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Domain: nhm.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to nhm.org.

Comments · 7

  1. First Fridays - Los Angeles Natural History Museum by TarPitt · · Score: 2 · on Museum's Adults-Only Nights Show That Alcohol and Science Are a Good Mix

    Drinks, food, talks by naturalists, guided tours of exhibits, followed by bands playing in the Hall of Mammals (nothing like seeing a band like Deerhoof in front of a mastedon) :

    http://www.nhm.org/site/activi...

    Been going on for a number of years and is very popular.

  2. Re:Maybe you'll believe this guy... by siddesu · · Score: 3, Informative · on Religious Ceremony Leads To Evolution of Cave Fish

    Apparently, the story in the video isn't true.

    http://crustacea.nhm.org/people/martin/publications/pdf/103.pdf

    So, maybe I'll stick to my disbelief until I see clear evidence.

  3. Ugh by cyborg_zx · · Score: 1 · on Science vs. Homeopathy

    For the sharks to be able to somehow sense that blood, they have to be able to perceive dillutions at least as high as those found in homeopathy.
    Really? Huh... http://www.nhm.org/research/fishes/sharksff/sharkimg/sfc21.html

    Shark Smell Sharks have two nostrils through which some can detect odors up to 91 meters away (about the length of a football field). Some species can smell one molecule of blood in over one million molecules of water - that's equal to one drop of blood in 94 liters (25 gallons) of water. Some sharks hunt for food like dogs following scent trails. They swim back and forth searching for trails of scent and then follow the strongest one.
    So that's 1 in a million compared to... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#Dilution_and_succussion

    For more perspective, 1ml of a solution which has gone through a 30C dilution would have been diluted into a volume of water equal to that of a cube of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 meters per side, or about 105 light years.
    These are MASSIVE ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE in difference - mind bogglingly huge. It was bunk then, it's bunk now and now amount of trying to retrofit things is going to change the fact that homeopathic 'remedies' are just water. Water. Nothing else remains. And that's not even taking into account the weird things that would have to happen if it actually was true - just think about all the infinitesimally small things out there that are diluted in all the water you come into contact every day!

    Details are important and I cannot emphasise enough just how fucking huge the scale difference is in your analogy here.

    What bothers me is why would respected scientists chose to go ahead and publish such revolutionary research, bound to be thoroughly examined by their peers, if they did not have the results to back it up?
    Humans are weird and scientists are human. They are not any more immune to delusions than the rest of us. That's why the method is paramount and replication vital to ensure self-bullshitting has not occurred. It happens. All the time. Even to the best of us.
  4. What The Simpsons didn't say is that... by jd · · Score: 1 · on Technology Predictions for 2006?

    ...this will be achieved by extracting DNA from the bones of the Dire Wolf, the Bone-Crushing Dog and the Epicyon then genetically embedding the fragments into a poodle. Aside from the fact that it will then have three ears and meow on thursdays, it will be much placated with the therapy.

  5. Re:Scientists and Subproverbial Proverbs by mfh · · Score: 2, Funny · on Facts on Scientific Names of Organisms

    Surely you meant "Strategus Longihornus" - the still evolving pacific north-east dung beetle with overgrown greed glands.

    Nope.

  6. Not a velociraptor. by No+Such+Agency · · Score: 2, Informative · on Walking Animatronic Dinosaur At Disney Park

    I don't think Lucky looks much like the velociraptors on JP, except for being a bipedal dinosaur. Without consulting any references, I'd say he looks a lot more like a prosauropod (bipedal ancestors of the giant quadripedal sauropods) or possibly camptosaur. The head is certainly very sauropod-like. /humourless scientist

  7. Not a velociraptor. by No+Such+Agency · · Score: 2, Informative · on Walking Animatronic Dinosaur At Disney Park

    I don't think Lucky looks much like the velociraptors on JP, except for being a bipedal dinosaur. Without consulting any references, I'd say he looks a lot more like a prosauropod (bipedal ancestors of the giant quadripedal sauropods) or possibly camptosaur. The head is certainly very sauropod-like. /humourless scientist