ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 412

Americans Express Increasingly Warm Feelings Toward Religious Groups

By Pew Research Center

On the heels of a contentious election year in which partisan politics increasingly divided Americans, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that when it comes to religion, Americans generally express more positive feelings toward various religious groups today than they did just a few years ago. Asked to rate a variety of groups on a “feeling thermometer” ranging from 0 to 100, U.S. adults give nearly all groups warmer ratings than they did in a June 2014 Pew Research Center survey.

While Americans still feel coolest toward Muslims and atheists, mean ratings for these two groups increased from a somewhat chilly 40 and 41 degrees, respectively, to more neutral ratings of 48 and 50. Jews and Catholics continue to be among the groups that receive the warmest ratings – even warmer than in 2014.

Evangelical Christians, rated relatively warmly at 61 degrees, are the only group for which the mean rating did not change since the question was last asked in 2014. Americans’ feelings toward Mormons and Hindus have shifted from relatively neutral places on the thermometer to somewhat warmer ratings of 54 and 58, respectively. Ratings of Buddhists rose from 53 to 60. And mainline Protestants, whom respondents were not asked to rate in 2014, receive a warm rating of 65 in the new survey.

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AAAS chief puts weight behind protest march

By Pallab Ghosh

The head of the world’s largest scientific membership organisation has given his backing for a planned protest by researchers in Washington DC.

Rush Holt, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), said that people were “standing up for science”.

His remarks reflect growing concern among researchers that science is disregarded by President Trump

Scientists across the US plan to march in DC on 22 April.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my entire career,” the former Democratic congressman told BBC News.

“To see young scientists, older scientists, the general public speaking up for the idea of science. We are going to work with our members and affiliated organisations to see that this march for science is a success.”

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Scientists Narrow in on Landing Site for NASA’s Next Mars Rover

By Jeffrey Marlow

The Curiosity Mars rover is in the prime of its robotic life, approaching dramatic layered deposits on the slopes of Mt. Sharp. But even as the four and a half year-old mission reaches the features it was initially sent to investigate, scientists and engineers are feverishly planning for the next rover mission, Mars 2020.

2020 is shaping up to be a busy year on the Mars exploration calendar: in addition to the NASA rover, the European Space Agency and China have missions slotted for the favorable launch window. But where to go? Making the decision is a complex process, as teams of scientists and engineers develop navigational software, optimize the payload, and establish the geologic context of potential landing sites.

The importance of site selection is magnified by the role of Mars 2020 as the first step in a sample return mission – a longtime grail of Mars scientists. In its current configuration, the rover can collect about 30 canisters of soil, air, or rock particles. A future, planned-but-not-yet-officially-on-the-books mission will return the cache to Earth, where a robust analytical arsenal will be waiting to conduct a battery of detailed tests.

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The race to map the human body — one cell at a time

By Heidi Ledford

The first time molecular biologist Greg Hannon flew through a tumour, he was astonished — and inspired. Using a virtual-reality model, Hannon and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge, UK, flew in and out of blood vessels, took stock of infiltrating immune cells and hatched an idea for an unprecedented tumour atlas.

“Holy crap!” he recalls thinking. “This is going to be just amazing.”

On 10 February, the London-based charity Cancer Research UK announced that Hannon’s team of molecular biologists, astronomers and game designers would receive up to £20 million (US$25 million) over the next five years to develop its interactive virtual-reality map of breast cancers. The tumour that Hannon flew through was a mock-up, but the real models will include data on the expression of thousands of genes and dozens of proteins in each cell of a tumour. The hope is that this spatial and functional detail could reveal more about the factors that influence a tumour’s response to treatment.

The project is just one of a string that aims to build a new generation of cell atlases: maps of organs or tumours that describe location and make-up of each cell in painstaking detail.

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On Second Attempt, SpaceX Launches Rocket At NASA’s Historic Pad

By Colin Dwyer

To paraphrase an age-old saying: If at first you don’t succeed, well, dust off the historic launch pad and try another liftoff.

Not as catchy as the original, perhaps, but certainly fitting for SpaceX, which succeeded Sunday on its second launch attempt at NASA’s Launch Complex 39A, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first attempt, scrubbed Saturday with just 13 seconds before liftoff, was foiled by concerns over an anomaly discovered in the rocket’s steering system.

The issue was “99% likely to be fine,” Elon Musk, founder of the private space company, tweeted Saturday, “but that 1% chance isn’t worth rolling the dice. Better to wait a day.”

On Sunday, however, the launch went smoothly. Not only did SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lift off without a hitch, its first stage also returned to land right back on a platform on Earth. Shortly afterward, the Dragon spacecraft it was carrying detached as planned from the rocket.

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Life Driven Purpose, pgs 82-83

“The United States of America was no birthed in prayer, as the religious right repeatedly claims, It was birthed in protest. We kicked the king, dictator, master, sovereign, and Lord out of our affairs, turning government upside down, making “We, the people” the supreme authority. Our Declaration of Independence, which does not govern our country but did present the rationale for rebellion, states emphatically and unbibilically that the power of the government is not derived from anything other than “the consent of the governed.” American law is not based on any scripture. We produced a completely godless constitution, the first in history to separate religion and government. Written under George Washington, approved by the Senate, and signed by John Adams in 1797, the Treaty of Tripoli says quite clearly: “The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” (What part of the phrase “in any sense” don’t modern Christian theocrats understand?) U.S. laws do not stem from commandments revealed by a cosmic authority or sovereign monarch. The constitution arose naturally from a group of people struggling to be free of authority, not to submit to rules. American citizens are not subjects. We are proudly rebellious people.”

–Dan Barker, Life Driven Purpose, pgs 82-83

Discuss!

Congress May Shift Climate Research Away from NASA

By Scott Waldman

Lawmakers are remaking NASA in order to leave parts of the agency’s earth science program untouched but remove its climate change research.

It’s still unclear exactly how lawmakers plan to transform NASA’s mission, but Republicans and Trump administration officials have said they want the agency to focus on deep-space missions and away from climate change research, which is a part of its Earth Sciences Division. That has created uncertainty about the fate of the Earth Sciences Division, which accounts for about $2 billion of NASA’s $20 billion budget.

At a House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing yesterday, Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said he wants a “rebalancing” of NASA’s mission. The lawmaker told E&E News he wants the agency to reprioritize its mission because the Obama administration cut space exploration funds.

Specifically, that could mean NASA’s work on climate change would go to another agency, with or without funding, or possibly would get cut. Smith and other Republicans avoided laying out specifics but acknowledged that earth science at NASA would likely face some significant changes in the near future.

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Autism detectable in brain long before symptoms appear

By James Gallagher

Brain scans can detect autism long before any symptoms start to emerge, say scientists.

The earliest that children tend to be diagnosed at present is at the age of two, although it is often later.

The study, published in the journal Nature, showed the origins of autism are much earlier than that – in the first year of life.

The findings could lead to an early test and even therapies that work while the brain is more malleable.

One in every 100 people has autism, which affects behaviour and particularly social interaction.

The study looked at 148 children including those at high risk of autism because they had older siblings with the disorder.

All had brain scans at six, 12 and 24 months old.

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A Letter to Richard from Korea

This lovely letter is an example of the kind of thing that makes it all worthwhile. It must have been among those handed to me at one of my book signings in Korea, and I have only just found it while unpacking. It is unsigned so I can’t thank the author personally, although I would like to and hope perhaps he or she may see this. The part in quotes is evidently a back translation, from Korean into English, of the last lines of the poem with which I concluded my memoir, Brief Candle in the Dark, the Korean edition of which has just been published.

Still time to gentle that good night.

Time to set the world alight.

Time, yet new rainbows to unweave,

Ere going on Eternity Leave.

Richard

Can I Learn to Think More Rationally?

By Daniel Willingham

The short answer is yes: you can learn to think more rationally but only about specific subjects. Enhancing rational thinking overall is much more difficult.

Before exploring the question in more depth, we first need to define rational thinking. For this discussion, let’s stick with a relatively straightforward interpretation—rational thinking encompasses our ability to draw justifiable conclusions from data, rules and logic.

Schooling can indeed improve rational thought, research suggests. A recent analysis of many studies showed that college courses contribute to critical thinking abilities. But decades of research have also consistently found that students improve only in the type of reasoning skills emphasized in the course, not in other tasks. That is, if students work on logic puzzles, they get better at logic puzzles but not at other things, such as forming coherent arguments or winning debates.

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