Multitasking Kings Want Semi-Naked Prozac Bioterrorist
The Bioterrorist Next Door by Laurie Garrett (Foreign Policy): You know how there’s scientists who’ve created very-deadly and very-contagious versions of influenza based on bird flu? No? Well, scientists have already created very-deadly and very-contagious versions of bird flu. And the techniques for doing so are simple enough, and Al Qaeda are already advertising for people willing to do this for them. Of course, the reason the scientists are creating these deadly versions is to understand what’s going on when bird flu eventually evolves into a deadly/contagious version on its own… [via]
What Do Worms Want? by Priscilla Long (The American Scholar): In a nutshell: darkness, dampness, food and sex. Worms are all hermaphrodites, and if they all died, so would we, eventually - we need worms for there to be dirt. Worms basically create dirt. And without dirt, none of our food could grow. [via]
How Does Prozac Work? by Jonah Lehrer (The Frontal Cortex): Nobody knows. It, and other antidepressants, are probably not much more than placebos. Pharmaceutical companies have decided that neuroscience research has been a waste of time and money as far as creating better antidepressants is concerned. Which is a good reminder of how little we know about the brain, even though the psychophysiology textbook I read when I went to uni is already obselete.
The Semi-Naked Ape, Or Why Peach Fuzz Makes It Harder For Parasites by Ed Yong (Not Exactly Rocket Science): You know how all the other apes are furry? Like chimpanzees are all covered in hair, whereas we mostly only really have peach fuzz? Well, there may be a sound evolutionary reason for that - it’s really annoying for parasites like bedbugs, and makes it easier for us to see them and kill them.
Eyal Ophir On The Science Of Multitasking by Avi Solomon (Boing Boing): You might have heard of the research showing that people who prefer to multitask are worse at multitasking than people who prefer to focus? Eyal Ophir did that research and now works on the browser RockMelt. And he has interesting things to say about multitasking, namely that it’s not that people who are worse at multitasking are worse at it, per se, but that they’re much more reactive to things in the environment. So they’re more likely to be distracted. And that has pros as well as cons.
The Demise Of The Komodo Kings by Brian Switek (Laelaps): It’s really quite likely that those hobbits on the island of Flores in Indonesia were preyed upon by dragons. But not dragons called Smaug - instead they were preyed upon by Komodo dragons. Interestingly, when explorers first captured Komodos and put them in Brooklyn Zoo, they died within a couple of months, and somehow inspired the movie King Kong. (Switek is so totally getting his Stephen Jay Gould on here).
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