How do I locate recordings of a CBC radio program from the early 1980s?
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posted by googly
on May 23, 2011 -
5 answers
Can anyone tell me, well, ANYTHING about a person (hypothetically) standing on the sun?
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posted by argonauta
on May 16, 2011 -
44 answers
Help me see if going to CS grad school (masters or PhD) could work despite a large debt load
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posted by anonymous
on May 16, 2011 -
17 answers
In his
TED talk, Sean Carroll very briefly discusses Feynman's explanation about how the universe we can see and experience is not a statistically lucky perturbation, before moving on to the rest of his lecture. In other words, Feynman seems to discount the "
Boltzmann brain" hypothesis, that we're not just the ephemeral product of a lucky shuffle of a metaphorical box full of marbles. Can someone explain this to me in words other than Carroll's, i.e., what evidence Feynman was using to prove his argument?
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on May 16, 2011 -
7 answers
I'm a scientist and wish my therapist were too, because I'm having trouble getting across to him what the research community's norms are and how I'm failing to meet them. How can I make the best of this situation, given that switching therapists, and especially trying to find an [ex-]scientist therapist, would be nontrivial? Looking for more in-depth answers than 'print this out and take it to your next session,' if possible.
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posted by anonymous
on May 16, 2011 -
20 answers
A. Michael Spence and
David K. Lewis are two highly regarded, contemporary scholars. Spence was the 2001 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics (with George Akerlof and Joseph Stiglitz), given in part for his work on
job market signaling. Lewis is considered to be one of the greatest metaphysical philosophers of the 20th century and a few years before Spence he developed his own
theory of signaling.
I cannot find any evidence that Spence's work on signaling is directly connected to Lewis's own work on the same subject - no citations, acknowledgements or biographical information that I have found suggests Spence was influenced by Lewis.
I'm trying to collect more information on the links between these two men so I can better understand the historical development of signaling in economics. I am specifically interested in whether Lewis influenced Spence directly or indirectly (as opposed to both men developing their work on signaling due to some common third factor, like "it was just in the air"). Did they independently discover signaling? What is Spence's unique contribution in signaling theory given Lewis's own work on the subject a few years earlier? What role did Schelling play? Below I have produced some timelines and citations, but there's not a lot given my ignorance of Lewis's work.
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posted by scunning
on May 14, 2011 -
8 answers
There is (I recall) a science fiction story about an intergalactic rock band called Slime, who wrote it?
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posted by clavdivs
on May 13, 2011 -
1 answer
Does anybody know if there's a place online where I can find the DSM-III criteria for Major Depression? Not DSM-IV, not DSM-III-R, but the original 1980 DSM-III.
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posted by toomuchkatherine
on May 13, 2011 -
4 answers
At what point does a cupcake become a muffin? Or a muffin become a cupcake? What is the technical difference between the two?
posted by anastasiav
on May 12, 2011 -
36 answers
Does a bomb calorimeter give a value of heat energy per gram of material or electricity?
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posted by sockpim
on May 3, 2011 -
13 answers
I'm currently living in the UK and am trying to apply for science PhDs in Germany. But how?
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posted by daisyk
on May 2, 2011 -
1 answer
What studies and books are there about the economics of scientific research? I'm interested in a few questions including does giving out grants to University based researchers produce more startups and more highly regarded refereed papers than institutions like NIH or CSIRO? The only book I know of that looks at this is the book
The Economic Laws of Scientific Research which looks interesting but is also described as a polemic.
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posted by sien
on May 1, 2011 -
7 answers
It's the future and humans live in space stations. What are some ways (real or fictional) that artificial gravity can be created so there will be no weightlessness?
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posted by thejrt
on Apr 27, 2011 -
18 answers
SF Filter: Where can I find more science fiction in the vein of Peter Watt's "The Island"?
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posted by jjonajason
on Apr 25, 2011 -
7 answers
I run a user facility that houses a variety of scientific equipment and i want to start a wiki for documentation & tutorials. Looking for open-source wiki software and your tips for starting a wiki. (Or if you're a scientist and you've ever used a facility like this, what kinds of things you'd like to see in your FacilityWiki!) Details inside...
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posted by sararah
on Apr 22, 2011 -
7 answers
In the
From Eternity to Here episode of the Science Talk podcast, Sean Carroll says that without entropy there could be no memory. Could you provide an explanation of why that is to somebody who's very much a layperson when it comes to thermodynamics?
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posted by willnot
on Apr 21, 2011 -
7 answers
Is there a scientific consensus—ideally based on controlled, peer-reviewed, longitudinal, independently replicated studies—that an organic diet is healthier than a non-organic diet?
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posted by ixohoxi
on Apr 21, 2011 -
22 answers
What is the technical term for the phenomenon of reflexively or instinctively thrusting your foot out to brace for a fall, slam a brake, etc. when fearful of impending injury?
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posted by 2legit2quit
on Apr 11, 2011 -
7 answers
What are some great documentaries (or documentary series) about physics? Note: I'm a physics nerd, and I'm picky. Explanations and caveats inside.
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posted by gentle
on Apr 8, 2011 -
17 answers
What do physicists do all day? What is the lab environment like? Minutiae welcome.
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posted by Frowner
on Apr 7, 2011 -
15 answers
Please help two hardworking yet poor 30 year olds get careers and move out of this tiny one-bedroom apartment.
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posted by powerbumpkin
on Apr 7, 2011 -
20 answers
Help me come up with a five-part joke, riddle, or comic strip to embed in 5 separate data presentations at a science conference.
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posted by dino might
on Apr 1, 2011 -
6 answers
Old Sci Fi Movie Filter: Movie was seen on tv, at least 15 years ago, set on a planet with 2 suns, but the movie was shot with lots of dark atmospheric feeling. A group of young people (at an orphanage?) are reaching puberty, which means they aren't supposed to be able to morph into other creatures any more, but one young man continues to change, possibly into a crow-like figure.
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posted by kestralwing
on Mar 26, 2011 -
2 answers
How common is
human chimerism of the sort described in
this Boing Boing post? What implications does the existence of chimerism have for DNA testing, especially with respect to the criminal justice system? Does it pose a practical limit on the usefulness of DNA evidence, or just a theoretical one? Has chimerism come up in any cases, or been considered as a problem in legal scholarship?
posted by gerryblog
on Mar 23, 2011 -
15 answers
I am interested in reading books on UFOs both pro and con. Not really much else to the question. Not so much on individual abduction bios but more on theories on why (or why not), conspiracies, debunkings, and so forth.
posted by snap_dragon
on Mar 22, 2011 -
13 answers
We want to send some balloons overnight via Fed Ex to our boss. Will he open a box of deflated, sad balloons and promptly fire me?
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posted by fillsthepews
on Mar 22, 2011 -
12 answers
Finishing a Ph.D. in the sciences and want to leave the bench behind for something that’s more “big picture” (i.e. has some elements of business, strategy, or product development). Things are getting a little time-sensitive. Looking for input from people who have made a similar switch and/or work in a related area (i.e. consulting or the business end of industrial R&D).
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posted by noted industrialist
on Mar 22, 2011 -
5 answers
I’m an editorial assistant at a scientific publishing company, but I really want to be a science writer. How do I make it happen?
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posted by szweib
on Mar 20, 2011 -
6 answers
Will the amount of sulphur in waste meat greatly affect the amount of energy produced from combusting waste meat?
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posted by sockpim
on Mar 15, 2011 -
2 answers
How would global climate and soil conditions change if the Sahara Desert wasn't a desert anymore?
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posted by curious nu
on Mar 8, 2011 -
8 answers
Please help me, a first-year postdoc in auditory neuroscience, think of alternate career paths.
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posted by anonymous
on Mar 2, 2011 -
9 answers
