grrlscientist - Slashdot User

+ - New Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences is misguided -> 0

Submitted by

grrlscientist

on Thursday February 21, 2013 @05:20PM

grrlscientist writes "Like a lot of people, I awoke this morning to the news of the new Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Initiated by multibillionaires Art Levinson, Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan and Yuri Milner, the Breakthrough Prize is intended to recognise "excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life." Winners are awarded $3 million each and since this is a prize, they can spend this money in any way they wish. According to the website, this prize is "dedicated to advancing breakthrough research, celebrating scientists and generating excitement about the pursuit of science as a career."

Wonderful — anything to give science a positive public platform. But unfortunately, this prize is flawed and seriously misguided and thus, I don't think it will accomplish its stated goals."
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+ - Young Gandalf meets his first giant eagle-> 0

Submitted by

grrlscientist

on Wednesday December 19, 2012 @08:27PM

grrlscientist writes "It seems that the public and the media are wildly grasping for crazy stories to focus attention on this holiday season, but one particular "story" is a video "gone viral". This amateur video claims to show a golden eagle snatching a toddler in a Montreal park. It is really scary and spectacular – until your morning coffee kicks in and awakens the thinking part of your brain.

The fact is this video is a fraud. A clever fraud, yes, but it's still a fraud. In fact, I am sure the video's creators are having a Santa-sized belly laugh over it right now. [read more]"
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+ - Tool use by an African grey parrot | video-> 0

Submitted by

grrlscientist

on Friday December 07, 2012 @02:38PM

grrlscientist writes "Now, for the first time ever, a parrot has successfully trained a human to design and build robots specifically for the parrot's use and entertainment [read more]"
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+ - Why Gerald Crabtree's speculations about declining human intelligence are wrong-> 0

Submitted by

grrlscientist

on Wednesday November 14, 2012 @12:06PM

grrlscientist writes "A couple hot-off-the-press articles published in Trends in Genetics have been garnering more attention than they're worth. In them, molecular geneticist Jerry Crabtree puts forward an argument that human cognitive abilities are declining — people are getting stupider."
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+ - Sing for your supper: fairy-wren chicks must sing vocal password for food-> 0

Submitted by

grrlscientist

on Tuesday November 13, 2012 @11:13AM

grrlscientist writes "Female fairy-wrens teach their chicks a vocal password before they hatch to distinguish them from brood parasitic bronze-cuckoo chicks [read more]"
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+ - Polly gets his own cracker: clever cockatoo manufactures, uses tools-> 0

Submitted by

grrlscientist

on Saturday November 10, 2012 @02:41PM

grrlscientist writes "Not known to manufacture or use tools in the wild, a captive cockatoo demonstrates that parrots can make tools to suit their needs [read more]"
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+ - How did Nate Silver predict the US election?-> 0

Submitted by grrlscientist on Thursday November 08, 2012 @10:21AM

grrlscientist writes "Here's how Nate Silver used a combination of magic and dark arts (otherwise known as mathematics and statistics) to correctly predict the outcome of the US presidential election [read more]"
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+ - First ever sighting of world's rarest whale on New Zealand coast-> 0

Submitted by

grrlscientist

on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @02:05PM

grrlscientist writes "Two beached whales were identified as a rare species previously known only from a few scattered bones"
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+ - Sparrows show us a new way to have sexes-> 0

Submitted by grrlscientist on Wednesday May 25, 2011 @05:08PM

grrlscientist writes "A close look at a common North American songbird reveals that it may be evolving a second pair of sex chromosomes"
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+ - Sparrows show us a new way to have sexes-> 0

Submitted by grrlscientist on Wednesday May 25, 2011 @02:37PM

grrlscientist writes "A close look at a common North American songbird, the white-throated sparrow, reveals that it may be evolving a second pair of sex chromosomes."
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+ - Escaping the poverty trap-> 0

Submitted by grrlscientist on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @05:19PM

grrlscientist writes "Scientists ask: "Which is the most effective way for the government to help people climb out of poverty: give them money or give them health care?""
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+ - Reinforcements Ordered in the War on Brains [video-> 0

Submitted by grrlscientist on Thursday August 12, 2010 @07:25AM

grrlscientist writes "Rachel Maddow talks about her former show, The War on Brains — she mentions that even though the program no longer exists, America’s war on brains continues. Perhaps the most ridiculous example is the woman who claims that “the separation of church and state” is not mentioned in the US Constitution — a fact that can be easily confirmed by anyone who can read by checking the original document."
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Reinforcements Ordered in the War on Brains [video] ->

by grrlscientist on Thursday August 12, 2010 @07:23AM

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+ - A Monkey Economy is as Irrational as our Human Eco-> 0

Submitted by grrlscientist on Tuesday August 10, 2010 @07:28AM

grrlscientist writes "A Monkey Economy is as Irrational as our Human Economy. Why do people make irrational decisions in such a predictable way? Laurie Santos looks for the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. This video documents a clever series of experiments in "monkeynomics” shows that some of the silly choices we make, monkeys make too."
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A Monkey Economy is as Irrational as our Human Economy [video] ->

by grrlscientist on Tuesday August 10, 2010 @07:21AM

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