On the one hand, it could be because women scientists who are parents tend to be more involved in child rearing than their male counterparts, giving them a more intimate sense of the lack of science education in our nation and a greater desire to do something to better translate science to the broader public. On the other hand, women may be more involved than men in outreach because outreach is seen by university administrators and department heads as more of a feminine than masculine task, meaning that women may receive greater subtle pressure to engage in science outreach activities.

Elaine Howard Ecklund is a professor of sociology, a scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, and the director of the Religion and Public Life Program at the Social Sciences Research Institute at Rice University.

Ethics of Eating Meat
Beatrice Marovich: Is there an ethical argument in favor of flesh consumption? That is, can a meat-eating human find solid moral ground for her more carnivorous appetites? Is there a soul-cure for the stomachache that comes from eating the body of another sentient creature? Are these questions that the vast storehouses of religious traditions can help us navigate? (Religion Dispatches)

The Oldest Known Cave Art
Since their discovery in 1994, the spectacular paintings of lions, rhinos, and other animals in southern France’s Chauvet Cave have stood out as the oldest known cave art, clocking in at about 37,000 years old. But there have been occasional sightings of other cave art that is equally ancient, although its dating has been more uncertain. Now a team working at another site in the south of France claims to have discovered what appear to be engravings of female genitalia that are as old as or older than Chauvet, possibly making them the world’s most ancient cave art. (Michael Balter, ScienceNOW)

Meet Daryl Bem
The 73-year-old Daryl Bem has defied the norm throughout his intellectual life, burning every dogma he’s encountered in the pyre of his logic. Now, in the twilight of his career, he has committed what may be his most daring act of sacrilege: claiming the existence of precognition, the ability to sense future events. Maybe this time, his colleagues say, Daryl Bem has gone too far. (Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, Discover)

Embracing Uncertainty
Adam Frank: From birth to the unknown moment of our passing, we ride a river of change. And yet, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, we exhaust ourselves in an endless search for solidity. We hunger for something that lasts, some idea or principle that rises above time and change. We hunger for certainty. That is a big problem. It might even be THE problem. (13.7: Cosmos and Culture, NPR)

The National Academy of Sciences is regarded as the defining voice of science in America. Its membership represents the elite of U.S. scientists. It has taken a strong position that science has nothing to say about God or the supernatural. Most other science organizations have followed its lead.

The rationale usually given by those who reject any role for science on religious matters is that science concerns itself, “by definition,” solely with natural phenomena. Since the supernatural is unobservable, then, they assert, science has nothing to say about it.

However, while supernatural entities may not be directly observable, any effects these entities might have on the material world should manifest themselves as observable phenomena. Anything observable is subject to scientific inquiry. On the other hand, if the supernatural has no observable effects on the natural world, then why even worry about it?

In recent years, right under the nose of the NAS, reputable scientists from reputable institutions have vigorously pursued several areas of empirical study that bear directly on the question of God and the supernatural. Any one of these experiments was capable of providing evidence for at least some aspect of a world beyond the material world. I will mention just two.

Teams of scientists from three highly respected institutions—The Mayo Clinic and Harvard and Duke universities—have performed carefully controlled experiments on the medical efficacy of blind, intercessory prayer and published their results in peer-reviewed journals. These experiments found no evidence that such prayers provide any health benefit. But, they could have.

For my second example, over a period of four decades extensive investigations have been made into the phenomenon of near-death experiences in which people resuscitated from the brink of death report a glimpse of “heaven.” Despite thousands of such reports, not a single subject has returned with new knowledge that could be tested by further investigations. No prediction has been made of some future catastrophe that later occurred on schedule, and not for lack of opportunity given the many natural disasters—earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, tornados—of recent years. Similarly, no divine revelation has provided an answer for any currently unanswered question in science, history, or theology, such as the where in the universe we will find extraterrestrial life or the location of Noah’s Ark.

Now, I am not saying that these negative results prove conclusively that the supernatural does not exist, although a good case can be made that the absence of evidence that should be there can be taken as evidence of absence. My point here is that, in principle, experiments such as these and others could have provided direct evidence for a world beyond matter.

So, scientists and science organizations are being disingenuous when they say science can say nothing about the supernatural. They know better. Their policy of appeasing religion for presumably political reasons only empowers those who are muddling education and polluting public policy with anti-scientific magical thinking.

Furthermore, the Gould attempt to divide up the territory by ceding the moral domain to religion takes away the individual’s right to have input on moral and ethical questions, leaving those issues to scholars who interpret ancient texts. This sounds like Shariah law to me. Moral behavior is observable, and science is the best method to investigate the observable world.

Victor Stenger is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Hawaii, an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, and the author of the 2007 New York Times bestseller God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist and the new book God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Religion.

Self-Deception and Laughter
The researchers found a link between a lack of laughter and denial of one’s darker impulses. “Participants who scored higher on a self-deception questionnaire laughed less, and reported less enjoyment, in response to a stand-up comedian than those who scored lower,” Robert Lynch and Robert Trivers report. (Tom Jacobs, Pacific Standard)

Religion at a Rocket Launch
As the next residents of the International Space Station—Gennady Padalka, and Sergei Revin of Russia and Joe Acaba from the United States—prepared for takeoff, an Orthodox priest blessed the Soyuz rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad in Kazakhstan. In addition to blessing the rocket itself, the priest also blessed the cosmonauts and astronauts according to a tradition begun in 1994 by cosmonaut Aleksandr Viktorenko, who requested a blessing for the Soyuz TM-20 crew before their launch to Mir. (Rebecca Horne, Photo Journal, The Wall Street Journal)

Why It’s Worth Fighting Over Science Education
Janet Stemwedel: From time to time, thoughtful people ask whether some of these battles are distractions from more important issues—and, specifically, whether the question of what a community decides to include in, or omit from, its high school biology curriculum ought to command so much of our energy and emotional investment. (Doing Good Science, Scientific American)

BOOKS
The Self Illusion
The science is confirming what the Buddha, Scottish philosopher David Hume, and many other thinkers maintained: that there is no concrete identity at the core of our being, and that our sense of self is an illusion spun from narratives we construct about our lives. Bruce Hood’s The Self Illusion is a thoroughly researched and skillfully organized account of the developments in psychology and neuroscience that are helping to substantiate this unsettling vision of selfhood. (Michael Bond, CultureLab, New Scientist)

EXHIBIT
Trail of the Magic Bullet: The Jewish Encounter With Modern Medicine, 1860-1960
The exhibition offers a rare look at a topic few patients ever stop to consider: the emergence of European and American Jews as innovators in medicine, despite their status as outsiders frequently scorned by the medical establishment. (Roni Caryn Rabin, The New York Times)

A defining feature of experience-taking is that it allows people to understand another person’s perspective and life experiences authentically, without being biased or influenced by their own point of view, beliefs, or expectations. In fact, the more people are able to “lose themselves” (literally!) in a story or book, the more likely it is that experience-taking will occur. To illustrate, we have found that people who are highly self-conscious by nature—as well as those whose identity had been temporarily activated upon seeing their reflection in a mirror—report significantly lower levels of experience-taking. Moreover, we have discovered that experience-taking is by and large an unintentional and unconscious process, rather than an effortful and volitional one. In fact, when people are instructed to take the perspective of a character in a story, they actually report lower levels of experience-taking compared with readers who are not so instructed. Thus, the more readers can take themselves out of the picture when entering the world of a story, the more able they are to imagine themselves as one of the characters in that world—and thus experience true empathy.

Furthermore, our work has revealed that experience-taking can dramatically affect the beliefs and behaviors of readers once they emerge from the narrative world. For example, we have found that people who report higher levels of experience-taking are subsequently more likely to adjust their behavior to align with the character’s (e.g., by voting on Election Day) and to describe themselves as having the same personality traits (e.g., shyness or extroversion) displayed by a character. In addition, we have found that when experience-taking occurs with characters who belong to other social groups (such as protagonists of a different race or sexual orientation), readers report lower levels of prejudice and stereotyping toward those groups. In other words, as a consequence of having simulated the experience of a character, readers come to see the world, other people, and themselves quite differently. These results suggest that experience-taking can be directed to instill in readers particular values, beliefs, and behaviors that are beneficial to both self and society, and our research has sought to illuminate when such outcomes are particularly likely to occur.

Geoff Kaufman is a postdoctoral researcher at the Tiltfactor Laboratory at Dartmouth College.

Cultural Differences Between Neighboring Chimp Groups
Like humans who might use a different slang term for “that’s cool” or have distinct fashion sense, adjacent chimpanzee groups also show cultural differences, in this case, in their nut-cracking techniques, researchers have found. (Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience)

Astronomical Tables From the Maya Civilization About 1,200 Years Ago Discovered
Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later. Astronomical records were key to the Mayan calendar, which has gotten some attention recently because of doomsday warnings that it predicts the end of the world this December. Experts say it makes no such prediction. The new finding provides a bit of backup. (Malcolm Ritter, Associated Press)

Take It Slow for Enjoyment
People rush through experiences not necessarily because they lack self-control but because they simply don’t realize that slowing down consumption leads to more pleasure, a study finds. (Christopher Shea, Ideas Market, The Wall Street Journal)

The Limits of Science
We asked prominent scientists and thinkers two of the biggest questions in their field: Is there anything science can’t explain? And is there anything it shouldn’t try to explain? (New Statesman)

Q&A
Paul Zak
In his latest book, The Moral Molecule, neuroeconomist Paul Zak describes oxytocin’s role in trust, bonding, and even virtuous behaviour. New Scientist caught up with him about avoiding the term “the cuddle chemical” and trying not to make a bride faint on her wedding day. (Jessica Hamzelou, CultureLab, New Scientist)

• The imperative of self-awareness and self-examination
• The necessity of striving for self-mastery
• The primacy of behavior over ‘‘insight’’
• Cultivating self-sufficiency and equanimity
• Understanding and tolerating the behavior of yourself and others
• Happiness or unhappiness are ‘‘internally caused’’
• The emptiness of short-range hedonism and immediate gratification

It’s fair to say that the 12th-century scholar Maimonides is probably the best exemplar of the nexus between CBT and Judaism, and many of his writings are almost prescient in anticipating modern theories now part of CBT.

Dr. Ronald Pies is a professor of psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University and the Tufts University School of Medicine and the author of The Judaic Foundations of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

Mapping the Human Connectome
The research by Jeff Lichtman and his co-workers has a goal in mind that is so ambitious it is almost unthinkable. If we are ever to understand the brain in full, they say, we must know how every neuron inside is wired up. (Ian Sample, guardian.co.uk)

Evidence of a Cult at the Time of King David?
Archaeologists have unearthed a trove of artifacts dating back to the time of the biblical King David that they say closely correspond to the description of Solomon’s Temple found in the Book of Kings. (Michele Chabin, Religion News Service)

Scientists and Public Outreach
Female scientists and researchers with kids are the most likely to reach out and communicate their science to the public, a new study finds. The results are based on a random sample of biologists and physicists in the United States, so they may not be universal for all scientists. But according to their interviews with these researchers, science communication is getting the short end of the stick. Though 58 percent of the scientists surveyed in the study reported engaging in some sort of public outreach, 31 percent said their universities were a major barrier in communicating their research. (Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience)

VIDEO
The Case for Naturalism
Sean Carroll: This is the best I can do in 10 minutes to sum up the progress in human understanding that has led us to reject the supernatural and accept that the natural world is all there is. (Cosmic Variance, Discover)

Our previous research has shown that men with highly masculine features are seen as less likely to be committed, and this is consistent with studies looking at men’s actual behaviors. Our current project shows that men who gaze with lowered eyelids are seen as signaling interest in brief sexual relationships. These men were more likely to be avoided for long-term committed relationships.

Daniel Kruger is a research assistant professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan.

Conflicts Between Religion-Based Hospital Policy and Patient Care
More than one-third of obstetrician-gynecologists at religiously affiliated hospitals say they’ve had a conflict with their institution about patient care policies based on religious tenets—including over half of ob-gyns at Catholic hospitals, according to a new survey. (Genevra Pittman, Reuters)

Staying Happy
“Previous research shows that an individual’s happiness can increase after major life changes, such as starting a new romantic relationship, but over time happiness tends to return to a previous level,” psychologist Kennon Sheldon said. “Through our research, we developed a model to help people maintain higher levels of happiness derived from beneficial changes.” The model consists of two components: The need to keep having new and positive life-changing experiences and the need to keep appreciating what you already have and not want more too soon, he explained. (Janice Wood, Psych Central)

Emotional Words and Bilingual Readers
Reading a nasty word in a second language may not pack the punch it would in your native tongue, thanks to an unconscious brain quirk that tamps down potentially disturbing emotions, a new study finds. (LiveScience)

“Once Upon a Time”
Why such lasting and ubiquitous appeal? What is it that the words promise, exactly? Beyond the lure of fantasy and the make-believe, magic kingdoms and talking animals, why that phrase, that turn, that wording? (Maria Konnikova, Literally Psyched, Scientific American)

Superhero Psychology
To mark the release of The Avengers, a movie that features several high-profile superheroes, including Captain America, the Hulk, and Black Widow, psychologist Robin Rosenberg discussed what makes some of these characters so intriguing psychologically. (Brent Bambury, Day 6, CBC Radio)

Controversy Over Emory University’s Commencement Speaker
An unusual controversy has erupted at Emory University over the choice of famed neurosurgeon Ben Carson to deliver this year’s commencement address because he does not believe in evolution. Nearly 500 professors, student, and alumni signed a letter expressing concern that Carson, as a Seventh-day Adventist, believes in creationist theory that holds that all life on Earth was created by God about 6,000 years ago. (Valerie Strauss, The Answer Sheet, The Washington Post)

Q&A
Christopher Boehm
In his new book, Moral Origins, Christopher Boehm speculates that human morality emerged along with big game hunting. When hunter-gatherers formed groups, he explains, survival essentially boiled down to one key tenet—cooperate, or die. (Megan Gambino, Smithsonian.com)