Cognitive scientists have long known that people can be induced to feel as if a fake limb is their own. This is done by hiding the arm from the subject’s view (under a table, for example), putting the fake arm in view, and then physically stimulating the visible fake arm and the unseen real arm …
Category Archive: Science
Dec 11
Monkey See, Donkey See, Too
If you want to get a liberal to look at something, direct your own gaze to it. But if you want to get a conservative to look at something, throw money at it while screaming “A socialist black terrorist is trying to steal our guns!” The latter is only a hypothesis, to be sure, but …
Dec 08
Plumbing the Depths of Science
Philosophers stereotypically care a great deal about making distinctions that aren’t very meaningful, and Massimo Pigliucci lives up to this stereotype in his blog post “Why Plumbing Ain’t Science“. He maintains, of course, as all philosophers do, that the distinction is actually quite meaningful and important, but that just proves his guilt. A fireman saving …
Dec 02
You Can’t Teach an Old Mouse New Tricks, But You Can Rejuvenate Its Organs
In a recent study by scientists at Harvard, the enzyme telomerase was shown to reverse the effects of aging in mice. The study vindicated long-standing hypotheses concerning a connection between the aging process and telomeres. Telomeres are basically protective strings of DNA. They are necessary because when a strand of DNA is copied during cell …
Oct 28
Atheism and the Scope of Skepticism
Despite the obvious commonalities between the two groups, the atheist movement has always had a rather strained relationship with the more generalized skeptical movement. In part this is the fault of organized atheism, as many atheists endorse mystical crap like acupuncture and other alternative medicines while pretending to be reasonable just because they reject religion. …
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