FieldNotes: Encounter with Pluto

The Walking Dead by Maria Konnikova at The New Yorker:

Did you get enough sleep last night? Are you feeling fully awake, like your brightest, smartest, and most capable self? This, unfortunately, is a pipe dream for the majority of Americans. “Most of us are operating at suboptimal levels basically always,” the Harvard neurologist and sleep medicine physician Josna Adusumilli told me. Fifty to seventy million Americans, Adusumilli says, have chronic sleep disorders. In a series of conversations with sleep scientists this May, facilitated by a Harvard Medical School Media Fellowship, I learned that the consequences of lack of sleep are severe. While we all suffer from sleep inertia (a general grogginess and lack of mental clarity), the stickiness of that inertia depends largely on the quantity and quality of the sleep that precedes it. If you’re fully rested, sleep inertia dissipates relatively quickly. But, when you’re not, it can last far into the day, with unpleasant and even risky results.....

Brontosaurus and the nature of philosophy by Leonard Finkelman at Scientia Salon:

What I say now ought to be uncontroversial, but bears repeating: philosophy has a public relations problem. Specious criticism from unreflective popular figures has done its damage. Inquisitive laypeople are routinely exposed to philosophy in one of two contexts: as an activity that works at best as a pointless diversion, or as an activity directed towards defending itself from charges of pointless diversion. I have discussed this problem before, but the situation remains largely unchanged [1]. I will therefore court controversy with a potentially helpful suggestion: we should start proclaiming, loudly and repeatedly, that one the most significant works of philosophy this year was “A specimen-level phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Diplodocidae (Dinosauria, Sauropoda),” and we should remind people that this is the work that brought Brontosaurus back [2]......

From electric hairbrushes to toning sneakers: Absurd advertising for over 100 years by Oliver Stabbe at O Say Can You See?:

...........What I find most fascinating is not what the documents contain (though the gorilla-faces and other materials are very interesting as an entity), but how inventors convinced masses of people to buy their inventions. The advertisements reflect the medical paradigms of the times and demonstrate new creations and information that would supposedly better peoples' lives due to scientific development. Speaking from a modern perspective, some of the equipment and medicines seem questionable and in some cases, even ridiculous. I can't help but wonder what my great-grandparents would have thought and whether they were persuaded by the grandiose claims of inventors. Looking at some of these documents, I find the blatantly misleading material in a few of them puzzling and a little unsettling.........

This Is What a Dolphin's Vagina Looks Like by Diane Kelly at Throb:

A couple of months ago, I helped out in Patricia Brennan’s lab when she made casts of dolphin vaginas. You heard me correctly. Dolphin vaginas. Brennan is well-known among biologists for her work on sexual conflict in ducks, and on the internet for her high-speed videos of duck erection. I’ve known Brennan for years – the world of biologists who study the evolution of penises is pretty damn small. Seeking Brennan’s expertise in examining complex, three dimensional models of vaginas, Texas A&M graduate student Dara Orbach traveled all the way to Massachusetts with a crate of frozen dolphin parts. I tagged along to help with the messy, messy work that followed.....

Misunderstanding the genome: A (polite) rant by Jonathan M. Gitlin at Ars Technica:

.............Here we get to another misconception: screening tests and diagnostic tests are not the same. Genetic (or genomic, where multiple genes are analyzed) screening tests don't always tell you if someone has a disease. Rather, they're typically probabilistic—they tell you if you've got a greater chance of a problem than the average person. Even an increased risk compared to the general population is still just that: a risk. But humans aren't good at understanding probabilities and risks, something that's clear even with simple examples like the Monty Hall problem. In fact, there's no reason to believe that more screening would lead to more effective treatment of a given disease, which is why there are such concerns right now with the overuse of both prostate cancer screening tests and mammograms................

How Evolution And Logic Relate: Natural Filtering vs Foresight by Jag Bhalla and David Sloan Wilson at Errors We Live By:

..............Multicellular organisms are remarkably robust to many diseases and parasites. They also tolerate a considerable burden of selfish genetic elements such as junk DNA, meiotic drive genes, and neoplasms. Likewise for human societies. Many dysfunctional nations persist despite being dysfunctional. Here is how I translate between your logic and my evolutionary way of thinking. Your scenario imagines individuals so dependent upon the group that undermining the group would be suicidal. So it’s only logical for a self-interested decision-making agent to avoid undermining the group. But evolution is not a logical decision-making agent! It is a mindless process based only on fitness differences. To analyze your scenario from an evolutionary perspective, we need to posit an undermining type (no matter how logically stupid that seems) competing with a non-undermining type. Their fitnesses are not different within any given group because they are all in the same boat. But there are big fitness differences between groups that do or don’t contain the undermining type. The logically sensible non-undermining type evolves by between-group selection. ............

Why we’re so scared of GMOs, according to someone who has studied them since the start by Roberto A. Ferdman at Wonkblog:

.........In a lot of ways, I think it’s akin to anything that appears on a label that says “may contain X,” where X is literally anything people haven’t heard of or don’t understand, and because of that, sounds somewhat strange. We actually tested this with a label on apples that said “this apple is ripened using ethylene,” which is a very commonly used and safe process. But people were as averse to those apples as they were to GMOs, simply because they didn’t know what ethylene was.........

Searching For The Origins Of Individualism And Collectivism by Daniel Hruschka at This View of Life:

The life of Ferdinand Tonnies, German sociologist and political activist, is a testament to the dramatic social changes which swept across Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. Born in 1855 to a wealthy farmer at the northern fringe of the German empire, Tonnies spent his childhood working on the family estate, sharing close quarters with parents, siblings, and servants, and living in a traditional, face-to-face community of neighbors and extended family. But late in his childhood, young Tonnies’ life transformed when his father uprooted his family to the bustling market town of Husum in a career shift from farming to banking. In this new world of commerce and cosmopolitan society, young Tonnies personally excelled at school and began a life-long journey which further distanced him from his rural roots and propelled him to academic appointments in some of Europe’s most ascendant metropoli........

I lost 100 pounds in a year. My “weight loss secret” is really dumb. by Alasdair Wilkins at Vox:

A year ago, I weighed 285 pounds. Today I weigh 185, which is more or less optimal for my 6-foot frame. Losing 100 pounds has been maybe the best thing that's ever happened to me. I feel better physically. I have newfound confidence in my ability to accomplish my goals. I'm more fun to be around, as the veiled bitterness that used to inflect interactions with my friends has evaporated. Indeed, all these fundamental feelings of self-loathing I'd been struggling with for as long as I could remember have disappeared. Basically, after convincing myself that I was a failure — a belief in which I saw my weight as both cause and effect — I've removed the limitations that I once placed on myself, and it's because I lost 100 pounds. I desperately wish that weren't the case......

Carl Safina Makes A Case for Anthropomorphism by Becca Cudmore at Audubon:

Many scientists say it’s impossible to study thought and emotion in non-humans. Animals, they say, don’t communicate their inner turmoil through spoken word, which is why any attempt to understand their psyche is typically sneered at as “anthropomorphism” (transferring your own experiences and emotions onto the animals you study) and deemed “unscientific.”.....

A special Pluto topic of the week:
New Horizons Emerges Unscathed from Pluto Flyby by George Musser at Scientific American:

At 8:52 P.M. Eastern time, the New Horizons control center here received radio confirmation that the space probe had made—and survived—its closest approach to Pluto, passing 12,500 kilometers above the planet’s sunlit hemisphere.* The transmission was the first since 11:30 P.M. ET last night, ending a radio silence imposed so that the spacecraft could avoid interrupting its observations. The flyby may well break a record for the number of historic milestones set by a single space mission: last of the first visits to the textbook planets in our solar system; most distant object ever visited; first trip to the Kuiper Belt of icy worlds that ring the outer solar system; fastest spacecraft launched; and probably most budgetary deaths and resurrections. A mission to Pluto had languished for decades in NASA’s developmental doldrums; the fact the spacecraft flew at all owes much to public support. Pluto might be fairly called the “People’s Planet.”...........

Spacecraft Will Reach Pluto in July, Revealing Last Face in Solar System by Nadia Drake at National Geographic:

Small, cold, and absurdly far away, Pluto has always been selfish with its secrets. Since its discovery in 1930, the dwarf planet has revolved beyond reach, its frosty surface a blurred mystery that even the most powerful telescopes can’t bring into focus. We know about Pluto. But we don’t really know it. That will change on July 14, when NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to fly within 8,000 miles of the frozen dwarf. It’s a risky maneuver, but if all goes well, the fleeting close encounter will unveil the last of the classical solar system’s unexplored worlds. We’ll finally get to meet the former ninth planet face-to-face—to really see its surface and that of its largest moon, Charon. Scientists have some guesses about what they might find, but the only thing they can say for sure is that Pluto promises to be a surprise.......

Why Do We Have To Wait So Long To Learn About Pluto? by Ethan Siegel at Forbes
The Man Who (Almost) Discovered Pluto…and Also (Almost) Discovered the Expanding Universe by Corey S. Powell at Out There
Pluto Is Bigger Than We Thought by Nadia Drake at No Place Like Home
New From New Horizons: 5 Things We Just Found Out About Pluto and Charon by Alan Boyle at NBC News
Pluto’s Large Moon Charon Is Stunning by Nadia Drake at No Place Like Home
Two for the price of one: The unique binary system of Pluto and Charon by Karen Kaplan at LA Times
Guided By Starlight, New Horizons Speeds Toward Pluto by Nadia Drake at No Place Like Home
Reaching Pluto, and the End of an Era of Planetary Exploration by Dennis Overbye at The New York Times




As New Horizons Speeds Toward Pluto, We Revisit Its Gorgeous Jupiter Pics by Nadia Drake at No Place Like Home
Life Imitates Art: Pluto’s Face Predicted in 1979 by Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy
Proposed Names for Pluto System’s Features Include Kirk and Spock by Nadia Drake at No Place Like Home
Why is Pluto not a planet? by Greg Laden at Greg Laden's Blog
Here’s the Weird Feature I’d Most Like to See on Pluto by Nadia Drake at No Place Like Home
Pluto Flyby Already Inspiring Artists by Glendon Mellow at Symbiartic
The Ashes Of Pluto's Discoverer Are Also Flying On New Horizon by Kristina Killgrove at Forbes
Seeing Pluto: strain, pain and 'awesome' science by Rebekah Higgitt at The H Word
On Planets X and Naming Names by John J. McKay at Mammoth Tales
The Women Who Rule Pluto by Adrienne LaFrance at The Atlantic
NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Sends Signal From Pluto to Earth by Kenneth Chang at NYTimes



And if that is not enough, more readings for later this weekend:
Science and skepticism by Larry Moran at Sandwalk
What Happens to Sperm Once They're Inside a Woman? by Diane Kelly at Throb
Costly signalling in scholarly communications by Cameron Neylon at Science in the Open
The people who need very little sleep by Helen Thomson at BBC - Future
Epigenetic ‘eraser’ can reset behavior, disease vulnerability and life experiences by Ben Locwin at Genetic Literacy Project



The curious truth about belly button fluff by Jason G Goldman at BBC - Future
Fin (the End): Putting a Stop to the Consumption of Shark Fin Soup by Layla Eplett at Food Matters
Naps May Improve Our Frustration Tolerance by Nicholas Bakalar at Well
The Evidence Points to a Better Way to Fight Insomnia by AUSTIN FRAKT at Upshot
I Used to Be A Moth Assassin. This is How I Fell In Love With Them by Sandra Lanman at SciStarter blog
The Overprotected Kid by Hanna Rosin at The Atlantic
I Have A Few Questions For These Trees by Michelle Nijhuis at The Last Word On Nothing
You’ll Find The Biggest Male Appendage in the World—at the Beach by Robert Krulwich at Curiously Krulwich
Autism: how unorthodox treatments can exploit the vulnerable by David Robert Grimes at Notes & Theories
Are GMOs safe? Yes. The case against them is full of fraud, lies, and errors. by Will Saletan at Slate
Colic Myths by David Ramey, D.V.M. at David Ramey, D.V.M.
Not All Strange Burials Are Vampires Or Zombies, Archaeologists Warn by Kristina Killgrove at Forbes



The Acrotretids: Micro-brachiopods from the Dawn of... Brachiopods by Christopher Taylor at Catalogue of Organisms
For Optimal Athletic Performance, Sleep Naked by T.J. Murphy at LAVA Magazine
Fossilised sperm found in Antarctica is world's oldest, say scientists by Philip Oldfield at Fossils - Guardian
Starlings on Prozac: How pharmaceuticals may affect wildlife by GrrlScientist at GrrlScientist
Do we need to teach our students about the scientists as well as the science? by Meghan Duffy at Dynamic Ecology
Do Dolphins and Bats Use Sound the Same Way? by Carol Clark at The Epoch Times
Dear Dr. Collins: I’m Disabled. Can the N.I.H. Spare a Few Dimes? by Brian Vastag at The Last Word On Nothing
The Refined, Fine-Tuned Placental Mammal Family Tree by Darren Naish at Tetrapod Zoology
A Tale of Two Brains: Are Two Really Better than One? by Marc Bekoff at Animal Emotions
Spot the difference: Researchers use infrared light to ID Malaysia's rare black leopards by Earth Touch Staff at Earth Touch News Network




What genes make a mammoth woolly? Scientists analyze the genome of an extinct beast. by Ulli Hain at Science Extracted
Trip to Space Station Grows Hair on Male Mice by Lowell Goldsmith at JID Jottings
Urban turbines mine wind power by Chelsey B. Coombs at Scienceline
Why Red Algae Never Packed Their Bags for Land by Jennifer Frazer at The Artful Amoeba
How do common medications influence moral decisions? by Molly Crockett at Head quarters
The staggeringly large benefits of conserving nature by Chris Mooney at Washington Post
Don’t Mistake Genetics For Fate by Andrew Gelman and Kaiser Fung at The Daily Beast




Monday Myth: Horses Need to be Fed at the Same Time Every Day at SUCCEED blog
What you may not know about sleep by William Park at BBC Future
Bloodletting, Bone Brushes, and Tooth Keys: White-Knuckle Adventures in Early Dentistry by Hunter Oatman-Stanford at Collectors Weekly
Diagnosing Deafness by Perspiration by Jai Virdi--Dhesi at From the Hands of Quacks
Rolling through campus and talking sleep with famed researcher William Dement by Ruthann Richter at Scope
What Exactly Is Melatonin and Can It Make You Sleep Better? by Susan Rinkunas at NYMag



Previously in this series:
FieldNotes: a view to spotted horses in the morning
FieldNotes: The Word For World is Blue (or is it Gold?)
FieldNotes: Golden Mean, polite middle-ground, and optimal numbers of legs.
FieldNotes: speeding up and slowing down time
FieldNotes: from Captain Ahab to Jeff Goldblum, chasing the giants
FieldNotes: this is not your grandparents' neuroscience!
FieldNotes: Brontosaurus in, Food Babe out.
FieldNotes: Rogue Microwave Ovens Call Home
FieldNotes: Let the sleeping apes lie
FieldNotes: one thing leads to another leads to another
FieldNotes: Seductive Allure of Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations
FieldNotes: do African horses do flehmen at the sight of Derby hats?
FieldNotes: How The Bird Got Its Beak
FieldNotes: When Snakes Had Legs...
FieldNotes: Only before the bicameral mind evolved could people fall for Bohannon's cheap stunts
FieldNotes: Water, fire, origin of life, origin of cooking.
FieldNotes: Jurassic World, and other strange animals...
FieldNotes: Honey Badger Don’t Care!
FieldNotes: Hallucigenia is back on its head again.
FieldNotes: Poisonous and grieving quail, reclusive rail, and giants!



Images:
A postcard depicting gorillas in fancy attire. The back prints a rhyming poem about a sick, fictitious Miss Pugg. National Museum of American History.
Illustration by Julia Suits, The New Yorker Cartoonist & author of The Extraordinary Catalog of Peculiar Inventions.
Pluto: NASA