Category Archives: Science

TWINS AND BIRDS.

TWINS AND BIRDS. Mary-Kay Wilmers has an article in New York magazine (August 19-26) about twins Manette and Mady Malroux, who live in Paris. She concludes the article with a passage from the anthopologist Claude Levi-Strauss which was given her … Continue reading

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RESISTANCE TO CHANGE—THE SEMMELWEIS REFLEX.

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE—THE SEMMELWEIS REFLEX. In 1847, four years after Oliver Wendell Holmes published his article about the contagiousness of childbed fever, Ignaz Semmelweis began his efforts to convince the medical community that childbed fever was contagious and that its … Continue reading

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PERSUADING FARMERS TO CHANGE THEIR WAYS.

PERSUADING FARMERS TO CHANGE THEIR WAYS. I recall, but can’t find with Google, a portrayal by John Kenneth Galbraith (who began as an agricultural economist) of the tremendous service rendered by the US Department of Agriculture extension agents in spreading … Continue reading

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HOW DO YOU GET NURSES TO ADOPT A COSTLESS LIFESAVING IDEA?

HOW DO YOU GET NURSES TO ADOPT A COSTLESS LIFESAVING IDEA? Gawande makes the point that implementing antisepsis was tedious work, requiring surgeons to scrupulously use antiseptic solutions on their hands, their instruments and the thread they used in surgery. … Continue reading

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HOW MEDICAL INNOVATIONS ARE ADOPTED.

HOW MEDICAL INNOVATIONS ARE ADOPTED. Atul Gawande has an article in the New Yorker (July 29) that explores how medical innovations are adopted by doctors and nurses. He begins with the adoptions of anesthesia and antisepsis, both of which were … Continue reading

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THE SECRET BEHIND THE PERFECT ALIBI (SPOILER ALERT).

THE SECRET BEHIND THE PERFECT ALIBI (SPOILER ALERT). The secret to the perfect alibi that I posted on a couple days ago is the same secret that was behind “The Woman Without a Face”—the “Phantom of Heilbronn” that I posted … Continue reading

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THE LOSS OF VAN GOGH’S COLORS.

THE LOSS OF VAN GOGH’S COLORS. I posted here about Van Gogh’s statement in one of his letters that: “a painter does well if he starts from the colours on his palette instead of starting from the colours in nature?” … Continue reading

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INTELLECTUAL JOKES.

INTELLECTUAL JOKES. Tyler Cowen on the Marginal Revolution site posed a question that he got from the AskReddit site: What’s the most intellectual joke you know? The responses included a lot of good jokes, many puns, and some jokes that … Continue reading

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HOW LANGUAGE CAN SHAPE THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE (COMMENT).

HOW LANGUAGE CAN SHAPE THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE (COMMENT). I have posted several times about the controversies among linguists over whether it is possible for language to affect how you think. I am a Whorfian; that is, I think it … Continue reading

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DOES YOUR LANGUAGE AFFECT HOW MUCH YOU SAVE? (COMMENT)

DOES YOUR LANGUAGE AFFECT HOW MUCH YOU SAVE? (COMMENT) In a comment on the marshmallow experiment, Andrew sent this link to a paper by Keith Chen which argues that how much you save is affected by the language you speak. … Continue reading

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