One of the goals of my science cafe and blog is to humanize the science and the scientist. But I often get asked about all these studies I often quote. Who are these people? How do the researchers find these subjects?
It was probably a touch simpler to just interview some past study participants, but where’s the fun in that? So I took part in a meditation/anxiety study in February.
The study focused on emotion processing & anxiety and how these might change with mindfulness based stress reduction or cognitive-behavioral therapy i.e. how meditation affects anxiety.
The process was similar to the one shown in this vid (courtesy Science Friday)
Day 1 was relatively simple…just a phone screen making sure I was capable of taking part in the study. I’m not pregnant, I meet certain demographic criteria, I’m not currently in any other studies, yadda yadda.
Dear beloved Albert Hoffman passed away on Tuesday at the ripe old age of 102.
Who’s Albert Hoffman? He’s responsible for the little marvel: LSD.
From the NY Times obit:
“Through my LSD experience and my new picture of reality, I became aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom,” Dr. Hofmann told the psychiatrist Stanislav Grof during an interview in 1984. “I became very sensitive to what will happen to all this and all of us.”
Years after his initial accidental ingestion of the drug, Hofmann became an advocate of its use…mainly as a tool for psychiatry and he hoped as means to awaken man to his connection to nature. He did emphasize sacred use of the drug, treating it with the reverence that many native societies treated psychoactive plants.
In many ways, I see Hofmann furthering the natural synthesis movement (isolation & replication of active molecules occurring in plants). He was a great service to that area of chemistry.
I have never used LSD, but certainly the drug of “enlightenment” has impacted my life. I’d be without a lot of good albums without it (credit for that joke goes to the eternal Bill Hicks below).
Monday, July 21st, 2008 7-9 PM Where:Atlas Cafe What:The Toxicology of Everyday Products Who: Dr. Paul Blanc, UCSF The Deets:There are hidden health dangers in many of the seemingly innocent products we encounter every day - a tube of glue in a kitchen drawer, a bottle of bleach in the laundry room, a rayon scarf on a closet shelf, a brass knob on the front door, a wood plank on an outdoor deck. This is not a matter of one exceptional or corrupt industry, but rather of how run-of-the-mill manufacturing processes and consumer marketing expose workers and the general public alike to toxic hazards. More troubling still, even when such hazards are recognized, calls for their control are routinely ignored.
Monday, August 18th, 2008 7-9 PM Where:Atlas Cafe What: Power to the People: Robots and Representational Democracy Who: Dr. Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley The Deets: Is there decision-making strength in numbers? Professor Goldberg and his students are looking into questions raised by robots and social networks -- and working on a new class of interfaces and games based on networked robots and cameras that quantify a measure of "leadership" to bring about group discovery and decision-making based on the power of crowds.
Ken will report on experiments and questions raised by robots and social networks, ranging from Ouija boards to human "tele-actors,"and tell a true story about how invasions of privacy led him and his students to study how robots can assist in monitoring the natural environment. Ken will describe a robotic system they've deployed to assist the search for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, a bird of extreme interest to birdwatchers, ornithologists, and conservationists whose last confirmed sighting was in 1944. Ken will also describe the Berkeley Center for New Media, a highly cross-disciplinary center with over 110 affiliated faculty from 30 Cal Departments.
Science in Action Events Science in Action is a series of tours, trips, and hikes intended to put you in the middle of active science in the Bay Area.
If you're interested in attending, send me an email.
The SF Recycling Tour is now full...Please email if you'd like to be added to the wait list
Saturday, July 19th 10 AM - 12 Noon
Details:
During the tour we will spend 45 minutes in the classroom watching a video, talking about recycling and environmental topics and the Artist in Residence Program. Then we will go to the studio to meet the current artist, then visit the Hazardous Waste Facility, the Transfer Station, the Sculpture Garden and finally walk through the Public Disposal Area. This part of the tour takes about one hour.
