Category Archives: Science

The McGurk Effect: when your ears lie to you.

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Professor Lawrence Rosenblum of University of California, Riverside, explains the McGurk effect: what we hear may not always be the truth.

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Cervical cancer and household vinegar.

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Ask any member of my family as to what I think of vinegar and all that it does, and they will tell you that I am a nut when it comes to vinegar.   They make fun of me and I … Continue reading →

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The Israeli national museum and Google have put the Dead Sea Scrolls online.

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Google announces that the Dead Sea Scrolls are online for the first time! Written between the third and first centuries BCE, the Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence. In 68 BCE, they were hidden in … Continue reading →

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Operation smile.

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Feeling down?  This should lift up anyone’s spirits!  Operation Smile: Via Hotair.

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Lucky people vs. unlucky people.

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

I came across this Professor Richard Wiseman by luck, and I like what I read: Personality tests revealed that unlucky people are generally much more tense than lucky people, and research has shown that anxiety disrupts people’s ability to notice … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Understanding adolescent behavior by studying the brain.

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

My son’s high-speed adventure raised the question long asked by people who have pondered the class of humans we call teenagers: What on Earth was he doing? Parents often phrase this question more colorfully. Scientists put it more coolly. They … Continue reading →

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Of mice and men.

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Well… – find a bunch of volunteers, let them know that they are prisoners, point out that the other half are prison wardens. Finally, “place them in a makeshift jail and watch what happens.” Forty years ago a group of … Continue reading →

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The most amazing optical illusions….

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

and explanations on how these optical illusions work!

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The incredible Marine Corporal Todd Nicely.

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

The TV show below illustrates how the human spirit overcomes physical shortcomings. Thank you, Mr. Nicely, for providing an outstanding example to all of us who complain about the tiniest of setbacks. (Thanks to the Huffington Post.)

Posted in Culture, Science, Soldiers, Technology, United States, War | Tagged | 2 Comments

The science behind Twitter and Facebook.

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Here’s an interesting article pointing to the fact that it is all in the dopamine! …“it is not so much the activity of being re-tweeted (or liked, etc.) that users enjoy, but rather the anticipation of being re-tweeted.”

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Spider sex: fandango dance with castanets…Olé!

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

My arachnophobia subsided just a wee bit as the spider morphed into a toreador aiming his lances at the uninterested damsel. NPR has a fascinating article on what we witness in the video above: Dirty Dancing, A Gallant Spider Goes … Continue reading →

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The power of one: a tech-savvy teenager with a heart.

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Richard “Ricky” Gilleland III manages to help the families of the fallen soldiers, and puts to shame bureaucrats and others who, either through malfeasance, inertia, or sheer lack of empathy, wounded the noble image of Arlington Cemetery: “May I ask … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Blogging, Empathy, Iraq, Memories, Soldiers, Technology, War, Youth | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Cybercrime.

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Just discovered The Coreflood Botnet, and it’s worrisome: A botnet is a collection of computers that have been taken over by a hacker and are controlled remotely. In this case, according to feds, the perpetrators created a botnet of hundreds … Continue reading →

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The horses of Poland.

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

The tarpans were thought to be extinct…and then a German zoologist began genetic modification to bring out the “Aryan” in the breed.  You can still find them in Poland. In the fifth century B.C., Herodotus wrote of how much he … Continue reading →

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Gagarin and Soviet popular culture.

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

RFE-RL provides a window into Soviet pop-culture

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