Robert Winston in the Science Gallery This Thursday
April 1, 2010 at 5:14 pm
I have a science hero and he’s coming to Dublin’s Science Gallery next week. Whoever comes up with the talks and speakers down there needs a prize, they’re always interesting to a wide and varied audience. You might know Robert Winston not as a gangster actor but as the mustachoio’ed gentleman who presented “Child of Our Time” on BBC TV around 2000. He’s in town next Thurs (8 April) giving a talk about:
BAD IDEAS? An arresting history of our bad inventions
Professor Winston will take a fresh look at man’s greatest discoveries and innovations and asks whether our dependence on science and technology has led us into a precarious situation which is doomed to become worse before it gets better? As well as tracing the history and fall-out of our very worst ideas, he also advocates the merits of scientific progres.
Professor Winston has an international reputation for his researches into human reproduction and has pioneered advances widely used in fertility and IVF treatment. He is committed to scientific education and regularly writes or hosts popular science programmes for the BBC, Discovery and ABC networks.
I’m personally interested for two reasons:
- I am surprised that it’s not possible to save stem cells from the placenta when one has a baby in this country. I would have thought that if the technology is available that people would go for it. I see it as an insurance policy against awful diseases that mother nature can throw at your little one, but it seems I’m alone in my thinking. I wonder what Robert has to say on this subject – I shall listen carefully.
- I love learning about child psychology and when Prof Winston’s “Child of Our Time” was on BBC some years ago I watched it religiously. I’ve even been known to quote some of the experiments! Now that I’m about to have my own child, I’ve been trying to get a hold of a copy of this DVD – but have not been able to. Not even Dublin City Library has a copy – or the dustiest corners of Ebay. If you know of anyone who has a copy of Child of Our Time, please lend it to me.
UPDATE: how funny and Freudian… I just wrote the whole post about Ray Winston coming to town thinking “I mustn’t mix up Ray and Robert cos it’ll make me look really stoopid… it’s alright to do that kind of thing in my head, but no way in blogland” – until John Braine (check out his blog – the pic re. the passport office is so funny!) kindly pointed out the error of my ways. Just so you get how poles apart these two are, here’s Ray (on the left) and a rather more kindly looking Robert (on the right). I’m playing the Pregnancy Brain card on this one. 
Tags: child psychology, Prof Ray Winston, Science Gallery Dublin
About Cyberpsychology, Cyberchondria, & iPhone Addiction
March 11, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Gareth O’Callaghan breakfast show on 4FM this morning, having a chat about the Masters I’m doing in Cyberpsychology. Listen to the (4 mins) podcast here.
Apologies to all psychologists and cyberpsychologists everywhere if I let you down! And I think I stand corrected – the body that decides what’s an illness last met in 2008 not 1998.
Tags: cyberchondria, Cyberpsychology, mobile phone separation anxiety
Your Blog Like Writing From The Middle Ages?
November 16, 2009 at 8:14 am
Before you shake your head and say “I thinketh not”, consider this:
According to noted linguistic academic, David Crystal, ‘blogs are as close to the way writers talk as it is possible to get’. This is similar to spontaneous letter writing of the Middle Ages which has a very similar set of features. Back then it was the norm to write a stream of consciousness when sharing one’s ideas with others. The only difference was that the medium was letter and so there was a bit of a time lag between idea generation and receipt.
This style of writing was wiped out late in the eighteenth century when publishers developed copy editing standards to ensure that magazines, newspapers and books conformed to an in-house style. I wonder if that will happen to blogging?
For now, however, blogging is ‘written language in its most naked form’, it has no editorial interference.
That will be all. Carry on with your blogging now!
Online Love – An Academic Perspective (Sort Of)
September 30, 2009 at 8:14 pm
The first reading I did for my Cyberpsychology course was about online love and the unique nature of online relationships. I’ve found myself referring to it over the past 10 days, so it definitely needs to be added here for more accurate referencing!
The article is by Aaron Ben-Ze’ev and it’s called “Detattachment: The Unique Nature of Online Romantic Relationships”
Many of the things that make for a good offline relationship are reversed for an online one. The ultimate one, in my opinion, is that the goal of a successful online relationship is termination, ie. the relationship moves off the online, into the offline space. Or as in my case, into engagement to marriage! The goal of an offline relationship is certainly not termination.
Offline, the first things we go for are attractiveness, the ‘praiseworthiness’. Online, it’s the other way around. It’s the turn of phrase rather than the return of gaze that makes you fall for them at first. (And that’s my line! Or to cite it correctly, Lyons, 2009). We don’t ignore physical attractiveness online, but we certainly place less weight on it. But it must be noted that all the information about a person’s attractiveness are by self description, so it’s possible that there’s a high degree of wishful thinking going on!
While there’s nothing new about falling in love through letter writing (Gwinnell 1988), because of the speed of communications, you can send and receive a reply and be in the same emotional state. With online love, there may be a physical distance, but no time delay, therefore emotional immediacy. (In my experience, this means you can rapidly move to knowing someone online). The lack of visual content online may lead people to provide more self disclosure than they would in the flesh. This is quite common - the increased anonymity allows for a reduction in vulnerability, which increases intimacy and the perception of sincerity. (My thoughts – know that many people cruising dating sites are married, so while you’re getting all intimate and involved, be careful. Also please remember that everything you put out on the net can be found and traced right back to you… do continue…)
There is no physical investment online, but boy is there a big mental one. People get to enjoy the fruits of a close relationship without the costs – watch out ladies, this could mean that the man you’re talking to is a cheapskate who won’t shout dinner! To sum up, as Rheingold (2000) says, “face to face people fall in love based on what they see. Love is strengthened or weakened as fundamental information is revealed. Online, self disclosure is increased, intimacy is significantly higher and occurs early, most get to know each other first, then fall in love.” What’s bad with that?
My Thoughts On Dating Sites – Online Love In Ireland
- While praiseworthiness over attractiveness holds, there is a lot to be said for putting your picture up online. I went for a while without my pic up and attracted a whole range of sad and sorry losers. Once I got over the fear that ‘someone who knows me might see me’ and put my picture up, it was like moving up beyond the swamps and into the clouds. The quality of communication increased and so did my enjoyment of the site.
- People who write for a living, or who have to express themselves do well in online dating sites. You might have the most sensitive caring man in Offaly mail you, but if he’s not got that witty repartee going on within the first couple of mails, he’s gone. Sad but true.
- At the same time, dating sites really suit the male dream of ‘shopping for f***ing’ – egos can be massaged by receiving many messages from interested women. For women, our tendency is to connect quicker, we form emotional bonds much quicker than men do online. Therefore, the nature of dating sites, sadly, is also a place for breaking hearts.
What do you think? What has been your experience on dating sites? By the way – one of the most annoying things about being a web person on Irish dating sites is having to interact with the most abhorent sites from the point of view of usability, design, and speed.
