Month: August 2007

My Theory of Human Evolution (guitar edition)

Seth Roberts1 Comment

In this podcast, New Yorker writer Burkhard Bilger talks about the guitars of Ken Parker. A lot of research goes into them. I propose that we enjoy music because enjoyment of music creates demand for musical instruments, which leads to material-science research. My previous earlier posts about human evolution have said something like this — art generates research — several times. Previous examples were visual.

Josh McDermott, a psychologist at MIT, has compared human and animal responses to music. From an in-press paper:
When presented with a choice between slow tempo musical stimuli, including lullabies, and silence, tamarins and marmosets preferred silence whereas humans, when similarly tested, preferred music. . . .There appear to be motivational ties to music that are uniquely human.

Can Professors Say the Truth? (Roughgarden replies)

Seth Roberts3 Comments

Joan Roughgarden has responded to my comment about her recent KQED radio appearance. Her response includes this:

Today, in 2007 only a few, like Roberts, still take Bailey’s work seriously.

In 2006, Bailey’s work was featured on 60 Minutes in a piece titled “The Science of Sexual Orientation.” After the piece aired, a blogger criticized Bailey. Shari Finkelstein, the producer, responded:

His work is highly regarded by all of the researchers in the field who we spoke with.

What a difference a year makes, if Roughgarden is correct.

Avoiding Overeating

Seth Roberts2 Comments

On the Shangri-La Diet forums, Timothy Beneke has posted about a creative method of avoiding compulsive eating.

Tim has been an excellent weight-loss engineer. His discovery, after losing 80 pounds, that he could lose even more by eating taste-free nutritionally-balanced mush is one reason I believe the theory behind the Shangri-La Diet. The theory predicts this will work, yet the mush is quite different nutritionally than flavorless oil or sugar water.

Science in Action: Omega-3 (more eggs)

Seth Roberts4 Comments

Recently I described how, while testing flaxseed oil, I noticed that some eggs I had eaten seemed to have had a flaxseed-oil-like effect. The eggs came from grass-fed chickens; such eggs are believed to be high in omega-3. So the inference was plausible. But was it true?

To find out, I deliberately tested eggs. I used 2.5 large eggs (2 large, 1 small) to make scrambled eggs, which I ate. Here’s what happened:

Egg test reaction times

The blue line shows when I ate the eggs. The red line is the average of the pre-egg reaction times. The main result is that, as suggested by the earlier data, there was a flaxseed-oil-like effect. I’m not sure what to make of the lowest point. I had eaten half of a cheese-and-mushroom crepe before that measurement. If the crepe was digested quickly, that would have reduced reaction time. (Sugar drinks clearly do this.)

Here are the accuracy values.
egg test accuracy values

Mostly there was little change in accuracy. However, one value (90%) was very low, the lowest value in a long time. It happened before the biggest changes in reaction times. It might be due to the eggs.

My main conclusion is that yes, the eggs acted like flaxseed oil — presumably because of their omega-3. In addition, the results increase my belief that this method can measure the brain effects of ordinary food and can generate ideas worth testing.

Fish and Pregnancy Danger

Seth Roberts5 Comments

An article in the latest issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology reports a correlation between fish consumption and worse pregnancy outcomes. It was done in Denmark. Mothers who had eaten fish four or more times per month during their pregnancy had babies that were less healthy on several measures of fetal growth than mothers who had not eaten fish.

The differences were small; they required a sample of about 40,000 women to detect. However, they are convincing partly because this effect was found for only fatty-fish consumption. For lean fish, the results were quite different. Organic pollutants accumulate in fat; mercury accumulates in protein, so these results are more likely due to organic pollutants than to mercury.

A reason to get one’s omega-3 from flaxseed oil rather than lots of fish or fish oil.

Earlier post about a study that found beneficial effects of pregnant women eating fish.

Reference: Is High Consumption of Fatty Fish during Pregnancy a Risk Factor for Fetal Growth Retardation? A Study of 44,824 Danish Pregnant Women. Th. I. Halldorsson, HM Meltzer, I Thorsdottir, V Knudsen, and SF Olsen. Am. J. Epidemiol. 2007 166: 687-696.

Can Professors Say the Truth? (Deirdre McCloskey’s 3rd letter)

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Deirdre McCloskey wrote again.

Dear Professor Roberts:

Criticizing someone is “abridging free speech”? Good Lord, how do you think the Constitutional Convention went? Have you listened to a political campaign? Have you participated in any scientific dispute? I guess not.

If Bailey is chilled, perhaps he should get out of the cold room. If one doesn’t like the heat of real scientific disagreement, get out of the kitchen. Free speech is how science advances. It ain’t beanbag.

You want to think of yourself as defending the weak. It’s a silly thought, which you have adopt

Can Professors Say the Truth? (Deirdre McCloskey’s 4th letter)

Seth Roberts5 Comments

Before I could reply to her third letter, Deirdre McCloskey wrote again:

Dear Professor Roberts:

Having looked into it a bit I am very intrigued by your diet, and will buy the book and try it out.

You have a lot of nerve, however, to quote Bohr— “The common aim of all science” is “the gradual removal of prejudices”—and then without self-experimentation, without consulting people like me who have self-experimented, without examining any of the literature except the sort you like, to relay to the world your prejudices about gender crossers. A lot of nerve.

Sincerely,

Deirdre McCloskey

I replied:

Dear Professor McCloskey,

I’m intrigued. What self-experimentation should I have done? [Later I realized she meant dress as a woman.]

Thank you for reading my book. Yes, Bohr’s quote is relevant. Science does remove prejudices. Including the science in Bailey’s book, I believe. I think Bailey’s book will be a powerful force for tolerance, you think the opposite. Let history decide.

I am not anti-gender-crosser. Nor is Bailey — but I wasn’t appalled by what you and Conway did to him because I liked his book. I have defended Holocaust deniers and praised a book with a generous view of creationism. I don’t deny the Holocaust and I’m not religious. I believe everyone deserves to speak, to be heard. Everyone. Without harassment or punishment.

Sincerely,

Seth Roberts

Vitamins, minerals, and mood

Seth Roberts2 Comments

… is the title of a just-published article in Psychological Bulletin. From the abstract:

Since the 1920s, there have been many studies on individual vitamins (especially B vitamins and Vitamins C, D, and E), minerals (calcium, chromium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium), and vitamin-like compounds (choline). Recent investigations with multi-ingredient formulas are especially promising. However, without a reasonable conceptual framework for understanding mechanisms by which micronutrients might influence mood, the published literature is too readily dismissed. Consequently, 4 explanatory models are presented, suggesting that mood symptoms may be expressions of inborn errors of metabolism, manifestations of deficient methylation reactions, alterations of gene expression by nutrient deficiency, and/or long-latency deficiency diseases.

I am eager to see the data. The whole brain is the same stuff. If something affects mood, it should also affect reaction time, which is much easier to measure.

Reference: Psychological Bulletin. 2007 Sep Vol 133(5) 747-760