that canoe functional design features change more slowly than symbolic ones. And at last they attribute this to positive selection.

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Evolution opponents use "strengths and weaknesses" rhetoric to undermine science in schools

Darkfrog submitted, created time 7 months 5 days (www.nytimes.com)

"Creation science" didn't work. "Intelligent design" didn't work. Thank God. The new move for opponents of the theory of evolution, according to this article in the New York Times, is "strengths and weaknesses." Strictly speaking, I have nothing against pointing out the scientific weaknesses of evolution, but most textbooks could probably handle that in half a page. The advocates of the "strengths and weaknesses" ideology want the textbook to say, "evolution has an inability to explain the Cambrian explosion," when it really ought to say, "we don't know what caused the Cambrian explosion

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How a thriving social life can boost lifespan

sea-maid submitted, created time 7 months 1 week (www.newscientist.com)

This study shows that the lifespan of these flies is plastic and can be conditioned by social interactions, corroborating the notion that human patients of certain age-dependant neurological diseases may be benefited by an appropriate social environment.

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Metabolism indeed varies between populations

Archaeological discovery elucidates misconceptions about domestication

Darkfrog submitted, created time 9 months 2 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

A discovery of ten donkey skeletons at a dig in Abydos reveals that the Egyptians didn't always view asses as a bumbling, low-rent form of transportation. The donkeys' skeletons show clear signs of wear and tear from freight work, but their hooves and teeth seem to indicate that they were cared for scrupulously and their general bone structure is almost identical to that of the wild ass. More significantly, the position of the burial site -- diggers initially expected to find human officials killed to accompany their king into the afterlife -- suggests a great deal of reverence

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Japan pushes other nations to support whaling

Peer reviewing the modern-day matchmaker: online dating sites begin to publish studies

Darkfrog submitted, created time 11 months 1 week (www.nytimes.com)

eHarmony.com and Chemistry.com in particular are dying to be able to advertise their dating algorithms as "scientifically proven." And after years in the online dating market, they finally have enough data to perform, write and publish sociological studies.

But will these studies be the real thing? So far, eHarmony's only got one out there, despite having enough data for more. For all that these companies claim to want to be peer reviewed, I get the impression that they're being awfully selective with the information that they release.

The article brings up another interesting point

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DNA Tests Find Branches but Few Roots

jane2007 submitted, created time 1 year 1 month (www.nytimes.com)

HENRY LOUIS GATES JR., whose PBS special “African American Lives” explores the ancestry of famous African-Americans using DNA testing, recently has become one of the industry’s critics.The nest story is the reason: Mr. Gates says his concerns date back to 2000, when a company told him his maternal ancestry could most likely be traced back to Egypt, probably to the Nubian ethnic group. Five years later, however, a test by a second company startled him. It concluded that his maternal ancestors were not Nubian or even African, but most likely Europea

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New York Times examines east-west divide over stem cells and God

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 1 month (www.nytimes.com)

I know we've got a few folks from China on this board and I'd love to know what you think of this one:

Now that the White House is going "Ha ha, we were right" with regards to the great accomplishment that was published in Cell and Science yesterday, I found this rather contemplative piece. A lot of western scientists are moving to Singapore and Seoul because there are fewer restrictions. The TierneyLab took a look at the religious ideas that make westerners more skittish of cloning, stem cell research and genetically modified plants and animals than people in other places

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Space travel milestone has me rethinking women in Michael Crichton's Sphere

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (www.nytimes.com)

Although this article is ostensibly a commemoration of the first time that both the space shuttle commander and international space station commander have been women, it also spends a good amount of time on the way shuttle maneuvers have changed post-Columbia and how the pilots are accustomed to "counterintuitive" maneuvers designed to prevent accidents and shuttle damage. It really had me rethinking the role of the flight simulators.

Another thing it has me rethinking is the reasoning of science fiction author Michael Crichton

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Study finds correlation between political leanings and ability to react

Hecate submitted, created time 1 year 3 months (sciam.com)

A psychology study out of NYU shows a connection between whether people self-identify as liberal or conservative and how they process certain kinds of information.

Subjects were asked to rate their political leanings from extremely liberal (-5) to extremely conservative (+5). Then they were given a computerized test: If an M flashed on the screen, they had half a second to push a key. If a W flashed on the screen, they were to do nothing. Since the M showed up 80% of the time, the presence of a W meant that the subjects had to change their "established habit

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psychological experiment: beauty vs. the subway

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.washingtonpost.com)

This was so amazing that I had to post it right away. 1000 people, a terror of a commute, and one of the finest musicians alive is playing some of human history's greatest art. This isn't just another, "Oh look how busy we are" pop psych piece. Watch what it does to the artist.

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Genetic study evaluates Herodotus's claim: Did the Etruscans come from the Near East?

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.nytimes.com)

Early historian Herodotus claimed that the Etruscans came to Italy from what is now Turkey. However, the idea that the Etruscan culture, of which modern Italians are very proud, could have come from outside Italy is offensive to many Italians. For many years, all opponents had to go on was the fact that Etruscan is not an Indo-European language. While the details of his story may be shaky, three new, independent studies support the core idea

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