WikIT Buzan Online has responded to criticism of a lack of academic studies showing the efficacy of mindmapping with a list of references on this page. None of the papers are linked to there, it's just a plain text list (Why Mr. Buzan? If you claim "The Proof is Here!" But before we look at that list, we need to consider "efficacy of mindmapping" for what? Comments are being added here from time to time, as the papers are read and the conclusions reached extracted. Al-Jarf, R. (2009), Enhancing Freshman students’ Writing Skills with a Mind Mapping software. The author describes a study where students were divided into two groups, one using mind maps (made with FreeMind and by hand) and one without. Boyson, G. (2009), The Use of Mind Mapping in Teaching and Learning. Cain, M. D’Antoni, A. Farrand, P., Hussain, F. and Hennessy E. (2002), The efficacy of the ‘mind map’ study technique. Goodnough, K. and Long, R. (2002), Mind Mapping: A Graphic Organizer for the Pedagogical Toolbox. Mento, A.
8 Things Everybody Ought to Know About Concentrating “Music helps me concentrate,” Mike said to me glancing briefly over his shoulder. Mike was in his room writing a paper for his U.S. History class. Mike made a shift about every thirty seconds between all of the above. Do you know a person like this? The Science Behind Concentration In the above account, Mike’s obviously stuck in a routine that many of us may have found ourselves in, yet in the moment we feel it’s almost an impossible routine to get out of. When we constantly multitask to get things done, we’re not multitasking, we’re rapidly shifting our attention. Phase 1: Blood Rush Alert When Mike decides to start writing his History essay, blood rushes to his anterior prefrontal cortex. Phase 2: Find and Execute The alert carries an electrical charge that’s composed of two parts: first, a search query (which is needed to find the correct neurons for executing the task of writing), and second, a command (which tells the appropriate neuron what to do). Phase 3: Disengagement 1. 2. 3. 4.
We Can Survive Killer Asteroids — But It Won't Be Easy | Wired Science The chances that your tombstone will read “Killed by Asteroid” are about the same as they’d be for “Killed in Airplane Crash.” Solar System debris rains down on Earth in vast quantities — more than a hundred tons of it a day. Most of it vaporizes in our atmosphere, leaving stunning trails of light we call shooting stars. More hazardous are the billions, likely trillions, of leftover rocks — comets and asteroids — that wander interplanetary space in search of targets. Most asteroids are made of rock. But some do. Every few decades, on average, house-sized impactors collide with Earth. One killer asteroid we’ve been monitoring is Apophis, which is large enough to fill the Rose Bowl. If humans one day become extinct from a catastrophic collision, we would be the laughing stock of aliens in the galaxy Some people would like to blow potentially hazardous rocks out of the sky with a nuclear bomb. The odds-on favorite solution, however, is the gravitational tractor. Opinion Editor: John C.
Sowa: Semantic Networks John F. Sowa This is an updated version of an article in the Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence, edited by Stuart C. Shapiro, Wiley, 1987, second edition, 1992. Most of the text from 1992 is unchanged, but more references and updates have been added. A semantic network or net is a graph structure for representing knowledge in patterns of interconnected nodes and arcs. What is common to all semantic networks is a declarative graphic representation that can be used to represent knowledge and support automated systems for reasoning about the knowledge. Definitional networks emphasize the subtype or is-a relation between a concept type and a newly defined subtype. Network notations and linear notations are capable of expressing equivalent information. 1. The oldest known semantic network was drawn in the 3rd century AD by the Greek philosopher Porphyry in his commentary on Aristotle’s categories. Figure 1. Figure 2. Every truck is a vehicle. Figure 3. 2. Figure 4. Figure 5. Figure 6.
Optical Illusions & Blog Archive & Body Art - Hand Animals - StumbleUpon These have to be some of the best examples of hand art I’ve ever seen. Great fun to look at for the kids and a real example of how to disguise your hand as an elephant, eagle or tiger. Click the main post for the full set of pictures. 13 more things that don't make sense Cookies on the New Scientist website close Our website uses cookies, which are small text files that are widely used in order to make websites work more effectively. Find out about our cookies and how to change them Log in Your login is case sensitive I have forgotten my password close My New Scientist Look for Science Jobs 13 more things that don't make sense (Image: Loungepark / The Image Bank / Getty) Strive as we might to make sense of the world, there are mysteries that still confound us. Axis of evil Radiation left from the big bang is still glowing in the sky – in a mysterious and controversial pattern Dark flow Something unseeable and far bigger than anything in the known universe is hauling a group of galaxies towards it at inexplicable speed Eocene hothouse Tens of millions of years ago, the average temperature at the poles was 15 or 20 °C. Fly-by anomalies Space probes using Earth's gravity to get a slingshot speed boost are moving faster than they should. Hybrid life Morgellons disease
Novak & Canas: Theory Underlying Concept Maps Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts. Words on the line, referred to as linking words or linking phrases, specify the relationship between the two concepts. Figure 1. (click on an image for a larger view) Another characteristic of concept maps is that the concepts are represented in a hierarchical fashion with the most inclusive, most general concepts at the top of the map and the more specific, less general concepts arranged hierarchically below. Another important characteristic of concept maps is the inclusion of cross-links. A final feature that may be added to concept maps is specific examples of events or objects that help to clarify the meaning of a given concept. The question sometimes arises as to the origin of our first concepts. Figure 2. (click on image for a larger view)
Mad science News, Videos, Reviews and Gossip - io9 About 60 years late to the party on dreaming that one up, friend. :-) in short...solar power is inefficient, and electrolysis of water to create hydrogen is energy intensive, which means it wastes a lot of energy to create that hydrogen to be used as an energy source. IIRC electrolysis is at best 50% energy efficient, with solar being 20% efficient at converting sunlight to electricity, which has a decent, but low yield in the first place. A meter square of solar cells intercepts ~1200 watts of power. This returns only 20%, so 60w, 50% of which is lost for electrolysis, so we're down to 30W of power stored. Fuel cells convert something like 60% of stored energy into actual mechanical, lets get this thing moving energy...so we're down to 19.2W of energy used via hydrogen fuel cells filled using every square meter of solar cells we use. We could do it, but as you can see we lose a lot of energy in the process.
Pacific Refuges for Devastated Corals | Global Warming & Coral Bleaching Global warming is expected to have devastating effects on coral reefs, but recent research points to a few exceptions. Warming in the equatorial Pacific may actually create refuges for corals around a handful of islands, even as it bleaches, or kills, corals elsewhere, suggests new research that predicts increased upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water in these places. "These little islands in the middle of the ocean can counteract global trends and have a big impact on their own future, which I think is a beautiful concept," said study researcher Kristopher Karnauskas, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist, in a press release issued by the institution. If predictions made by Karnauskas and colleague Anne Cohen are accurate, warming around the Gilbert Islands will be slower than elsewhere, giving the corals and their symbiotic algae a better chance to adapt. Corals are animals that host tiny plants, or algae, that feed them using photosynthesis.
The Largest Penis in the World We, humans, may not be endowed by nature with great physical abilities: powerful muscles or weaponry like fangs, claws, horns and so on. But there is one chapter where we excel: sex. I'm not talking about sexual activity - at it has been proved that bonobo (which is also wrongly named "dwarf chimpanzee") has more sex and much varied than the human being - but about penis size. Man is the ape, the monkey and the primate with the biggest penis! Gorilla males, which dwarf humans in size, have minute penises compared to ours, no thicker and longer than a pencil. In some African countries, saying that one is 'hung like a gorilla' is considered an insult. That's about us, but which is the largest penis in nature? Well, despite the huge size of penises in elephants and odd hoofed mammals (like rhinos and horses), the biggest penis indeed belongs to the biggest animal: the blue whale. Accurate measurements are difficult to be made because the whale's erect length can only be observed during mating.
The Elements by Theodore Gray My book The Elements is based on photographs I've been collecting at my website periodictable.com for many years. The website includes not just pictures, but also more detailed descriptions than we could fit in the book, and most importantly, it includes full 360-degree rotating videos of almost all the objects. You really won't find this kind of resources anywhere else for any other subject, so please enjoy. If you don't have the book yet, please don't think this is page is a substitute for the real thing. Aside from the fact that people buying the book (and my other photo periodic table products) is what pays for me being able to continue hosting the website, there's really no substitute for a paper book in your hands. For the convenience of people who have the book, I've listed all the samples found on each page in the book, so you can easy look them up. Click on a page icon below to get a list of the samples on that page. Sort pages: By Atomic Number | Alphabetically | Text Listing
Henrietta Gains Immortality, Saves A Million Lives | finChin Henrietta Gains Immortality, Saves A Million Lives Henrietta Lacks died young. Tragically, cancer claimed her when she was 30. Her cells were special. They made the polio vaccine possible, contributed to cancer and AIDS research. Her family never even knew about the legacy of Henrietta Lacks for decades. Henrietta Lacks: Her Cells & Her Story Henrietta Lacks was a child of African-American tobacco farmers in Virginia. In 1951, when she was 30 she contracted cervical cancer, she went to John Hopkins, the only hospital nearby to accept African-American patients in those times. Before her death, Henrietta received radiation treatment at John Hopkins, and the physicians removed healthy and tumorous parts of her cervix– not for treatment, but for research. Henrietta’s cells were unlike any other before. HeLa: The Unique Cells of Henrietta What was different about Henrietta Lacks’ cells? Even before Henrietta, physician routinely harvested cells from people for research. Medical Advances Panacea?