Monthly Archives: September 2017

I mentioned this a few years ago: there is reason to suspect that just as an increased pressures of nitrogen has a narcotic effect, a zero-nitrogen breathing mixture [ presumably heliox] might leave you abnormally sober. On oxygen, I’ve felt … Continue reading →

Carol Dweck has won a juicy prize for work on ‘growth mindset’ – the notion that belief that your intelligence is a fixed trait cripples you, while a ‘growth mindset’ allows progress. Her studies do not replicate, of course, because … Continue reading →

like “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

Some archaeologists apparently think that there was a lot of diversity in Roman Britain, which means black people. There’s zero hard evidence of a single one. Which doesn’t prove that some Nubian with a serious case of wanderlust didn’t end … Continue reading →

The sickle-cell mutation, HbS, is found on five main haploptypes, and for a long time there has been argument as to whether this mutation originated once, or multiple times. A new paper indicates this it happened only once, in Africa, … Continue reading →