The articles I read today were about how your brain gets tired while doing physical activity and shuts down the muscles and how researchers were able to tell who people were thinking about in an experiment given the personality traits given to the models. I think the second ability is quite impressive. I love learning about human brains, part of knowing myself. So effectively I can learn from this article that my brain processes people differently because of the personality traits that I perceive in them. I use different parts of my brain to think about different people. I am very glad that no one watches my brain, but I am glad that researchers are doing brain research. I wonder what else we can see in the brain images given by thinking. If I am thinking about a certain type of game, will that show up differently than other types of games? I bet it would, but I wonder how far that ability goes? Can we see how much of one personality trait is being thought about by the amount of activity in that location of the brain? How much can I really learn about myself in learning about my brain? Is neurology the same as psychology where people who study it go through stages of thinking that they have the latest problem they are learning about? There are definitely a few neurological and psychological problems that I do not have. What can you learn about your own brain from self testing and experimentation?
Sports Statistics for the Win!
http://scienceblog.com/60747/how-numbers-can-reveal-hidden-truths-about-sports/
While growing up, I heard a lot about sports statistics from my brothers. They knew the stats of all their favorite players and one of my brothers would calculate statistics for his made up teams. So I am not surprised that many people with science and mathematics skills are researching better and more thorough ways to calculate what is really going on during different sporting events. I am not at all surprised to learn that environmental factors truly affect the way that field goals are made, but I am a little surprised that psychological factors do not seem to have anything to do with whether a field goal is made or not. I have read a little bit about the mind body connection and how we can make ourselves sick, stressed, happy, changing our emotional make ups which changes our performance in other situations. I am a little bit surprised to learn that in cold weather, field goals are more likely to succeed. I would think that normal temperatures, mid range I guess, would be better. I however, do not research this stuff, so I will take their word for it. I am curious how fast the sports statistics world will change in response to new information like this. I know they came out with a movie about the book Moneyball last year, but I haven't seen it. Perhaps someday. Mathematics in popular culture!
While growing up, I heard a lot about sports statistics from my brothers. They knew the stats of all their favorite players and one of my brothers would calculate statistics for his made up teams. So I am not surprised that many people with science and mathematics skills are researching better and more thorough ways to calculate what is really going on during different sporting events. I am not at all surprised to learn that environmental factors truly affect the way that field goals are made, but I am a little surprised that psychological factors do not seem to have anything to do with whether a field goal is made or not. I have read a little bit about the mind body connection and how we can make ourselves sick, stressed, happy, changing our emotional make ups which changes our performance in other situations. I am a little bit surprised to learn that in cold weather, field goals are more likely to succeed. I would think that normal temperatures, mid range I guess, would be better. I however, do not research this stuff, so I will take their word for it. I am curious how fast the sports statistics world will change in response to new information like this. I know they came out with a movie about the book Moneyball last year, but I haven't seen it. Perhaps someday. Mathematics in popular culture!
Trash, Cash, and Graph Laplacians
The articles I read today were really cool and very geeky. "Turning Trash into Cash... And Saving Energy" http://scienceblog.com/60743/turning-trash-into-cash-and-saving-energy/ is a must read for Sonic. I loved the line about the dorm refrigerator and the teddy bear humidifier. If that is not a cool sentence, I don't know what is. I do have an extra dorm refrigerator and a penguin humidifier, perhaps I could make myself a RecycleBot. I will have to look it up. The implications, as stated about people living in garbage dumps selling 3D printer plastic, are awesome and very practical. I do not buy plastic milk cartons since I do not buy real milk anymore, but I am sure that is not the only kind of plastic that can be recycled in this manner.
The second article I read today was highly mathematical and only for those who understand the phrases "numeric linear algebra" and "solving graph Laplacians." http://scienceblog.com/60745/new-technique-for-solving-graph-laplacians-has-big-implications/ If you don't understand those two, its not worth reading the article. Just know that the researchers at MIT are still doing their jobs in coming up with great theoretical ways of solving problems.
Saturday Volcanoes!
http://scienceblog.com/60741/volcano-aerosols-not-pollutants-tamped-down-recent-earth-warming/
Volcanoes are spewing sulfur dioxide, and while that stuff stinks, its actually helping the earth not warm as much as expected from global warming. This is not going to stop the warming effect of greenhouse gases from humans, but it is interesting that scientists were previously ignoring something as small as volcano eruptions in the total global climate calculations. Science brings us so many wonders of knowledge. Science has taught us that everything is interconnected literally through advanced physics and the climate everywhere shows this in its reactions to what is going on. I read a study once where Friday traffic in highly populated areas increase the chance of Sunday and Monday rain because of the pollutants in the air. That is local climate change. If traffic problems can change the weather, then I would think even small volcanic eruptions could change the weather. Obviously most of us remember the large volcanic change to the weather caused by the eruption in Iceland a few years ago. As much as I understand the need to get rid of small factors and coefficients in large mathematics, some times those small factors can drastically change the mathematics. I love how many science problems come down to the mathematical principles or statistics in order to make sense.
The Magic of Gold
The article I read today was very cool. http://scienceblog.com/60728/how-gold-particles-dna-and-water-will-shape-future-of-medicine/ I didn't know how a home pregnancy test works, and the idea of being able to diagnose diseases with water, blood, and gold particles is so simple and cool. It does take a fair bit of work I would assume to set the procedure up so that the gold particles and the DNA-zyme solution works when it comes in contact with the water and blood. The article makes it seem so simple that I could buy some gold particles and mix them up with blood and water and see if I have malaria or cancer. However, the ability of the powder they are making could seriously help the doctors, nurses, and volunteers working in areas with high rates of health problems to more efficiently diagnose and help certain patients. I wonder how much gold this procedure takes and whether there would be any fall out from that. I doubt it, but you never know. It probably wouldn't do anyone any good in the medical test powder, and certainly not after it has been used to test someone for a disease.
If you haven't looked at any of the science blog pages that I have taken articles from, you totally should. There are so many interesting articles and things going on in science these days. Did you know also that there is a Society of Ordained Scientists? Perhaps someday I would be able to work with them. Although I am a mathematician by training. I wonder if there is a society for ordained mathematicians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Ordained_Scientists and http://home.earthlink.net/~jjkeggi/SOSc/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)