Tag Archives: university of washington

‘The Philosophical Child’: A book for when your child asks, ‘Why are we here?’

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2013Generalambassador, blog, cascadia community college, children, co inquirer, david shapiro, jana mohr lone, meaning of childhood, michael rosenthal, natural philosopher, Nature, new book, philosophical discussion, philosophical self, question, sara goering, the philosophical child, university of washington

Children are natural philosophers, says Jana Mohr Lone of the University of Washington Department of Philosophy.

Lone, an affiliate faculty member and director of the Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children, says she wrote her new book, “The Philosophical Child,” to help parents, teachers and other adults conduct conversations with children about life’s mysteries.

The center was founded in 1996 and became affiliated with the UW in 1999. In 2008, Lone started writing a blog titled “Wondering Aloud: Philosophy with Young People,” that she still maintains, often analyzing children’s books for their philosophical content. (more…)

Piranha Kin Wielded Dental Weaponry Even T. Rex Would Have Admired

By Guest PostDecember 27, 2012Nature, Scienceamazon river, american alligator, american university, ancient relative, anecdotes, armored fish, barracuda, bite, bite force, black piranha, blacktip shark, bull shark, c caracharias, c leucas, c limbatus, cairo, carcharodon megalodon, carnivorous fishes, customized force gage, dunkleosteus terrelli, earth, egypt, extinct mega predators, extinct piranhas, fossilized jaw, george washington university, guillermo orti, hammerhead shark, history, hyperbole, jaw forces, jaw muscles, jorge porto, justin grubich, largest piranha, mega bites, megapiranha paranensis, piranha infested waters, piranha like ability, piranhas, prehistoric, s mokarran, serrasalmus rhombeus, skeleton, soft tissue, stephanie crofts, steve huskey, t rex, teeth, tendons, tyrannosaurus rex, university of washington, western kentucky university, whale eating sharks, white sharks

Taking into consideration its size, an ancient relative of piranhas weighing about 20 pounds delivered a bite with a force more fierce than prehistoric whale-eating sharks, the four-ton ocean-dwelling Dunkleosteus terrelli and – even – Tyrannosaurus rex.

Besides the force of the bite, Megapiranha paranensis appears to have had teeth capable of shearing through soft tissue the way today’s piranhas do, while also being able to pierce thick shells and crack armoring and bones, according to Stephanie Crofts, a University of Washington doctoral student in biology. (more…)

God as a Drug: The Rise of American Megachurches

By Guest PostAugust 25, 2012Culture, Generalamerican christians, american megachurche, atmosphere, charismatic leadership, charismatic pastor, christianity, denver, drug, emotional energy, evangelical revivalism, god, holy spirit, hybrid, james wellman, kate stockly meyerdirk, katie e corcoran, message, multisensory mélange, rise, ritual chains, rob bell, rock music, san diego megachurch, sense, sensory pageantry, spiritual growth, spirituality, stagecraft, stereotyped, university of washington, vision

American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide their congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington.

“The megachurches movement is one of the leading indicators of how American Christians exercise their faith these days, so therefore they should be understood,” said James Wellman, associate professor of American religion at the University of Washington. “And our study shows they’re doing a pretty effective job for their members, based on self-reports, contrary to public opinion that tends to pass them off as a type of consumerist religion. In fact, their members speak eloquently of their spiritual growth.” (more…)

Division of Labor Offers Insight into the Evolution of Multicellular Life

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2012Scienceann dornhaus, avida, beacon center, beacon researchers, ben kerr, charles ofria, communication system, digital organism, evolution, evolution platform, evolutionary history, genetic material, heather goldsby, human economies, michigan state university, multi celled, multicellular life, organism, single celled, university of arizona, university of washington

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Dividing tasks among different individuals is a more efficient way to get things done, whether you are an ant, a honeybee or a human.

A new study by researchers at Michigan State University’s BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action suggests that this efficiency may also explain a key transition in evolutionary history, from single-celled to multi-celled organisms.

The results, which can be found in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate that the cost of switching between different tasks gives rise to the evolution of division of labor in digital organisms. In human economies, these costs could be the mental shift or the travel time required to change from activity to another. (more…)

‘Documents that Changed the World’: A podcast series from Joe Janes

By Guest PostAugust 5, 2012Culture, Media, Politicsaids quilt, andrew brink, Barack Obama, bayeux tapestry, bill of rights, birth certificate, british broadcasting corp, change, credit card, declaration of independence, documents, elastic, france, history, joe janes, john snow, magna carta, mickey mouse, mystery of cholera, phrase, physician, podcast, president, steamboat willie, storytelling, the jazz singer, unabomber manifesto, university of washington, websters dictionary, world

The phrase occurred to Joe Janes out of the blue one day and immediately appealed to him. From there, ideas began to flow quickly.

Janes, associate professor in the University of Washington Information School, had been a fan of the British Broadcasting Corp. radio series “A History of the World in 100 Objects” and thought those shows effectively blended history and storytelling.

He got to wondering, what if he took a similar approach to information, telling about the twists and turns of history — through documents? (more…)

Building Molecular ‘Cages’ to Fight Disease

By Guest PostJune 9, 2012Scienceartificial vaccines, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, building blocks, circulation, david baker, drug, drug delivery, duilio cascio, human like proteins, lego blocks, medicine, michael sawaya, molecular biology, molecular cages, molecular structure, nanoscale materials, neil king, puzzle pieces, specialized proteins, tangles of ribbon, three-dimensional, tiny structures, todd yeates, traditional vaccine, tumor cells, ucla, university of washington, virus derived proteins, yen ting lai

UCLA-created nanoscale protein containers could aid drug, vaccine delivery

UCLA biochemists have designed specialized proteins that assemble themselves to form tiny molecular cages hundreds of times smaller than a single cell. The creation of these miniature structures may be the first step toward developing new methods of drug delivery or even designing artificial vaccines.

“This is the first decisive demonstration of an approach that can be used to combine protein molecules together to create a whole array of nanoscale materials,” said Todd Yeates, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a member of the UCLA–DOE Institute of Genomics and Proteomics and the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. (more…)

Engineered Microvessels Provide a 3-D Test Bed for Human Diseases

By Guest PostMay 31, 2012Science3 d test bed, abraham stroock, abundant protein, bioengineering, blood clots, bloodstream, cancer, chemical factor, collagen, cornell university, disease, endothelial cells, honeycomb, human, human blood vessels, human cancer, human cell, jose lopez, mechanical, mice and monkeys, michael craven, model, petri dish, samuel totorica, shear stress, tumor progression, university of washington, ying zheng

Mice and monkeys don’t develop diseases in the same way that humans do. Nevertheless, after medical researchers have studied human cells in a Petri dish, they have little choice but to move on to study mice and primates.

University of Washington bioengineers have developed the first structure to grow small human blood vessels, creating a 3-D test bed that offers a better way to study disease, test drugs and perhaps someday grow human tissues for transplant.

The findings are published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

How Public Should Public Records Be? Increased Availability Sparks Privacy Concerns

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Media, Technologybatya friedman, changes in behavior, Facebook, james fogarty, mashup, online technology, pacific northwest, peter kelley, political campaign, privacy concern, public, public record, sean munson, university of washington, us citizen, us democracy, web, zillow and redfin

Online technology has vastly increased citizens’ access to public records such as political campaign contributions and real estate transactions. But that explosion of information availability also sparks privacy concerns and may dampen some people’s willingness to engage in public activities, according to recent research.

Six researchers, including two from the University of Washington, co-authored the paper “Attitudes Toward Online Availability of U.S. Public Records.” It was presented at the Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Digital Government Research Conference in College Park, Md. An expanded version of the article will appear in a forthcoming issue of Information Polity. (more…)