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Science and Technology links (September 21st 2019)
- Amputees suffer from lack of sensory feedback from the missing limbs. Researchers found it beneficial to provide artificial sensory feedback.
- More economically equal societies favor people with better genes, something referred to as the Gene-Gini interplay.
- As we age, we tend to accumulate senescent cells. Removing senescent cells is likely to improve the health of older people. We know how to kill senescent cells in mice. Researchers have now shown that the same simple therapies work in human beings.
- At Harvard, 43% of the admitted caucasian students are children of faculty and staff or other privileged categories. If there were treated fairly, and not as students of faculty and staff, 3/4 of them would be rejected. In other words, Harvard is, to a first approximation, a way to reproduce the social elite. Ironically, I would guess that the majority of Harvard professors view themselves as favoring egalitarian values. Yet when it comes to their kids, they demande special treatments. (Source: Tyler Cowen)
- People who say that they are environmentally conscious are not less likely to buy plastic bags.