Science 2.0

Ιf you asked a multilingual friend which language they find more emotional, the answer would usually be their mother tongue – the one they used while growing up and probably still use at home. This does not mean they are incapable of expressing emotion in another language, but there is a clear link between first languages and stronger emotional expression.

This has a lot to do with where and how we learn a language. Our first language, which linguists call L1, is usually acquired in the emotionally charged settings of childhood and family. Second languages, known as L2, are often learned in more neutral contexts, such as schools and institutions, making them less emotionally intense.

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In 2003, the Human Genome Project was completed and both Tesla and LinkedIn were founded. Those were all interesting but not revolutionary; cars and job sites already existed, and we knew a lot about DNA, we just didn't have a complete "map" of a genome.

The biggest shift in culture was the introduction of the Pumpkin Spice Latte by Starbucks. In a few short years, it ended the dominance of apple cider to such an extent that unprompted people don't associate autumn with apple cider at all. Despite thousands of years of dominance as the Flavor of Fall.

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Three years into war with Russia and martial law, public services continue to operate and citizens continue to have confidence in them. A new analysis of survey results in Government information Quarterly says trust in public figures and a sense of cooperation are key factors.

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A preamble

Subnuclear physics obeys the laws of quantum mechanics, which are quite a far cry from those of classical mechanics we are accustomed to. For that reason, one might be inclined to believe that analogies based on everyday life cannot come close to explaining the behavior of elementary particles. But that is not true – in fact, many properties of elementary particles are understandable in analogy with the behavior of classical systems, without the need to delve into the intricacies of the quantum world. And if you have been reading this blog for a while, you know what I think – the analogy is a powerful didactical instrument, and it is indeed at the very core of our learning processes.

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a former Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer and once such a pillar of the Democratic party that President Obama floated his name to run the Environmental Protection Agency.

Now he controls the agency that controls EPA. That is a big win for anti-science progressives. And because they are playing chess, not checkers, anti-science Republicans think it's their idea.

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New survey results find that sociocultural factors may be involved in how likely someone is to report moderate to severe depression symptoms and get a prenatal depression diagnosis.

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FDA-approved flu treatments target viral enzymes of influenza but the virus mutates, which is why there is a new vaccine each year.

Recent work showed that a cocktail of antibodies offered protection mice from nearly every strain of influenza. Even avian and swine flu. Their cocktail did not allow viral escape, even after a month of repeated exposure.

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People in the northeast of the United States think they have greater "wellness" than everywhere else except California. People in the southern United States think they have more wellness than everywhere else.

Which is right? They both are. Wellness may be in social media ad campaigns and have diets and apps and fads under the umbrella, but it's entirely subjective. The northeast believe they have greater wealth and social standing, which they consider traditional wellness. The south sense of purpose and community identity, which is existential wellness.

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Death rates from non-communicable  diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease continue to decline but you wouldn't know that by corporate media which prints every claim that some useful product is "linked" to shorter lifespans.

Weedkillers, processed food, artificial sugar, you name it and some activist group has weaponized the public against it - and only you sending their lawyers money to sue will prevent it. The drums of the anti-science movement have only gotten louder since one of the pillars of the progressive fringe got a job in, of all places, a Republican administration.(1)

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Rather than encourage smoking cessation and harm reduction, the US Centers for Disease Control have spent over a decade undermining products that were not Big Pharma. That has been and remains a mistake. Smoking kills, and anything that helps reduce or eliminate it, from patches to gums to vaping to hypnosis, should be available.

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If you have spent any time on social media, you have a different kind of bystander effect in action. Psychologists say if many people are around, the bystander effect is why everyone is less likely to help. They believe someone else will be more competent or know something you don't. If you walk by a person laying unconscious in New York City, based on experience they did not have a heart attack and are in peril. They are on drugs or alcohol.

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Colors trigger unique brain responses, the subjective nature of our brains and eyes, not to mention different media, is why a famous blue dress experiment took countries by storm.

To try and help determine how different people have the same brain responses to colors, researchers measured color-induced brain responses from one set of participants. Next, they predicted what colors other participants were observing by comparing each individual’s visual cortex brain activity to color-induced responses of the first set of observers. 

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One of my institute’s projects is gaining too little traction with its target city. No surprise: The project is expensive, heavy on newer smart infrastructure, and this U.S. city is in the middle of a budgeting round. It’s evident to all, though, that the new infrastructure is critical to maintaining the city’s status as an innovative, ecological role model for other metros.

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One key hallmark of being human is walking on two legs. It was a seismic shift seen in no other primates. Like much of evolution, it happened in fits and starts. The 4.4 million year-old Ardipithecus of Ethiopia was a tree climber with a grasping toe that would walk upright 3.2 million year old Lucy had a pelvis brought upright walking closer, with flaring hip blades for bipedal muscles.

Some of that legacy remains in our closest relatives, the African apee, e.g. chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas, have upper hipbones (ilia) that are tall, narrow, and oriented flat front to back which anchor large muscles for climbing.

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I recently ran into a description of the Mu3e experiment, and got curious about it and the physics it studies. So after giving it a look, I am able to explain that shortly here - I think it is a great example of how deep our studies of particle physics are getting; or, on the negative side, how deep our frustration has gotten with the unassailable agreement of our experiments with Standard Model predictions.

Matter stable and unstable in the Standard Model

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A guest on NPR’s Morning Edition (August 26) mis-characterized pioneering economist Adam Smith as a pure transactionalist. Smith’s metaphorical “invisible hand,” the guest asserted, suggested self-interest drives our every action. It’s a big deal – in fact, a revelation! – she continued, that Smith lived with his mother, and that Mom cooked Adam’s meals and washed his laundry for him, unpaid and with Adam oblivious to her role in his theory. The invisible hand, she concluded, ignored familial love as a motive for action.

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Health care is expensive. If you are convinced that donating blood is a community service and do it for free, the Red Cross sells it for up to $200 per pint. If you need a transfusion, each pint will cost $1,000 and up. That is paid for by insurance. What isn't covered by insurance will be passed along to you in the form of an out-of-pocket cost. If you have a medical emergency and an ambulance you did not request takes you to a hospital outside your network, you could be bankrupt. All due to federal government poiicies that began to create the health care problem in the 1940s and have only added on to it since.

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Some sixty million years ago a fountain of hot rock that rises from Earth’s core-mantle boundary unleashed volcanic activity across a vast area of the North Atlantic, from Scotland to Greenland. We can detect the effects in spectacular basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland.

But why Iceland’s fiery mantle plume had such a dramatic impact has been the subject of debate.

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Advanced cancer often brings preparation for the worst and proponents of the modern health care system use terms like "advocate" and "empowered" when everyone who isn't part of the system knows patients have trouble doing the former and certainly are not the latter.

Government, health insurers, and hospitals make the real decisions, and even if that goes your way doctors may do what they want. That is why nearly 40% say their wishes are ignored when it comes to their care goals.

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"Knucklehead" and “Wimp” were the toss-up for titling today’s column.

A few Democrat politicians are almost heroic as they respond to the current sh*tshow in Washington: Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Robert Reich, JB Pritzker, Melanie Stansbury, AOC, and even Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin, and occasionally Amy Klobuchar.

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