Category: Cold science
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Unpredictable love. Unpredictable cosmos.
Here’s some heartbreaking news for people pinning their hopes on online matchmaking sites: It’s virtually impossible to forecast a love connection. Maybe that’s not so shocking to survivors of the dating wars. But now science is weighing in. Extensive background data on two individuals — comparable to that collected by digital dating services — can’t…
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Ethics in numbers = No ethics.
It’s easy to understand why natural selection favors people who help close kin at their own expense: It can increase the odds the family’s genes are passed to future generations. But why assist distant relatives? Mathematical simulations by a University of Utah anthropologist suggest “socially enforced nepotism” encourages helping far-flung kin. The classic theory of…
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Astrology: The astronomy we really need…
We laugh at astrology. We think it is “unscientific”. We need a Shestov to remind us how wrong we are. Because astrology is not talking about whether you will win the jackpot tommorow or whether you will be king. Astrology is about studying the stars (most greatest astronomers were actually astrologists – e.g. Kepler) with…
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Science and the New Dark Ages…
Just in case you were looking for some ideas for your next dystopian novel… in a new feature, the BBC reports on ideas for combating anthropogenic climate change by engineering humans to use less resources. How about giving people patches that would make them allergic to meat? As someone who is intolerant to alcohol, I…
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Science. Limitations. Belief in humans.
It’s a hard pill to swallow, but if you’re over 24 years of age you’ve already reached your peak in terms of your cognitive motor performance, according to a new study. In one of the first social science experiments to rest on big data, the researchers investigate when we start to experience an age-related decline…
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