November 25, 2011
Big History is a field of historical study that examines history on large scales across long time frames through a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on both the history of the non-human world and on major adaptations and alterations in the human experience. It arose as a distinct field in the late 1980s and is related to, but distinct from, world history, as the field examines history from the beginning of time to the present day. In some respects, the field is thus similar to the older universal history (the presentation of the history of humankind as a whole, as a coherent unit).
Big history looks at the past on all time scales, from the Big Bang to modernity, seeking out common themes and patterns. It draws on the latest findings from many disciplines, such as biology, astronomy, geology, climatology, prehistory, archeology, anthropology, cosmology, natural history, and population and environmental studies. Big History arose from a desire to go beyond the specialized and self-contained fields that emerged in the 20th century and grasp history as a whole, looking for common themes across multiple time scales in history. Conventionally, the study of history concerns only the period of time since the invention of writing, and is limited to past events relating directly to the human race; yet this only encompasses the past 5,000 years or so and covers only a small fraction of the period of time that humans have existed on Earth, and an even smaller fraction of the age of the universe.
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November 25, 2011
A Short History of Nearly Everything is a popular science book by American author Bill Bryson that explains some areas of science, using a style of language which aims to be more accessible to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject.
‘A Short History’ deviates from Bryson’s popular travel book genre, instead describing general sciences such as chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics.
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November 23, 2011
Savant syndrome, sometimes referred to as savantism [sa-vahnt-iz-uhm], is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual’s overall limitations. Although not a recognized medical diagnosis, researcher Darold Treffert says the condition may be either genetic or acquired. Though it is even rarer than the savant condition itself, some savants have no apparent abnormalities other than their unique abilities. This does not mean that these abilities weren’t triggered by a brain dysfunction of some sort but does temper the theory that all savants are disabled and that some sort of trade-off is required.
According to Treffert, something that almost all savants have in common is a prodigious memory of a special type, a memory that he describes as ‘very deep, but exceedingly narrow.’ It is wide in the sense that they can recall but have a hard time putting it to use. Also, many savants are found to have superior artistic or musical ability. One in ten autistic people have savant skills. 50% of savants are autistic; the other 50% often have psychological disorders or mental illnesses.
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November 22, 2011
The Asch conformity experiments were a series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. These are also known as the Asch Paradigm.
Experiments led by Solomon Asch of Swarthmore College asked groups of students to participate in a ‘vision test.’ In reality, all but one of the participants were confederates of the experimenter, and the study was really about how the remaining student would react to the confederates’ behavior.
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November 22, 2011
In the field of social psychology, a breaching experiment is an experiment that seeks to examine people’s reactions to violations of commonly accepted social rules or norms. Breaching experiments are most commonly associated with ethnomethodology (the study of the everyday methods people use for the production of social order), and in particular the work of Harold Garfinkel. The conduct of a breaching experiment is sometimes referred to as ‘Garfinkeling.’ A famous breaching experiment was conducted on the New York City subway in the 1970s, when experimenters boarded crowded trains and asked able-bodied but seated riders, with no explanation, to give up their seats. Reportedly, the experimenters themselves were deeply troubled by being involved in such a seemingly minor violation of a social norm. The experiment was supervised by American psychologist Stanley Milgram.
Erving Goffman’s seminal study ‘Behavior in Public Places’ gives some classic examples of behavioral norms, such as ‘it is inconsiderate to litter – put your garbage in the trash can.’ A breaching experiment studies people’s reaction to an experimenter who breaks this kind of small, everyday rule. The strength of the reaction is taken as an indication of the strength of the rule. ‘The inexplicable do-gooder’: Social science researcher Earl R. Babbie writes that ‘it is a social rule that ordinary citizens should not pick up garbage from the street, or mend street signs, or otherwise fix problems.’ Babbie claims that people have negative reactions when they see somebody fixing something that is not his/her ‘job’ to fix; in some cases, altruistic actions are viewed as personal intrusions.
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November 22, 2011
Confabulation [kuhn-fab-yuh-ley-shuhn] is the process in which a memory is remembered falsely. Confabulations are indicative of a complicated and intricate process that can be led astray at any given point during encoding, storage, or recall of a memory. Two distinct types of confabulation are often distinguished. Spontaneous, or primary, confabulations do not occur in response to a cue and seem to be involuntary.
Provoked, or secondary, confabulations occur in response to something external, like a memory test. Another distinction found in confabulations is that between verbal and behavioral. Verbal confabulations are spoken false memories and are more common, while behavioral confabulations occur when an individual acts on their false memories. Confabulated memories of all types most often occur in autobiographical memory. A final characteristic of confabulations is the genuine confidence people have in their false memory, despite evidence contradicting its truthfulness.
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November 22, 2011
Dysexecutive [dis-ig-zek-yuh-tiv] syndrome (DES) consists of a group of symptoms, usually resulting from brain damage, that fall into cognitive, behavioral and emotional categories and tend to occur together. The term was introduced by British psychologist Alan Baddeley to describe a common pattern of dysfunction in executive functions, such as planning, abstract thinking, flexibility and behavioral control.
It is thought to be Baddeley’s theory of working memory and the central executive that are the hypothetical systems impaired in DES. The syndrome was once known as frontal lobe syndrome, however dysexecutive syndrome is preferred because it emphasizes the functional pattern of deficits (the symptoms) over the location of the syndrome in the frontal lobe, which is often not the only area affected.
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November 21, 2011
The Immortality Drive is a small memory device which was taken to the International Space Station in a Soyuz spacecraft in 2008. The Immortality Drive contains digitized DNA sequences of a select group of humans, such as physicist Stephen Hawking, comedian Stephen Colbert, Playboy model Jo Garcia, game designer Richard Garriot, Pro Wrestler Matt Morgan, and athlete Lance Armstrong.
The microchip also contains a copy of ‘George’s Secret Key to the Universe,’ a children’s book authored by Stephen Hawking and his daughter, Lucy. The intent of the Immortality Drive is to preserve human DNA in a time capsule, in case some global cataclysm should occur on Earth.
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November 20, 2011
Rick Strassman (b. 1952) is psychiatrist and psychopharmacology researcher, and the first person in the US after twenty years of intermission to embark in human research with psychedelic, hallucinogenic, or entheogenic substances. During the intermission period, research was restricted by law to animals studies only.
Dr Strassman’s studies aimed to investigate the effects of DMT (dimethyltryptamine), a powerful psychedelic, that he hypothesizes is produced by the human brain in the pineal gland. DMT is found naturally in various natural sources, and is related to human neurotransmitters such as serotonin and melatonin.
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November 3, 2011
Norepinephrine [nawr-ep-uh-nef-rin] is a hormone and a neurotransmitter. Areas of the body that produce or are affected by norepinephrine are described as noradrenergic. The terms noradrenaline (from the Latin) and norepinephrine (derived from Greek) are interchangeable, with noradrenaline the common name in most parts of the world. However, to avoid confusion and achieve consistency medical authorities have promoted norepinephrine as the favored nomenclature.
One of the most important functions of norepinephrine is its role as the neurotransmitter released from the sympathetic neurons (part of the subconscious, autonomic nervous system) affecting the heart. An increase in norepinephrine from the sympathetic nervous system increases the rate of contractions. As a stress hormone, norepinephrine affects parts of the brain, such as the amygdala, where attention and responses are controlled.
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November 3, 2011
GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric acid) is a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system of mammals. Its role changes from excitatory to inhibitory as the brain develops into adulthood. Normally, when a neuron receives an impulse, it will make the signal stronger, an inhibiting neurotransmitter prevents the cell from receiving the impulse, and the signal as a whole is weakened. In mammals, GABA regulates the extent to which neurons in the central nervous system will be stimulated.
It plays a role in regulating neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system. In humans, GABA is also directly responsible for the regulation of muscle tone. Even though chemically it is an amino acid, GABA is rarely referred to as such in the scientific or medical communities. The term ‘amino acid,’ used without a qualifier, refers to the alpha amino acids, which GABA is not. GABA is also not incorporated into proteins.
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November 3, 2011
The third-person effect hypothesis states that a person exposed to a persuasive communication in the mass media sees it as having a greater effect on others than on himself or herself. This is known as the perceptual hypothesis, but there is also a behavioral hypothesis predicting that perceiving others as more vulnerable increases support for restrictions on mass media. The third-person effect hypothesis also argues that people are compelled to take action after being exposed to a persuasive message but this action might not be due to the message itself but to the anticipation of the reaction of others. This action is unpredictable and it might be either in conformity with the message or counter to it.
Usually, the effects considered are about general media influence, but type of the message also affects the effect size. Messages implying undesirable consequences increase the effect size and messages with desirable consequences decrease or even reverse the effect, as in someone believing that they are more able than others to follow a promoted healthy diet. The third-person effect, specially its behavioral hypothesis, is important to issues of censorship. Censors seldom admit to having been adversely affected by the information they prohibit even if they have been exposed to it numerous times. Usually, they claim, it is the general public that needs to be protected, not them.
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