Men Are More Likely Than Women to Be Hit by Lightning

Posted by John Farrier in Science & Tech on September 22, 2009 at 2:26 pm

Natalie Avon writes in Popular Science that between 1995 and 2008, 82% of people in the US killed by lightning were male. The experts that she consulted agreed that this was due to behavioral, rather than biological factors:

Peter Todd, a behavioral psychologist at Indiana University, suspects the difference between the sexes boils down to the basic risk-versus-reward systems that have been part of our biological wiring for thousands of years. For women, Todd explains, the priorities are to protect one’s reproductive role and to care for offspring, which outweighs any inclination to attract potential mates by exhibiting bold behavior.

But for men, Todd says, the risk of getting struck by lightning could be outweighed by the reward of proving to other men—and potential female mates—that they’re not afraid of getting struck by lightning. This is particularly true for young men, who have the most to gain by impressing others, thereby raising their status as attractive, daring, healthy mates in the dating pool. And then, zap!

Link

Image: flickr user Kevin Miller, used under Creative Commons license.

 
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Möbius Does It On The Same Side

The Ginormous Wheel

Posted by Miss Cellania in Gadget, Science & Tech on December 19, 2008 at 9:09 am

Not once, not twice, but eight different times has Popular Science or Popular Mechanics magazine declared that the future of travel is the monowheel. Wesley Treat collected the covers of these issues for a retrospective spanning from 1914 to 2007. The “One-Man War Tank” shown is from 1933. Most impressive is that you could buy a magazine for fifteen cents! Link -Thanks, beth!

 
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Popular Science Magazine (1872 - Now) in Google Books

Posted by Alex in Book & Lit on December 11, 2008 at 8:37 pm

This is fantastic: Google Book Search has full copies of Popular Science magazine, dating back to 1872, available for you to read online.

The very first issue, May to October 1872, covers such topics as The Study of Sociology (by Herbert Spencer, no less – he coined the term "survival of the fittest"), The Recent Eclipse of the Sun, Science and Immortality, and so on.

Link – Thanks Philipp Lenssen!

 
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