Planet of the Apes: Academy of Natural Sciences gave evolution an early boost (Fuck hard trailer)
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012Planet of the Apes: Academy of Natural Sciences gave evolution an early boost
It was the time of P.T. Barnum, when people would line up to see a whitewashed elephant or a carefully faked petrified giant. But in 1868, a display in Philadelphia proved that reality could be far stranger than fiction. That year, the Academy of Natural Sciences showed the world its first glimpse of a real dinosaur skeleton - a 15-foot-tall Godzilla pulled from a pit in Haddonfield.
Source: www.philly.com
Planet of the Apes: As in ‘Star Trek,’ would aliens be similar to us?
On Star Trek, the aliens often look so human that crew members fall in love with them. But in real life, scientists in the field known as astrobiology can’t be sure alien life would even be carbon-based like us, or use DNA to carry a genetic code.
Source: www.philly.com
NHS hospital mergers bring few benefits. In the media
Latest CMPO working paper by Professor Carol Propper: ‘Can governments do it better? Merger mania and hospital outcomes in the English NHS’, gains press attention
Source: www.bristol.ac.uk
Planet of the Apes: No fear, guys; the Y won’t vanish
Among the more alarming rumors prompted by genetics research was the impending extinction of the Y chromosome. The classic male marker seemed to be shriveling. Would the human race become an all-female species? The Y is, after all, just a tiny nub of a chromosome, having undergone serious shrinkage in the past.
Source: www.philly.com
CMPO contributes articles to ESRC Britain In 2012 magazine
Britain in 2012 is the most recent edition of ESRC’s annual newsstand magazine. The magazine is a mixture of academic opinion pieces alongside informed journalistic writing, offering a concise analysis of research and topical issues concerning Britain today. CMPO members Carol Propper, Paul Gregg, Lindsey Macmillan, Simon Burgess, Sarah Smith, Edd Cowley, Matt Dickson, Helen Simpson all contribute.
Source: www.bristol.ac.uk
Why can baboons tell written words from gibberish? The eyes — and brain — have it
Charles Darwin would surely have been mesmerized by a paper released last week showing that baboons can recognize written words and distinguish them from gibberish. This was more than a feat of memorization, since the baboons were able to do this even if they’d never seen the words or nonwords before. In a paper describing their findings, the scientists say perhaps the baboons are able to do some sort of unconscious statistical calculation involving the combinations of letters most likely to form words. “We tend to think that the ability to distinguish what’s a real word is fundamentally human,” said Duke University neurobiologist Michael Platt, who wrote a commentary accompanying the paper in the journal Science.
Source: www.philly.com
Cabinet sex scandal: Zahida switches off phone, pledges to “do a lot of charity”
It looks like Zahida Rafik, the actress at the center of a raging sex scandal allegedly involving a member of the Malaysian Cabinet, has catapulted to the top rungs of the popularity ladder as far as 'showbiz' is concerned.
Source: www.malaysia-chronicle.com
‘Future costs of youth unemployment’, by Paul Gregg and Lindsey Macmillan
‘Future costs of youth unemployment’, by Paul Gregg and Lindsey Macmillan in BBC News Viewpoint blog
Source: www.bristol.ac.uk