The next time you go to the doctor, you may be dealing with a supercomputer rather than a human. Watson, the groundbreaking artificial intelligence machine from IBM that took on chess champions and Jeopardy! contestants alike, is about to get its first real-world application in the healthcare sector. Read More
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Enough with the hagiography. Steve Jobs was a genius of invention, but his were not epoch-making innovations. Instant history has its perils... more
The Social Bonds of Meerkats: Their Problem-Free Philosophy (Picture Essay of the Day) via Britannica Blog by Kara Rogers
While “Hakuna Matata” might sum up life for the meerkat Timon and his warthog friend Pumbaa in Disney’s The Lion King, real meerkats (Suricata suricatta) have a bit more to worry about. Indeed, as one of southern Africa’s smallest mammals, measuring about 11 inches (0.27 meters) in length, with a tail a bit longer than half that, and weighing less than 2.2 pounds (1 kg), meerkats are highly susceptible to attack from ground-dwelling and airborne predators, including jackals and snakes and eagles and hawks.
Credit: © Pyshnyy Maxim Vjacheslavovich/Shutterstock.com
Scientific and cute in one post!
Gladiator school find near Vienna
The National: Vienna
Archaeologists have claimed to have found and excavated the ruins of a huge amphitheatre used to train gladiators east of Vienna. They said the ruins, located through ground radar measurements, rival the Colosseum and the Ludus Magnus in Rome in their structure. The Ludus Magnus is the largest gladiatorial arena in the Italian capital, while the Colosseum is the largest amphitheatre ever built in the Roman Empire. The Carnuntum archaeological park said the site would be presented to the media on Monday.
And it duly was here where the report opens with a large image of one gladiator cutting the throat of another! And I'd just finished dinner when I saw it – not good.
via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Is Gary Taubes a scientific Solzhenitsyn, bravely exposing the nutrition establishment? Or is he peddling his own bunk health advice?... more
Science Question from a Toddler: How ants evolve via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Consider, if you will, the issue of sex and the single ant. Male ants are born into what is, essentially, a giant sorority house, vastly outnumbered by female workers. But that doesn’t mean male ants are living out some Hugh Hefner harem fantasy. Most of those many, many females in the ant colony are completely uninterested in sex.
Only queen ants breed. During the course of their lives, they will produce all the baby ants born in the colony. In fact, in some (but, contrary to popular belief, not all) species, the drones’ options are narrowed down to exactly one queen – effectively turning that sorority house into a sausage fest. A virgin queen goes on her mating flight, and the drones will get one shot to pass on their genetic material. Afterwards, the males die, and the queen uses their seed to give birth to daughters upon daughters … most of which will be sterile workers.
Read more and be fascinated at how ants seems to defy the process of natural selection.
And do, please, go on down to read the comments about the arguments that took place about why or why not social selection may or may not work (at least I think that's what is being said).
Does Marijuana Impair the Mind? via Big Think by Big Think Editors
The mind altering properties of marijuana are ephemeral and fleeting, according to an authoritative study recently completed at the Australian National University. Over the course of eight years, researchers performed cognitive tests on “total abstainers”, “current …
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via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Is experimental philosophy superficial, touchy-feely, faddish nonsense? That’s the rap on Joshua Knobe. He hears it. He just doesn't care…more
Protozoans in Pictures via Britannica Blog by Kara Rogers
What’s a protozoan, you ask? Well, it’s a usually single-celled and microscopic organism that is heterotrophic – in other words, a protozoan is unable to assimilate inorganic materials to produce energy and therefore relies on organic carbon sourced from other organisms.
They're weird. They're also strangely beautiful.
As evidenced by the photographs that you will find here
Magnetism Trick Looks Like Anti-Gravity via the How-To Geek by Jason Fitzpatrick
In this video a neodymium magnet is dropped down a thick-walled copper pipe. The resulting effect is both hypnotic to watch and a demonstration of Lenz’'s Law [Wikipedia] .
Copper Pipe Magnet
You need to read the comments following the short video to understand what’s going on – unless you’re a physics nerd!
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