10 Greatest Ideas in the History of Science by Big Think Editors While science often moves forward in awkward leaps and bounds, Peter Atkins compiled a list of 10 concepts that are considered "so rock solid, that it is difficult to imagine them ever being replaced with something better." So our friends at RealClearScience's Newton blog write about Atkins's 2003 book, Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science. While Atkins's picks might be incredibly worthy ones, many are also a bit hard to comprehend, so a guide to these concepts can be found on the Newton blog here, and are summarized briefly below. The 10 Greatest Ideas in the History of Science: 1. "The power of evolution comes from its ability to explain both the unity and diversity of life; in other words, the theory describes how similarities and differences between species arise by descent from a universal common ancestor." Read more here. 2. "It wasn't until 1952 that scientists determined that DNA was the molecule responsible for transmitting heritable information."
Why Narcissism Is a Profoundly Misunderstood Psychological Disorder Interesting read, though if you're really looking for an understanding of narcissistic personalities I would highly recommend you spend some time reading through Heinz Kohut's in-depth work on narcissism. I would also argue against your statement that, "On their own, psychoanalytic explanations are inadequate and unconvincing." While I wholeheartedly agree with you that current discoveries in neuroscience and neuropsychology can support psychoanalytic conceptualizations, the ideas themselves have been widely validated and accepted within the psychoanalytic community. Also, I think this article would benefit from more of an explanation that narcissism is not an "unhealthy" trait. ...but the whole understanding of the fear response is so interesting!!!! Thanks for putting out such a great read!!!!!!!!!!!
Solar Roadways - About Us Julie and Scott Brusaw Co-inventors and co-founders of Solar Roadways Scott is an electrical engineer (MSEE) with over 20 years of industry experience. This includes serving as the Director of Research and Development at a manufacturing facility in Ohio (developing their line of products for over 12 years), a voting member of NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association), and developing several networked control systems from the ground up. Scott has multiple patents and his hardware and software have been sold internationally. Julie has a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology from Humboldt State University in northern California. The history leading to the Solar Roadways In retrospect, it seems that every aspect of Scott's past has led to the creation of the Solar Roadways project: He's learned the danger of dependency upon foreign oil.He's seen how our own oil companies work. Scott & Julie Sandpoint, Idaho Contact Us: For technical questions or suggestions:scott@solarroadways.com
Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace: The Saudi businessman who recruited mujahedin now uses them for large-scale building projects in Sudan. Robert Fisk met him in Almatig - World - News With his high cheekbones, narrow eyes and long brown robe, Mr Bin Laden looks every inch the mountain warrior of mujahedin legend. Chadored children danced in front of him, preachers acknowledged his wisdom. 'We have been waiting for this road through all the revolutions in Sudan,' a sheikh said. 'We waited until we had given up on everybody - and then Osama Bin Laden came along.' Outside Sudan, Mr Bin Laden is not regarded with quite such high esteem. And 'this job' is certainly an ambitious one: a brand-new highway stretching all the way from Khartoum to Port Sudan, a distance of 1,200km (745 miles) on the old road, now shortened to 800km by the new Bin Laden route that will turn the coastal run from the capital into a mere day's journey. He is a shy man. Within months, however, Mr Bin Laden was sending Arab fighters - Egyptians, Algerians, Lebanese, Kuwaitis, Turks and Tunisians - into Afghanistan; 'not hundreds but thousands,' he said. 'No, I was never afraid of death. How many?
A Realistic Video of What You'd See Flying Through Deep Space I've read that the sky contains 12.7 million times more area than the Hubble Deep Field, and I've always been amazed at that. So using the metaphor that is commonly used, that's a lot of eight-foot soda straws. And I'm inclined to ask: Even if we do develop FTL like an Albicuierre drive or something like that, would intergalactic travel be feasible? Would traveling to M31, millions of light years away, be as easy as going to Proxima Centauri, "just" a few light years away? Once we break the light speed barrier, can we go as fast as we want to other galaxies like in this video? It would seem that the distances involved would prohibit extragalactic travel, even at light speed it would take millions of years.
Dogs Are More Like Humans than Primates - Softpedia News for Mobile According to a new growing consensus in the scientific community, dogs are more close to humans than primates, even though the latter share many of our genes. The researchers who advocate this point of view say that dogs have become closer to us after 10,000 to 20,000 years of common evolution. Over this period of time, the two races have grown so accustomed to each other, that some canines have even evolved larger brains in order to comprehend more complex commands given to them by their owners. A scientific paper detailing the new study has been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of the journal Advances in the Study of Behavior. The team hypothesizes that the first domesticated dogs were unable to understand their owners, when our ancestors pointed in a direction. In their experiments, Hungarian team members have asked a 16-year-old boy and a pet dog to perform a series of actions, including running in circles, moving objects, or fetching things.
Why science is so hard to believe There’s a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s comic masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove” in which Jack D. Ripper, an American general who’s gone rogue and ordered a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, unspools his paranoid worldview — and the explanation for why he drinks “only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure grain alcohol” — to Lionel Mandrake, a dizzy-with-anxiety group captain in the Royal Air Force. Ripper: “Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?” Mandrake: “Ah, yes, I have heard of that, Jack. Ripper: “Well, do you know what it is?” Mandrake: “No. Ripper: “Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?” The movie came out in 1964, by which time the health benefits of fluoridation had been thoroughly established and anti-fluoridation conspiracy theories could be the stuff of comedy. Science doubt has become a pop-culture meme. In a sense this is not surprising. Related:
Feel Like an Impostor? You're Not Alone Sometimes I find myself waiting for the e-mail saying: “Sorry, we’ve made a huge mistake, you are fired.” Every success is a fluke. Each mistake is a disaster I play over and over again. I’ve convinced myself that one day it will all come crashing down. Does any of this sound familiar? It’s most likely what has been cleverly coined as impostor syndrome and it’s more common than you might think. Why do we feel this way? Psychologists Suzanne Imes, PhD, and Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, were the first to describe impostor syndrome in the 1970s. Up to 70% of people have suffered from impostor syndrome at some point in their lives. This leads people to feel as if they are undeserving of their success, or that their success is the result of some external or superficial source. “Still, differing in any way from the majority of your peers — whether by race, gender, sexual orientation or some other characteristic — can fuel the sense of being a fraud.” What does this tell us? Talk about it
15 Things That Scientists Just Can't Explain The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science Illustration: Jonathon Rosen "A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Festinger and several of his colleagues had infiltrated the Seekers, a small Chicago-area cult whose members thought they were communicating with aliens—including one, "Sananda," who they believed was the astral incarnation of Jesus Christ. Through her, the aliens had given the precise date of an Earth-rending cataclysm: December 21, 1954. Festinger and his team were with the cult when the prophecy failed. Read also: the truth about Climategate.At first, the group struggled for an explanation. From that day forward, the Seekers, previously shy of the press and indifferent toward evangelizing, began to proselytize. In the annals of denial, it doesn't get much more extreme than the Seekers. The theory of motivated reasoning builds on a key insight of modern neuroscience (PDF): Reasoning is actually suffused with emotion (or what researchers often call "affect").
Are Cities Evolving Into Hive Organisms? The model human hive organism is a monastery or commune. People willingly give up their identity and submit to the rules governing the organi(sm)zation, something that does't happen in cities. There are hierarchies and assigned roles and a central authority governing it all is absent. When people get the free will to question the rules and the (absent) central authority, then they become cancerous to the hive organism, and must be cut away. And a completely independent human is called a feral child. What it means to be human is highly reliant on culture, information, and education from other humans, much more so than almost all other species. We may not be exactly like a beehive or and anthill but are more the equivalent form than any other great ape or mammal.
[WATCH] Stunning Natural Phenomenon Caught On Video (Facebook Users: If you are coming to this article from a post on Facebook, please like, comment, or share it. If you don't interact with a post, Facebook has decided that you didn't appreciate the information and treats it as spam.) While canoeing on the River Shannon in Ireland, young filmmakers Sophie Windsor Clive & Liberty Smith catch a stunning natural phenomenon that will leave the viewer breathless. Watch the beauty of nature unfold: The phenomenon in the video is known as murmuration and the incredible creatures responsible for this eloquent choreography are a flock of starlings. Christy Lee Parker Christy Parker is a Christian conservative writer that runs a political Facebook fan page, God, Guns, Guts, & Glory.
Chomsky: Paris attacks show hypocrisy of West's outrage Millions of people demonstrated in condemnation of the atrocities, amplified by a chorus of horror under the banner "I am Charlie." There were eloquent pronouncements of outrage, captured well by the head of Israel's Labor Party and the main challenger for the upcoming elections, Isaac Herzog, who declared that "Terrorism is terrorism. There's no two ways about it," and that "All the nations that seek peace and freedom [face] an enormous challenge" from brutal violence. Noam Chomsky The crimes also elicited a flood of commentary, inquiring into the roots of these shocking assaults in Islamic culture and exploring ways to counter the murderous wave of Islamic terrorism without sacrificing our values. The New York Times described the assault as a "clash of civilizations," but was corrected by Times columnist Anand Giridharadas, who tweeted that it was "Not & never a war of civilizations or between them. Erlanger also quoted a surviving journalist who said that "Everything crashed.