The Divided Brain

post from Top stories on 21 January 2012 09:43:07 PM. © Top stories

In this new RSAnimate, renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how our 'divided brain' has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society. Taken from a lecture given by Iain McGilchrist as part of the RSA's free public events program me.

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http://machineslikeus.com/videos/divided-brain

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Speed limit for birds

post from Top stories on 21 January 2012 09:32:37 PM. © Top stories

MIT researchers find critical speed above which birds ? and drones ? are sure to crash.

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/speed-limit-birds

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chain reaction required to prevent tumor
formation

post from Top stories on 21 January 2012 09:27:38 PM. © Top stories

The expression of p53 and Mdm2 is closely related.

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/chain-reaction-required-prevent-tumor-formation

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'Extinct' monkey rediscovered in Borneo by new
expedition

post from Top stories on 21 January 2012 09:25:08 PM. © Top stories

An international team of scientists has found one of the rarest and least known primates in Borneo, Miller's Grizzled Langur, a species which was believed to be extinct or on the verge of extinction.

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/extinct-monkey-rediscovered-borneo-new-expedition

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Anti-Caturday post

post from Pharyngula on 21 January 2012 09:10:19 PM. © Pharyngula

Now that the door is opened to contemplating rotating cats, I think we should look at organisms that are even better at the spinning routine.

(Also on FtB)

Read the comments on this post...

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/U2ZwM1p4tS8/anti-caturd
ay_post_17.php

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Religious people want religious leaders - of any
religion

post from Epiphenom on 21 January 2012 03:51:00 PM. © Epiphenom

A lot of people think that the Muslim world is just fundamentally different from the Christian world. That's the basis for the idea that we're facing a clash of civilisations (a theory put forward by the American political scientist Samuel Huntingdon back in 1993).

One aspect of the theory says that religion is more tightly integrated into the political structure in Muslim countries. The idea is that the power structures of Christian religious institutions are separated from the secular power structures, which makes it easier to separate Church and State.

A team of social scientists lead by Nate Breznau at the University of Breman set out to test this idea by seeing whether Muslims really are more likely to want religious leaders, and to do this they used data from the World Values Survey.

When you look at the raw data, it turns out that yes, if you average out across the word then Muslims are quite a lot more likely to want religious leaders. However, it turns out that that's partly to do with the relative poverty of many Muslim countries, and also that Muslims tend simply to be more devout. Other important factors include the high level of corruption in many Muslim countries.

The graph to the right shows the relative importance of all the different factors they unearthed.

You can see that clearly religious devotion one of the most important factors driving support for religious leaders, and that this doesn't really differ between Christians and Muslims.

So far so good. Religious people prefer religious leaders - which is, after all only what you might expect. What you might not expect, however, is that religious people prefer religious leaders of any religion!

So, for example, devout Christians living in Muslims majority countries still want religious leaders - even though those leaders would almost certainly by Muslims, rather than Christians.

What's more, Christians in Muslim countries are as likely to want religious leaders and Muslims in Muslim countries. Which just goes to show that it's the characteristics of the country, and not the religion, that's the driving factor.

It seems that this aspect, at least, of the 'Clash of Civilizations' theory is a fantasy. The clash here is not between two different religions, but rather between the religious and the non-religious.

Breznau, N., Lykes, V., Kelley, J., & Evans, M. (2011). A Clash of Civilizations? Preferences for Religious Political Leaders in 86 Nations Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 50 (4), 671-691 DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5906.2011.01605.x

This article by Tom Rees was first published on Epiphenom. It is licensed under Creative Commons.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BhaScienceGroup/~3/Fq00Noima_M/religious-people-wa
nt-religious-leaders.html

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Time lapse: Yosemite

post from Bad Astronomy on 21 January 2012 03:27:31 PM. © Bad Astronomy

Apparently I could do nothing but post incredible time lapse videos all the time. Watch this staggeringly beautiful video, "Yosemite", and be in awe. The video was made by Sheldon Neill and Colin Delehanty, and the music? "Outro&quot, by[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BadAstronomyBlog/~3/WEvGRzhf5EE/

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Viscous fluid on a moving belt

A stream of very viscous syrup falling from a nozzle on to a moving belt. At first, the speed of the belt is enough that the thread of syrup is just pulled out straight. However, as the belt is slowed down, the thread at first bifurcates to a meandering state, producing a sine wave and [...]

Viscous fluid on a moving belt is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SciencebaseScienceBlog/~3/DpwS61KU2zs/viscous-flui
d-on-a-moving-belt.html

The biodiversity crisis: Worse than climate
change

Biodiversity is declining rapidly throughout the world. The challenges of conserving the world's species are perhaps even larger than mitigating the negative effects of global climate change.

Read The Full Article:
http://machineslikeus.com/news/biodiversity-crisis-worse-climate-change

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