Mother's experience may produce phobias in children

Okay, this is a weird one. Scientists have found that the experiences of mothers during pregnancy may influence the behavior of their offspring. This may explain why many human babies appear to be born with a phobia of snakes and spiders, prior to any experience with them.

The newborn crickets whose mothers had been exposed to a spider were 113 percent more likely to seek shelter and stay there. They were also more likely to freeze when they encountered spider silk or feces — a behavior that could prevent them from being detected by a nearby spider. Overall, these newborns had better survival rates than other newborn crickets, eaten by the wolf spiders for the sake of science.

At the risk of freaking out pregnant mothers even more then normal, it makes me wonder just how many other behaviors are influenced by maternal experience. It should encourage fathers to do whatever they can to minimize the stress of their wives during this fragile time.

First step toward Replicators

One of the cooler technologies of Star Trek: The Next Generation is "replicators" - devices capable of producing nearly any food, material, or device from pure energy. In the mythology of Trek, these devices have essentially ended the laws of supply and demand by providing any material item, providing there is enough energy available. For the first time, scientists have taken a first step toward such technology by creating a primitive form of matter out of a beam of light.

It is only a first step, but who knows where it may lead?

Scientists claim to observe Evolution in action

I have tried to stay out of the Creaion/Evolution debate because in general I think it does more harm than good. But this article has the potential to drive the debate for the next decade. Evolutionary biologists claim to have actual observations of speciation in action. A species of fish in Lake Victoria appears to be diverging into two different species, based on pollution which is changing how they hunt and are hunted.

It should be noted that if this is true, then it is fundamentally different from the "coal moth" experiment which to now has been held up as the best experimental evidence of macroevolution in nature. That was simply a case where location conditions changed the proportion of dark and light moths in a population. This case instead may actually show one species becoming incapable or unlikely to ever interbreed.

Emergency Glasses

Annoyingly, neither this video nor pretty much any online resource really explains WHY this "pinhole glasses" technique works. However, I have read about pinhole cameras before, so I can provide a high-level explanation. Any lens works NOT by focussing a single image, but rather by aligning multiple images (really multiple paths of visible light) in such a way that they converge and form a single image on the receiving medium (either film, a light sensor, or your retina). A good lens focusses the multiple images formed by light coming in from all sides of the lens into a single image. A bad lens leaves multiple images at the point of "seeing". In the case of pinhole glasses or a pinhole camera, you can do without a lens, because you are minimizing the number of images coming through, leaving little chance for blur. In doing so, the image that DOES come thru is darker and lower in contrast than through a lens, and of course you lose all peripheral vision.

That is a very non-technical explanation, but I think it does the job of explaining why this cool experiment works.

Waterboarding Experiment

About a year back now, one of our regular commenters asked us to honestly consider whether waterboarding was torture, and thus morally indefensible, or was simply a pressuring technique that was safe and useful for interrogating terrorists. You may recall Waterboarding is a technique use in Guantanamo Bay, among other places, where the subject is exposed to a stream of water which fools the body into thinking it is drowning, without actually stopping the airflow or threatening life or limb. John McCain has been unapologetic in calling it torture, while other high political officials see it as more like locking a prisoner in solitary confinement - difficult for the subject but ultimately humane.

At the time, we had some discussion and overall I think there was no resolution - it was simply beyond the experience of any Mod-Bloggers. Most of us have never been arrested, much less exposed to pressure techniques or torture. Now, however, The Straight Dope has up a posting from one of its members who has exposed himself voluntarily to two common waterboarding techniques under controlled conditions to see what happened. The verdict? Torture, pure and simple.

It seems that there is a point that is hardwired in us. When we draw water into our respiratory tract to this point we are no longer in control. All hell breaks loose. Instinct tells us we are dying.

I have never been more panicked in my whole life. Once your lungs are empty and collapsed and they start to draw fluid it is simply all over. You [b]know[b] you are dead and it's too late. Involuntary and total panic.

There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. It would be like telling you not to blink while I stuck a hot needle in your eye.

At the time my lungs emptied and I began to draw water, I would have sold my children to escape. There was no choice, or chance, and willpower was not involved.

I never felt anything like it, and this was self-inflicted with a watering can, where I was in total control and never in any danger.

And I understood.

Waterboarding gets you to the point where you draw water up your respiratory tract triggering the drowning reflex. Once that happens, it's all over. No question.

Normally, I would be tempted to dismiss this as unproven and likely written by a partisan looking to make a point. But as I read through it, it really comes across as someone who tried it with no preconceptions - an idiot Mythbusters fan who thought it would be fun to prove it for himself. And I must say, he has just about convinced me that waterboarding is torture and morally indefensible.

Mmmmm... Science....

Science & Technology videos - Beautiful Science Experiment

Now I want to try this at home, and I don't have any kids!