Sometimes, science is personal for me

Add this to your “weird science” file:

http://universe.byu.edu/2015/04/28/skin-texture-glow-distinguishes-mormons-from-others/

When my wife and I lived in Jerusalem, we would occasionally spot tourists on the street there and guess that they would be in church that coming weekend.  Even in the absence of obvious tell-tale signals such as BYU tee shirts, we were seldom wrong.

Truman Madsen liked to tell an anecdote about an Israeli government official who commented, during the controversy that surrounded the building of the BYU Jerusalem Center, that it would make little difference if overt Mormon proselytizing were prohibited.  What, he asked, are we going to be able to do about the light in your students’ eyes?  How can we stop that?

***

I, of course, had certain obvious advantages when I was in the market for a spouse. But I found this study interesting for what it tells about the world that all you ordinary mortals inhabit.  I’ve always wondered what things must be like for others.  Life must be tough.

“Chapman University Publishes Research on Attractiveness and Mating in National Study of Americans”

It’s science!

Are Latter-day Saints happier, on average, than most other folks?

Social science survey data indicates that they are.

But why?

http://janariess.religionnews.com/2015/07/02/5-reasons-why-mormons-are-happier-says-researcher/

All too often, the results of modern science (e.g., relativity, quantum physics, plate tectonics, and so forth) go against our common sense.

So it’s really comforting when, once in a while, cutting edge scientific research confirms widely-held assumptions, as it does here:

http://www.theonion.com/article/study-those-who-go-college-earn-more-degrees-over–50926

This is an important breakthrough, and I don’t think anybody realizes yet just how wide-ranging its ramifications will be.

I certainly hope that government funding was involved in the research!

And here’s a curious bit of . . . well, I guess it’s a kind of science:

http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/163133.html

“Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.”  (Louis Pasteur)