Moral Network Breaking Daily Birds Lottery
Breaking Through by Kristin Sainani (Stanford Magazine): Interesting profile on the surprisingly advanced state of autism research; Sainani argues that there is no single disease called ‘autism’, but instead that the term is a catch-all for a variety of different conditions with a variety of different causes. For example, there are some genetic conditions which seem to cause varieties of autism, such as ‘Timothy syndrome’. And there is amazing research reported here, where researchers have taken everyday cells from autism sufferers, and then turn those cells into stem cells, and then got the stem cells to develop as neurons. And they’ve found these Timothy syndrome neurons communicate differently than regular neurons. [via]
Nurturing Nests Lift These Birds To A Higher Perch by Natalie Angier (New York Times): New Caledonian crows are phenomenally smart - up there with chimpanzees in terms of their tool use. And it turns out that one reason for this may be that they have exceptionally nurturing parents for birds - both male and female spend a lot of time looking after the baby crow and teaching them skills.
Cracking The Scratch Lottery Code by Jonah Lehrer (Wired): You know how there’s often numbers on top of the latex that you scratch off on lottery tickets? Well, a mathematics professor, Mohan Srivastava, has figured out what those numbers and codes mean, and it’s not random, surprisingly simple, and has possibly been used by the Mafia to launder money.
A True Story Of Daily Mail Lies by Juliet Shaw (No Sleep Til Brooklands): In 2003, Shaw was profiled in the unscrupulous British tabloid the Daily Mail; as she amusingly details, the details of the profile were almost all inaccurate. And she had to battle for two years to sue the newspaper, and was in a good position to sue; now, the laws have changed in newspapers’ favour, and she didn’t have much to lose, where others might. [via]
The Anti-Social Network by Libby Copeland (Slate): The other day, I posted an article suggesting that people underestimate the sadness that other people experience, which has the effect of making them feel more alienated from others when they’re unhappy. Copeland takes this insight and applies it interestingly to Facebook, where there is an unspoken rule that only nice things are talked about, where people have to put on their best face because of all the acquaintances who’ll read things who don’t care. [via]
Closing Our Eyes Affects Our Moral Judgement by Christian Jarrett (BPS Research Digest): So, because people experience imaginary situations more vividly when they close their eyes, when people are asked to make moral judgements about imaginary situations, they make different - harsher - judgements when their eyes are closed. Be curious to see if they did a follow-up with people who had vivid mind’s eyes compared to people who have dimmer mind’s eyes.
