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Feathered Dinos, Red Wine Diet, Female Objects, Seas A-risin, Sweet Whale Barf, Blair’s Animal Corner, Interview With Chris Mooney Re: The Republican Brain, And Much More…
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This week in Science
Coming up next.
A big feathered dinosaur
Paleontologists have recently found a tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur covered in feathers, called Yutyrannus huali. These dinos are the largest feathered animal in history, to our knowledge, and is about 40 times as large as the previous record-holder.
Sweet Whale Barf
Don’t want real whale vomit in your perfume? That’s ok, the University of British Columbia has identified a gene in balsam fir trees that could be used to make synthetic ambergris.
Red Wine Diet???
Resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, mimics the metabolic effects of dieting in a study of obese men.
Blair’s Animal Corner
RoundUp: Tough on weeds, tougher on amphibians. It turns out that this popular herbicide causes morphological changes in growing vertebrates. What does that mean for us humans?
Quantifying Deglaciation
The last deglaciation, “Meltwater Pulse 1A,” caused a sea-level rise of 12-20 meters. What does that mean for our current sea-level, as our planet’s polar ice melts?
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Interview with Chris Mooney
The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science and Reality is the latest release (April, 2012) from author Chris Mooney who penned the 2005 New York Times bestseller The Republican War on Science. He also hosts of the Point of Inquiry podcast and writes the “Intersection” blog for Science Progress. In the past he has written for Mother Jones, American Prospect, Harper’s, Washington Post, USA Today, and Slate among other publications.
Why do Republicans view science as a liberal endeavor? Science has become tied to politics, whether it makes sense to be or not. Money, votes, and lobbyists all have an opinion on scientific issues, even though none of those entities carry science degrees. In brain scan studies, conservatives had more gray matter in the amygdala (fear center of the brain). In Psychological studies, conservatives also fixated on unpleasant images, and liberals were more likely to focus on pleasant ones. It’s looking more and more like the gap between ideals on key science issues is growing – a consensus needs to be reached before difference of opinion grows so large it is irreconcilable. Perhaps this is why understanding republicans and their brains is so important.
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I'm the host of this little science show. 
I would like to say it was a great interview with Chris Mooney!
First, kudos to Kirsten. I thought it was great what you said about working together. More so because you were saying that there is purpose behind the differences in peoples brains. Similar to what you were pointing out, of course there are going to be differences in people and of course this may cause groupings. But that is part of human nature! Like fair skin people avoiding the sun more then darker skinned people or analytical/spatial brained people tending to be in chess clubs or with engineering degrees and charismatic people becoming politicians or generals. Everyone’s different but similar people will tend to cluster amongst themselves. This is no reason that people suddenly cannot work together and it doesn’t necessarily mean one side is right and another is wrong.
But again… as you were pointing out, people are just different
I think that this research in general is fascinating but my fear is how it is applied. My concern is that studies like these can easily be used to ‘classify’ people. Now Mr. Mooney shows that Republicans are different from Liberals. Tomorrow someone will say “Republicans have this wrong with their brains”… and suddenly differences are considered ‘defects’. I think to a degree Mr Mooney subtly presented the studies this way. Such as (and I paraphrase) “Liberals are open to change while Conservatives are not.”. It simply presents liberals as the positive and conservatives as the negative. Maybe appropriate wording could have been “Liberals have more propensity for change while conservatives want to keep things as they are.”. I should note that I DO NOT think that Mr Mooney was intending to convey anything like this and he may have even been presenting this as it was published by the studies. However… I think great care needs to be taken when something like this is presented. Even hard facts can be presented in biased fashion without anyone realizing it.
I don’t know if Kirsten was implying all of this but I think her one sentence was VERY appropriate and I’m glad she brought it up.
Oh, and I was also happy to hear Justin clarify Mr Mooney’s statement about the founders of the Constitution. Mr Mooney’s initial comment came across as the founders planning either being shortsighted or just not well thought out. When in fact the Constitution was created around the idea that they would never know all scenarios or future problems.
And to think… the Constitution was made by COMMITTEE…. that included MULTIPLE PARTIES… and yet it got done… and still works! Maybe our government can work like that again someday!
I agree that one person’s brain might be different from another and that will effect outside views. I do not agree with the condescending tone the guest presented it with.
And, we should be very careful defining ‘truth’. Sounds a bit like religion when he says, “You don’t get to define your own truth.”. Then he argues against dogmatism. This is the same kind of thing I heard when I used to go to church, and why I left.
I like the podcast, and I do not want it to stray to the dogmatic views of any side. Science is supposed to be about impartial observation. This guest was anything but impartial.
loved the article on the Republican brain, now if I can just convince one of my friends that the earth isn’t 6000 years old and that their are not two science sides to the evolution debate I’ll be set
Wow. Just wow. Deny reality?? Really?
Hi Guys,
I love your show, I am an Englishman living in Bangkok.
Keep up the good work!
All my love and thanks to your team…
Be happy!
Phil.
Justin… you are often confused.. but usually in a good way…
this podcast you are confused in a bad way when you say that Republicans used to be “fiscal conservatives”… This is a false meme innoculated into our politcal discussion that has no basis in fact.
Take any republican in the last 40 years. none were “fiscal conservatives”
Nixon imposed wage and price controls! this was a radical move. did have a surplus in 1969
Ford and now the debt soared.. 70 billion in 3 years.
Reagan cut taxes on rich and ballooned the debt by 100bn. increased FICA taxes to pay for it.
Bush I better than Reagan.. 34bn
Bush II off the rails.. 1.2 TRILLION…
compare that to Carter reducing it by 4bn and Clinton reducing it by 164bn.
“The first seven years of the G.W. Bush presidency increased the deficit by almost twice as much as the 32 years from JFK through G.H.W.Bush combined, and somewhat more than the 24 years from Harding through FDR combined (in inflation-adjusted dollars).
If one includes fiscal year 2008-2009 as part of the G.W. Bush administration (consistent with my treatment of all other administrations), that administration oversaw 3.5 times as much increase in Federal budget deficits as Presidents Kennedy through G.H.W.Bush put together.
“