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Quantum fluctuations in space, science, exploration and other cosmic fields... served up regularly by MSNBC.com science editor Alan Boyle since 2002.

Alan Boyle covers the physical sciences, anthropology, technological innovation and space science and exploration for MSNBC.com. He is a winner of the AAAS Science Journalism Award, the NASW Science-in-Society Award and other honors; a contributor to "A Field Guide for Science Writers"; and a member of the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

Check out Boyle's biography or send a message to Cosmic Log via cosmiclog@msnbc.com.



Scientific smorgasbord on the Web

Posted: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 8:55 AM by Alan Boyle

• Discover Magazine: Mapping the blogosphere
OmniNerd: Busting the Mythbusters (via Slashdot)
• The New Yorker: The way we age now
• N.Y. Times (reg. req.): The tail is a tip-off to dogs' body language

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The Mythbusters made their mistake in putting all of their subjects into a totally boring situation, then trying to make some of them yawn in response to one of the experimenter's own yawns. We are not told the sexual distribution on the subjects which could influence the outcome. We are not told which experimenter, or both of them, participated. We are not told if their yawns were open or hidden. Politeness could make a difference, also. And we are not told what incentives were used to obtain the co-operation of the subjects. Objects behave reasonably alike under the same circumstances. People do not.
Dogs, like all animal life, will react in a specific way to various circumstances, most of which activity is derived from evolution, starting out with primeval organisms searching for food and avoiding other predators on the lookout for food. Spines developed for support, ribs for organ protection, skulls for more protection for the central nervous systems, four legs to enable locomotion, two of which changed to arms for us (ankles and wrists are almost identical in structure). All for expediting the universal search for food. The development of the right/left brain control of the body happened early on and is, not surprisingly, shared with us by our dogs, cats, and other modern animals.
I'm get realy tired of reading about all these great advanses on everything but the stuff that realy matters, like how soon are we converting all our skyscrapers into solar, and our universities,and hospitals,my house too, that would be cool. Or do we just wait and see all the animals die first? And whats up with the bees?


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