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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 18, 2013 at 8:23am

https://peerj.com/articles/19/
Perceptual elements in Penn & Teller’s “Cups and Balls” magic trick
Magic illusions provide the perceptual and cognitive scientist with a toolbox of experimental manipulations and testable hypotheses about the building blocks of conscious experience. Here we studied several sleight-of-hand manipulations in the performance of the classic “Cups and Balls” magic trick (where balls appear and disappear inside upside-down opaque cups). We examined a version inspired by the entertainment duo Penn & Teller, conducted with three opaque and subsequently with three transparent cups. Magician Teller used his right hand to load (i.e. introduce surreptitiously) a small ball inside each of two upside-down cups, one at a time, while using his left hand to remove a different ball from the upside-down bottom of the cup. The sleight at the third cup involved one of six manipulations: (a) standard maneuver, (b) standard maneuver without a third ball, (c) ball placed on the table, (d) ball lifted, (e) ball dropped to the floor, and (f) ball stuck to the cup. Seven subjects watched the videos of the performances while reporting, via button press, whenever balls were removed from the cups/table (button “1”) or placed inside the cups/on the table (button “2”). Subjects’ perception was more accurate with transparent than with opaque cups. Perceptual performance was worse for the conditions where the ball was placed on the table, or stuck to the cup, than for the standard maneuver. The condition in which the ball was lifted displaced the subjects’ gaze position the most, whereas the condition in which there was no ball caused the smallest gaze displacement. Training improved the subjects’ perceptual performance. Occlusion of the magician’s face did not affect the subjects’ perception, suggesting that gaze misdirection does not play a strong role in the Cups and Balls illusion. Our results have implications for how to optimize the performance of this classic magic trick, and for the types of hand and object motion that maximize magic misdirection.
Rieiro H, Martinez-Conde S, Macknik SL. (2013) Perceptual elements in Penn & Teller’s “Cups and Balls” magic trick. PeerJ 1:e19 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.19

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 18, 2013 at 8:09am

Polynesian People Used Binary Numbers 600 Years Ago
The base-2 system helped to simplify calculations centuries before Europeans discovered it
Binary arithmetic, the basis of all virtually digital computation today, is usually said to have been invented at the start of the eighteenth century by the German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz. But a study now shows that a kind of binary system was already in use 300 years earlier among the people of the tiny Pacific island of Mangareva in French Polynesia.

The discovery, made by analysing historical records of the now almost wholly assimilated Mangarevan culture and language and reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that some of the advantages of the binary system adduced by Leibniz might create a cognitive motivation for this system to arise spontaneously, even in a society without advanced science and technology.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=polynesian-people-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 18, 2013 at 6:45am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 17, 2013 at 7:10am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 16, 2013 at 9:27am

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270122.php
Scientists discover way to enhance self-control
Some people lack self-control. A habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time is one example. But now, scientists have developed a way of improving a person's self-control through electrical brain stimulation. This is according to a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth) at Houston and the University of California, San Diego, say their findings could be useful for future treatments of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Tourette's syndrome, among other self-control disorders.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 16, 2013 at 9:11am

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/health/female-scientists-are-mo...
Female scientists are 'more creative'
Female scientists may be more creative and ground-breaking than their male colleagues judging by the way they view abstract art, according to psychologists.
Experts tested scientists and non-scientists who were asked to look at a range of art works, classified as either "abstract" or "figurative".

Participants filled in questionnaires designed to explore art they preferred.

Analysis of the results revealed a "significant difference" in how male and female scientists responded to abstract art, said the University of Reading team.

Women seemed to prefer abstract works, such as Picasso's cubist paintings, and were more at ease with the moody or "affective" aspects of this kind of art.

Men, in contrast, were more drawn to realistic figurative artworks such as portraits and landscapes.

Researchers said women's responses were evidence of a "better balance between different ways of thinking".

In a report entitled 'How Scientists Look At Art', they wrote: "We might even speculate . . . that women scientists are more likely to be open to a more anarchic, creative and radical approach to science."

The study also found that common perceptions about the gap between science and the humanities were false. Overall, scientists and non-scientists regarded art in much the same way.

(I was one of the participants in this research  and filled in the questionnaires  - Krishna)

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 15, 2013 at 6:24am

Nobel winner declares boycott of top science journals

Randy Schekman says his lab will no longer send papers to Nature, Cell and Science as they distort scientific process

Leading academic journals are distorting the scientific process and represent a "tyranny" that must be broken, according to a Nobel prize winner who has declared a boycott on the publications.

Randy Schekman, a US biologist who won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine this year and receives his prize in Stockholm on Tuesday, said his lab would no longer send research papers to the top-tier journals, Nature, Cell and Science.

Schekman said pressure to publish in "luxury" journals encouraged researchers to cut corners and pursue trendy fields of science instead of doing more important work. The problem was exacerbated, he said, by editors who were not active scientists but professionals who favoured studies that were likely to make a splash.

The prestige of appearing in the major journals has led the Chinese Academy of Sciences to pay successful authors the equivalent of $30,000 (£18,000). Some researchers made half of their income through such "bribes", Schekman said in an interview.

Writing in the Guardian, Schekman raises serious concerns over the journals' practices and calls on others in the scientific community to take action.

"I have published in the big brands, including papers that won me a Nobel prize. But no longer," he writes. "Just as Wall Street needs to break the hold of bonus culture, so science must break the tyranny of the luxury journals."

Source:   http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2013 at 7:59am

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/12/12/how-much-...
How Much Nature Do We Have to Use?

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 13, 2013 at 10:10am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 13, 2013 at 9:22am

How Nuclear Power Can Stop Global Warming

Nuclear power is one of the few technologies that can quickly combat climate change, experts argue

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-nuclear-power-...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nuclear-power-plan...
Atomic Weight: Balancing the Risks and Rewards of a Power Source

Nuclear power--like most forms of electricity generation--carries inherent risks. Is it worth the minor chance of a major catastrophe?

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