Touching Molten Lead

The Leidenfrost Effect occurs when a liquid, in close contact with a molten metal, creates an insulating vapor layer which keeps the liquid from rapidly boiling (e.g. when you drop water onto a hot pan, if the temperature equals or exceeds the Leidenfrost point, the water skips across the pan and takes longer to evaporate). The liquid vaporizes and the gas encompasses the metal so the liquid doesn't directly touch the metal. Vapor, being a poor conductor of heat, allows for the metal to cool much slower.

See a closeup video.

Some, having figured out the Leidenfrost Effect, like to touch molten lead with their bare fingers ... or even pour it into their mouth.

Quantifying Consciousness

Dr. Giulio Tononi is attempting to measure consciousness to help us better understand what consciousness is.

Tononi sees consciousness as refined information. Adapting information theory, originally applied to computers and telecommunications, Tononi is trying to build a “consciousness meter” to measure consciousness like we measure blood pressure and temperature. Information theory basically measures how much uncertainty is reduced from an amount of information a signal gives off. For example, a photodiode distinguishes between light and dark, but it cannot distinguish between different kinds of light. Because it cannot process more complex amounts of information, photodiodes awareness remains limited.

Brain neurons are fancy photodiodes, producing electric bursts in response to incoming signals. But the conscious experiences they produce have much more information than in a single diode ... i.e. they reduce much more uncertainty. A photodiode is in 1 of 2 states, our brain can be in one of trillions.

Tononi also says that consciousness is not only information, but the integration thereof. Think of our brain neurons as specialized people who speak the same language ... we have trillions of "experts" communicating with each other every second so we understand more than any other living thing. The more isolated the brain's parts, the lower the phi because the parts cannot share information.

The theory is still in its infancy because the brain has billions of neurons and trillions of possible connections.

Your Home's Height Affects Your Age

National Geographic reports that you'll age slightly faster on a higher altitude.

It's because of the time-bending effects of the theories of relativity. Special relativity predicts time flows at an unsteady rate and also says that acceleration affects time. So, a clock speeding away from an observer will appear to tick slower than a stationary clock. Relativity also predicts that gravity also affects time - the stronger the gravity, the slower the time. Gravitation pull on an object increases closer to the center of mass, so an object on Earth's surface experiences a slightly stronger pull than one floating in the atmosphere.

But don't go buying homes underground. Over a 79-year lifetime, you'd only add ~90 billionths of one second to your life if you moved to lower ground.

The New Meaning to "Electric" Guitar

Just see the video

Why Do We Eat Chili's?

Chili's get their heat from capsaicin, an organic compound that fights off a fungus that attacks chili seeds. More capsaicin is produced in chili's where the fungus is more likely to grow, and little where the fungus is not a danger. Aside from humans, no other mammal eats these beasts. But if they're so spicy, why do we eat chili's?

Some push the health card b/c chili's: help lower blood pressure, may have antimicrobial effects, and the pain of chilies can neutralize other pain. Dr. Paul Rozin argues that the beneficial effects are too small to explain why. What's his proposition?

Benign masochism.

Dr. Rozin tested chili eaters by gradually increasing the pain (pungency) of the food. Participants all preferred the level closest to unbearable. He says we eat chili's for the same reason we ride roller coasters - for the thrill. He says only humans enjoy events that produce feelings we are programmed to avoid.

Whatever the case, it still doesn't explain this woman who eats jolokia peppers (hottest in the world) like candy, even rubbing it in her eyes.

Genius Math Problem Not So Hard

In Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon's character solves a seemingly impossible math problem dealing with homeomorphically irreducible trees. What?

But the hardest part of the problem is pronouncing it, not the math.

This video demonstrates that a child could solve it.

Ancients Made Beer Medicine

The American Journal of Physical Anthropology reports that the antibiotic tetracycline was found in bones of a Nubian mummy buried 1,600 years ago in Sudan — long before scientists discovered tetracycline, in 1948.

But so what?

Nubians were skilled brewers. A bacterium, Streptomyces, secrets Tetracycline. So researchers believe that Nubians purposely made medicinal beer by using grain contaminated with antibiotic-producing Streptomyces bacteria.

Buying Means Touching

American Economic Review reports that people will pay 50% more for a product if the item is in front of them vs. on a computer screen or just a text description.

Interestingly, product desire lowered when products were behind plexiglass. The findings demonstrate that being able to physically touch a product significantly affects purchasing behavior.

Duration Affects Purchases

Nature Neuroscience reports that when deciding between two snacks on the shelf, you will probably choose the one you look at just a fraction of a second longer.

In one study, students fasted for three hours, before rating the tastiness of snack foods and then chose between snack foods they had rated as more or less equally desirable. Researchers tracked the student’s eye movements.

Students looked back and forth several times, usually glancing first at the snack on the left. 70% of the time they selected the snack they looked at for .5 seconds longer.

Study Smarter, Not Harder

The New York Times reports on a number of easy to do techniques to make the most of your study time.

Alternate
Don't stick to one study location.

Simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention. A classic 1978 experiment found that college students who studied 40 vocabulary words in two different rooms tested far better than students who studied the words twice, in the same room. Studies have confirmed the finding for a variety of topics. The brain associates what's being studied and external cues. You remember the green room with the First Amendment or the smell of the rug with the eating habits of hippos. In effect, you're forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material.

Mix
Study distinct but related concepts in one sitting, not just one topic.

Alternating, for example, vocabulary, reading and speaking in a new language — leaves a far deeper impression on the brain than concentrating on one skill at a time. Musicians practice sessions often include a mix of scales, musical pieces and rhythmic work. Many athletes routinely mix their workouts with strength, speed and skill drills.

Rest
Take periodic breaks - your brain needs rest just like a muscle does

Test
Testing not only assesses command of a subject, but helps one learn it.

Much like the bizarre Heisenberg uncertainty principle - where measurement a property of a particle alters that property - testing measures, but also changes and improves knowledge. Testing makes people cringe but that's the point. The harder it is to remember something, the harder it will be to forget.

Diet of Bones

Bearded vultures, or "Lammergeiers", are scavengers like other vultures. But they are unique amongst vultures because 90% of the bearded vulture's diet consists of the bones of carrion, not the flesh. It eats chunks of bone as big as a human fist in one gulp to partake of the nutritious bone marrow. Its stomach acid pH is unknown at this point, but is believed to be as extreme as that of other vultures - hovering around a pH of 1.

The Journal of Raptor Research notes that bearded vultures can digest bone within 24 hours and the high presence of acid-secreting cells is what allows for the different diet of bearded vultures with that of other vultures.

See it attack and eat

The "How" Behind Late Bloomers

Malcolm Gladwell penned an insightful article on creativity and genius back in 2008. He takes two genius' from the world of painting - Picasso and Cezanne - and asks what it was about Cezanne that didn't allow him to bloom until much later than Picasso.

Gladwell notes a few salient points:

1) Creative genius is either conceptual and experimental; i.e. the Picasso's (conceptual) of the world don't search for things in their work, they know from the beginning what they want and their work is only the means to that already defined end. In contrast, there are the Cezanne's (experimental) who try and fail repeatedly because their end goal isn't known ... yet.

2) Late bloomers need a support system or they simply cannot sustain the level of effort needed to hone their craft.

3) Late bloomers, in one sense, deserve more praise than conceptual genius' because their accomplishment requires far more forbearance and blind faith to materialize.