Research Overload

Introduction
Scientific advances are coming thick and fast, too fast for me to keep up with all of it. I am overwhelmed by the clips I received this week. The printed stuff once again piles up on my desk. I think one of the reasons for super-specialization is simply to limit the stuff on offer. Here's a few links to selections that interested me ...

Male chimpanzees prefer older females. Apparently, what impresses chimpanzees is proven performance, not finicky, frolicking mates. Human males take note.

A robot has been developed that takes account of its condition, and reprograms itself to adjust for injuries. In other words, the robot lives with "what its got." Similar advanced techniques are involved in GOOGLE's successful translation program.

Robots are not the only self-adjusting species. Apparently, the Bird Flu is evolving, and now has features that allow it to attack people. "Previous work indicates that the human cell receptors the mutated H5N1 could target are present in the upper respiratory tract. This sets the stage for the virus to be spread among humans through coughing and sneezing, says Kawaoka."

For those of us who feel something is wrong with being devoted to money-making, a new study supports our suspicion that "money is the root of all evil."

"... In one experiment, the researchers gave volunteers a difficult puzzle and told them to ask for help at any time. People who had been reminded of money waited nearly 70% longer to seek help than those who hadn't. People cued to think of money also spent only half as much time, on average, assisting another person who asked for their help with a word problem and picked up fewer pencils for someone who'd dropped them.

"The antisocial behavior didn't end there. Volunteers reminded of money preferred working alone even if sharing the task with a co-worker resulted in substantially less work. They also chose solitary leisure activities on a questionnaire--preferring a private cooking lesson, for instance, over a dinner for four. And when asked to set up two chairs for a get-to-know-you chat with another volunteer, subjects who'd seen a money-themed computer screensaver placed the chairs further apart than subjects who'd seen a fish screensaver, Vohs and colleagues report in tomorrow's issue of Science. Taken together, Vohs says, the findings suggest that thinking of money puts people in a frame of mind in which they don't want to depend on others and don't want others to depend on them"

I particularly note the word "anti-social" in the foregoing summary. The premises of Adam Smith's economics assume and encourage anti-social behavior.

Being a glutton for overwork, I plan to attend the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting to be held in San Francisco, February 15-19, 2007. The theme of this year's meeting is science and human welfare. AAAS is sponsoring a Town Hall meeting on climate change, Sunday, Feb 18, which I will attend. As a member in Philosophy of Science, with a special interest in Ethics, this Annual Meeting should be extremely interesting. The climate change issue, among others, seems to have jolted scientists into action about the effects of their work. This is a welcome development, as the Cold War encouraged, even demanded, a much less engaged attitude.