Border Crossings into Science Culture

Learning to communicate in and with a culture of science is a much broader undertaking than mastering a body of discrete conceptual or procedural knowledge. One observer, for example, describes the process of science education as one in which learners must engage in "border crossings" from their own everyday world culture into the subculture of science.^ The subculture of science is in part distinct from other cultural activities and in part a reflection of the cultural backgrounds of scienti...

 The Machine Euthanizes the Atheletic

"Well, the Book"s wrong, for I have been out on my feet." For Kuno was possessed of a certain physical strength. By these days it was a demerit to be muscular. Each infant was examined at birth, and all who promised undue strength were destroyed. Humanitarians may protest, but it would have been no true kindness to let an athlete live; he would never have been happy in that state of life to which the Machine had called him; he would have yearned for trees to climb, rivers to bathe in, meado...

 Earthseed 56-60

56. When vision fails When vision failsDirection is lost. When direction is lostPurpose may be forgotten. When purpose is forgottenEmotion rules alone. When emotion rules alone,Destruction…destruction. ∞ = Δ 57. Self is Self is.Self is body and bodilyperception. Self is thought, memory,belief. Self creates. Self destroys. Selflearns, discovers, becomes. Selfshapes. Self adapts. Self invents itsown reasons for being. To shapeGod, shape Self. ∞ = Δ 58. Immortal Life Take comfort...

 One in 1,000 to 500 Chance of Cancer from Childhood CT Scan

The first study to assess directly the risk of cancer after CT scans in childhood found a clear dose-response relationship for both leukemia and brain tumors: risk increased with increasing cumulative radiation dose. For a cumulative dose of between 50 and 60 milligray or mGy (mGy is a unit of estimated absorbed dose of ionizing radiation) to the head, the investigators reported a threefold increase in the risk of brain tumors; the same dose to bone marrow (the part of the body responsible fo...

 Physiological Decline in the Body When You Stop Exercising

...regular endurance exercise leads to four major consequences: Increased ability of the heart to eject blood increased ability of the blood vessels to send blood to where blood is needed Increased number of capillaries (the vessels that deliver oxygen and ‘food’ to the muscles) increased size and the number of mitochondria (the “power plants” of the cells). All these changes lead to the more efficient use of oxygen, as well as nutrients. [...] Pino considers a person who can run...

 Forms of Similtude

First of all, convenientia. This word really denotes the adjacency of places more strongly than it does similitude. Those things are 'convenient' which come sufficiently close to one another to be in juxtaposition; their edges touch, their fringes intermingle, the extremity of the one also de­notes the beginning of the other. In this way, movement, influences, passions, and properties too, are communicated. So that in this hinge between two things a resemblance appears. A resemblance that b...

 Why Do We Like Certain Tunes or Understand Certain Senten...

Contrast two answers to the question, Why do we like certain tunes? Because they have certain structural features.Because they resemble other tunes we like.   The first answer has to do with the laws and rules that make tunes pleasant. In language, we know some laws for sentences; that is, we know the forms sentences must have to be syntactically acceptable, if not the things they must have to make them sensible or even pleasant to the ear. As to melody, it seems that we only know som...

 Shock: Social Science Fiction

What happens when a mind is no longer tied to a body? What happens when those of greatest ability are enslaved by those of greatest power? What happens when Humanity is the new kid on the block? When minds are read like books and books are illegal? Shock: Social Science Fiction is a game, a set of rules, that you’re about to use with your friends to create some science fiction stories. You’ll create a world sitting around a table, or on a floor in a circle, and use these rules to reach a...

 Sugar Impacts Learning

The DHA-deprived rats also developed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar and regulates synaptic function in the brain. A closer look at the rats' brain tissue suggested that insulin had lost much of its power to influence the brain cells. "Because insulin can penetrate the blood–brain barrier, the hormone may signal neurons to trigger reactions that disrupt learning and cause memory loss," Gomez-Pinilla said. He suspects that fructose is the culprit behi...

 The Wormcam

It was possible now to look back into time and read off a complete DNA sequence from any moment in an individual’s life. And it was possible to download a copy of that person’s mind and, by putting the two together, regenerated body and downloaded mind, to restore her … We live on Mars, the moons of the outer planets, and we’re heading for the stars. There have even been experiments to download human minds into the quantum foam … We intend to restore all human souls, back to the beg...