MetaFilter posts tagged with scientific

Common Sense

nola — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:36:36 -0800

C0nc0rdance [sytl] asks; How far should we trust common sense? A less than 9 min video on Common Sense as it relates to Science. Enjoy.

No More SciAm

rosswald — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:33:58 -0800

The death of SciAm. It's no secret that print media is getting hit pretty hard, but the butchering of Scientific American seems particularly brutal. More opinion on the poor state of affairs in science journalism BloggingHeads discussion on the future of science journalism with Carl Zimmer and Chris Mooney Some idiots blame the blogosphere

U.S. Ex. Ex. 1838-1842

cenoxo — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:26:50 -0800

The United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 — Authorized and funded by the U.S. government, six ships sailed with 346 men (including officers, crew, scientists, and artists) on a four-year scientific and surveying mission, logging 87,000 miles around the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Two ships and 28 men were lost, and the Expedition's contentious commander Charles Wilkes was court-martialled for his erratic behavior, and was sued by former officers and crew members. During the Civil War in 1861, he boarded a British ship, seized two Confederate agents, and nearly provoked military retaliation by England (he was court-martialled once again in 1864 for insubordination.) Wilkes' 1845 Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition and the Ex. Ex.'s journals were published by Congress, and some 40 tons of Expedition specimens and artifacts became the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution's collections. [Nathaniel Philbrick (video lecture) chronicles this almost-forgotten voyage in his 2003 book Sea of Glory (NYT review).]

What goes around, comes around...

miss lynnster — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 23:48:21 -0800

Chasing women will take years off of your life. But hey, things always even out somehow. You'll just return the favor to your poor, innocent mother.

Oh my God

inconsequentialist — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 23:49:08 -0800

Darwin's God. "A scientific exploration of how we have come to believe in God." This article tracks the possibility that belief in a higher power is the product of evolution.

Truth in advertising

lobstah — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 08:43:14 -0800

Is Airborne science or snake oil ? The official website is flashy, but short on empirical evidence, and even admits that there is "no cure" for the common cold. The first doubts were from ABC News. Then David Cowan blogged about it. Now Michael Shermer from the Scientific American, and publisher of Skeptic weighs in an article called Airborne Baloney

Test your scientific literacy

plep — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 23:03:23 -0800

Test your scientific literacy. 'Do you think you know what science is? You may be surprised.'

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky and the neuronaut's guide to the science of consciousness

y2karl — Fri, 11 Jul 2003 07:57:32 -0800

We are because of others. We are born into this world with minds as naked as our bodies and we have to rely on others to feed, clothe us, and to teach us to think of ourselves as selves. The key is language -- grammatical speech and human culture build upon the brain's biological capacities to create a mind that is something different again than that with which we are born. We are conscious because we can speak to others and ourselves, because we can speak of ourselves to others and ourselves. Language gives us as individuals, memory, and as groups, culture, the social memory. Or so thought Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, among others. Welcome to the the neuronaut's guide to the science of consciousness.