Putin puts down protesters with physics: What is 'Brownian motion,' anyway?

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin described election protesters as seeking 'Brownian motion.' Here's what the obscure term means.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, during comments before his supporters on Tuesday, said protesters against his 12-year reign were seeking "Brownian motion."? What was he talking about?

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Mr. Putin was referring to a physics phenomenon first described by Scottish scientist Robert Brown in his 1827 paper "A brief account of microscopical observations made on the particles contained in the pollen of plants."

While observing pollen grains suspended in water, Mr. Brown found that the grains jiggled and bounced within the fluid in what he called "rapid oscillatory motion." He could not see any cause of their motion ? they didn't appear to impact any other particles, and he ruled out currents within the water ? but he was able use other substances to consistently replicate the phenomenon, which he dubbed "Brownian motion."

It wasn't until 1905 that the phenomenon was explained, by none other than Albert Einstein. The grains weren't jerking randomly in the water, he wrote, but rather were colliding with much smaller water molecules.? As the molecules hit the grains, the grains would change direction, but since the water molecules were invisible, it would appear that the grains were jittering without cause.? Einstein's discovery was seen as proof of the atomic theory of matter: that all matter is made of tiny particles, or atoms.

So what did Putin mean? Presumably, he was referring to the protesters acting without apparent purpose ? he also said that their proposed individual programs were not "unified," and that their goals "are also not clear."

But there's also a bit of a warning in Putin's metaphor. After all, the point of Brownian motion is that it's not as inexplicable as it seems ? it's only inexplicable because the observer can't see all the molecules in play. Perhaps the same is true of Putin's perspective on the protesters.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/hduEtHtpy30/Putin-puts-down-protesters-with-physics-What-is-Brownian-motion-anyway

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More Schooling Might Raise IQ (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Dec. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Children who have more schooling may see their IQ improve, Norwegian researchers have found.

Although time spent in school has been linked with IQ, earlier studies did not rule out the possibility that people with higher IQs might simply be likelier to get more education than others, the researchers noted.

Now, however, "there is good evidence to support the notion that schooling does make you 'smarter' in some general relevant way as measured by IQ tests," said study author Taryn Galloway, a researcher at Statistics Norway in Oslo.

Findings from the large-scale study appear in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

IQ, or intelligence quotient, is a widely accepted measure of intelligence. The IQ score comes from several combined, standardized tests.

In 1955, Norway began extending compulsory middle school education by two years. Galloway and her colleague Christian Brinch, from the department of economics at the University of Oslo, analyzed how this additional schooling might affect IQ.

Using data on men born between 1950 and 1958, the researchers looked at the level of schooling by age 30. They also looked at IQ scores of the men when they were 19.

"The size of the effect was quite large," she said. Comparing IQ scores before and after the education reform, the average increased by 0.6 points, which correlated with an increase in IQ of 3.7 points for an addition year of schooling, Galloway said.

"We are only able to study men, because we use data on IQ from the Norwegian military's draft assessment, which basically all men undergo around the age of 19. Women are not included in the draft," she explained.

Education has lasting effects on cognitive skills, such as those broadly measured by IQ tests, Galloway said.

"Cognitive skills are, in turn, related to a large range of social and economic outcomes. A large part of the relevance of the study derives from the fact that there has been some controversy related to the question of whether education has an independent effect on IQ or whether people with higher IQs simply choose, or are better able, to attain higher levels of education," Galloway said.

By looking at a reform which increased mandatory schooling and prevented people from dropping out of school after the 7th grade, it is fairly certain that the effects seen are an effect of schooling on IQ, not vice versa, she explained.

"One subtle point of our findings is that we use IQ measures at roughly age 19, which is three to four years after the additional education generally was received. Thus, we are not simply picking up a short-lived effect that peters out shortly after people leave school," Galloway said.

The findings suggest that education as late as the middle teenage years may have a sizeable effect on IQ, but do not challenge the well-documented importance of early childhood experiences on cognitive development, according to the authors.

Robert Sternberg, a professor of psychology and provost at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, said that "these results -- that schooling has a substantial effect on IQ -- replicate those of other, perhaps not quite as well-controlled, studies."

"I am aware of no serious studies that show the opposite result," he added.

He said the results are also consistent with the huge literature on the so-called Flynn effect showing that IQs are modifiable across as well as within generations and have been rising since the beginning of the 20th century.

"The results of this study are problematical for the chorus of psychologists and educators still locked in century-old thinking that IQ is genetic, stable and non-modifiable," Sternberg said. "As, for these individuals, the belief in the stability of IQ is more a matter of religious faith than of scientific inference, I doubt they will be persuaded."

More information

For more about IQ, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111228/hl_hsn/moreschoolingmightraiseiq

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Are Global Market Forces Linked to Obesity Epidemic? (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, Dec. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Nations with open trade policies have greater densities of fast food restaurants and higher rates of obesity than those with more trade controls, a new study has found.

"It's not by chance that countries with the highest obesity rates and fast food restaurants are those in the forefront of market liberalization, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, versus countries like Japan and Norway, with more regulated and restrictive trade policies," lead researcher Roberto De Vogli, an associate professor in the University of Michigan School of Public Health, said in a university news release.

For example, the analysis of data from 26 wealthy nations showed that the United States has 7.5 fast food restaurants per 100,000 people, and the density in Canada is 7.4 per 100,000. Obesity rates in the United States are 31 percent for men and 33 percent for women, and obesity rates in Canada are about 23 percent for men and women.

In comparison, Japan has 0.13 fast food restaurants per 100,000 people and Norway has 0.19 per 100,000 people. Obesity rates in Japan are 2.9 percent for men and 3.3 percent for women. Obesity rates in Norway are 6.4 percent for men and 5.9 percent for women, according to the study published in the December issue of the journal Critical Public Health.

The effect that market forces have on obesity is largely overlooked, according to De Vogli.

"In my opinion, the public debate is too much focused on individual genetics and other individual factors, and overlooks the global forces in society that are shaping behaviors worldwide. If you look at trends over time for obesity, it's shocking," he said in the news release.

"Since the 1980s, since the advent of trade liberalization policies that have indirectly . . . promoted transnational food companies . . . we see rates that have tripled or quadrupled. There is no biological, genetic, psychological or community level factor that can explain this. Only a global type of change can explain this," De Vogli stated.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases outlines the health risks of being overweight.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111230/hl_hsn/areglobalmarketforceslinkedtoobesityepidemic

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Tournament of THG Semifinals: Katy Perry vs. Demi Lovato!

Welcome back to the Tournament of THG, where fans vote on the most popular star of 2011! The concept is simple: Pick your favorite of the two stars in each poll. Done.

The semifinals kicked off with Robert Pattinson and Miley Cyrus battling to make the finals against ... the winner of this matchup, between Katy Perry and Demi Lovato!

In the quarterfinals, #3 seed Katy bested Lady Gaga with 59 percent of the vote, while #7 Demi topped Justin Bieber by an even wider margin in a bit of an upset. 

Who will advance to the championship round? VOTE below!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/tournament-of-thg-semifinals-katy-perry-vs-demi-lovato/

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