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Scientist at Work | James W. Pennebaker: He Counts Your Words (Even Those Pronouns)
By JESSICA WAPNER, The New York Times, October 14, 2008
James W. Pennebaker’s interest in word counting began more than 20 years ago, when he did several studies suggesting that people who talked about traumatic experiences tended to be physically healthier than those who kept such experiences secret. He wondered how much could be learned by looking at every single word people used — even the tiny ones, the I’s and you’s, a’s and the’s.
That led Dr. Pennebaker, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, down a winding path that has taken him from Beatles lyrics (John Lennon’s songs have more “negative emotion” words than Paul McCartney’s) all the way to terrorist communications. By counting the different kinds of words a person says, he is breaking new linguistic ground and leading a resurgent interest in text analysis.
( Read More )
Thinking Anew About a Migratory Barrier: Roads
By JIM ROBBINS, The New York Times, October 14, 2008
SALTESE, Mont. — Dr. Chris Servheen spends a lot of time mulling a serious scientific question: why didn’t the grizzly bear cross the road?
The future of the bear may depend on the answer.
( Read More )
Oklahoma Is Sued Over Required Ultrasounds for Abortions
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The New York Times, October 11, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An advocacy group is suing over an Oklahoma law that prohibits a woman from having an abortion unless she first has an ultrasound and the doctor describes to her what the fetus looks like.
( Read More )
Fossil Fish Shows Complexity of Transition to Land
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, October 16, 2008
In a new study of a fossil fish that lived 375 million years ago, scientists are finding striking evidence of the intermediate steps by which some marine vertebrates evolved into animals that walked on land.
There was much more to the complex transition than fins morphing into sturdy limbs. The head and braincase were changing, a mobile neck was emerging and a bone associated with underwater feeding and gill respiration was diminishing in size — a beginning of the bone’s adaptation for an eventual role in hearing for land animals.
The anatomy of this early transformation in life from water to land had never been observed with such clarity, paleontologists and biologists said in announcing the research on Wednesday.
( Read More )
By JESSICA WAPNER, The New York Times, October 14, 2008
James W. Pennebaker’s interest in word counting began more than 20 years ago, when he did several studies suggesting that people who talked about traumatic experiences tended to be physically healthier than those who kept such experiences secret. He wondered how much could be learned by looking at every single word people used — even the tiny ones, the I’s and you’s, a’s and the’s.
That led Dr. Pennebaker, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, down a winding path that has taken him from Beatles lyrics (John Lennon’s songs have more “negative emotion” words than Paul McCartney’s) all the way to terrorist communications. By counting the different kinds of words a person says, he is breaking new linguistic ground and leading a resurgent interest in text analysis.
( Read More )
Thinking Anew About a Migratory Barrier: Roads
By JIM ROBBINS, The New York Times, October 14, 2008
SALTESE, Mont. — Dr. Chris Servheen spends a lot of time mulling a serious scientific question: why didn’t the grizzly bear cross the road?
The future of the bear may depend on the answer.
( Read More )
Oklahoma Is Sued Over Required Ultrasounds for Abortions
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The New York Times, October 11, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An advocacy group is suing over an Oklahoma law that prohibits a woman from having an abortion unless she first has an ultrasound and the doctor describes to her what the fetus looks like.
( Read More )
Fossil Fish Shows Complexity of Transition to Land
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, October 16, 2008
In a new study of a fossil fish that lived 375 million years ago, scientists are finding striking evidence of the intermediate steps by which some marine vertebrates evolved into animals that walked on land.
There was much more to the complex transition than fins morphing into sturdy limbs. The head and braincase were changing, a mobile neck was emerging and a bone associated with underwater feeding and gill respiration was diminishing in size — a beginning of the bone’s adaptation for an eventual role in hearing for land animals.
The anatomy of this early transformation in life from water to land had never been observed with such clarity, paleontologists and biologists said in announcing the research on Wednesday.
( Read More )
