Some of the most interesting science thoughts and links from around the web:
Do Giraffes Float? – Scientific American
“Strange as it may seem, the floating and swimming abilities of giraffes—or rather their supposed lack of floating and swimming abilities—have often been written about by experts. ”
A Cold Winter in Europe, but what of the Arctic? – National Snow and Ice Data Center
“Arctic sea ice extent for December 2010 was the lowest in the satellite record for that month. These low ice conditions are linked to a strong negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation, similar to the situation that dominated the winter of 2009-2010.”
Girl youngest ever to discover a supernova – Vancouver Sun
“Kathryn made the discovery over the weekend under the supervision of her father Paul Gray and with help from family friend David Lane[…]the trio spotted a magnitude 17 supernova in galaxy UGC 3378 in the constellation Camelopardalis, about 240 million light years away.”
“Piltdown” medicine: Andrew Wakefield’s scientific fraud was worse than previously thought — Scienceblogs.com
“the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an analysis of the scientific fraud committed by Wakefield, fraud that journalist Brian Deer likens in an accompanying editorial to the Piltdown Man”
Do the Qesem Cave Fossils Really Change Our Understanding of Human Evolution?— Wired
“A handful of fossil teeth found in Israel’s Qesem Cave, described in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and attributed to 400,000 year old members of our own species in multiple news reports, are said to rewrite the story of human evolution.”
Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation? – Robert H. Frank, Thomas Gilovich, and Dennis T. Regan
“there remains […] public skepticism toward economics — namely, the perception that economics encourages people to act selfishly in pursuit of their own material interests. In this paper, we examine the validity of this perception.”
Have you read anything great online this week? Please leave links in the comments.