Category Archives: Science

Feb
08
2013

by James
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Playing first-person shooters improves learning abilities and cognitive function

Research shows that playing first-person action games (particularly shooters) can improve brain function including cognitive abilities and learning skills. The Downside In the wake of mass shootings and violent outbursts, much research has been conducted on children who play violent video games or watch violent TV which demonstrates that they can become violent themselves. According to researchers at Indiana University, brain scans show that violent videogames can alter brain function in young men after only a week of play. The games depress activity among regions of the brain … Continue reading →

Jan
16
2013

by James
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The Origins of Mankind: Basic Human Evolutionary History

When we attempt to comprehend the whole scope of evolution and the history of our Universe, we realize that humankind has only existed for a minuscule portion of an immense timeline reaching into the past nearly 13.75 Billion years. If we were to imaging the Earth’s history as a 24-Hour clock, our genus (Homo) has only existed for the last 1 minute, 17 seconds on that clock and our species (Homo Sapiens) would only have existed for the last 3.1 seconds.

Our species is the pinnacle of a phenomenal chain of causality reaching all the way back to the theorized singularity exploding in the big bang. Since then, cosmological events have formed our galaxy, the Milky Way and our home Star, Sol, our solar system, and our planet, Earth, which is the only known life-sustaining planet to our knowledge.

On this tiny blue and green planet, over billions of years life began to emerge, rising out of the oceans in a myriad forms. Over time through the remarkable process of evolution, our species was ultimately formed. Continue reading →

Jan
07
2013

by James
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Species of spider spins decoys to avoid predators.

Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, biologists think they have discovered a new species of spider with a remarkable survival strategy: it builds elaborate, fake spiders from leaves, debris and dead insects and hangs them in its web. The decoys serve as a defense mechanism meant to confuse and/or distract its predators. Biologist and science teacher Phil Torres discovered the spider in September as he led tourists in a floodplain surrounding Peru’s Tambopata Research Centre.

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Jan
02
2013

by James
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Ode to a flower.

Richard Feynman discusses how our understanding of science only enhances the beauty of a flower in The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out. I have a friend who’s an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say “look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree. Then he says “I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing,” and I think … Continue reading →

Dec
12
2012

by James
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Psychology, Social Conformity & Violence (Part 1): The Milgram Experiment

In 1961, in the wake of the atrocities of the Holocaust, Stanley Milgram conducted one of the most important experiments ever done in the field of human psychology and social conformity. He set out to test the hypothesis that there was something special about the German people which allowed them to participate in genocide. His results proved that it is not a condition isolated in the German people, but one present in all of humanity; A condition that exists in our very nature. Continue reading →

Dec
10
2012

by James
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The Antikythera Mechanism: An ancient hellenistic computer

The Antikythera Mechanism was an ancient analog computer-like device used to calculate the movements of stars and planets created by a Greek genius (possibly Archimedes) between 150 and 100 BCE. In October 1900, a Greek sponge diver happened upon one of the greatest discovers in modern history on the Mediterranean sea bed. Captain Dimitrios Kondos ran into some wild weather to the north of Crete when returning to Greece from a diving expedition around Northern Africa. He decided to shelter from the storm near the small island of … Continue reading →

Nov
14
2012

by James
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The Four Pillars: Evidence for the Big Bang Theory

There is no single experiment capable of proving or disproving the Big Bang Theory, however there is a plethora of strong, significant observational evidence which supports the theory as the predominant explanation of the origin of our Universe.

The “four pillars” of evidence supporting the Big Bang theory are: The observable expansion of the Universe, the origin of the cosmic background radiation, the abundance of light elements and the formation of galaxies and large-scale structure in the Universe. Continue reading →