July 10, 2012

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ScienceSeeker Editor's Selections: Synaesthesia, Assumptions, Happiness, and The Olympics

By Jason G. Goldman

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Here are my Science Seeker Editor's Selections for the past two weeks:

"Can You Learn To Be Synaesthetic?" asks the Neuroskeptic. Errr, maybe? In a way.

All scientific fields rest upon a set of more-or-less mutually agreed-upon assumptions. Sometimes, those assumptions can be wrong, though. Musing about his own field, Micah Allen at Neuroconscience wonders, What are the critical assumptions of neuroscience?

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"Marriage is like a sweater. A yellow sweater you bought, and couldn’t return." This, according to Dan Gilbert, via Thomas Hayden, at the excellent group blog Last Word on Nothing: You’re Not as Happy as You Think You Are, Behavioral Scientists Report.

At Psych Your Mind, blogger Maya notes that "we may have ideas of what typical French or German or British people are like relative to typical Americans." She asks, "are these ideas just oversimplified stereotypes, or are they rooted in actual country-level differences in personality characteristics?" As you might expect, opinions are varied. National Personality Types: Fact or Figment?

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.

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