Could Zombieland REALLY happen???

October 08, 2009

It seems every year there's a movie or TV show about some virus that causes...

1 - Zombies! Zombies! and more Zombies! (Zombieland, 28 Days Later - my fav)

2- The End Of Life As WE Know It! (The Colony, I Am Legend)

That got us thinking...could a virus do this in real life? Could a virus really create a situation like Zombieland or 28 Days Later or The Colony where NOTHING IS EVER THE SAME AGAIN?

To find out I spent an afternoon with Andrew Pekosz, an Associate Prof. of Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins U in MD.

He made me feel better about all of this - watch for yourself:

October 2 - A Listener Shout-Out Special!

October 02, 2009

September 25 - What's Your Favorite Story?

September 25, 2009

Can Science Explain Public Outbursts?

September 14, 2009

Nothing new about people behaving badly in public – but lately, news headlines seem dominated by sensational stories of outbursts and temper tantrums. 

Tennis star Serena Williams verbally attacking a line judge during the U.S. Open – costing her the match. 

Congressman Joe Wilson shouting “you lie!” at President Obama during President's health care address last week – leaving political decorum on the House floor.

Musician Kanye West climbing on stage to dispute the results of an MTV Video Music Award – humiliating winner Taylor Swift. 

And this was just in the past week! 

I spoke to University of Maryland psychology professor Michael Dougherty to find out if there’s more than just big egos or bad tempers behind these raw moments.

Dougherty says that our brain’s highly developed prefrontal cortex is what helps us control our mental processes… most of the time. But even the occasional outburst is pretty normal human behavior.

The only difference is most of us aren’t pop music stars, pro athletes or politicians. So that little meltdown you had in your car when the driver on your left cut you off? Yeah… that’s not all over YouTube. 

But could this breakdown in social niceties be explained as vestigial behavior carried over from when early man was in constant fight or flight mode?

That’s still probably no excuse for anyone who's ever thrown a chair across a basketball court or yelled at their colleague. But let’s face it, we're emotional creatures, and sometimes they do get the better of us. 

Of course, not every tantrum has to do with stress or fear…

Hmmm... who does that bring to mind?

(Photos: Getty Images)

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September 11 - What's Your Favorite Story?

September 11, 2009

VOTE HERE!

So...for whatever reasons our poll isn't embedding properly this week. If you wanna vote online, please vote here. Thanks!

Also, here are banana images from my story:

credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation

Credit: Simone Moser, University of Innsbruck, Austria, et al.

September 4 - What's Your Favorite Story?

September 10, 2009

This Is Your Brain Hearing The Beatles In Stereo. Or Maybe Mono.

September 09, 2009

Trying to decide whether to buy the stereo or mono version of the new Beatles album? Well….we asked Daniel Levitin, Professor of Psychology and Music at McGill University AND the author of This Is Your Brain On Music, what the big difference is between the two as far as your brain is concerned…

So for stereo the record producers virtually “place” each source of sound in a specific location that your brain can detect...the guitar sound is coming from 40 degrees off to your right, the bass is 25 degrees off to your left, etc. With mono there's no differentiation - all the sound comes from the same "location".

He says stereo also sounds more realistic to us…

BUT…how does your brain distinguish what’s coming from where?

All this means I should buy the Beatles album in stereo, right?  Because it’ll sound better that way…or NOT!

So the bottom line is that (in general) stereo mimics how we hear things in nature while mono (in this case) is what the Beatles actually intended us to hear. Do you really want to upset the Beatles???  I asked Levitin which version he chose – mono or stereo?

He took no chances. He bought one of each.

For more info on Daniel Levitin's work you can visit www.daniellevitin.com or send him a tweet: @danlevitin.

Monkey Music and Metallica

September 02, 2009

Check out this article about monkey music by Jennifer Viegas:

Non-human animals usually prefer silence to our music. However, when cotton-top tamarins heard songs based on their own calls, the diminutive, fluffy primates listened with interest to the monkey music, which even altered their moods, according to a new study.

Here are monkey music samples composed by David Teie used in this research:

Monkey Threat Music!

Monkey Soothing Music!

So how does Metallica fit into the mix? Apparently that was the only human music that soothed the Monkey. If we're talking the guitar solo in Master Of Puppets...I can see their point...it starts at 3:55.

Take A Tour Of The Cryosphere!

September 01, 2009

It's happening on Wednesday, thanks to NASA!

Webcam chat at Ustream

Åugust 21 - What's Your Favorite Story?

August 21, 2009