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Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50927984/
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রবিবার, ২৪ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩
Laser mastery narrows down sources of superconductivity
Feb. 24, 2013 ? Identifying the mysterious mechanism underlying high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) remains one of the most important and tantalizing puzzles in physics. This remarkable phenomenon allows electric current to pass with perfect efficiency through materials chilled to subzero temperatures, and it may play an essential role in revolutionizing the entire electricity chain, from generation to transmission and grid-scale storage. Pinning down one of the possible explanations for HTS -- fleeting fluctuations called charge-density waves (CDWs) -- could help solve the mystery and pave the way for rapid technological advances.
Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have combined two state-of-the-art experimental techniques to study those electron waves with unprecedented precision in two-dimensional, custom-grown materials. The surprising results, published online February 24, 2013, in the journal Nature Materials, reveal that CDWs cannot be the root cause of the unparalleled power conveyance in HTS materials. In fact, CDW formation is an independent and likely competing instability.
"It has been difficult to determine whether or not dynamic or fluctuating CDWs even exist in HTS materials, much less identify their role," said Brookhaven Lab physicist and study coauthor Ivan Bozovic. "Do they compete with the HTS state, or are they perhaps the very essence of the phenomenon? That question has now been answered by targeted experimentation."
Custom-grown Superconductors
Electricity travels imperfectly through traditional metallic conductors, losing energy as heat due to a kind of atomic-scale friction. Impurities in these materials also cause electrons to scatter and stumble, but superconductors can overcome this hurdle -- assuming the synthesis process is precise.
For this experiment, Bozovic used a custom-built molecular beam epitaxy system at Brookhaven Lab to grow thin films of LaSrCuO, an HTS cuprate (copper-oxide) compound. The metallic cuprates, assembled one atomic layer at a time, are separated by insulating planes of lanthanum and strontium oxides, resulting in what's called a quasi-two-dimensional conductor. When cooled down to a low enough temperature -- less than 100 degrees Kelvin -- strange electron waves began to ripple through that 2D matrix. At even lower temperatures, these films became superconducting.
Electron Sea
"In quasi-two-dimensional metals, low temperatures frequently bring about interesting collective states called charge-density waves," Bozovic said. "They resemble waves rolling across the surface of a lake under a breeze, except that instead of water, here we actually have a sea of mobile electrons."
Once a CDW forms, the electron density loses uniformity as the ripples rise and fall. These waves can be described by familiar parameters: amplitude (height of the waves), wavelength (distance between waves), and phase (the wave's position on the material). Detecting CDWs typically requires high-intensity x-rays, such as those provided by synchrotron light sources like Brookhaven's NSLS and, soon, NSLS-II. And even then, the technique only works if the waves are essentially frozen upon formation. However, if CDWs actually fluctuate rapidly, they may escape detection by x-ray diffraction, which typically requires a long exposure time that blurs fast motion.
Measuring Rolling Waves
To catch CDWs in action, a research group at MIT led by physicist Nuh Gedik used an advanced ultrafast spectroscopy technique. Intense laser pulses called "pumps" cause excitations in the superconducting films, which are then probed by measuring the film reflectance with a second light pulse -- this is called a pump-probe process. The second pulse is delayed by precise time intervals, and the series of measurements allow the lifetime of the excitation to be determined.
In a more sophisticated variant of the technique, largely pioneered by Gedik, the standard single pump beam is replaced by two beams hitting the surface from different sides simultaneously. This generates a standing wave of controlled wavelength in the film, but it disappears rapidly as the electrons relax back into their original state.
This technique was applied to the atomically perfect LaSrCuO films synthesized at Brookhaven Lab. In films with a critical temperature of 26 degrees Kelvin (the threshold beyond which the superconductivity breaks down), the researchers discovered two new short-lived excitations -- both caused by fluctuating CDWs.
Gedik's technique even allowed the researchers to record the lifetime of CDW fluctuations -- just 2 picoseconds (a millionth of a millionth of a second) under the coldest conditions and becoming briefer as the temperatures rose. These waves then vanished entirely at about 100 Kelvin, actually surviving at much higher temperatures than superconductivity.
Ruling out a Suspect
The researchers then hunted for those same signatures in cuprate films with slightly different chemical compositions and a greater density of mobile electrons. The results were both unexpected and significant for the future of HTS research.
"Interestingly, the superconducting sample with the highest critical temperature, about 39 Kelvin, showed no CDW signatures at all," Gedik said.
The consistent emergence of CDWs would have bolstered the conjecture that they play an essential role in high-temperature superconductivity. Instead, the new technique's successful detection of such electron waves in one sample but not in another (with even higher critical temperature) indicates that another mechanism must be driving the emergence of HTS.
"Results like this bring us closer to understanding the mystery of HTS, considered by many to be one of the greatest problems in physics today," Bozovic said. "The source of this extraordinary phenomenon is slowly but surely running out of places to hide."
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Google laptop shows Apple a thing or two (7 replies)
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শনিবার, ২৩ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩
Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan)
The launch of Nvidia's new GeForce GTX Titan graphics card has lit a fire underneath multiple boutique computer manufacturers. Falcon Northwest has built a new version of its Mach V desktop tower?the Mach V (Triple Titan)?to take advantage of the Titan's capabilities, with support for up to three of the new graphics cards and a six-core Intel Core i7 3970X CPU overclocked to 4.7GHz. The system's price tag as configured was $7,394. Yes, you read that right. The three graphics cards account for about $3000 of the eye-popping figure; this much power doesn't come cheap. The system's performance blew away the competition for the most part, setting a new standing for PC gaming. Thus, the Mach V (Triple Titan) takes the Editors' Choice for high-end gaming rigs.
Design and Features
The Mach V uses the same vertical chassis design as the Maingear Shift Super Stock (Core i7-3930K) ($5289 4.5); both cases orient video cards and components upwards to take advantage of the fact that hot air naturally rises. From the outside, the chassis design is simple, even understated, but the hardware inside the box is some of the most powerful that money can buy. There's 32GB of DDR3-1866 RAM, the aforementioned Intel Core i7-3970X, and a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD, backed up by a 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green hard drive. The entire system is powered by a 1200W PSU; optical storage comes courtesy of a 16x Asus DVD-RW drive.
The disadvantage to this triple-GPU configuration is that the GPUs consume every available slot; there's literally no room for any additional hardware. Falcon Northwest makes up for the lack of free PCI-Express ports with a whopping nine USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. Two of the latter are mounted at the top of the case for convenient access while working.
The vertical design presents two other challenges. First, a desk that's designed to exhaust hot air at the back may end up trapping that air if the system exhausts at the top. Second, there's the cabling issue. If you don't have many external drives or peripherals, the Mach V presents a very clean, crisp profile. Add three monitors' worth of cables, a few external drives, and a keyboard + mouse, and the top of the system looks like a rat's nest.
The trade-off is that cooling performance is typically better in a vertical case?and with three GPUs and a 4.7GHz overclocked CPU, the Mach V needs to balance cooling performance and noise. It does so quite well. The next-generation GPU Boost technology built into the Titan family keeps each GPU's temperature pegged at 80C. Customers can override this manually if they wish, but the system automatically adjusts frequencies to ensure that even a three-GPU system runs no risk of overheating.
Performance
The three Titan graphics cards are the showcase of the system and its strongest point. The Mach V (Triple Titan) sweeps even the Maingear F131 Super Stock (GTX Titan) in our 3D benchmark tests. Its 3DMark 11 Extreme score of 12,505 is 18% faster than the previous record-holder ? the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Intel Core i7-3770K), which was equipped with a pair of dual-GPU GTX 690s (four GPUs in total). In Aliens vs. Predator at 1,920-by-1,080 with 4x anti-aliasing (AA) and 4x anisotropic filtering (AF) turned on, the Mach V (Triple Titan) turned in 222 frames per second (fps) compared with the dual-Titan-equipped Maingear F131's 182fps. Performance in version 3.0 of Unigine's Heaven benchmark test at 1,920-by-1080 with 4x AA / AF was 198fps, compared to 155fps for the Maingear F131.
In other areas, the Maingear F131 and Mach V (Triple Titan) came in neck and neck. Both systems completed a Handbrake decode in 23 seconds. The Maingear F131 led in PCMark 7 (6,523 vs. 6,241 for the Mach V) and in Photoshop CS6 (2 minutes, 35 seconds to apply a dozen filters, vs. the Mach V's time of 2:41). The Mach V (Triple Titan) outperformed Maingear F131 in Cinebench, where the hexa-core 3970 got to stretch its legs. The multithreaded Cinebench R11.5 score for the Mach V (Triple Titan) was 13.62. Only the Origin Genesis (Core i7-3930K), with its 4.9GHz CPU, was faster.
Those performance figures provide an accurate model of how the Falcon-Northwest compares to other gaming systems. What they don't explain is how Falcon and its boutique competitors have leveraged the new cards to create better gaming experiences. We had the opportunity to test the Mach V in a 5,760-by-1,080 configuration across three 27-inch displays. A standard 1,920-by-1,080 display contains two megapixels? 5,760-by-1080 more than triples that, to 6.2MP. For comparison, 2,560-by-1,600 is 4 MP.
Yes, three GTX Titan GPUs pushing nearly 200fps in Heaven is impressive. What's more impressive yet is seeing the Mach V (Triple Titan) maintain 90fps in the same benchmark test when running across three displays at once. It's not a capability that's limited to synthetic benchmark tests?while multi-monitor gaming is still not standard, many recent titles like Shogun 2, Serious Sam BFE, World of Warcraft, and Batman: Arkham City all support it.
With three GTX Titan GPUs, the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan) is capable of fielding game experiences that other configurations don't offer. Serious Sam BFE at 5,760-by-1,080 with 4x super-sampled AA, 16x AF, and all GPU and CPU options set to maximum, for example, still maintains a consistent 75fps.
The three-monitor experience isn't perfect?the view on the side panels is often distorted and, in some games, magnifies the landscape and enemies to appear closer than they are. Despite these flaws, multi-monitor gaming support is growing, and the immersion in these games is superior to single-panel play. Game for a few hours across three monitors, and you'll find that dropping back to one is jarring.
That said, what's also jarring is the Mach V (Triple Titan)'s price tag. At $999 each, there's no such thing as a cheap Titan GPU, but gamers who are interested without having quite that much scratch to spare should consider a single GPU configuration built around one of Falcon's lower-cost alternatives like the Tiki or FragBox.
If you've got the funds, this is an excellent system. It's a configuration that can handle multi-monitor gaming, 3D gaming, or both without breaking a sweat. Given the strength of the underlying hardware, this Mach V could be the center of a gaming platform for years to come. Buyers who prefer to buy a high-end system and use it for a number of years rather than upgrading on a regular basis should give the Mach V (Triple Titan) serious consideration. Of course, if you want to use this to replace the high-end gaming rig you bought last year because that system was the "fastest," that's also your prerogative. Regardless, with its record-breaking performance, triple-monitor capability, and smart power-saving functionality, the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Triple Titan) earns our Editors' Choice for high-end gaming desktops.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/cDU1aZ7ed-o/0,2817,2415720,00.asp
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University closes Muslim prayer room
21 February 2013
Last updated at 19:48 ET
City University in London has been accused of discrimination by a group of Muslim students after it closed a dedicated room used for Friday prayers.
A group of students have formed Muslim Voices on Campus, calling on the university to reverse its decision.
The group said it was being "unjustly targeted".
City said it acted because students had refused to submit the proposed content of sermons to the university before prayers to check its "appropriateness".
Wasif Sheikh, who leads the group, said: "We feel we are being unjustly targeted. All of our sermons are open, we welcome all students and all staff.
"But when you start submitting your sermons to be monitored and scrutinized then there's a chance for it to be dictated what's allowed and what's not allowed. We, as students, don't accept that."
Confrontational atmosphereThree years ago, the counter extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation released a report on the sermons at Friday prayers at City University, in central London.
It claimed hard line views and a confrontational atmosphere were being encouraged.
In one sermon, which was recorded, the speaker said: "The Islamic state teaches to cut the hand of the thief. Yes it does. And it also teaches us to stone the adulterer.
"When they tell us that, the Islamic state tells us and teaches us to kill the apostate, yes it does."
BBC London has seen no evidence those views are still being spread now, but some argue the episode shows the need for greater scrutiny.
'Vicious history'Dr Usama Hasan from the Quilliam Foundation said: "If there was no past history at the university, I think what the students are saying would sound extremely reasonable. However, there has been quite a vicious and nasty history there.
"They have to deal with that and give a bit more to the university.
Continue reading the main story?Start Quote
End Quote Spokeswoman City University LondonThe university could not continue to condone an activity taking place on its premises where it cannot exercise reasonable supervision?
"Both sides need to compromise here and negotiate with some difficult conversations."
The challenge faced by many universities is how to deal with a potential threat - without being seen to restrict freedom of speech.
A statement from the university said it needed to be sure of the "appropriateness" of what was being discussed in sermons as authorized university events.
It said it also needed to be assured that all "students eligible to deliver" prayers and sermons "are considered equally and given the opportunity to do so".
The statement went on: "The university could not continue to condone an activity taking place on its premises where it cannot exercise reasonable supervision."
In addition, the university said it had suggested a number of alternative places for students to pray nearby.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21542041
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শুক্রবার, ২২ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩
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Video: New study explains why women talk more than men
>> take it from here, david. the women talk too much. we have a possible reason why. i don't know what this is about. go ahead, andrea, tell us.
>> i don't know this applies to david. you guys were giving him quite the beating during the break. he talks a lot, right?
>> he does. he's a chatty kathy .
>> research shows women talk almost three times as much as men.
>> what?
>> i like to think we're better communicators, there may be a biological reason as well.
>> women like to talk a lot.
>> yes, i know.
>> reporter: we've come a long way but women just can't seem to escape the old stigma.
>> wow, she just never shuts up, does she?
>> reporter: we talk too much. is it true? do we talk too much?
>> yes, we do. we talk. women want to be heard. men don't listen so we have to keep repeating ourselves over and over to make sure we're heard.
>> reporter: you like to do all the work and listen. and just say yes now and then?
>> yes? and uh-huh.
>> reporter: the average woman speaks up to 20,000 words a day, that's 13,000 more than the average man. new research says there may be a reason women are better communicators, a biological explanation for all those chatty kathies out there. scientists from the university of maryland school of medicine discovered there are higher levels of a language protein called fox p 2 in female brains. we discovered this protein, fox p2 is involved in vocalizations.
>> reporter: they studied a small group of young children and found 30% more of the protein in the brains of the girls.
>> we can't say this is the end all be all reasoning, but it is one of the first avenues with which we can start to explore why women tend to be more verbal than men.
>> reporter: what's your breaking point?
>> breaking point where you just want to say shut-up. that's my breaking point.
>> okay.
>> women generally speak more quickly and devote more brainpower to language.
>> i take away that women have a gift for communication and expression.
>> absolutely. as i said, more highly evolved. we'll talk more about that.
>> i have to admit i bump that story yo type. i was talking in college and a young woman was listening to me and she goes like this and i said, what is it? she said, you are talking a hole in my head. there's more to the story.
>> see, there he goes.
>> you were saying your wife is a big chatter. she talks all the time.
>> i did not say that.
>> can she really get a word in?
>> let's ask her because beth wilkinson is on the phone right now.
>> oh, no. good morning to you.
>> hi, honey, how are you?
>> sweetheart, how are you?
>> nice of you, savannah to let me actually officially get a word in edge-wise. i appreciate you.
>> is he like this at home, beth?
>> so i can actually speak to my husband and have him listen to me.
>> the floor is yours.
>> that story about the hole in the head is true, i think i have an indentation myself.
>> so he's really the chatterer in the family?
>> he is quite chatty. whereas with me at dinners, mornings, noon, night, he's pretty chatty.
>> we've noticed.
>> beth often tells me that, you know, stop talking about yourse yourself. be a better listener. when we first met she would be reading the paper, don't you want to talk?
>> ah.
>> when talking, does he talk a lot about his man bags?
>> that's a very unfortunate topic, al and i wish you hadn't brought that up.
>> wise that unfortunate?
>> she's a woman of 2350u worfew words herself. beth wilkinson , thank you so much for getting on the phone. just say yes all the way, you're always right.
>> thanks so much and thanks for keeping our house quiet this week.
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50886108/
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Oscars 2013 Predictions: Best Original Song
Adele's 'Skyfall' deserves the award, but MTV News predicts a win for 'Les Miserables.'
By Josh Wigler
Adele's "Skyfall" cover art
Photo: Columbia
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702386/oscar-2013-best-original-song-predictions.jhtml
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বুধবার, ২০ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩
UL-LSU baseball game officially sold out
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শনিবার, ১৬ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩
Dennis Dixon reunites with Coach Chip Kelly in Philadelphia
 Quarterback Dennis Dixon, shown with the University of Oregon in 2007, has reunited with Chip Kelly, his offensive coordinator with the Ducks, in Philadelphia. (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press) |
February 15, 2013, 10:09 a.m.
Dennis Dixon may be considered a long shot to earn Philadelphia's starting quarterback job -- or even a spot on the team's opening-day roster -- but he does have one advantage over fellow Eagles QBs Michael Vick and Nick Foles.
Not only he is the only one of the three who has played under new Coach Chip Kelly's system, but Dixon excelled in his spread offense at the University of Oregon.
With Kelly as his offensive coordinator in 2007, Dixon was in the Heisman Trophy conversation -- passing for 2,136 yards with 20 touchdowns and four interceptions to go with 583 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground -- before a torn ACL ended his senior season prematurely.
Dixon was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers but started just three times in four seasons with the team, with another knee injury wiping out almost all of his 2010 season. He spent last year on the practice squad for the Baltimore Ravens before signing a two-year deal with the Eagles on Thursday.
So this move might make sense for both sides. The Eagles get a quarterback who has flourished in their new coach's system and Dixon gets a chance to revive his NFL career.
Then again, Steve Spurrier tried something similar when he was the Washington Redskins coach back in 2002-03. He brought in two of his star quarterbacks from Florida, Danny Wuerffel (a Heisman winner) and Shane Matthews, both of whom had floundered in the NFL. But even reunited with their old college coach, things didn't get a whole lot better.
Who knows if that will be the case with Dixon, Kelly and the Eagles. But with a guy who showed as much promise as Dixon did back in Oregon: Might as well give it a shot.
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Source: http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-dennis-dixon-20130215,0,1883401.story?track=rss
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College hoops news and rumors? CBT on NBCSports.com
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An irreverent, offbeat look at sports? OTB on NBCSports.com
Source: http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?sport=MLB&id=5038
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শুক্রবার, ১৫ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩
Internet and Businesses Online - SEO | Tribal Vision
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American Airlines-US Airways: What it means for you
Now that the long-rumored merger between American Airlines and US Airways is finally a reality, travelers may be nervous about what?s next -- and rightly so.
?There will be winners and losers,? said Tim Winship, editor and publisher of FrequentFlier.com.
Here are some of the consequences you can expect with the creation of the world?s newest mega-carrier.
Airfares won?t immediately shoot higher
Fliers planning a trip on either carrier don?t need to worry that tickets will suddenly become more expensive overnight. Nothing will probably change in the very near term, said George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com.
?It?s going to take them quite a while before these two airlines are actually one airline,? he predicted.
But airfares will eventually increase
When the merger is finally consummated and the combined airline starts cutting or combining routes, fares will go up, especially for business travelers who do same-day round trips, don?t stay over Saturday night or don?t have an advance purchase, Hobica said.
Routes that will be most affected are those that American and US Airways both flew non-stop, such as Charlotte, N.C., to Miami; and Dallas to Philadelphia, he added.
?We?ve seen this happen time and time again in previous mergers,? Hobica said.
Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, noted that competition is the main driver of cheaper airline ticket prices, so with fewer carriers competing for your business, there?s less incentive to cut fares.
?The only good news is that if airlines get too frisky with higher prices, consumers will let them know quickly by cutting back on air travel,? Seaney said. ?With so few domestic airlines ... consumers? wallet size will be the last line of defense.?
The transition will be a pain for travelers
There?s no doubt about it: Fliers will likely have to endure some computer glitches, reservation snafus and system hiccups when the two airlines begin to integrate their operations.
Typically, there are problems during mergers, Hobica said, though he pointed out that the marriage between Delta Air Lines and Northwest went smoothly.
But just look at United Airlines, which experienced several major computer problems last year as it tried to combine systems after its merger with Continental. In some cases, passengers were stranded for hours.
?I would be very surprised if there were no glitches,? Winship said. ?At the end of the day, the new company will be the world?s largest airline ... that won?t happen without a lot of pain.?
He recommended that frequent fliers check their accounts carefully just to make sure all of their miles show up correctly after the two carriers become one.
Elite-status fliers expecting an upgrade may be in for a surprise
When the two airlines? frequent flier programs merge, there will suddenly be an overabundance of elite-status members competing for perks, particularly upgrades, Winship noted.
?There are only so many upgrades to go around,? he said. ?At least in the first year, it?s going to be very difficult ? especially for lower-level elites ? (to get upgraded) because they have the lowest priority ... it?s going to be a serious problem for people who have made it a priority to earn elite status.?
Longer term, the sudden glut of elites may ease somewhat because fliers will have to requalify to get their status for the following year, Winship said.
Still, airlines industry-wide have been cutting back on benefits for lower-level elites so that carriers have more to offer for their most profitable customers, he added.
Hobica thinks the combined airline will follow the Delta model, which will reward passengers who spend the most money on tickets, not just fly the most miles.
The new airline will be stronger
This is the good news about the marriage of American Airlines and US Airways, experts said. The new carrier is poised to deliver a better product and become a bigger player on a global scale.
?(The merger) is likely to make the combined entities stronger in the long run ? thus more profitable,? Seaney said.
?With financial stability airlines can improve their woefully neglected product. Consumers will be much more likely to board their next flight on a plane built this century and in many cases even this decade.?
Hobica noted that international carriers, such as Turkish Airlines, are starting to add routes from U.S. airports, hoping to siphon off lucrative international travelers, especially those flying in international business class. The merger will help the new airline compete with those carriers, Hobica said.
?It will definitely be stronger,? he added.
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ১৪ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩
Pyongyang gives Beijing the finger and ridicules China?s claim to be the force of influence in the region
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with his military chiefs
The defiant?attitude?of the?dictator?in North Korea by the country?s launch of a nuclear test, exposes China?s weakness and inability to?wield?its influence enough to prevent Pyongyang from going through with its provocative actions. China?s inability to prevent such reckless actions from its?neighbor, and regional ally, signals North?Korea?s?intentions to define its own standing in the world even if it means risking the wrath of its so called influential protector.
It was a big slam of the door in China?s face by?the?North?Koreans, and what happened may have indicated to the West that China no more holds the position of influence in a region that has now come more closer to confrontation than ever before.?North Korea is saying that its actions are in response to the reckless hostility of the United States as it puts it, but Pyongyang may have inadvertently done more damage to China?s reputation, than it had done to ruffle the US?administration?s?feathers.
The United States may now be in a more potent position to retaliate military-wise than it had ever been before, because it may point out to Beijing that it has become?powerless?in?the?face of North Korea?s defiance. It may also tell?the?Chinese that it seems North?Korea?s?foreign policy is not at the moment tied in anyway to China?s influence.
This entire episode is a bad PR for China and leaves Beijing in a very vulnerable position to?influence?the?outcome?of any?further?negotiations on?the?matter, as the UN and US make serious?threats?of further sanctions that may ultimately weaken the already impoverished and isolated ?state of North Korea.
China may try to put a brave face to the incident, but it does paints a nasty picture of?Pyongyang?s?refusal to allow?China?to undermine its influence as it attempts to stand up as a potent force in its own right. It?may?be that North Korea has started looking at China as a rival rather than an ally competing for strategic political?influence?in the region. And it may now dawn on the Chinese to redefine their relationship with Pyongyang to prevent any further embarrassment, as the tension continues in the?Korean?peninsular.
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? 2013, Ahmed M Kamara. All rights reserved. Newstime Africa content cannot be reproduced in any form ? electronic or print ? without prior consent of the Publishers. Copyright infringement will be pursued and perpetrators prosecuted.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewstimeAfrica/~3/jQM-L9H_e7s/30788
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After failed trials, J&J pivots to early-stage Alzheimer's
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A little over a year ago, Dr. Husseini Manji, global head of neuroscience drug development at Johnson & Johnson, predicted that brain researchers were on the cusp of a golden age.
That was before J&J's highly anticipated Alzheimer's drug, bapineuzumab, failed to improve memory and thinking skills in closely watched clinical trials of people with mild to moderate forms of the disease.
Had it worked, the drug would have been the first to alter the course of Alzheimer's, a fatal brain-wasting disease that affects 36 million people worldwide. It also would have meant billions of dollars in annual sales.
Instead, J&J and its partners, Pfizer and Elan, pulled the plug on the intravenous treatment after years of development.
Nevertheless, Manji, the Kenyan-born scientist who spent 15 years researching neuropsychiatric diseases for the National Institutes of Health, stands by his prediction.
The former chief of the NIH's Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, who recently met with computer experts at NASA to understand how best to untangle the web of disparate information on brain science, says there is nothing more complex than brain disorders.
"We shouldn't expect it to be easy," Manji, 53, who leads the company's research efforts in Alzheimer's, mood disorders, schizophrenia and pain conditions, said in an interview.
Like its rivals, J&J is preparing to pivot from testing drugs in people who already have dementia to early-stage patients, when drugs may have a better shot at working.
In November, J&J partnered with Japan's Shionogi to gain access to Shionogi's oral beta secretase, or BACE, inhibitor, a promising new class of drugs that aims to prevent the production of the Alzheimer's-linked protein beta amyloid before it can form toxic clumps in people's brains.
While J&J and its partners are retooling bapineuzumab into a more convenient shot formulation - instead of an IV - the company is also working on other approaches, including an amyloid-attacking antibody similar to bapineuzumab, called AAB003, and a vaccine that would enlist the help of an individual's immune system to fight the disease.
Manji says the company remains committed to amyloid-clearing treatments. He expects doctors will need a whole menu of drugs to address the massive burden of Alzheimer's, which is expected to affect 115 million people globally by 2050.
EARLIER TREATMENT
Experts liken Alzheimer's to heart disease, in which fatty plaques build up in the arteries for years before breaking loose, causing a stroke or heart attack.
"If someone comes into the ER with a heart attack and you give them a (cholesterol-lowering) statin drug for the first time, you are probably 15 years too late," said Dr. Michael Rafii, an Alzheimer's expert at the University of California at San Diego.
Likewise, with Alzheimer's, when a patient enters the dementia phase, treatments that remove amyloid may be too little, too late. That may be what occurred with bapineuzumab, which showed signs that it was removing plaques but offered no cognitive benefit.
Late-stage studies of Eli Lilly and Co's similar drug, solanezumab, also failed to help patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's, but when the results of two studies were combined, researchers saw a hint of benefit in people with mild disease.
Many experts believe BACE inhibitors would be ideal for very early-stage patients because they may prevent dementia from developing.
Lilly and Merck already have midstage trials under way for their BACE inhibitors, with safety results expected by early 2014. J&J is still working out the details, but Manji said he expects human trials of the Shionogi drug to start soon.
Unlike anti-amyloid drugs, such as bapineuzumab, that remove plaque after it has formed, BACE inhibitors focus on preventing the production of beta amyloid. The drugs are designed to keep the enzyme beta-secretase from chopping up a larger protein called amyloid precursor protein (APP) into bits that make up beta amyloid.
A study published in July in the journal Nature helped fuel enthusiasm for BACE inhibitors. It found that people who have a mutation in APP are protected from Alzheimer's, and this gene affects the activity of BACE, suggesting that BACE inhibitors might work.
"It is almost like these people are born with natural BACE inhibition that seems to protect them," Manji said.
Developing a beta secretase inhibitor has presented a number of challenges, including understanding how to get the drugs across the protective blood-brain barrier and into the right spot in the brain. But after a decade of research, Manji says there is optimism that "the BACE nut has been cracked."
Manji said the challenge now is to block some of the enzyme's activity, without causing unintended side effects.
"What we still don't completely know is if you get into enough people, are there some off-target effects you will discover?"
OTHER AVENUES
To test new drugs in people with earlier-stage Alzheimer's, scientists have organized a series of prevention trials, enrolling people who are genetically predisposed to develop Alzheimer's or whose tests suggest they have pre-symptomatic disease.
Two Roche drugs, crenezumab and gantenerumab, and Lilly's solanezumab and its BACE drug are among the first to be tested in these trials. No J&J drugs will be part in these early trials, but Manji says the company will benefit.
"I think the whole field is going to learn so much about the disease and the trajectory and the progression, irrespective of what compound is being used," he said.
Meanwhile, J&J has provided seed funding for a pilot study in people with Down syndrome, another population that is predisposed to develop dementia early.
Manji is excited about efforts with partner Pfizer to develop a vaccine that targets amyloid. He says the vaccine, now in midstage trials, has overcome some of the issues that scuttled development of a similar effort by Elan in 2002.
Manji thinks the quickest way for drug companies to find answers to problems like Alzheimer's will be through alliances to share information about underlying disease biology.
"If we are willing to stay the course and work together, we will make progress," he said.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Jilian Mincer and Douglas Royalty)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/failed-trials-j-j-pivots-early-stage-alzheimers-125529021--finance.html
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বুধবার, ১৩ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩
Rivera plans to announce if this is final season
New York Yankees' Andy Pettitte, from left, Mariano Rivera, Phil Hughes and Hiroki Kuroda, of Japan, laugh during a workout at baseball spring training, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Yankees' Andy Pettitte, from left, Mariano Rivera, Phil Hughes and Hiroki Kuroda, of Japan, laugh during a workout at baseball spring training, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Yankees' Mariano Rivera throws in the bullpen during a workout at baseball spring training, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Yankees' Mariano Rivera throws to home during a workout at baseball spring training, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Yankees' Mariano Rivera throws in the bullpen during a workout at baseball spring training, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera said he's reached a decision on whether this will be his final season and plans to announce it before opening day.
"Yes, I have," Rivera said Wednesday after the Yankees' first spring training workout for pitchers and catchers. "But again, I will tell you guys when I think it's the right moment."
Baseball's career saves leader had surgery June 12 to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, an injury that occurred while he was shagging fly balls during batting practice in Kansas City on May 3.
The 43-year-old right-hander expects to be ready for the regular season. He threw 25 pitches off a bullpen mound and said it felt good.
"It was wonderful to be out there again," Rivera said.
When asked on a scale of one to 10 how the knee currently is, Rivera said, "around nine, for sure."
He added: "The other point will be the running that I do here."
Rivera wore a small, light-weight brace during Wednesday's workout, which had him also take part in fielding drills, including covering first base. He is planning to use a brace in games this year.
Rivera will continue shagging fly balls in batting practice, an activity that has the approval of Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
"That's part of who he is," Girardi said. "So, I don't want to take it away from him."
Rivera will likely pitch his normal seven or eight innings in spring training games, but could throw additional batting practice sessions or simulated games.
"We really don't have a whole lot of restrictions on Mo," Girardi said. "We will watch him carefully to make sure that we don't think he's taxing it too much. We feel pretty good about where he's at."
NOTES: LHP Andy Pettitte decided not to pitch in the World Baseball Classic after talking with team officials that included Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman. "I wanted to play," Pettitte said. "Obviously, after having some conversations with the Yankees ? (who were) not too excited about me playing in it ? just decided against it. It was a tough decision. I've never had a chance to play for my country, but it was a real big deal to me. And was really, really, really considering do that. It was one of those deals where I felt like this was probably the best move that I could make for this organization and for our team."
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New details on molecular machinery of cancer
Feb. 11, 2013 ? Researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have provided important new details into the activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a cell surface protein that has been strongly linked to a large number of cancers and is a major target of cancer therapies.
"The more we understand about EGFR and the complex molecular machinery involved in the growth and proliferation of cells, the closer we will be to developing new and more effective ways to cure and treat the many different forms of cancer," says chemist Jay Groves, one of the leaders of this research. "Through a tour-de-force of quantitative biology techniques that included cutting edge time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy in living cells, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and computational modeling, we've determined definitively how EGFR becomes activated through to its epidermal growth factor (EGF) ligand."
Groves, who holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and UC Berkeley's Chemistry Department, and is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator is one of two corresponding authors of a paper in the journal Cell that describes this research. The paper is titled "Conformational Coupling across the Plasma Membrane in Activation of the EGF Receptor." The other corresponding author is John Kuriyan, who also holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley and HHMI.
In high school biology classes we learn that genes contain coded instructions that are translated into the assembly of specific proteins. Many proteins, however, must be activated by post-translational processes such as autophosphorylation, the addition of phosphate. Protein activation can impact many important cellular processes including proliferation, differentiation and migration. Cancer is essentially a case of these cellular functions gone wild, often the result of problems with the EGFR. However, despite its well-established links to cancer, EGFR activation has only been partially understood.
"As a member of the large class of cell surface receptors known as receptor tyrosine kinases, EGFR features a ligand-binding domain on its extracellular side and a kinase domain on its intracellular side," Groves says. "The text-book explanation for EGFR activation is that the binding of EGFR's ligand, EGF, to its extracellular side induces dimerization of the receptor, which in turn brings together the kinase domains on the intracellular sides of the dimer, allowing them to phosphorylate one another."
Groves says while the picture is accurate, it is an oversimplification of the mechanics behind the process because isolated intracellular kinase domains in solution can be active on their own at relatively low concentration without EGF ligand-induced dimerization. Dimerization is the combining of two identical molecules into a single compound molecule.
Measuring autophosphorylation as a function of EGFR surface density in cells, Groves, Kuriyan and their colleagues found that structural coupling between the EGFR transmembrane helix and extracellular juxtamembrane modules in addition to EGF ligand-engagement is required for EGFR activation. This structural coupling permits dimerization to take place in the presence of the EGF ligand.
"The un-ligated EGFR sits in a structural configuration that prevents the intracellular kinase domains from being able to reach each other," Groves says. "When the EGF ligand binds, this restraint is removed, dimerization occurs, and one kinase phosphorylates the other."
The inclusion by Groves and his colleagues of time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy on living cells is another new advance in bringing a quantitative approach to the biological sciences. By combining picosecond light pulses from two different colors of lasers into a single beam, then genetically modifying EGFRs to carry either a red or green fluorescent protein, the researchers were able to monitor in real time how EGFRs move and assemble into dimers during activation by the EGF ligands.
"Focusing on the cell membrane and monitoring each fluorescent photon emitted, then determining both its color and precise time of arrival at the detector, allows unambiguous assignment of which photon was triggered by which color light pulse," Groves says. "All of this can be done in real time and in living cells."
With the mechanics behind the activation of EGFR now fully explained, Groves and his colleagues are now applying their quantitative biology techniques to another group of receptor tyrosine kinases, the Eph receptors, as well as T cell receptors that are so important to the immune system.
"Our broader goal with these quantitative biology techniques is to transform biology into a hard physical science," Groves says. "The idea is to move from simply describing a collage of observations to being able to understand how biological systems work based on fundamental physics."
In addition to Groves and Kuriyan, other authors of this Cell paper were Nicholas Endres, Rahul Das, Adam Smith, Anton Arkhipov, Erika Kovacs, Yongjian Huang, Jeffrey Pelton, Yibing Shan, David Shaw and David Wemmer.
This research was primarily support by a grant from the National Cancer Institute.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Nicholas?F. Endres, Rahul Das, Adam?W. Smith, Anton Arkhipov, Erika Kovacs, Yongjian Huang, Jeffrey?G. Pelton, Yibing Shan, David?E. Shaw, David?E. Wemmer, Jay?T. Groves, John Kuriyan. Conformational Coupling across the Plasma Membrane in Activation of the EGF Receptor. Cell, 2013; 152 (3): 543 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.12.032
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/GGEVjxy0KLI/130211150753.htm
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Photos: 2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
- By Triathlete.com
- Published 1 day ago
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Triathlon business leaders from around the world gathered for the 2013 Triathlon Business International conference in San Diego, Calif. The three-day event is made up of keynote speeches, panel discussions and an awards banquet.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Scott Dickey, the President/CEO of Competitor Group, leads the panel discussion about using triathlon to promote your brand.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Brian McKinley of Herbalife participates in the panel discussion.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Rob Wright of MyList participates in the panel discussion about using triathlon to promote your brand.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Professional triathlete Andy Potts with Morgan Clark of All3Sports.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Conference attendees enjoy an outdoor networking lunch.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Phil White, co-founder of Cervelo, provided the afternoon keynote speech, sharing stories of the history of Cervelo.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Peter Hurley, the CEO of American Bicycle Group, participates in the panel discussion Prospecting New Customers.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Scott Kaylin of Champion Systems leads a panel discussion.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Elysa Walk, the General Manager of Giant Bicycles, participates in a panel discussion.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Mike Reilly leads a panel discussion about doping with former professional triathlete Michellie Jones and Rev3's Charlie Patten.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Michellie Jones participates in the panel about rules, regulations and drug policies.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
TBI President Jack Caress welcomes the attendees on Monday morning.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Andy Potts gives the morning keynote address.
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Photo: Paul Phillips
2013 Triathlon Business International Conference
Andy Potts discusses a technique he uses to stay calm before a race. Read more here.
Photo: Paul Phillips
FILED UNDER: Photos TAGS: Triathlon Business International
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CNOOC-Nexen deal wins key U.S. regulatory approval
TORONTO (Reuters) - U.S. regulators have approved the $15.1 billion takeover of Canadian oil and gas company Nexen Inc by China's state-owned CNOOC, removing the final barrier to China's largest foreign takeover.
Calgary, Alberta-based Nexen said on Tuesday the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has approved the deal. The companies had been awaiting U.S. approval of the deal because Nexen has assets in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in Canada and other countries.
Canada gave the contentious deal a green light late last year, but indicated it would not allow further acquisitions in the strategic oil sands sector by foreign state-owned companies.
The United States has traditionally been more wary than Canada of Chinese investment, prompting some speculation that Washington might want Nexen to dispose of the U.S. assets.
In 2005, the United States, blocked CNOOC's bid for Unocal Corp because of national security concerns, and an influential House committee last year urged U.S. companies not to do business with Chinese telecommunications firms like Huawei and ZTE for fears that China could use equipment made by the two to spy.
In a brief statement, Nexen said it now expects the deal to close in the week of February 25. It gave no indication that the CFIUS panel had made any demands around divestitures.
CNOOC first bid for Nexen on July 23 last year.
(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Nick Zieminski)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cnooc-nexen-deal-wins-key-u-regulatory-approval-133100644--finance.html
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মঙ্গলবার, ১২ ফেব্রুয়ারী, ২০১৩
Spring Break: Staycations | College Lifestyles
Hey there, classy co-eds! So you can?t afford an extravagant, tropical vacation, or even to fly home for spring break? Well, no worries. Welcome to the College Lifestyles? guide to staycations.
Next, ask around. Some of your friends will also probably spend break on campus, so arrange to stay in the same dorm or area. Be sure to talk to friends who live close to school. Let them know you?ll be staying on campus for break ? chances are they will ask you to stay over for a night or come by for a home-cooked meal.
Leave the campus bubble. Whether or not you have a car, take advantage of the free time to explore your town or city off-campus. Look into bus schedules or use Google Maps to find restaurants and shopping areas you can walk to.
Finally, catch up on work and take plenty of time to relax. Introduce yourself to Netflix and spend a lazy day in pajamas. Leisurely do your homework and get ahead on reading assignments. Go for a short jog or a long walk to decompress from the stresses of everyday collegiate living. Skype your family to fill them in on your college journey. Stay classy and embrace having campus all to yourself.
For more from CL?s travel and study abroad sections, check out the following:
Spring Break Travel Online Savings Guide
Celebrate Abroad: Chinese New Year
My Time in Ireland
Source: http://collegelifestyles.org/2013/02/spring-break-staycations/
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5 Ways to Make Progress in Evolutionary Psychology: Smash, Not Match, Stereotypes
(Alternate, Twitter-sourced titles: ?5 Ways to Prove Darwin Wasn?t Crazy,? ?Shut the Eff Up and Science Already,? ?5 Ways Psychology Needs to Evolve.?)
Evolutionary psychology, the study of human psychological adaptations, does not have a popular or scientific reputation for being rigorous, even though there are rigorous, thoughtful scientists in the field. The field is trying to take on an incredibly challenging task: understand what of human behavior is adaptive and why. We can better circumvent the conditions that lead to violence, war, and hatred if we know as much as we can about why we are the way we are. What motivates us, excites us, angers us, and how can evolutionary theory help us understand it all?
Because of this, there are consequences to a bad evolutionary psychology interpretation of the world. The biggest problem, to my mind, is that so often the conclusions of the bad sort of evolutionary psychology match the stereotypes and cultural expectations we already hold about the world: more feminine women are more beautiful, more masculine men more handsome; appearance is important to men while wealth is important to women; women are prone to flighty changes in political and partner preference depending on the phase of their menstrual cycles. Rather than clue people in to problems with research design or interpretation, this alignment with stereotype further confirms the study. Variation gets erased: in bad evolutionary psychology, there are only straight people, and everyone wants the same things in life. Our brains are iPhones, each app designed for its own special adaptive purpose.
I once had a fellow from this field talk my ear off for fifteen minutes about his ?one bad apple spoils the barrel? hypothesis (it was so long ago at this point that I?m not too worried about the story identifying him). He contended that an early-maturing boy was a ?bad apple? that would drive other surrounding boys to early puberty. Whenever I politely inquired as to what the mechanism would be that would drive the other boys to mature, or why this would even be adaptive, he would move on feverishly to the next part of his metaphor. ?But you see,? he said almost breathlessly, ?it?s like the boys are all in a barrel, and when apples are in a barrel one rotten apple can make the others go rotten too.?
No one should ever love their idea so much that it becomes detached from reality, as much an issue for those testing hypotheses as those reading about them in blog posts and magazines. And I think I?ve come up with five exhortations to help any reader trying to tell the good ev psych from the bad.
1. You?re not measuring what you think you?re measuring.
Something we scientists like to do is to operationalize variables. That means that, since we cannot often measure what we want to measure, we come up with some sort of proxy that makes the best of a bad job.
For instance, let?s say what you?d really like to know is whether a trait affects reproductive success in Urbana, Illinois. There are a lot of barriers to being able to tell whether this trait ? karaoke ability, for instance ? affects the total number of children had by individuals in this population. Humans live a long time, so the project would have to span someone?s entire reproductive years. Many humans also plan their families and so use contraception from time to time, and many perfectly fertile humans make the perfectly rational decision to not have any babies at all. And so even if you could do this study as long as you needed to, you can?t with confidence say that the childfree person is less fertile than the one with seven children.
So, you use some sort of proxy for fertility, something necessary for reproductive success. In women, you may look at their ovarian hormone levels, their endometrial thickness, the length of their cycle or frequency of ovulatory cycles. In men, you could look at testosterone as well as sperm count and quality. Sometimes you have the resources to recruit a number of people trying to conceive, and then you can see how long it takes them to conceive, or whether they do at all. These are all considered pretty good proxies of fecundity, and thus also by extension fertility.
In some studies of evolutionary psychology, a never-before-used variable is often created to serve as a proxy for what they really want to know. Not too long ago I took issue with a ?maternal tendencies? variable. Because they couldn?t assess maternal behavior in these young, childless undergraduate women, they asked them how many children they wanted to have. The more children these eighteen and nineteen year olds wanted, the more maternal they were.
Yet desired family size at eighteen, and maternal tendencies as a future mother, are very, very different things. As I pointed out in my post on this, there is too much context-dependence embedded in when you ask women how many kids they want for it to tell you anything with much biological meaning.
So, make sure you?re measuring what you think you?re measuring. And validate the heck out of any new proxy you come up with.
2. Undergrads only teach us about undergrads.
Much of the psychological research coming out of the US and other western countries are performed on the easiest to access sample population: undergraduates eager for cash or extra credit. Many of the major conclusions we make about humankind come out of this very specific group of individuals. Often, the undergrads sampled are mostly white and middle class. Undergraduate sampling is an extreme version of the challenge much human behavior research faces: the use of, and then extension from, WEIRD people.
WEIRD stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. This particular subset of humans, despite the experience of so many of us who work at universities, is actually not the majority worldwide. The lived experience of being WEIRD means a particular kind of access to resources in terms of money, vaccines, food, school, and government.
Have you ever had someone say they ?speak for the moms? or some other subgroup and it made you feel uncomfortable? Have you ever been inadvertently put in the position of having to speak for a group of people, but felt that group was way too variable for your one experience to apply to everyone? This is why testing hypotheses and sampling populations from WEIRD places is such a bad idea, and not just from a cultural standpoint but a biological one. The daily lived experience of those resources, vaccines, schools, and other aspects of the WEIRD environment produce a person very different from one that grows up without a nearby hospital, running water or shoes. Even if your Institutional Review Board gave you permission to separate identical twins at birth and have them grow up in the city and the savanna, their height, weight, hormones, sensitivity to stressors, nearly every imaginable metric would show some interesting variation, much of it due to this lifetime of different experiences.
The two reasons oversampling from WEIRD people is bad is first that oversampling in general is bad, but second that being WEIRD puts you about as far removed from the conditions in which we evolved as you can get. WEIRD stressors are chronic and psychosocial (which makes them great if that?s your research interest, otherwise not so much). They have a lot of weird (ha ha) immune problems, possibly related to under-challenging their immune systems when young. They tend to survive the major childhood illnesses but then die of heart attacks, strokes or cancer. Many of them delay childbearing into well into their reproductive years and breastfeed for a short duration if at all, meaning they have eight to ten times as many menstrual cycles as the average forager. And they tend to have nuclear families, rather than breed cooperatively in large groups, sharing the parenting load among peers and across generations.
So the punchline here is: don?t speak for everyone until you?ve spoken to everyone. (My one exception: The Lorax gets to speak for the trees.)
3. It?s not true that everything happens for a reason.
One of my least favorite papers is on rape as an evolved sexual strategy among humans. The abstract begins,
?Psychological adaptation underlies all human behavior.?
I still remember the photocopied version I first read of this for a class in graduate school, because it was marked up by the professor who had read it first. Next to this line, the professor had written,
?NO!?
And I remember mulling over this, particularly because this professor was not exactly emotive, and so it was interesting to see him have a strong reaction to something. Sure, the whole paper was problematic, and the great thing about Thornhill and Thornhill (1992) is that because they published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences it came with a bunch of commentaries, most of them negative, some of them hilariously witty in their takedowns. Yes, we academics can be witty.
Years later, the first time I taught with this paper, I pulled out that same old photocopied version to make a pdf, and I saw that professor?s comment again. And it struck me how this was one of the fundamental problems with many disciplines that tend towards the adaptationist, including evolutionary psychology. We forget that natural selection and sexual selection are only two ways in which evolution ? which is really just change over time ? happens. There are also things like genetic drift and mutation, which can also have a direction and also produce change. While this may drive some adaptationists into an existential crisis, sometimes there is no reason at all for a given human behavior or trait. My decision to wear navy socks today, the route I walk from one campus building to another, making cupcakes instead of cookies for my daughter?s playdate, these are behaviors we can tell adaptive stories about.
But it may not be realistic or accurate to do so. And if you do want to tell an adaptive story about it, you have to make sure the argument is pretty airtight.
There are ways to be able to be more confident about whether a trait you?re interested in has been selected (or rather, not eliminated). You can see if it conforms to these three principles:
- The trait is variable. The number of fingers on a human hand is not significantly variable since most everybody has five. Hair length is variable.
- The trait is heritable. Hair length is not heritable since we cut it to suit our personal and cultural preferences. Freckles are variable and heritable.
- The trait produces variation in reproductive success. As far as I know so far, freckles do not affect how many kids you have. Voice pitch, however, is a good example of a trait that is variable, heritable, and has been shown to be correlated with the number of children a man has ? in a non-WEIRD environment, no less.
It?s tempting to see selection?s hand in everything people do. But doing so makes the same mistake as those who say that they see design in evolution. It is possible to be enchanted by the amazing things biology can tell us, while accepting the added randomness of existence.
4. There is more than one way to skin a cat.
When an evolutionary psychologist makes a claim about the effectiveness of a human male reproductive strategy like breadwinning, or dominating behavior, or large muscle mass, I cringe. They are usually described ? in the press releases, yes, but also in the articles themselves ? as a prime determinant for reproductive success. The best strategy. The only strategy.
Or sometimes you see two strategies proposed, which follows sexual selection theory a bit more closely, but then puts those individuals in two categories rather than along a spectrum: for instance, big strong males who show off their gene quality versus more nurturing males who demonstrate their parenting quality. The way many of these studies are designed end up eliciting responses that lead to stark categories.
As it turns out, reproductive strategies ? most behavioral strategies, in fact ? are widely variable, and you see a pretty stable constellation of them in any given population. Rather than try to promote the idea that one particular strategy is the only one any successful person would think of using, we should be identifying, appreciating, and understanding this variation.
Unsurprisingly, most of these one-size-fits-all assessments of human behavior conform to how we already think men and women should behave in our culture.
What saddens me the most about this particular problem is the way it makes people with non-straight identities invisible, or worse, implicitly pathological. The straighties are doing their adaptive darndest to make babies, but those homosexuals aren?t following the Darwinian directorate to seek opposite sex partners and spread their seed! No matter that many people who identify in one of the many non-straight identities have children of their own, and many of those children are in fact genetically related to them. In fact, to some extent it makes sense to parse out sexual identity and sexual activities from reproductive success.
Finally, for something to be an evolutionarily stable strategy it has to fit a few conditions:
- You need clear evidence it is an adaption, which means it has to conform to the conditions from the previous section: being heritable, variable, and producing differential reproductive success.
- You would also need evidence that what you?re seeing isn?t simply a correlated response from another, linked behavior being selected.
- You would need to demonstrate that the behavior is at least equivalent to, if not resistant to, alternative strategies, in terms of its rate of success.
I laid out how hebephilia fails these tests in a post last year. The problem with demonstrating natural selection, and in particular evolutionarily stable strategies, is that the burden of evidence is incredibly high. Which means most stories that buttress bad evolutionary psychology work will ultimately lead to that study?s collapse, when we see the stories are made of thin air.
If you design your study really well, finding ways to anticipate and control for cultural bias, and still find a correlation, I?m quite happy for you! But chances are good you don?t have enough to contend what you?re seeing is an evolutionarily stable strategy. So hold the storytelling. Just for a little while.
5. Just because it works today, doesn?t mean it worked back in the day.
To illustrate my final point, I turn to a recent post from Scicurious on the supposed significance of wearing high heels. It?s a classic Sci takedown, and it?s worth a thorough read.
Sci details a paper that demonstrates a positive relationship between wearing high heels and perceived attractiveness. The researchers had women walk with and without high heels, then used point light displays to demonstrate walkers? gait without revealing their appearance. The methods certainly seem carefully constructed to avoid some kinds of bias.
Where the researchers lost Sci ? and me ? was where they contended that walking in heels is sexier, and represents a ?super-stimulus? (think red lipstick to emphasize feminine lips, breast implants to enhance boobs). Part of the reason they make this assertion is that they claim high heels have a long history of being used to emphasize women?s assets. And of course, this is where they?re very wrong, since high heels have a long history of being worn by men, and since in this study they had no way to parse out watchers? expectations of what constitutes a sexy walk based on their cultural conditioning.
In any case, many of the things we do today are things we did not do in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness ? itself a mythical construct where everyone lived happily in the savanna eating wild game and mongongo nuts (totally Paleo diet, man!!!).
A far more useful way to interpret modern behavior is not the specific behavior itself, but perhaps the temperament or aims of the actor. So, making tumblrs of animated gifs about roller derby is not an adaptive behavior, but the motivations that underlie it could be, depending on the circumstance. A sense of humor is likely heritable, variable and can lead to reproductive success. And those gifs are hilarious.
But I want to see someone test it first. And of course, it would be great if we could get to the point where we can do better than presume that many of these behaviors (or again, the motivations behind them) have a genetic underpinning.
Conclusion
The bad parts of evolutionary psychology confirm what we think we already know about the world. And confirming stereotypes and calling it science tends to keep women and GLBT folk as perpetual second class citizens in this world, rather than the amazing, vibrant contributors to society they are and can be.
Evolutionary theory has been developed and tested for quite a long time, and there is a strong, reliable set of conditions we have developed to help us determine adaptive significance for a given trait. All the field of evolutionary psychology really needs is to be put to the test.
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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=bff26e195773aa6bfa836fe3abe4934e
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