A whole boatload of stuff this month plus they’re from a nice range of domains too. I’ll try to be brief with each of them.
The big economics article of the lot is the much talked about one about how secularisation appears to precede economic development but only when it is accompanied by increased respect for individual rights. As the authors note, this doesn’t prove causation but you can see why it’s been a hot topic.
Here’s another that touches on the topic of sunk costs which has long been known to affect human judgments of value. According to new research, this sensitivity affects mice and rats as well, leading them to continue performing an apparently unproductive activity after they have already invested time and effort in it.
If you’ve paid attention to the news, you’d have already heard about the discovery of a large body of liquid water beneath the surface of Mars, sparking the usual excitement about finding life on the planet.
A corollary to that might be this announcement about how roundworms that have been frozen for 40,000 years in the Arctic permafrost have revived after being dug up by Russian scientists and simply placed into Petri dishes with a nutrient medium. There’s still a chance that they came from contamination and not the samples but if it pans out, it’s by far the longest period organisms have been revived from cryogenic preservation.
The next article presents a real time view of natural selection based on a population of anole lizards in the Caribbean after a devastating hurricane season. Examining the population before and after the hurricanes, the researchers found that the average measurements of the lizards’ toe pads and lengths of their front and back legs had changed simply because the storms had killed off the lizards with legs and feet less adapted to surviving those conditions. Going forward it can be presumed that breeding will lead to a lasting change of this type in future generations.
Moving on to computer science, this difficult to read paper talks about how quantum computers may be less in thrall to the arrow of time than traditional computers. By this, it is meant that certain computation operations have a natural order in which it is easier to perform the operations in one direction but much more difficult or impossible to do it in the reverse direction. Ths paper claims that switching the same computation to a quantum mechanics model and performing them with a quantum computer eliminates or at least reduces the overhead of going in the opposite direction.
My favorite paper of the lot however is this one which takes direct aim at all of the excitement around machine learning and AI. It argues that neural net models directly correspond to the polynomial regression models already well known in mathematics and that solving the same problems with the latter is both easier and more precise.
Once again, biology dominates the cool science news this past month.
We start with a report on an attempt to replicate the marshmallow test, a frequently cited study about how a child’s ability to delay gratification is correlated with academic achievement. The new experiment however found that the correlations were smaller than previously reported and were further reduced after controlling for factors like family background and home environment. Their conclusion is that associations between delay time and measures of behavioral outcome by the age 15 are statistically insignificant.
Probably the most anatomically distinctive feature of humans is our disproportionately large brains. A couple of studies have zeroed in on the cause of this as being a gene known as NOTCH2NL. The presence of this gene leads the brain to develop more neurons and hence a larger brain and the researchers were able to estimate that it became active roughly three to four million years ago which was when the brains of our ancestors started expanding.
The Flynn Effect is the well known phenomenon of human IQ scores steadily improving throughout the 20th century. This article talks about the effect seems to have ended and perhaps even gone into reverse in more recent years. Looking at results from three decades of Norwegian conscripted into the military, they found IQ scores falling over time, even between members of the same family tree. While there are plenty of offered suggestions as what could be causing this, all of this is speculation for now.
Next is a sad story of how many baobab trees seem to be either dead or are dying. These are some of the oldest trees in the world, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 and are known to be able to live to some 3,000 years, all in southern Africa. It is not known why they are dying but the cause is suspected to be related to climate change.
Finally just for the pleasure of reading, here’s an in-depth overview of the underwater tunnels that connect the various Faroe Islands halfway between Iceland and Denmark. It seems strange given the isolation of the islands and their very low population but the tunnels have been a success, both from an engineering perspective and economically as well. This article talks about the history of these tunnels, how they made it all work and ends with the current proposal to construct a huge underwater tunnel to connect the southernmost island to the mainland.
It’s been a busy, eventful month here in Malaysia and things have been interesting on the science front as well.
Last month I had an entry about brain organoids and the ethical implications therein. This here is an article about the same thing except using stem cells edited using CRISPR to more closely resemble Neanderthal DNA. The hope is that it would yield insights into behavioral differences between Neanderthal and humans.
In space news, a reexamination of old data showed that the Galileo spacecraft apparently passed through a plume of water shooting into space while doing a flyby of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. With both water and apparently enough energy in the system to send geysers into space, this makes the moon an even more attractive prospect to search for life.
One story that made the rounds a fair bit is how California police apparently use genealogical data to trace a murderer. Using DNA found at crime scenes dating from the 1970s, they matched it to people living in the 1800s, then followed the family trees back to the present to find descendants who most closely fit the profile they were looking for. It’s an impressive piece of detective work boosted by modern technology that would put any CSI episode to shame but as usual raises all kinds of privacy concerns as information about one person can reveal information about others.
I’m not sure how legitimate this next bit is as it seems rather far-fetched but SCMP is usually a reliable source so here it is. The article is about how large companies in China are collecting data directly from the brains of their employees by having them wear headgear with sensors that monitor brainwaves. The idea is that they can then measure fatigue, emotional spikes, attention loss etc. Needless to say all this data is extremely useful and valuable, allowing the employers to have far more control and knowledge over the performance of different employees, how best to arrange shifts and work routines and so on but it’s pretty scary to give this level of power to companies.
Finally here’s a more wide-ranging article about how a variety of companies have learned to use classical music to deter unwanted people from loitering near their premises. The practice was apparently first used by 7-11 stores to repel loiterers in the 1980s but is now common in many transit systems. Baroque music in particular seems to work best to discourage transients from being too comfortable but as the article states, it feels sinister to weaponize classical music in this manner.
Not too much stuff this month and even what we have is lighter fluff than usual.
The outlier here is this economics study examining how being financially invested deters a proclivity to war. The researchers gave Israelis seed money to trade stocks and then periodically quizzed them about their voting intentions. The intent was to prove that people who become invested in the stock market also become more favorable to peaceful outcomes, in this case peace with Palestine. The results appear to be small but positive.
I don’t usually post news about gadgets but I love how this has been a staple of science-fiction forever and is only just now becoming reality. It’s a wearable device that recognizes subvocalizations, that is speaking in your head without actually making sounds. It works by interpreting neuromuscular signals, not actually reading your mind, so I guess you do still need to work your tongues and throat and mouth muscles even if no air passes through your lips. I would say it’s still much more usable than talking to yourself to give voice commands to devices.
An article that is closer to home is this one about the Bajau people of Malaysia and the Philippines. Renowned as being expert divers, they have long been subject to speculation about whether their abilities are trained or genetic in nature. A new study found that the Bajau do indeed have larger spleens than usual, which are used to store oxygenated red blood cells and release when the body needs them. Genetic analysis of the people, compared against closely related but land-locked peoples also show genetic modifications related to an enlarged spleen.
The bit of science news that got the most play this month is the accidental discovery that puffin beaks are fluorescent. A researcher shone a UV light on a dead puffin based only on a whim and saw that the ridges on their beaks do indeed light up. It’s a revelation of no great consequence but serves as a reminder that nature still has all sorts of surprises for us right under our nose especially when we realize that other animals who can see into other parts of the spectrum have known about this all along.
A more involved read is this article about the ethical aspects of growing brain organoids. These are blobs of tissue grown from stem cells, with brain organoids in particular being made out of neurons. Scientists have known how to make them for a while and they are useful as a smaller, simpler model to study than a complete brain. But as the organoids have grown larger, with some research involving linking distinct organoids together or transplanting them into animal hosts, ethical concerns are raised as to when exactly an organoid become a brain and develop a consciousness. This article doesn’t provide any answers but it does serve as a good overview of the topic.
More cool stuff this month after a slow February. Pretty all of it is biology though.
Possibly the coolest bit of news I’ve read this month is this one about the massive scale of China’s experiments in agriculture though it isn’t about any novel discoveries. The individual innovations are seemingly minor ones like determining how densely rice should be packed and they apply only to smallholders, but the sheer scale of the experiments involving up to 21 million farmers means that an incredible wealth of scientific data and massive gains. Of course, this was possible only due to China’s command and control bureaucracy and isn’t something that other countries can easily replicate.
Also in agriculture is this article about how herbicides can indeed change both the taste and the nutritional content of crops. This sounds like bad news but it appears that they caused the kernels of sweetcorn being studied to store more protein and minerals. Of course we still need to be wary of them affecting crops in adverse ways but it’s intriguing to think that the nutritional profile of crops can be shaped in this manner.
Next there’s this paper studying how genetics and the environment affect human lifespans. Delving into records of birth dates, death dates and crowdsourced data from very large family trees, the researchers wanted to know if closely related people have similar lifespans. They found however that heredity only explained about 16% of the differences in lifespans meaning that the environment might have more influence than genes on how long a person lives.
In space news, this article talks about NASA’s twin astronauts Scott Kelly and Mark Kelly. NASA deliberately had Scott spend 340 days in space aboard the International Space Station while Mark remained on Earth in order to observe how the extended stay in space would change an astronaut’s body. Some changes like increased height and decreased mass soon reverted after Scott’s return to Earth, genes that were activated during the trip stayed changed, meaning that Scott is no longer genetically identical to his twin brother. They apparently affect his immune system, bone formation, eyesight, other processes and it isn’t yet known what the long term consequences are.
Finally, to end with a bit of lighthearted fluff, here’s an article about how dogs seem to be more responsive to so-called dog baby talk. This is the simple, dog-directed speech that dog owners instinctively know and is similar to baby talk. The study found that dogs do pay more attention when you talk to them in this manner and this helps strengthen their bond with their owners.
Like everyone else, I’ve been distracted by Chinese New Year events and so have probably done less reading than usual this month.
We’ve known that human life expectancy has been increasing as societies grow richer and medical science improves. This study however finds that the pace of life expectancy gains around the world has been slowing since 1950. In a way this isn’t very surprising, as science has improved, the low-hanging fruit of healthcare gains have been harvested and we might be coming near hard biological limits on the human lifespan.
Probably the most viral bit of science news this past month has been the DNA analysis of the so-called Cheddar Man fossil in the UK that sheds some light on how he might have looked like when alive some 10,000 years ago. Contrary to expectations, this early Briton seems to have had dark brown to black skin, dark curly hair and blue eyes. The fossil clearly demonstrates that modern classifications of race don’t apply to the past and of course it upsets racists who like to think that Britain was always inhabited by white people.
Finally here’s a fascinating study that purports to demonstrate that rats in Norway are capable of engaging in transactions with each other that amount to trading. Essentially they put the rats in a situation in which the rats needed help from another rat to groom themselves and noted that they subsequently reciprocated this assistance with an offer of food.
A fairly mixed bag of stuff to kick off the first month.
First, here’s an article about how flying in airplanes exposes humans to more ionizing radiation than working in a nuclear reactor. This means that aircrews are at significant risk as their annual exposure is estimated at 3 millisieverts while nuclear industry bodies recommend that the general public should be exposed to less than 1 millisievert a year.
Then there’s this very cool paper about how there could be more water on Mars than expected, trapped in the form of ice beneath the surface. Data from spacecraft were used to analyzed areas where erosion had occurred, finding eight locations where there is ice layer of more than 100 meters thick as shallow as only one or two meters beneath the surface.
Also very cool is this article how research into how even plants are affected by anaesthetic drugs. They specifically targeted plants that are known for being capable of movement such as Venus flytraps and the creeping herb that folds inwards when touched. Using a variety of anaesthetics, applied either to the roots or added to the air as appropriate, they found that in all cases the plants temporarily became still and unresponsive just as animals would. The hope is that this will help scientists understand exactly how it is that this class of drugs causes unconsciousness, about which we still know surprisingly little. On a philosophical level, it also raises the question of just how conscious plants can be.
A couple of articles from The Economist next. The first of these examines how humans usually have abstract descriptions for colors but not for odors. The research takes place in Malaysia where a local tribe known as the Jahai are the exception to the norm, having a vocabulary that is capable of describing odors in the abstract. The article also presents evidence that the inability of most humans to describe odors is not due to innate language ability or biology but due to lifestyle, with hunter gatherers having more need for a rich language to describe odors than farmers.
The next is about economics. It’s about a massive accounting of the long term returns of many different classes of assets. They found, in line with man on the street expectations but contrary to conventional academic thinking, that the best long performing investment is still housing, beating equities which is also more volatile to boot. The finding further reinforces suspicions that capitalism inherently reinforces inequality as the average real rate of return on wealth appears to outstrip GDP growth.
Finally here’s one that is just for fun. All of which will have heard of the mistaken missile alert in Hawaii. Of course this makes for a fantastic natural experiment when you think about how the announcement changes human behaviors. A large pornography website Pornhub released data showing that immediately following the sending of the message, traffic on their sites crashed massively by 77%. As residents were informed that it was a mistake however, traffic recovered, spiking to well above normal levels before returning to usual patterns. You can probably imagine for yourself the mindset of the average person when confronted with the news based on this data.