Category Archives: Science

BACON—MORE THINGS IT CAN DO.

BACON—MORE THINGS IT CAN DO. Instapundit has a recurring caption for reports about new findings on bacon: “BACON—WHAT CAN’T IT DO?” The most recent report was from the Guardian, about this medical study. Researchers have discovered that “nasal packing with … Continue reading

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ONE DROP EVERY EIGHT OR NINE YEARS.

ONE DROP EVERY EIGHT OR NINE YEARS. There are some kinds of crude oil in California that are extremely viscous. So viscous that at room temperature you can turn a glass container of the crude upside down and no drop … Continue reading

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DECISION TREES FOR PATIENTS.

DECISION TREES FOR PATIENTS. Laura Landro’s review describes how Doctors Groopman and Hartzband “examine a formula for rational decision-making often used in economics: Measure the probability of an outcome and place a numerical value on the outcome itself.” The probable … Continue reading

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DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE.

DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. Jerome Groopman (an oncologist) and Pamela Hartzband (an endocrinologist) have written YOUR MEDICAL MIND, which analyzes the role of patient choices in medical decisions. (I have relied on this review by Daniel J. … Continue reading

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VICTORIAN HARPOONS IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY WHALES.

VICTORIAN HARPOONS IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY WHALES. Nick and his friend Jane went to the whaling museum in New Bedford recently and were struck by the fact that whales are being found today that are carrying harpoons that were fired in … Continue reading

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A PHYSICIST HAS EXPLAINED AN OBSERVATION BY LEONARDO.

A PHYSICIST HAS EXPLAINED AN OBSERVATION BY LEONARDO. Instapundit called attention to a recent paper by a physicist, Christophe Eloy, which provides a mathematical explanation for an observation made by Leonardo da Vinci which has never been satisfactorily explained. This … Continue reading

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KLUDGES.

KLUDGES. The title of the sunk cost article refers to sunk costs as a “memory kludge”. This wikipedia article defines a kludge as: “A kludge (or kluge) is a workaround, a quick-and-dirty solution, a clumsy or inelegant, yet effective, solution … Continue reading

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LEAPING INTO SOMEBODY ELSE’S MIND.

LEAPING INTO SOMEBODY ELSE’S MIND. Ariely provides support for my favorite kind of gift giving—taking on “the great challenge… in making the leap into someone else’s mind.” He says that psychological research “affirms that we…have a hard time seeing the … Continue reading

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DOES COOKED FOOD PROVIDE MORE ENERGY?

DOES COOKED FOOD PROVIDE MORE ENERGY? Wrangham in the interview says that he was surprised that his paper in 1999 that argued that cooked food provides more energy than raw met with a lot of criticism that dismissed the claim. … Continue reading

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UPDATE—WHY IT MATTERS THAT COOKED FOOD HAS MORE CALORIES.

UPDATE—WHY IT MATTERS THAT COOKED FOOD HAS MORE CALORIES. I posted here three years ago about my memory of an anthropologist’s claim that cooking was the greatest labor saving invention of all time because it reduced chewing time. Since then, … Continue reading

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