Science: Still Not Getting Any Respect

Did you know that an exhibit on Charles Darwin at the American Museum of Natural History hasn't been able find a corporate sponsor? London's Daily Telegraph suggests its “because American companies are anxious not to take sides in the heated debate between scientists and fundamentalist Christians over the theory of evolution.” Come on Microsoft, step up to the plate here! Without sponsorship, the museum will have to depend on the sale of Darwin-related paraphernalia, including, I kid you not, Darwin finger puppets (too late for my Christmas wish list!).

You might want to check out the podcast (not a direct link unfortunately). They also interviewed one of my personal heroes this afternoon: Oliver Sacks.

Speaking of NPR and science, I'm looking forward to this coming Monday's installment of "This I Believe," which I always find engaging. This time round we'll here from Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams and Good Benito. If you'll indulge me a moment, I'll share a story about why the former book is so special to me.

In May of 1995, I graduated with a Master's degree from Bob Jones University (yes, that BJU), a school known for its fundamentalist Christian bent. Evolution was not taught in the science classes there, except briefly to dismiss it and to endorse the Biblical seven-day creation. However, by the time I graduated, I had effectively parted ways with the university intellectually (how that happened and why I stayed there is a story best told over a few beers), and I have little in common with the institution any more. Well, on the day of graduation, I slipped a copy of Lightman's Einstein's Dreams up the sleeve of my gown and took it through the entire ceremony with me. I believe I even had it in my hand when I went up the stage in front of several thousand people, took my diploma and shook Dr. Bob Jones III's hand. I took the book for a couple of reasons: one, to entertain myself should the proceedings grow a little dull, and two, as a metaphor (known only to myself) for the new intellectual path I'd be taking upon leaving the institution (something by Bertrand Russell would've been, um, harsh).

So I look forward to hearing what Lightman has to say on Monday morning. It'll be a welcome reminder of a conscious path I took just over a decade ago.

A couple of meaningful related quotes:

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. - Charles Darwin

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true. - Carl Sagan

(Crossposted over at Saheli's since she's gadding about India!)

Most Depressing Xmas Song Ever

I would say that Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg is hands down the most utterly depressing "Christmas song" ever written, wouldn't you?

I mean, people have been hospitalized after listening to this song. I mean happy, successful people have reached for a razor blade.

Joni Mitchell's "River" comes a close second, but it benefits from being painfully beautiful as well.

And I generally like the more melancholy Christmas songs--"In the Bleak Midwinter" may be my favorite carol (if I have to have one!)--but when you hear that Fogelberg song on the radio or (worse considering the lyrics) in the grocery store this time of year, it's like, turn it off! Please, for the love of god, turn it off. Maybe he should've set it during Halloween instead.

But here's the thing: whenever it comes on, despite its really borderline cheesiness on top of the whole depressing thing, I am compelled, compelled to listen to it. I can't switch it off.

And it will get stuck in your head. That part where he keens, "We drank a toast to innocence / we drank a toast to time." Well, there you go. Sorry.

Man of the Year

Too bad Time already awarded its "Person of the Year." I'd vote for Judge John E. Jones III for "Man of the Year." Well, how about U.S. Man of the Year anyway, since this issue is a complete non-issue in many other countries. Judge Jones was appointed by President Bush to his position in 2002. Bloomberg has a good high-level rundown of his landmark decision against Intelligent Design.

So, a spectacular victory for science today. Hooray!

No Doubt

Doubt is easy when it's not a matter of survival: We are as skeptical as we can afford to be, and it is easiest to be skeptical about things that do not fundamentally sustain us.

- from On Love by Alain de Botton

Skimming through this book again and I came across this quote, which I think rings so true. De Botton was talking about love, but from my experience, the principle applies well to the beliefs we're brought up with, those ideas we've steeped in since birth. It's sometimes easier to hang onto those, rather than shift the psychological weight it would take to alter those beliefs. Our doubts are often repressed, I think, but the immensity of the potential ramifications of exploring those doubts. Some part of us knows not to "go there" because changing our mind on a particular subject could ostracize us from people we're close to or force uncomfortable changes in our lives. I think this explains why progress in human understanding comes so slowly.

Tangetially, I reviewed this book ages ago on Amazon and was pleasantly surprised to review a kind and self-deprecating email from the author out of the blue, thanking me for my thoughts. One of the wonderful things about the Internet, they way we're truly "hitched to everything."

Another great thought on love I came across recently:

The absolute value of love makes life worth while and so makes Man's strange and difficult situation acceptable. Love cannot save life from death; but it can fulfill life's purpose.

- Arnold Toynbee, "Why and how I work," 1969

As adults, we encounter a lot of cynicism about love and we even learn to speak about it with a degree of embarrassment; but the older I get, the more I'm convinced of the importance of not growing cynical about love, but of better understanding it. So much of what is described as love seems so unhealthy, and perhaps that's why people have grown so cynical about it. So, instead of redefining love in healthy, productive, nurturing terms, many of us simply retreat to our corners, commit ourselves to lives of isolation (even within a relationship), and resort to describing the opposite gender (or humans in general) with the worst sort of stereotypes. I can't help but think that these tendencies play out into all sorts of societal problems, the roots of which people are often fond of politicizing.

Persons of the Year

Why is Melinda Gates consigned to the right of the cover--almost crowded out of it? If she and her husband are both truly being awarded, why aren't they equally represented? And why is Bono wedged between them? Just because he's more famous? Picture says a thousand words, eh?

(Via CNN)

Lagging Behind in the Gay Rights Race

Ever superlative on gay marriage, Andrew Sullivan notes the following:

In Britain, where "Virtually Normal" was published a decade ago, I faced derision from some in the gay community at the time for arguing that marriage was the central front in the battle for gay equality. It never occurred to me to believe that within ten years, we would have won. If I had stayed there, I'd be a fully equal citizen by now. Which prompts an interesting question: how many American immigrants in the past have actually had to give up liberty in order to come to this country? Welcome to the future.

Similarly, South Africa legalized gay marriage within the past week. South Africa. Where apartheid was the norm just over a decade ago.

We're seeing progress in the United States, of course, even as some states insist on besmirching their respective constitutions, but it is ironic that gay people may want to consider leaving the United States to enjoy what are essentially human rights in braver, freer nations.

Tangentially, if you're perturbed by Ford's decision to pull their advertising from GLBT media, consider forwarding this very level-headed email the Human Rights Campaign has created, simply asking the Ford Company to clarify their new position and to disavow the American Family Association's claim that they influenced the motor company.

Problems With Authority

Fast Company has this fun slideshow of 9 bosses you're lucky you don't work for, including David Brent, Tony Soprano, and Montgomery Burns.

On Dr. Evil:

Distinction: Sacked his No. 2 for not sticking to company goals and over-diversifying portfolio (evil real estate, evil corporations, etc.).

Redeeming quality: Bold vision. Ran large organization with frequent openings.

Quote: "Why must I be surrounded by frickin' idiots?"

All Lobotomies All the Time

Here's a fascinating and rathering sobering nugget of information: Did you know that in 1936, the Nobel committee awarded Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz the prize in physiology/medicine for inventing the frontal lobotomy (or prefrontal leucotomy).

Over at the Nobel site, Bengt Jansson curtly entertains the question of whether or not Moniz deserved to win a Nobel, but quickly determines that there's "no doubt" he did, if not for his rather barbaric invasive surgery (my words), then for his practice of injecting iodine into the brain (cerebral angiography), "which made it possible to diagnose tumors and vascular deformities."

Having said that, at the time, as this PBS report points out, Moniz was awarded the Nobel after the number of lobotomies in the United States took off--jumpstarted by the afore-mentioned Mr. Freeman--"from 100 in 1946 to 5,000 in 1949." Moniz got his Nobel in, ahem, 1949.

So, although I know the Nobels are often awarded for a body of work, even if they are attributed to particular discovery or novel, the Nobel folks do appear to be rewriting history a little.

It was the development of Thorazine in the early 50s that eventually drove the number of lobotomies down. Of course, Thorazine had its own problems. It produced effects that sometimes mimicked Parkinsons. But that effect leads to further discoveries about dopamine and brain function.

So . . . progress sure is ugly sometimes, ain't it? I think the important thing to consider is that the truly scientific evidence that lobotomies were successful appears always to have been scant. What one person perceives as "improvement," another might consider a stripping away of the patient's very identity or "soul," if you prefer.

Aside: I learned about Moniz from the Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality, an engaging lecture series of Robert Sapolsky, Professor of Nueroscience at Stanford--one of The Teaching Company's excellent Great Courses series, which I cannot recommend enough. No, I'm not getting paid by them to say all this stuff. It's just that buying a set of these lectures--at just about 50 bucks for 24 lectures--is like sitting through an entire semester's lecture series at Stanford. Just wish I got the college credit for it, too!

Don't Bomb Us

Recently I mentioned Josh Rushing's decision to join Al Jazeera International, which must've pushed Donald Rumsfeld into full Strangelove mode. Well, today there's a perfect storm of Al Jazeera news.

First, word that none other than David Frost is joining the network, and former Nightline correspondent Dave Marash is apparently considering a job there, too. Even Ted Koppel is said to have met with Al Jazeera, though he apparently won't be working there.

Then Kevin Drum also directs us to this new blog by Al Jazeera employees, Don't Bomb Us, whose title is an allusion to the recent rumor that George Bush ordered an air strike on the network's Qatar offices.

Five things the Don't Bomb Us crew want us to know:

1. Al Jazeera was the first Arab station to ever broadcast interviews with Israeli officials.

2. Al Jazeera has never broadcast a beheading.

3. George W. Bush has recieved approximately 500 hours of airtime, while Bin Laden has received about 5 hours of airtime.

4. Over 50 million people across the world watch Al Jazeera.

5. The Al Jazeera websites are http://www.aljazeera.net (Arabic) and http://english.aljazeera.net (English). AlJazeera.com, AlJazeerah.info and all other variations have nothing to do with us.

As anyone who's seen Jehane Noujaim's superlative documentary Control Room would know, there's more to Al Jazeera than the current U.S. administration would have us believe. Hopefully, this new international branch of the network, it's American bureau located on K Street in our own capital, will help more Americans to see there's much more to the Arab world in general than they've been lead to believe.

Of course, the onus is on the individual to learn, too, and I've been stunned to hear some of the things people believe about Islam and the Arab world over the past few years. Traveling to Morocco last year helped me dismantle some stereotypes about Islam I'd unwittingly held, though I know there's plenty more I could learn.

Related then: here's an About.com page which focuses on some common myths people have about Islam. Not a particularly exhautive resource, so if you know of a better one, feel free to mention it in the comments.

Ho Ho Ho

I saw him on the telly in the gym just yesterday: O'Reilly's busy every night lately dissing the disappearance of Christmas and what's the FOX News site selling? The O'Reilly Factory Holiday Ornament.

Put your holiday tree in "The No Spin Zone" with this silver glass "O'Reilly Factor" ornament.

Not one mention of Christmas on the entire page.

Bill O'Reilly: stop killing Christmas!

(Via Crooks and Liars)

Update: Of course, after the entire blogosphere noted this, Fox updated the website, so now it reads Christmas and Happy Channukah everywehere. The fact that they had it that way in the first place, of course, speaks to their desire to maximize commerce (most likely, at least from a cynical POV) without real concern for the conservative "principles" the network reputedly espouses. The fact that they had to change the content is a concession on their part. A concession for a different sort of Political Correctness, in other words, but a form of PC nonethless.

O'Reilly must've been livid!

This iBelieve

This must be the penultimate cross between the commercial and the religious, the sacred and the secular.

Just toss your old cap habit, pop on the divine iBelieve and rejoice!

Apparently, for real.

Teenage Lobotomy

Speaking of bad science--really, really bad science--last week, NPR featured one of the most chilling stories I've ever heard on the radio. In it, with his slow, beautiful, gravelly voice 56-year-old Howard Dully detailed how at 12 years old he received a lobotomy at the hands of Walter Freeman, the inventor (or perpetrator) of the transorbital lobotomy. NPR details the story here, and links to an MP3 of the story as well as this somewhat graphic photo of Dully about to undergo the procedure, icepicks poised above each of his eyes.

Sound Portraits produced the story and provide much more information on the subject of Dully, Freeman and the history of the labotomoy on their site.

Some of the more disturbing details I found speak to the effects of what transpires when science is thrown out the window in favor of something more akin to witchcraft.

From Psychosurgery.org, a site dedicated to "remembering the tragedy of lobotomy":

Walter Freeman began to travel around the nation in his own personal van, which he called his “lobotomobile”, demonstrating transorbital lobotomy in any hospital that would have him. He even performed a few in hotel rooms, lobotomizing children as young as thirteen [try twelve] for “delinquent behavior” and housewives who had lost their zeal for domestic work.

Now, I heard someone discredit the idea that Freeman called his van "the lobotomobile" on NPR this afternoon, saying writers attributed it thusly later on. Nonetheless, "housewives who had lost their zeal for domestic work"? Sounds like he was in the business of creating Stepford Wives.

Freeman got to where his operations resembled more of a traveling show, or a horrifying assembly line, as these more detailed examples of his work reveal:

Patient number one was wheeled before him. He put the electrodes on her temples and shocked her into a faint, lifted her left eyelid, and plunged the ice pick into her head. He pulled it out. Another woman was brought before him. Again he shocked, and stabbed. And another, and then again another, and so on, and on, remorselessly, in a production line of controlled, casual violence until even the director of the hospital, near to passing out with nausea, left the room.

Freeman was also rumored to have performed a labotomy on the actress Frances Farmer, but it appears this has been effectively proven an urban legend.

These operations weren't taking place in the 1700s; they took place up until 1967, two years before I was born, when Freeman "used his ice pick for the last time," tearing a blood vessel in the patient's brain.

Apparently, some fifty thousand people were lobotomized by so-called "psychosurgeons," a term that seems freakishly appropriate in retrospect.

I often wonder what we're practising today that'll be considered barbaric a couple of decades from now?

Attn: John McCain

Maybe Ariel Sharon's leaving the Likud Party to lead a new centrist party should inspire John McCain. You know, the guy leading the anti-torture wing of the conservative movement.

McCain-Edwards in 2008 anybody?

PR Photos

Lots more Puerto Rico photos posted to my flickr site. At right, one of my favorites. On a ferry from Old San Juan to Catano. Yes, that's a candy bar in her hair. What a woman!

It's Science Week!

In memory of last week's depressing defeat of science in Kansas last week, I'm declaring this Science Week at Hitched to Everything.

Posts herein shall especially focus on our great nation's drift away from critical thinking, particularly where such thinking involves the benefits of science.

Here we go, kids!