- Email: [email protected]
Analytical thinking erodes belief in God
Eddy Risch/epa/Corbis
IN BRIEF Oldest blood found in Ötzi’s wounds
Analytical thinking erodes belief in God HERE’S something to ponder. Thinking analytically dims belief in God. Humans use two cognitive systems for processing information: one fast and intuitive, another slower and analytical. Intuitive thinking is thought to underpin supernatural beliefs, while activating analytical thinking can override the intuitive system – and vice versa. Ara Norenzayan at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, used this to probe the causes of disbelief. His student Will Gervais asked 93 university students
to rate their belief in God and other supernatural agents. Then, several weeks later, the students underwent “priming” for analytical thinking – reading words such as “rational”, deciphering text written in hard-to-read fonts or looking at a photo of Rodin’s The Thinker (pictured). Controls were given less analytically charged tasks. The researchers then asked the students to again rate their supernatural beliefs. The students who had been exposed to analytical priming downgraded their belief in the supernatural, regardless of their previous degree of belief (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1215647). The simplest explanation is if intuitive thinking leads to belief, and analytical thinking somehow suppresses this process. “Habitual analytical thinking could be one reason scientists tend to be disbelievers,” notes Norenzayan.
Smart swarm to deflect killer asteroids FLINGING pebbles at an asteroid sounds like a fruitless task, but a new calculation shows that this could deflect an Earthbound rock. It takes surprisingly little force to deflect an asteroid, provided it is done several years before the projected impact. Previous ideas have included landing an engine on the asteroid to push it away from a collision, and using mirrors or lasers to vaporise its surface and 14 | NewScientist | 5 May 2012
provide thrust to shift its course. Alison Gibbings and Massimiliano Vasile, aerospace engineers at the University of Strathclyde, UK, have another solution. A 500-kilogram swarm of fingernail-sized spacecraft would, they calculate, deflect a fast-moving, 250-metre asteroid by nearly 35,000 kilometres – easily enough to avoid a collision, provided the swarm hits eight
years, or about three orbits, before the expected Earth impact. A swarm could be launched from Earth in a single rocket. After release, pebbles could harness the thrust provided by reflected sunlight to steer themselves into a tight cloud directed at the asteroid. Best of all, each pebble would be too small to crack the asteroid into still-dangerous pieces, the pair reported on 17 April at the Astrobiology Science Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
INTACT 5300-year-old red blood cells have been extracted from Ötzi, the “iceman” found in the European Alps in 1991. The cells are at least 2000 years older than those from Egyptian mummies, the previous record-holders. Albert Zink of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy, says they look just like modern blood cells. “There was no difference, although they were a little more brittle than living cells.” Previous attempts to extract red blood cells from Ötzi’s arteries had failed. This time, Zink struck lucky after sampling two of the iceman’s wounds (Journal of the Royal Society Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2012.0174). Traces of the blood-clotting protein fibrin came from the wound on his back, caused by the arrow that killed him. The fibrin is evidence that the wound was fresh when the iceman died.
Reprogramming a broken heart HOW can you mend a broken heart? You transform damaged cells into muscle cells. After a heart attack, fibroblast cells rush to areas damaged by lack of oxygen and form scar tissue. Because fibroblasts do not contract like heart muscle cells – known as cardiomyocytes – the heart’s pumping ability is weakened. Victor Dzau at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, used a virus to deliver four microRNAs – molecules that act as “masterswitches” for a number of genes – into damaged mice hearts. The microRNAs transformed many fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes, improving heart function (Circulation Research, DOI: 10.1161/circresaha.112.269035).
IN BRIEF Oldest blood found in Ötzi’s wounds
Analytical thinking erodes belief in God HERE’S something to ponder. Thinking analytically dims belief in God. Humans use two cognitive systems for processing information: one fast and intuitive, another slower and analytical. Intuitive thinking is thought to underpin supernatural beliefs, while activating analytical thinking can override the intuitive system – and vice versa. Ara Norenzayan at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, used this to probe the causes of disbelief. His student Will Gervais asked 93 university students
to rate their belief in God and other supernatural agents. Then, several weeks later, the students underwent “priming” for analytical thinking – reading words such as “rational”, deciphering text written in hard-to-read fonts or looking at a photo of Rodin’s The Thinker (pictured). Controls were given less analytically charged tasks. The researchers then asked the students to again rate their supernatural beliefs. The students who had been exposed to analytical priming downgraded their belief in the supernatural, regardless of their previous degree of belief (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1215647). The simplest explanation is if intuitive thinking leads to belief, and analytical thinking somehow suppresses this process. “Habitual analytical thinking could be one reason scientists tend to be disbelievers,” notes Norenzayan.
Smart swarm to deflect killer asteroids FLINGING pebbles at an asteroid sounds like a fruitless task, but a new calculation shows that this could deflect an Earthbound rock. It takes surprisingly little force to deflect an asteroid, provided it is done several years before the projected impact. Previous ideas have included landing an engine on the asteroid to push it away from a collision, and using mirrors or lasers to vaporise its surface and 14 | NewScientist | 5 May 2012
provide thrust to shift its course. Alison Gibbings and Massimiliano Vasile, aerospace engineers at the University of Strathclyde, UK, have another solution. A 500-kilogram swarm of fingernail-sized spacecraft would, they calculate, deflect a fast-moving, 250-metre asteroid by nearly 35,000 kilometres – easily enough to avoid a collision, provided the swarm hits eight
years, or about three orbits, before the expected Earth impact. A swarm could be launched from Earth in a single rocket. After release, pebbles could harness the thrust provided by reflected sunlight to steer themselves into a tight cloud directed at the asteroid. Best of all, each pebble would be too small to crack the asteroid into still-dangerous pieces, the pair reported on 17 April at the Astrobiology Science Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
INTACT 5300-year-old red blood cells have been extracted from Ötzi, the “iceman” found in the European Alps in 1991. The cells are at least 2000 years older than those from Egyptian mummies, the previous record-holders. Albert Zink of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy, says they look just like modern blood cells. “There was no difference, although they were a little more brittle than living cells.” Previous attempts to extract red blood cells from Ötzi’s arteries had failed. This time, Zink struck lucky after sampling two of the iceman’s wounds (Journal of the Royal Society Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2012.0174). Traces of the blood-clotting protein fibrin came from the wound on his back, caused by the arrow that killed him. The fibrin is evidence that the wound was fresh when the iceman died.
Reprogramming a broken heart HOW can you mend a broken heart? You transform damaged cells into muscle cells. After a heart attack, fibroblast cells rush to areas damaged by lack of oxygen and form scar tissue. Because fibroblasts do not contract like heart muscle cells – known as cardiomyocytes – the heart’s pumping ability is weakened. Victor Dzau at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, used a virus to deliver four microRNAs – molecules that act as “masterswitches” for a number of genes – into damaged mice hearts. The microRNAs transformed many fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes, improving heart function (Circulation Research, DOI: 10.1161/circresaha.112.269035).