Daily Archives: March 31, 2007

Open thread

March 31, 20071:04 a.m.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Open thread | Comments (42)

‘War on terror’ has created a culture of fear

March 31, 20071:02 a.m.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Carter, wrote in the Washington Post that the Bush administration’s use of the term “war on terror” has created a culture of fear in the United States. And it was intentional. “Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue,” he wrote.
Posted by Patrice Hein

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Homeland security | Comments (36)

Child behavior studies should look at indulgent parents

March 31, 20071:01 a.m.

The results of the longest study of American children in day care were published this week. The study followed more than 1,300 children from birth to age 16 to track the effects of day care on children’s behavior.
“The effect was slight and well within the normal range for healthy children,” according to the report. And as expected, “parents’ guidance and their genes had by far the strongest influence on how children behaved.”
But 16 years of observation and research didn’t provide much practical information to guide parents. A more useful study might look at the effects of indulgent parents on children’s behavior.
Posted by Patrice Hein

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Health and safety | Comments (21)

Nature or nurture?

March 31, 20071:00 a.m.

We knew about identical twins, where a fertilized egg divides to form two embryos with the same genetic makeup, and fraternal twins, where two eggs are fertilized by two different sperm, resulting in twins no more alike than any other siblings. Now researchers have found a third type that they are calling semi-identical, in which two sperm cells fertilized one egg cell. The resulting twins were one with typically masculine genitalia and the other with sexually ambiguous genitalia.
This discovery, along with the Vanishing Twin Syndrome, in which an embryo can be absorbed by its twin — and take on some of its twin’s genetic characteristics — raises questions about the nature or nurture of homosexuality. Is it really a “lifestyle choice” when it can be the result of how an egg cell develops?
Posted by Patrice Hein

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Science | Comments (56)