5 ms·

50 Things we know now that we didn't know this time last year

82 points by malvosenior 17y ago

mixmax 17y ago
This one surprised me: "Analysis of Greenland ice samples shows Europe froze solid in less than 12 months 12,800 years ago, partly due to a slowdown of the Gulf Stream. Once triggered, the cold persisted for 1,300 years." Scared me a little too since I'm from Northern Europe... Does anyone know where to find more information or the original research?
- bd 17y ago
  Their source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427344.800-mini-ice-age-took-hold-of-europe-in-months.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427344.800-mini-ice-... Some more details in the ESF press release: "Geological evidence shows that the Big Freeze was brought about by a sudden influx of freshwater, when the glacial Lake Agassiz in North America burst its banks and poured into the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. This vast pulse, a greater volume than all of North America’s Great Lakes combined, diluted the North Atlantic conveyor belt and brought it to a halt." http://www.esf.org/media-centre/press-releases/ext-single-news/article/big-freeze-plunged-europe-into-ice-age-in-months-592.html http://www.esf.org/media-centre/press-releases/ext-single-ne... And the background on "Big Freeze" mini ice-age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas
  - mixmax 17y ago
    Thanks!
jacquesm 17y ago
That would be an even better article if it linked to the original research for those items.
- Shamiq 17y ago
  Wouldn't that be a cool firefox plugin? Highlight text and click "Find Original Research." Opens a new tab/window and shows search result for key terms.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    That would be very neat indeed, the problem would be to figure out what the 'original research' was in the midst of lots of fluff around it. Plenty of times articles will be 10% citations from the original but ranking higher in google because they don't link to the original stuff but do get linked themselves. If you could crack that though it would be awesome.
    - Shamiq 17y ago
      http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en-us&q=Domestic+pigs+learn+find+mirrors+work+use+find+food&aq=f&oq=&aqi= http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls... How many of those would put you close enough to the original research that you wouldn't care to dig deeper?
      - jacquesm 17y ago
        Probably the easiest would be to work with a blacklist for 'popular' science publications and blogs, and a whitelist for places where original research would be published. The 'elsevier' link would be the only one left from that page then, and that's the real deal. This starts to look like it is a really nice weekend project. Anybody have experience with writing browser plug ins ? Greasemonkey script even maybe ?
        klipt 17y ago
        Or use http://scholar.google.com/ http://scholar.google.com/
        deleted 17y ago
lunchbox 17y ago
This is a neat list but skewed towards fun facts rather than substantial research. I would love to see a list of the biggest findings of the year, ranked in importance by scientists.
- shalmanese 17y ago
  It's hard to judge the significance of findings until well after the fact. Science is a process, not just a series of papers.
- s3graham 17y ago
  A few here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/science/july-dec09/yearinscience_12-31.html http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/science/july-dec09/yeari...
  - lunchbox 17y ago
    That's exactly what I was looking for; thanks!
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
kyro 17y ago
I came expecting points addressing ATTs shortfalls in service, and how they plan on improving. That's not what I got, unfortunately.
dangrossman 17y ago
"40. The speed of U.S Internet broadband lags far behind other industrial nations, including Japan, Finland, South Korea, France and Canada." We knew that last year, AT&T. I believe the government handed you some billions of dollars to do something about that years ago.
10ren 17y ago
5. One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not. Overstated? Seems unlikely to be just one gene. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/282009 http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/282009 12. Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images. Really? Including what people are remembering? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/living/article6898177.ece http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/living/article...
- kadavy 17y ago
  RE 5: "Only one gene is involved in the important barrier." but "the gene, FOXP2, is not the only one involved in our ability to communicate linguistically but the specific gene in chimpanzees and humans act and appear much differently." I guess it's just one that is the difference.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    That's testable. Splice the human gene in to the chimpanzee genome and see if the outcome is the talking chimpanzee. If not then there are more genes active.
    - rjurney 17y ago
      Oh man, we should DO that!
    - 10ren 17y ago
      It's a fascinating idea, especially what would their language (syntax) be like if they didn't have the concepts (semantics). Or would it turn out that they do have enough in the way of concepts, and have only lacked the language to express it? Or does syntax play a greater role in intelligence than we'd thought - not fully whorf-sapir, but perhaps there is some contribution, in the way that going from regular to context-free languages makes a difference? (personally, I think most of the power of our language comes from a huge vocabulary and combining it in regular ways; the CFG aspect doesn't seem so to be so profound in practice to me)
ams6110 17y ago
15. The higher a patient's body-mass index, the less respect he or she gets from doctors. I'm surprised to see this on the list, I would have thought this would have been established long ago. Anecdotally, I've talked with several docs who have commented on the frustration of trying to help people who clearly are not taking care of themselves (e.g 350 lb diabetics who won't lose weight, etc.)
- patrickgzill 17y ago
  Corollary might be "the spherical nurses in the cardiac unit are the ones most likely to lecture you on the importance of losing weight and a healthy diet". I accompanied a close friend to the local hospital to get some tests done (EKG, etc). Virtually all the nurses were such that you couldn't any part of the chair they were sitting on except the back of the seat.
bh23ha 17y ago
12. Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images. Does anyone else think we'll have the ability to "download" ourself into computers quite a while before we extend the life span of the human body beyond 250 years?
- ericb 17y ago
  I think consciousness is tied to the hardware it is running on, so I'm not optimistic about that prospect... If you mean "copy ourselves" then I'd be more inclined to agree.

82 points by malvosenior 17y ago

This one surprised me: "Analysis of Greenland ice samples shows Europe froze solid in less than 12 months 12,800 years ago, partly due to a slowdown of the Gulf Stream. Once triggered, the cold persisted for 1,300 years." Scared me a little too since I'm from Northern Europe... Does anyone know where to find more information or the original research?

bd 17y ago
Their source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427344.800-mini-ice-age-took-hold-of-europe-in-months.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427344.800-mini-ice-... Some more details in the ESF press release: "Geological evidence shows that the Big Freeze was brought about by a sudden influx of freshwater, when the glacial Lake Agassiz in North America burst its banks and poured into the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. This vast pulse, a greater volume than all of North America’s Great Lakes combined, diluted the North Atlantic conveyor belt and brought it to a halt." http://www.esf.org/media-centre/press-releases/ext-single-news/article/big-freeze-plunged-europe-into-ice-age-in-months-592.html http://www.esf.org/media-centre/press-releases/ext-single-ne... And the background on "Big Freeze" mini ice-age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas
- mixmax 17y ago
  Thanks!

jacquesm 17y ago

That would be an even better article if it linked to the original research for those items.

Shamiq 17y ago
Wouldn't that be a cool firefox plugin? Highlight text and click "Find Original Research." Opens a new tab/window and shows search result for key terms.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  That would be very neat indeed, the problem would be to figure out what the 'original research' was in the midst of lots of fluff around it. Plenty of times articles will be 10% citations from the original but ranking higher in google because they don't link to the original stuff but do get linked themselves. If you could crack that though it would be awesome.
  - Shamiq 17y ago
    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en-us&q=Domestic+pigs+learn+find+mirrors+work+use+find+food&aq=f&oq=&aqi= http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls... How many of those would put you close enough to the original research that you wouldn't care to dig deeper?
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      Probably the easiest would be to work with a blacklist for 'popular' science publications and blogs, and a whitelist for places where original research would be published. The 'elsevier' link would be the only one left from that page then, and that's the real deal. This starts to look like it is a really nice weekend project. Anybody have experience with writing browser plug ins ? Greasemonkey script even maybe ?
      - klipt 17y ago
        Or use http://scholar.google.com/ http://scholar.google.com/
        deleted 17y ago

lunchbox 17y ago

This is a neat list but skewed towards fun facts rather than substantial research. I would love to see a list of the biggest findings of the year, ranked in importance by scientists.

shalmanese 17y ago
It's hard to judge the significance of findings until well after the fact. Science is a process, not just a series of papers.
s3graham 17y ago
A few here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/science/july-dec09/yearinscience_12-31.html http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/science/july-dec09/yeari...
- lunchbox 17y ago
  That's exactly what I was looking for; thanks!
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

kyro 17y ago

I came expecting points addressing ATTs shortfalls in service, and how they plan on improving. That's not what I got, unfortunately.

dangrossman 17y ago

"40. The speed of U.S Internet broadband lags far behind other industrial nations, including Japan, Finland, South Korea, France and Canada." We knew that last year, AT&T. I believe the government handed you some billions of dollars to do something about that years ago.

10ren 17y ago

5. One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not. Overstated? Seems unlikely to be just one gene. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/282009 http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/282009 12. Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images. Really? Including what people are remembering? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/living/article6898177.ece http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/living/article...

kadavy 17y ago
RE 5: "Only one gene is involved in the important barrier." but "the gene, FOXP2, is not the only one involved in our ability to communicate linguistically but the specific gene in chimpanzees and humans act and appear much differently." I guess it's just one that is the difference.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  That's testable. Splice the human gene in to the chimpanzee genome and see if the outcome is the talking chimpanzee. If not then there are more genes active.
  - rjurney 17y ago
    Oh man, we should DO that!
  - 10ren 17y ago
    It's a fascinating idea, especially what would their language (syntax) be like if they didn't have the concepts (semantics). Or would it turn out that they do have enough in the way of concepts, and have only lacked the language to express it? Or does syntax play a greater role in intelligence than we'd thought - not fully whorf-sapir, but perhaps there is some contribution, in the way that going from regular to context-free languages makes a difference? (personally, I think most of the power of our language comes from a huge vocabulary and combining it in regular ways; the CFG aspect doesn't seem so to be so profound in practice to me)

ams6110 17y ago

15. The higher a patient's body-mass index, the less respect he or she gets from doctors. I'm surprised to see this on the list, I would have thought this would have been established long ago. Anecdotally, I've talked with several docs who have commented on the frustration of trying to help people who clearly are not taking care of themselves (e.g 350 lb diabetics who won't lose weight, etc.)

patrickgzill 17y ago
Corollary might be "the spherical nurses in the cardiac unit are the ones most likely to lecture you on the importance of losing weight and a healthy diet". I accompanied a close friend to the local hospital to get some tests done (EKG, etc). Virtually all the nurses were such that you couldn't any part of the chair they were sitting on except the back of the seat.

bh23ha 17y ago

12. Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images. Does anyone else think we'll have the ability to "download" ourself into computers quite a while before we extend the life span of the human body beyond 250 years?

ericb 17y ago
I think consciousness is tied to the hardware it is running on, so I'm not optimistic about that prospect... If you mean "copy ourselves" then I'd be more inclined to agree.