Harvard vai devolver US$ 504.778,00 aos cofres públicos americanos por pesquisa científica fajuta de Marc Hauser?

quinta-feira, setembro 02, 2010



Algo como: prestando contas, nada de pizza! (Ah, Brasília, se teus esgotos falassem!!!)

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Award Abstract #0725125
 HSD: Collaborative Research: Evolutionary, Developmental, and Neurobiological Sources of Moral Judgments 



NSF Org:BCS 
Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
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Initial Amendment Date:August 17, 2007
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Latest Amendment Date:June 1, 2009
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Award Number:0725125
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Award Instrument:Standard Grant
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Program Manager:Larry E. Suter
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
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Start Date:September 1, 2007
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Expires:August 31, 2011 (Estimated)
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Awarded Amount to Date:$504778
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Investigator(s):Marc Hauser mdh102559@gmail.com (Principal Investigator)
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Sponsor:Harvard University
1350 MASSACHUSETTS AVE
Cambridge, MA 02138 617/495-5501
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NSF Program(s):HSD - GENERAL,
HSD - DYNAMICS OF HUMAN BEHAVI
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Field Application(s):0116000 Human Subjects
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Program Reference Code(s):SMET, OTHR, 9251, 9178, 7319, 0000
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Program Element Code(s):7326, 7319


ABSTRACT

A multidisciplinary research team will study various aspects of the nature of moral judgments and the causal factors for the capacity for cross-cultural variation and change. The project measures the nature of moral decisions across different time periods (evolutionary, developmental, and cultural) and among different test populations (nonhuman animals, normal and neurobiologically impaired human infants and adults, and different cultures). It uses different methods for each type of study including experiments of primates, large-scale internet studies, and neuropsychological investigation of patients. The investigators will to study two psychological factors: (1) The idea that intending to harm another as a means to the greater good is less permissible than harming merely as a foreseen side effect (the intention principle) and (2) The idea that acts that cause harm to others will be perceived as morally worse than omissions of an act that causes equivalent harm (the omission principle). Studies of these principles will be conducted with nonhuman primates and human infants to test the hypothesis that some of the core cognitive building blocks that are necessary for these principles (e.g., perceiving intentions and goals) are in place but only take on moral significance in our own species, and only later in child development. The investigators will test the hypothesis that these principles are universal but with cross-cultural variation in their specific content (e.g., who can be harmed) by using both large-scale internet-based studies as well as studies of hunter-gather and subsistence-based societies. They will test the hypothesis that governments can impose explicit laws that alter how people behave yet these explicit norms do not penetrate people's intuitive moral judgments. The investigators also will examine how neural insult systematically changes the nature of particular moral judgments among patient populations (i.e., autistics, individuals with damage to the frontal lobes and amygdala).

The project is expected to enhance basic understanding of how humans evolved the capacity to deliver moral judgments, how such judgments change over development and across cultures, and how the capacity breaks down following selective neural insult. Results from this project are likely to be useful in the arenas of justice, public policy, education, and clinical treatment, showcasing the biological and psychological mechanisms that humans bring to the moral table, and how they respond to policy that may be at odds with their intuitive moral sense. The project also will provide education and training opportunities for graduate students, including students from minority groups and developing nations.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

(Showing: 1 - 17 of 17)
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Abarbanell, L. & Hauser, M.D.. "Mayan morality: an exploration of permissible harms.," Cognition, v.115, 2010, p. 207.

Cima, M., Tonnaer, F., & Hauser, M.D.. "Psychopaths know right from wrong but don't care," Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, v.5, 2010, p. 59.

Glenn, A.L., Raine, A., Schug, R.A., Young, L.A., & Hauser, M.D.. "ncreased DLPFC activity during moral decision-making in psychopathy.," Molecular Psychiatry, v.14, 2009, p. 908.

Hauser, M.D.. "Is morality natural?," Newsweek, 2009.

Hauser, M.D.. "The origin of mind.," Scientific American, 2009.

Hauser, M.D.. "The possibility of impossible cultures.," Nature, v.460, 2009, p. 190.

Hauser, M.D.. "The origins of the mind.," Scientific American, v.Septemb, 2009, p. 44.

Hauser, M.D. & Wood, J.N.. "Evolving the capacity to understand actions, intentions and goals.," Annual Review of Psychology, v.61, 2010, p. 13.

Hauser, M.D., McAuliffe, K. & Blake, P.. "Evolving the ingredients for reciprocity and spite.," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, v.364, 2009, p. 3255.

Hauser, M.D., Tonnaer, F., & Cima, M.. "When moral intuitions are immune to the law: a case study of euthanasia and the act-omission distinction.," Journal of Cognition and Culture, v.9, 2009, p. 149.


Huebner, B., Dwyer, S. & Hauser, M.D.. "The role of emotion in moral psychology.," Trends in Cognitive Science, v.13, 2009, p. 1.

Huebner, B., Lee, J.J. & Hauser, M.D.. "The moral-conventional distinction in mature moral competence.," 
Journal of Cognition and Culture, v.10, 2010, p. 1.

Wood, J. & Hauser, M.D.. "Event comprehension: primates read beneath the surface appearance of actions.," 
Trends in Cognitive Science, v.12, 2008, p. 461.

Wood, J.N., Glynn, D.D., Hauser, M.D.. "Rhesus monkeys' understanding of actions and goals.," 
Social Neuroscience, v.3, 2008, p. 60.

Wood, JN; Glynn, DD; Phillips, BC; Hauser, MD. "The perception of rational, goal-directed action in nonhuman primates," 
SCIENCE, v.317, 2007, p. 1402-1405. View record at Web of Science

Young, L., Bechara, A., Tranel, D., Damasio, H., Hauser, M. & Damasio, A.. "Damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex impairs judgment of harmful intent.," 
Neuron, v.65, 2010, p. 845.

Young, L., Camprodon, J., Hauser, M., Pascual-Leone, A. & Saxe, R.. "Disruption of the right temporo- parietal junction with transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces the role of beliefs in moral judgments.," 
PNAS, v.107, 2010, p. 6753.

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PERGUNTA INDISCRETA DESTE BLOGGER:

E se a moda pega por parte dos agentes públicos -- fraudou em ciência, devolve o dinheiro aos cofres públicos. E aqui no Brasil, não acontece nada disso? Nossos cientistas, apesar de viverem na linha do Equador, são santos, por demais santos? As universidades federais devolvem o dinheiro aos cofres públicos? 

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Anunciado o lançamento de PLoS Blogs

quarta-feira, setembro 01, 2010


Announcing PLoS Blogs

Darwin, caracas mano, são 335.000 visitantes nos quatro continentes!

335.000 visitors/visitantes. Source/Fonte: ClustrMaps

Gente, eu nunca tinha imaginado na vida que alcançaria tanta gente assim com um blog desconstruindo a teoria da evolução através da seleção natural e n outros mecanismos evolucionários (de A a Z): 335.000 visitantes. 

Eu não sei não, mas acho que até em Down tem gente que acessa este blog. Sobre as dificuldades fundamentais desta teoria no contexto de justificação teórica, não dá para não ler este blog!

Darwin, muito obrigado por me fazer famoso! Sem você, eu jamais seria reconhecido!

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As origens da vida celular

The Origins of Cellular Life

Jason P. Schrum, Ting F. Zhu and Jack W. Szostak

-Author Affiliations

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biology and the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114

Correspondence: szostak@molbio.mgh.harvard.edu

Abstract

Understanding the origin of cellular life on Earth requires the discovery of plausible pathways for the transition from complex prebiotic chemistry to simple biology, defined as the emergence of chemical assemblies capable of Darwinian evolution. We have proposed that a simple primitive cell, or protocell, would consist of two key components: a protocell membrane that defines a spatially localized compartment, and an informational polymer that allows for the replication and inheritance of functional information. Recent studies of vesicles composed of fatty-acid membranes have shed considerable light on pathways for protocell growth and division, as well as means by which protocells could take up nutrients from their environment. Additional work with genetic polymers has provided insight into the potential for chemical genome replication and compatibility with membrane encapsulation. The integration of a dynamic fatty-acid compartment with robust, generalized genetic polymer replication would yield a laboratory model of a protocell with the potential for classical Darwinian biological evolution, and may help to evaluate potential pathways for the emergence of life on the early Earth. Here we discuss efforts to devise such an integrated protocell model.

Copyright © 2010 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved

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Origem e evolução do ribossoma

Origin and Evolution of the Ribosome

George E. Fox

-Author Affiliations

Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204-5001
Correspondence: fox@uh.edu

Abstract

The modern ribosome was largely formed at the time of the last common ancestor, LUCA. Hence its earliest origins likely lie in the RNA world. Central to its development were RNAs that spawned the modern tRNAs and a symmetrical region deep within the large ribosomal RNA, (rRNA), where the peptidyl transferase reaction occurs. To understand pre-LUCA developments, it is argued that events that are coupled in time are especially useful if one can infer a likely order in which they occurred. Using such timing events, the relative age of various proteins and individual regions within the large rRNA are inferred. An examination of the properties of modern ribosomes strongly suggests that the initial peptides made by the primitive ribosomes were likely enriched for L-amino acids, but did not completely exclude D-amino acids. This has implications for the nature of peptides made by the first ribosomes. From the perspective of ribosome origins, the immediate question regarding coding is when did it arise rather than how did the assignments evolve. The modern ribosome is very dynamic with tRNAs moving in and out and the mRNA moving relative to the ribosome. These movements may have become possible as a result of the addition of a template to hold the tRNAs. That template would subsequently become the mRNA, thereby allowing the evolution of the code and making an RNA genome useful. Finally, a highly speculative timeline of major events in ribosome history is presented and possible future directions discussed.

Copyright © 2010 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved

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Organização da transcrição

Organization of Transcription

Lyubomira Chakalova1,2 and Peter Fraser1

-Author Affiliations

1Laboratory of Chromatin and Gene Expression, The Babraham Institute, Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge, CB22 3AT, United Kingdom

2Research Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje 1000, Republic of Macedonia

Correspondence: peter.fraser@bbsrc.ac.uk

Abstract

Investigations into the organization of transcription have their origins in cell biology. Early studies characterized nascent transcription in relation to discernable nuclear structures and components. Advances in light microscopy, immunofluorescence, and in situ hybridization helped to begin the difficult task of naming the countless individual players and components of transcription and placing them in context. With the completion of mammalian genome sequences, the seemingly boundless task of understanding transcription of the genome became finite and began a new period of rapid advance. Here we focus on the organization of transcription in mammals drawing upon information from lower organisms where necessary. The emerging picture is one of a highly organized nucleus with specific conformations of the genome adapted for tissue-specific programs of transcription and gene expression.

Copyright © 2010 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved

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Sou louco por ti, Corinthians



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Nenhuma evidência de nanodiamantes nos sedimentos do Dryas mais recente para apoiar um evento de impacto

No evidence of nanodiamonds in Younger–Dryas sediments to support an impact event

Tyrone L. Daulton a,1, Nicholas Pinter b, and Andrew C. Scott c

-Author Affiliations

aDepartment of Physics and Center for Materials Innovation, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130;
bDepartment of Geology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901; and
cDepartment of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, United Kingdom

Edited by Mark H. Thiemens, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved July 27, 2010 (received for review March 24, 2010)

Abstract

The causes of the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions in North America, disappearance of Clovis paleoindian lithic technology, and abrupt Younger–Dryas (YD) climate reversal of the last deglacial warming in the Northern Hemisphere remain an enigma. A controversial hypothesis proposes that one or more cometary airbursts/impacts barraged North America ≈12,900 cal yr B.P. and caused these events. Most evidence supporting this hypothesis has been discredited except for reports of nanodiamonds (including the rare hexagonal polytype) in Bølling–Ållerod-YD-boundary sediments. The hexagonal polytype of diamond, lonsdaleite, is of particular interest because it is often associated with shock pressures related to impacts where it has been found to occur naturally. Unfortunately, previous reports of YD-boundary nanodiamonds have left many unanswered questions regarding the nature and occurrence of the nanodiamonds. Therefore, we examined carbon-rich materials isolated from sediments dated 15,818 cal yr B.P. to present (including the Bølling–Ållerod-YD boundary). No nanodiamonds were found in our study. Instead, graphene- and graphene/graphane-oxide aggregates are ubiquitous in all specimens examined. We demonstrate that previous studies misidentified graphene/graphane-oxide aggregates as hexagonal diamond and likely misidentified graphene as cubic diamond. Our results cast doubt upon one of the last widely discussed pieces of evidence supporting the YD impact hypothesis.

archaeology   paleoclimate   Quaternary extinctions   carbon spherules  fungal sclerotia

Footnotes

1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:tdaulton@physics.wustl.edu.

Author contributions: T.L.D., N.P., and A.C.S. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

This article contains supporting information online at


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PDF gratuito deste artigo aqui.

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Primeira evidência clara de 'comes e bebes' comunais em caverna usada para enterros em Israel


Early evidence (ca. 12,000 B.P.) for feasting at a burial cave in Israel

Natalie D. Munro a,1 and Leore Grosman b

-Author Affiliations

aDepartment of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269; and
bInstitute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel

Edited by Henry T. Wright, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, and approved July 30, 2010 (received for review February 13, 2010)

This is a view of excavation area at Hilazon Tachtit Cave, Israel. (Credit: Naftali Hilger)

Abstract

Feasting is one of humanity's most universal and unique social behaviors. Although evidence for feasting is common in the early agricultural societies of the Neolithic, evidence in pre-Neolithic contexts is more elusive. We found clear evidence for feasting on wild cattle and tortoises at Hilazon Tachtit cave, a Late Epipaleolithic (12,000 calibrated years B.P.) burial site in Israel. This includes unusually high densities of butchered tortoise and wild cattle remains in two structures, the unique location of the feasting activity in a burial cave, and the manufacture of two structures for burial and related feasting activities. The results indicate that community members coalesced at Hilazon to engage in special rituals to commemorate the burial of the dead and that feasts were central elements in these important events. Feasts likely served important roles in the negotiation and solidification of social relationships, the integration of communities, and the mitigation of scalar stress. These and other social changes in the Natufian period mark significant changes in human social complexity that continued into the Neolithic period. Together, social and economic change signal the very beginning of the agricultural transition.

Epipaleolithic   Natufian culture   origins of agriculture   ritual  social complexity

Footnotes

1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:natalie.munro@uconn.edu.

Author contributions: N.D.M. and L.G. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

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PDF gratuito deste artigo aqui.

Georgia Tech recebe US$ 20 milhões para 'correr atrás do vento', ooops, pesquisar a geração química espontânea



GEORGIA TECH AWARDED A $20M CENTER FOR CHEMICAL INNOVATION

Posted August 2, 2010 Atlanta




A team of institutions led by the Georgia Institute of Technology has been awarded a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to pursue research that could lead to a better understanding of how life started on Earth. Researchers will focus their efforts on exploring chemical processes that enable the spontaneous formation of functional polymers -- such as proteins and DNA -- from much smaller and simpler starting materials.

“Our research team seeks to understand how certain molecules in a complex mixture can work together to form highly ordered assemblies that exhibit chemical properties similar to those associated with biological molecules,” said Nicholas V. Hud, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “Such a process was likely an essential and early stage of life, so we are also working to understand what chemicals were present on the prebiotic Earth and what processes helped these chemicals form the complex substances ultimately needed for life.”

Hud will direct the effort, which is known as the Center for Chemical Evolution. The five-year grant will support research in more than 15 laboratories at institutions including Georgia Tech, Emory University, the Scripps Research Institute, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Jackson State University, Spelman College, Furman University and the SETI Institute.

All of the researchers will work together to accomplish the Center for Chemical Evolution’s three main research goals:

To identify potential biological building blocks among the products of model prebiotic reactions,

To investigate the chemical components and conditions that promote the spontaneous assembly of increasingly complex multi-component structures, and

To prepare and characterize highly-ordered chemical assemblies, and to study their potential to function like biological substances.

“We will work backward from the complex substances found in living organisms today, such as proteins and DNA, and make materials that are a little bit different and simpler in chemical structure,” explained Hud. “We will then strive to determine if there were possibly chemicals and conditions on the early Earth that would have given rise to these and similar substances.”

In addition, the researchers will translate technological developments into commercially viable products. Facundo Fernandez, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is leading the Center’s commercialization efforts.

For the first research theme, which is being led by Georgia Tech chemistry professor Thomas Orlando, creating a model inventory of the chemicals present on the early Earth will require the development of new tools and approaches for analyzing and sorting complex mixtures.

“Complex mixtures are found in many chemical industries -- including petroleum, food and pharmaceuticals,” said Fernandez. “The instruments and protocols we develop to sort through the complex mixtures that result from model prebiotic chemical reactions are going to be valuable to these industries too.”

Charles Liotta, a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is leading the second research theme, which involves exploring alternative media that could have facilitated the assembly of complex substances in the prebiotic world. This research could produce environmentally-friendly procedures leading to new chemical processes, according to the team.

In the third research theme, led by David Lynn, chair of the Department of Chemistry at Emory University, and Ram Krishnamurthy, an associate professor of chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute, methods will be developed to create polymers and assemblies that mimic natural macromolecules, such as DNA and proteins. The resulting methods could be used as a platform to create a range of substances with broad commercial applications across the spectrum of therapeutics, diagnostics and drug delivery materials. Lynn will also lead the Center’s education and public outreach programs.

The research efforts of the Center will build on the knowledge and results gained during the past three years, during which time a smaller group of laboratories were funded by the National Science Foundation to conduct collaborative research projects and to develop a larger center.

Research progress made during the initial phase of funding includes a paper published June 14 in the journal ChemBioChem. Center laboratories showed for the first time that guanine, a component of DNA, could be produced from formamide (H2NCOH), a simple chemical known to exist in outer space.

Previous research had shown that the other three building blocks of nucleic acids -- cytosine, adenine and uracil -- could be synthesized by heating formamide in the presence of mineral catalysts, but not guanine.

Center researchers produced guanine from formamide by subjecting the sample to ultraviolet light during the heating process. The results also demonstrated that guanine, adenine and another building block called hypoxanthine could be produced at lower temperatures than previously reported.

“Our ultimate goal is to create a complete chemical pathway showing how relatively simple substances can interact with the environment and each other to spontaneously produce complex assemblies that exhibit properties normally associated with biological substances, and perhaps shed some light on the earliest stages of life on Earth,” noted Hud.

Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA

Media Relations Contacts: Abby Vogel Robinson (404-385-3364; abby@innovate.gatech.edu) or John Toon (404-894-6986; jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: Abby Vogel Robinson

Source/Fonte: Georgia Tech

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NOTA DESTE BLOGGER:

Apesar de Pasteur ter demonstrado a impossibilidade da geração espontânea, a comunidade científica persiste, não por razões científicas, mas ideológicas, pela evolução química ou biogênese. Eu chamo essas tentativas de 'chasing after the wind' [correr atrás do vento], pois não há como ocorrer seleção natural de elementos químicos:



"Natural selection is differential reproduction, organism perpetuation. In order to have natural selection, you have to have self-reproduction or self-replication and at least two distinct self-replicating units or entities. Prebiological natural selection is a contradiction in terms. — T. Dobzhansky, “Synthesis of Nucleosidase and Polynucleotide with Metaphosphate Esters,” in The Origins of Prebiological Systems (1965), pp. 299, 310."

Traduzindo em graúdos: as pesquisas, para não serem taxadas de 'chasing after the wind' [correr atrás do vento], e para adoçar os contribuintes americanos que já estão de saco cheio com pesquisas científicas inúteis, tem esta solene declaração sobre a utilização prática do uso da tecnologia:

"In addition, the researchers will translate technological developments into commercially viable products."

Fui, nem sei por que, pensando que existem sim gnomos, fadas, saci-pererê, matinta pereira, cobra grande...

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