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I heard this on the radio the other day and it instantly interested me - the vet suspects that our cat Calvin may have hyperthyroidism (his blood tests are inconclusive).
Pet Cats Serving as Canaries for a Home Pollutant
The New York Times, August 21, 2007
Hyperthyroidism in cats was virtually unknown three decades ago. But it has become common, particularly in older pets. As in people, cats’ overactive thyroids can lead to weight loss, rapid heartbeat and other problems.
The increase in feline hyperthyroidism coincides with the advent of flame-retardant chemicals known as PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, in materials like carpet and upholstery padding, plastics and electronic equipment. So a study by Janice A. Dye of the Environmental Protection Agency and colleagues sought to explore possible links between the chemicals and the condition.
( Read More )
In a former life I was an Anthropology major and while I did Cultural Anthropology instead of Physical or Archeology, I have a big ol' soft spot for stuff like this. Plus, I love the idea of doing archeology on agriculture; it must take a fascinating skill set.
Discovering How the Maya Fed the Multitude
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, August 21, 2007
An enduring question about the Maya civilization in its heyday in the first millennium A.D. has been: How did they feed so many people?
As studies have found much higher Maya population densities than previously estimated, scholars suspected that the farmers grew more than corn, beans and squash and developed more large-scale agriculture to feed the multitude. Perhaps they mastered the cultivation of manioc, a root crop common today in the American tropics.
But archaeologists and paleobotanists, hard as they tried, failed to discover direct and compelling evidence for manioc cultivation by the pre-Columbia Maya of Central America and Mexico, or any other ancient American cultures — until now.
( Read More )
This is a fascinating story, made more so by the fact that Alice Dreger has sided with Bailey.
Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege
By BENEDICT CAREY, The New York Times, August 21, 2007
In academic feuds, as in war, there is no telling how far people will go once the shooting starts.
Earlier this month, members of the International Academy of Sex Research, gathering for their annual meeting in Vancouver, informally discussed one of the most contentious and personal social science controversies in recent memory.
The central figure, J. Michael Bailey, a psychologist at Northwestern University, has promoted a theory that his critics think is inaccurate, insulting and potentially damaging to transgender women. In the past few years, several prominent academics who are transgender have made a series of accusations against the psychologist, including that he committed ethics violations. A transgender woman he wrote about has accused him of a sexual impropriety, and Dr. Bailey has become a reviled figure for some in the gay and transgender communities.
( Read More )
Sleights of Mind
By GEORGE JOHNSON, The New York Times, August 21, 2007
The reason he had picked me from the audience, Apollo Robbins insisted, was that I’d seemed so engaged, nodding my head and making eye contact as he and the other magicians explained the tricks of the trade. I believed him when he told me afterward, over dinner at the Venetian, that he hadn’t noticed the name tag identifying me as a science writer. But then everyone believes Apollo — as he expertly removes your wallet and car keys and unbuckles your watch.
It was Sunday night on the Las Vegas Strip, where earlier this summer the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness was holding its annual meeting at the Imperial Palace Hotel. The organization’s last gathering had been in the staid environs of Oxford, but Las Vegas — the city of illusions, where the Statue of Liberty stares past Camelot at the Sphinx — turned out to be the perfect locale. After two days of presentations by scientists and philosophers speculating on how the mind construes, and misconstrues, reality, we were hearing from the pros: James (The Amazing) Randi, Johnny Thompson (The Great Tomsoni), Mac King and Teller — magicians who had intuitively mastered some of the lessons being learned in the laboratory about the limits of cognition and attention.
“This wasn’t just a group of world-class performers,” said Susana Martinez-Conde, a scientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix who studies optical illusions and what they say about the brain. “They were hand-picked because of their specific interest in the cognitive principles underlying the magic.”
She and Stephen Macknik, another Barrow researcher, organized the symposium, appropriately called the Magic of Consciousness.
( Read More )
Pet Cats Serving as Canaries for a Home Pollutant
The New York Times, August 21, 2007
Hyperthyroidism in cats was virtually unknown three decades ago. But it has become common, particularly in older pets. As in people, cats’ overactive thyroids can lead to weight loss, rapid heartbeat and other problems.
The increase in feline hyperthyroidism coincides with the advent of flame-retardant chemicals known as PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, in materials like carpet and upholstery padding, plastics and electronic equipment. So a study by Janice A. Dye of the Environmental Protection Agency and colleagues sought to explore possible links between the chemicals and the condition.
( Read More )
In a former life I was an Anthropology major and while I did Cultural Anthropology instead of Physical or Archeology, I have a big ol' soft spot for stuff like this. Plus, I love the idea of doing archeology on agriculture; it must take a fascinating skill set.
Discovering How the Maya Fed the Multitude
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, August 21, 2007
An enduring question about the Maya civilization in its heyday in the first millennium A.D. has been: How did they feed so many people?
As studies have found much higher Maya population densities than previously estimated, scholars suspected that the farmers grew more than corn, beans and squash and developed more large-scale agriculture to feed the multitude. Perhaps they mastered the cultivation of manioc, a root crop common today in the American tropics.
But archaeologists and paleobotanists, hard as they tried, failed to discover direct and compelling evidence for manioc cultivation by the pre-Columbia Maya of Central America and Mexico, or any other ancient American cultures — until now.
( Read More )
This is a fascinating story, made more so by the fact that Alice Dreger has sided with Bailey.
Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege
By BENEDICT CAREY, The New York Times, August 21, 2007
In academic feuds, as in war, there is no telling how far people will go once the shooting starts.
Earlier this month, members of the International Academy of Sex Research, gathering for their annual meeting in Vancouver, informally discussed one of the most contentious and personal social science controversies in recent memory.
The central figure, J. Michael Bailey, a psychologist at Northwestern University, has promoted a theory that his critics think is inaccurate, insulting and potentially damaging to transgender women. In the past few years, several prominent academics who are transgender have made a series of accusations against the psychologist, including that he committed ethics violations. A transgender woman he wrote about has accused him of a sexual impropriety, and Dr. Bailey has become a reviled figure for some in the gay and transgender communities.
( Read More )
Sleights of Mind
By GEORGE JOHNSON, The New York Times, August 21, 2007
The reason he had picked me from the audience, Apollo Robbins insisted, was that I’d seemed so engaged, nodding my head and making eye contact as he and the other magicians explained the tricks of the trade. I believed him when he told me afterward, over dinner at the Venetian, that he hadn’t noticed the name tag identifying me as a science writer. But then everyone believes Apollo — as he expertly removes your wallet and car keys and unbuckles your watch.
It was Sunday night on the Las Vegas Strip, where earlier this summer the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness was holding its annual meeting at the Imperial Palace Hotel. The organization’s last gathering had been in the staid environs of Oxford, but Las Vegas — the city of illusions, where the Statue of Liberty stares past Camelot at the Sphinx — turned out to be the perfect locale. After two days of presentations by scientists and philosophers speculating on how the mind construes, and misconstrues, reality, we were hearing from the pros: James (The Amazing) Randi, Johnny Thompson (The Great Tomsoni), Mac King and Teller — magicians who had intuitively mastered some of the lessons being learned in the laboratory about the limits of cognition and attention.
“This wasn’t just a group of world-class performers,” said Susana Martinez-Conde, a scientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix who studies optical illusions and what they say about the brain. “They were hand-picked because of their specific interest in the cognitive principles underlying the magic.”
She and Stephen Macknik, another Barrow researcher, organized the symposium, appropriately called the Magic of Consciousness.
( Read More )
