Amoeblog > Tag > science

The Boys Are Back In Town: it's Fleet Week again and the Blue Angels are settin' it off!

Posted by Kelly S. Osato, October 10, 2009 01:34am | Post a Comment

Blue Angels fleet week san francisco 2009 demonstration flight team navy officers

I cannot explain exactly why I get such a rush when I hear them Blue Angels roaring overhead, but
it's definitely something of a peeking at the bounty-beneath "The Tree" on Christmas morning kind of exhilarating tingling --- so full of promise and excitement! Ahh, to be thrust again into that "danger zone" Loggins croons so passionately about, and on my doorstep to boot. This weekend, what with its parade of military might (hardly), its bevy of boisterous sailors (verily) and high-flying boys in blue pulling all the G's they please (yes, please!), is definitely one of the most fun weekends us San Francisco residents can boast of. Plus, it's an excuse to put together a mix of songs you'll only listen to for all of five days or so (again, like Christmas). From Saxon's cover of Christopher Cross's "Ride Like the Wind" to something a little more random like MARRS's "Pump Up The Volume," the sky's the limit when it comes to compiling this year's Fleet Week festive "Need For Speed" mixtape. Check it out:

However, I know that the four days of the Angels stay will be fraught with voices groaning complaints about "the noise," peppered with prolonged soapbox-top denunciations of their "unnecessary" showmanship, waste of resources, etc. And to that I say, place the blame on them fraternal Buckeye bicycle repairmen who, once upon a North Carolina coastline with sense keen enough to follow their curious ideas through countless scientific experimentation and innovation, set the wings soaring on those royal blue F-18 Hornets that ruffled your feathers this afternoon. Blame science. I agree that maybe it's just plain not right for man to travel at the speed of sound, but it sure is amazing to see what 700 miles per hour looks like, even if it sounds like hell's seams ripping. But I feel that we humans, animals that we are, will forever push the limits of our existance to satisfy our needs. As for me, I fantasize that the Blue Angels need the devotion of captivated fans like me, just as much as I need their yearly testosterone-drenched exhibition to remind me that their magic is real. And as any other sailor of serviceman can tell you, being needed feels good.

The Shredders' Brain

Posted by Whitmore, April 25, 2009 09:57pm | Post a Comment

A new study was published last month in BMC Neuroscience; researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, Ulman Lindenberger, Viktor Müller, and Shu-Chen Li and Walter Gruber from the University of Salzburg using an electroencephalography (EEG) -- a machine that measures electrical activity in the brain -- found that musicians who play in sync have brains that also fall into alignment. And the more they play together, the more in synch their brains become.

Eight pairs of guitarists were wired-up and examined as they played a jazz-fusion melody. Performing the piece as many as 60 times, the EEG picked up their brain waves via electrodes glued to their scalps. As their playing became more synchronized, several regions of the brain reflected the coordination. The frontal and central regions of the brain exhibited the strongest synchronization. But the temporal and parietal regions also showed a high level of synchronization in at least half of the

pairs of musicians. These regions may be part of a process supporting the coordinated action between players, or the area simply enjoying the music.

The study suggests that when people do activities together, called "interpersonally coordinated actions," these acts are preceded and accompanied by brain wave coordination-- “the between-brain oscillatory couplings.” The authors of the study presume that these couplings reflect similarities in the temporal properties of one's senses and actions. However the study did not prove whether this coupling occurred in response to the beat of the music, or by watch

ing each other's movements or by paying close attention to each other’s playing, or whether the synchronization takes place first and next promotes a coordinated performance. To clarify that, further research would be needed.

Oddly enough, this is the first time musicians have been measured jointly while performing together. Of course, I think the obvious study should measure the brainwaves of drummers playing with guitarists, and then lead singers and strippers … and yes, there are at least 2000 other jokes hovering over head.

Sorry To Tell You This, But Old Age Begins at 27

Posted by Whitmore, March 22, 2009 02:16pm | Comments (1)

Yeah, you may look pretty good, maybe even damn near perfect … downright delicious, but I bet that chunk of gray pork in your head is already showing signs of some serious sluggishness, if not just complete, profound rot.

In a recent study of more than 2,000 people between the ages of 18 to 60 published in the latest edition of the journal Neurobiology of Aging, scientists found that on average cognitive abilities were best and sharpest at age 22. The study conducted at the Salthouse Cognitive Aging Lab at the University of Virginia has shown that cognitive abilities may decline much earlier than previously thought. Head of the study, Professor Timothy Salthouse, found indications that there was a marked decline in brain functions like reasoning, speed of thought and spatial visualization by the age of 27. Other tests also show memory performance begins faltering around 37 years of age. However, and this is slightly odd, the study finds that with more long term accumulated knowledge, vocabularies actually increased until about the age of 60. For example, my mom can say “you’re full of shit” in six different languages.

In Salthouse's study, participants were asked to solve puzzles, recall story details and spot patterns in letters and symbols -- similar testing is used to detect dementia. Salthouse states the difference between this study and comparable research is that other tests could not uncover signs of cognitive decline; older testing methods did not account for prior test experience. Common knowledge-type tests tend to give middle-aged participants an advantage.

Whew! This study eased many of my worries. In my youth I once showed some promise, but then in my late 20’s something inexplicably flattened my quasi-whiz kid, semi-demi-brilliant, slightly better then OK, B-minus intellect. Now I know I was just an innocent victim of natural brain chemistry decline … outstanding!