The Bird, The Brain and The Bird Brained

A few interesting and uplifting items from the world of science. Always refreshing to get away from the acrimonious world of politics, war and religious cartoons.

A Found World : A team of scientists from the US, Inonesia and Australia have discovered a patch of pristine natural world tucked away in the Foja Mountain region of Papua - New Guinea.  This may be one of the very few places on earth which has seen little or no human impact and as a result, could well be a preserved image of what New Guinea was like 50,000 years ago. Unmolested as it is suspected to be, the investigating scientists believe that they have indeed stumbled upon an ecological treasure trove or a Garden of Eden. They have discovered a world " of rare plants, giant flowers and bizarre animals -- including a new species of honeyeater bird, a tree kangaroo and an egg-laying mammal -- on a mist-shrouded mountaintop in a remote province of Indonesia". When you read the story, please make sure to watch the accompanying slide show. Now let's hope that  builders of luxury resorts and condos can be kept away from Foja Mountains!

Forget The Steelers - It was Budweiser and Michelob: Last Sunday's Super Bowl win by the Pittsburgh Steelers is riddled with controversy about bad referee calls. Many are still questioning the outcome and are demanding better "Instant Replay" rules for the NFL. But alongside football, another competition takes place every Super Bowl Sunday - for the best/funniest /most memorable/ most expensive TV commercial and the winners in that arena are beyond dispute. The purpose of advertisement is to make suckers or believers out of  viewers and if those empathy neurons in our brain are to be believed, this year's winners for the "most effective" ads were Disney and beer.   According to the "Instant Science" experiment conducted on viewers of the Super Bowl, Marco Iacoboni a neuroscientist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and his team came to the following conclusion.

"Who won the Super Bowl ads competition? If a good indicator of a successful ad is activity in brain areas concerned with reward and empathy, two winners seem to be the 'I am going to Disney' ad and the Bud 'office' ad. In contrast, two big floppers seem to be the Bud 'secret fridge' ad and the Aleve ad. What is quite surprising, is the strong disconnect that can be seen between what people say and what their brain activity seem to suggest. In some cases, people singled out ads that elicited very little brain responses in emotional, reward-related, and empathy-related areas.

Among the ads that seem relatively successful, I want to single out the Michelob ad. Above is a picture showing the brain activation associated with the ad. What is interesting is the strong response indicated by the arrow in 'mirror neuron' areas, premotor areas active when you make an action and when you see somebody else making the same action. The activity in these areas may represent some form of empathic response. Or, given that these areas are also premotor areas for mouth movements, it may represent the simulated action of drinking a beer elicited in viewers by the ad. Whatever it is, it seems a good brain response to the ad."

Global Warming:  Two new developments on the global warming front - both encouraging. One involves the departure of George C. Deutsch, the 24 year old Bush political appointee at NASA whose job description appeared to be the "Politicization of Science - Bush-Cheney style". Now it has been revealed that he also lied about his science degree from Texas A&M  (remember the resume padding by Michael Brown(ie) of FEMA?). Here are a few examples of Deutsch's ham handed efforts at serving his master's political agenda:

"....(Deutsch) tried to prevent senior NASA career scientists from speaking and writing freely, especially when their views on the realities of climate change differed from those of the White House. Mr. Deutsch prevented reporters from interviewing James E. Hansen, the leading climate scientist at NASA, telling colleagues he was doing so because his job was to "make the president look good." Mr. Deutsch also instructed another NASA scientist to add the word "theory" after every written mention of the Big Bang, on the grounds that the accepted scientific explanation of the origins of the universe "is an opinion" and that NASA should not discount the possibility of "intelligent design by a creator."  Congratulations to all the scientists who raised a hullaballoo about the presence of an ignoramus like Deutsch among them.

The other news (unqualified good or not - my jury is out on this one) on the "global warming / climate change / trash the earth" front is that Bush and many of his right wing supporters who treat the world like a grab bag of goodies for themselves and their cronies, have a new set of challengers. No, they are not tree huggers, liberal scientists or even Al Gore. A group of evangelical Christian pastors and their flock have come out in favor of earth friendly Christianity. They believe that humans, while benefiting from the earth's resources, must also act as its steward. This group operates under the banner of "Creation Care" as distinct from "Environmentalism" which connotes liberals, secularists and Democrats. Will wait to see where this one is leading and not without some trepidation.

"Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility"  for the first time, emphasized every Christian's duty to care for the planet and the role of government in safeguarding a sustainable environment.

"We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part," said the statement, which has been distributed to 50,000 member churches. "Because clean air, pure water, and adequate resources are crucial to public health and civic order, government has an obligation to protect its citizens from the effects of environmental degradation."

Cancer death lowest in 70 years:  And last of all, there is a downward turn in the number deaths from cancer in the USA. This is the first time that a decline in cancer deaths has been recorded in seventy years.  Experts credit advances in early  detection, cure and changes in life style. The decrease although slight, is remarkable because of the increase in the percentage of the aging and the elderly (the group most susceptible) in the general population.

Comments

[Mariam]

On your profile I saw you are from New Delhi, India. My family is from India and my parents were born in Delhi, India. Alas for numerous reasons most of our family had to migrate to Pakistan. Till her death my maternal grandmom dreamed about going back to her ancestral home in Delhi. So needless to say I fell in love with Delhi in my childhood. Couple of years ago our few relatives came to Pakistan and I found them very backward and economically deprived (compared to us). Out of politeness I cannot ask them about their situation in India. As they all have praise for their homeland and nothing else.

So will you please enlightened me little bit about the conditions of Muslims with respect to other population?

[Ruchira Paul]

Mariam,
I am not sure that I can answer your questions about the socio-economic condition of Indian Muslims in an intelligent or informed manner. My own Muslim friends in school and college were - middle/ upper middle class, educated and progressive.

I am sure there must be studies and statistics available on this matter in libraries and on the internet. I would recommend that you look up the writings of M.J. Akbar an Indian journalist, who has written some of the sharpest, humane and unbiased articles about what it means to be a Muslim in India.

As for Delhi, it is a fascinating place. I of course like it better than many others since I have very fond memories of the place. I recommend a travelogue, "City of Djinns" by William Dalrymple. This may be one of the most charming and readable books about contemporary Delhi and its long history through hundreds of years.

Better still, why don't you visit Delhi?

[Joe]

I really hope that now that we've found this untouched patch in the Foja Mountains we can keep ourselves from ruining it.

[Ruchira Paul]

Joe: Don't hold your breath. With enough money to grease the palms of the Indonesian government, any thing is possible. Poorer countries are especially vulnerable to the lure of foreign tourists bringing in much needed dollars and euros. They will probably do it under the auspices of something like "spiritual renewal", "back to mother nature" type of crap and attract the beautiful people from hollywood and other trendy sections of society. One of the surest way to keep something like this from being trashed is for the UN to declare it a "world heritage nature preserve". I hope that will happen.

[Mariam]

Ruchira - Thanks for such an insightful reply. I will look into your suggested materials. I wish to visit Delhi but kinda apprehensive about the limitations which Pakistani citizens faced in India. I heard one can’t move freely from one city to another and to be truthful don’t wanna spoil my fancy.

Good news is relations between Pakistan and India are becoming better or so we heard. I know it is hard for Indian politicians to deal with their counterparts in Pakistan (Army). Someday when we have democratic government then I hope relations become friendlier.

I am from Karachi and majority of them have very nice feelings for India and Indians. It is hard to comprehend but in 80’s a political party raised a slogan for Karachi and Hyderabad to break away from Pakistan and join India. They did win the local elections but of course that thinking didn’t go too far.

You did remove some misgivings by telling me about middle and upper middle class Muslims around you. Sometimes we heard propaganda that most Muslims in India are poor and destitute and discriminated at all levels.

Take care friend.