http://mindhacks.com/2007/05/22/a-secret-not-worth-keeping/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Mon, 20 May 2013 15:51:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://mindhacks.com/2007/05/22/a-secret-not-worth-keeping/#comment-7380 Tue, 22 May 2007 23:48:02 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/a-secret-not-worth-keeping/#comment-7380 Two elementary physics mistakes within four sentences, in an article by a science advocate in Scientific American magazine!

]]> http://mindhacks.com/2007/05/22/a-secret-not-worth-keeping/#comment-7379 Tue, 22 May 2007 19:58:47 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/a-secret-not-worth-keeping/#comment-7379 I haven’t seen this movie but I have seen similar ones (like the “What the Bleep” movies). The advice is generally good — positive thoughts are better than negative thoughts (in modicum); our emotional state can affect our physical state (stress won’t cause cancer but it will increase your blood pressure) and our thoughts might not emit electrical signals but other people do pick up on our emotional state. This is all decent advice based on personal observations. There’s no need to use pseudo-science to support it.
Why do the creators of such books and movies feel the need to legitimize their observations or advice with explanations from physical science, even if these explanations are tenuous and usually wrong?

]]> http://mindhacks.com/2007/05/22/a-secret-not-worth-keeping/#comment-7378 Tue, 22 May 2007 17:18:46 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/a-secret-not-worth-keeping/#comment-7378 “if you convert your body’s hydrogen into energy through nuclear fission”
I would be interested to hear how nuclear fission of an element whose nucleus consists of a single proton works.

]]>