[slackline]

Gompertz Law of human mortality : Your probability of dying during a given year doubles every 8 years

[psychomansam]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/racing-pulse-glowing-cheeks-and-a-heavy-heart-body-atlas-heatmaps-reveal-where-we-feel-different-emotions-9031615.html

This is interesting, although perhaps that's mainly because I've been studying philosophy of emotion. Will download the paper at some point.

Any thoughts?

[slackline]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/racing-pulse-glowing-cheeks-and-a-heavy-heart-body-atlas-heatmaps-reveal-where-we-feel-different-emotions-9031615.html

This is interesting, although perhaps that's mainly because I've been studying philosophy of emotion. Will download the paper at some point.

Any thoughts?

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/12/26/1321664111.abstract

[psychomansam]

The abstract appears to conflate bodily changes and felt bodily changes. The study only show the latter, yet they seem to be assuming for the former.

[slackline]

Its a lot, lot cheaper to ask people where they feel change than to hook them up to expensive monitoring equipment which might detect changes in temperature/blood-flow, nerve activity/muscle contractions.

Besides, I don't think they are making any conflation, they clearly state in both the "Significance" and "Abstract" that they use a self-reported tool, and draw the conclusion that the areas that are self-reported are consistent across different emotions.  Abstracts are often word-limited (a whopping 250 words in PNAS) so to include "self-reported" each and every time "emotion" is mentioned would be exceptionally repetitive and wasteful and the reader is therefore expected to remember that aspect when reading sections after this has been stated.

Further details can be found under "Data Acquisition" on page 5 of the PDF.

[psychomansam]

Well the sentence "Perception of these emotion-triggered bodily changes may play a key role in generating consciously felt emotions" contains multiple blunders, but to be fair I can't find anything quite that bad in the paper.

[JamieG]

Not sure if this has been on here before but this is a nice Reddit thread about data visualization.

http://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/

Enjoy!

[slackline]

I peruse that via Reddit on occasions, something of a mixed bag really, a lot of "I'll just plot this social media data on a map", and 3D is way over used (e.g. it adds nothing to this and has the potential to distort what is being communicated).

Visualisation is a brilliant tool within science, after all where would epidemiology and medicine be without John Snow's cholera maps, but there has to be a meaningful question that underpins the impetus for visualising something in the first place.

Edward Tufte is a great writer on data visualisation.

[joe cook]

Sorry to go slightly off-topic, but since this is the science forum....

I'm trying to crowdfund a science project in greenland in summer 2014. Just on the off-chance that anyone knows anyone who knows anyone who might be interested, the link is below:

https://www.microryza.com/projects/kromohunatosjttlvpme

[slackline]

Autistic people drive the rise in organic food consumption...

[csurfleet]

Wow. Iz been learned!

[SA Chris]

http://www.tunedbody.com/scientists-finally-show-thoughts-can-cause-specific-molecular-changes-genes

[psychomansam]

http://www.tunedbody.com/scientists-finally-show-thoughts-can-cause-specific-molecular-changes-genes

I looked at the links, the name of the website and the author "Michael Forrester is a spiritual counselor and is a practicing motivational speaker for corporations in Japan, Canada and the United States." and decided to leave it at that.

[slackline]

Spark up when you get home from the pub...

Cannabidiol protects liver from binge alcohol-induced steatosis by mechanisms including inhibition of oxidative stress and increase in autophagy

(although CBD is what mongs you out and is what THC, which is what gets you high, breaks down to).

[slackline]

Sweet

[SA Chris]

Seems getting pumped out your gourd is actually good for you

[Muenchener]

Lactate-facilitated neuron activity is all very well, but if the increased mental activity when pumped out of one's gourd were - hypothetically - mostly to consist of "oh my god, oh my god, we're going to DIE!", then it might be - hypothetically - less than useful.

[slackline]

Religious wankers



On a far more serious note, this is a worthwhile read about the statistics used (and abused) in science.

[slackline]

Nutrition and Health – The Association between Eating Behavior and Various Health Parameters: A Matched Sample Study

Suggests that whilst BMI and alcohol intake are lower in vegetarians compared to omnivores that there is a higher incidence of cancer, allergies, and mental health disorders and a higher need for health care, and poorer quality of life.

Usual caveats about cross-sectional studies (ameliorated to some extent in this study by matching, but its never perfect) and data dredging apply.

[Sasquatch]

Autistic people drive the rise in organic food consumption...

I disagree.  I think organic food is to blame for the rise in Autism. 

[slackline]

They're not faking it for you


The Faking Orgasm Scale for Women

[slackline]

Some vaguely interesting lunch-time reading (for me at least) on the Pathogen Stress Theory and how it might explain systems of government that have developed.

[Oldmanmatt]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/04/08/u-s-navy-can-convert-seawater-fuel/#.U0o8bCy9KSN

Hmmm...

[Yoof]

More stats love (or disappointment)

http://www.nature.com/news/weak-statistical-standards-implicated-in-scientific-irreproducibility-1.14131

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/04/08/u-s-navy-can-convert-seawater-fuel/#.U0o8bCy9KSN

Hmmm...

They may have missed out the bit where you need a nuclear reactor to produce the energy to separate the H and the O2. They probably assume that's a given, hasn't everyone got one?
As its been picked up by the SCMP but not New Scientist or Scientific American it could be some nice propaganda.

Found a SA article titled 'water as fuel' dated 1864, so its nothing new.