Am I getting Smarter?

Am I getting smarter? I don’t think so. In fact, what would even cause me to ask?

I picked up a copy of Scientific American on the flight back to Brisbane this time. I use to be a regular reader and even a subscriber. But it has been quite a few years since I have picked it up.

I once read that Scientific American was written to a level that any educated person could read and comprehend without a background in that scientific area. I guess I found that to be true although it was a pretty hard slog at times.

Anyway, there was an article on detecting photographs that had been altered and another on the ethics of climate change that looked interesting. Lo, and behold, the articles seemed easier to read than what I remembered. Still not on the level of USA Today, but I was reading fewer paragraphs twice.

How could this be? Had I gotten smarter in the last twenty years? Once again, I doubt it. But it does seem better written in some ways. The articles have a “Key Concepts” section out in the sidebar that help guide you a bit. The illustrations are well done. And maybe, they dumbed it down a bit. Anyway, I enjoyed it and maybe I’ll subscribe again.

Here were my favorite articles:

The Cosmic Origins of Time’s Arrow: Discussion of entropy and symmetry of time in the universe

The Ethics of Climate Change: Weighing the value of well being today versus money spent to prevent climate change

Opinion on Sustainable Development: Discourse on policy that favors biofuels and animal feed over grain for starving people

Every once in a while you should read something that might be a bit over your head and a tad more challenging than watching Scrubs on television. One more thing… There was an article in the neurobiology section on the therapeutic value of writing and in particularly blogging. It is thought that it might trigger dopamine release like running or looking at art. Neat, I’ll try to keep blogging.

Thanks to Stuart for my portrait.