Category Archives: Science

HOW INTELLIGENT IS AN OCTOPUS? I see from the search feature that I have posted five times before about octopuses, including this post on the personality of the octopus—which can be analyzed in terms of extraversion (versus shyness); neuroticism (anxiety); … Continue reading →

“THE WOMAN WITHOUT A FACE.” I am a devoted reader of mystery stories. Stories about serial killers are increasingly popular, probably because they provide a basis for a pattern that the reader has an opportunity to guess. Here is an … Continue reading →

JONAH LEHRER’S RECOMMENDATIONS ON NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS. Jonah Lehrer has some recommendations for you. First, don’t stretch your limited willpower—your budget—over too many resolutions at once; spread them throughout the year. Second, starvation diets diminish your willpower. As Lehrer says: … Continue reading →

JONAH LEHRER ON THE SCIENCE OF NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS. I have linked several times, for instance here, to Jonah Lehrer’s blog (Lehrer is the author of PROUST WAS A NEUROSCIENTIST). Lehrer had some recommendations here about New Years resolutions. The … Continue reading →

OCTOPUSES USING TOOLS. Annalisa sent me this link to a video of an octopus using a coconut shell to hunt. Octopuses have joined the list of species that use tools. They will carry a coconut shell around so that they … Continue reading →

THE EARLIEST GALAXIES YET SEEN. I began this blog with a post on how “the echo from the Big Bang makes up a lot of the static you hear on the radio.” Now the Hubble Space Telescope site is showing … Continue reading →

THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND STARLINGS. I posted here and here about fractals and finance and art. I recently received this video of the patterns formed by 300,000 starlings in flight from a friend, with the message: “If you like fractals half … Continue reading →

NECKTIES AND GERMS—ADRIAN MONK. I have posted, for example here, about the controversy about whether doctors should wear neckties and used the dispute as an example of the split between Bayesians and frequentists. An AMA committee is seeking “solid scientific … Continue reading →

MYTHBUSTERS: A CHRISTMAS RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE. Here is a wonderful Rube Goldberg machine for Christmas, as constructed by Mythbusters.