Biology and health inequality.

Intriguing parallels between civil servant and nonhuman primate hierarchies suggest that highly stratified societies foster health inequalities. Determining how social differences translate into chronic disease remains a challenge, but neuroendocrine pathways appear to play a role

On Arthur Eddington's Theory of Everything

From 1929 to his death in 1944, A. Eddington worked on developing a highly ambitious theory of fundamental physics that covered everything in the physical world, from the tiny electron to the universe at large. His unfinished theory included abstract mathematics and spiritual philosophy in a mix which was peculiar to Eddington but hardly intelligible to other scientists. The constants of nature, which he claimed to be able to deduce purely theoretically, were of particular significance to his project. Although highly original, Eddington's attempt to provide physics with a new foundation had to some extent parallels in the ideas of other British physicists, including P. Dirac and E. A. Milne. Eddington's project was however a grand failure in so far that it was rejected by the large majority of physicists. A major reason was his unorthodox view of quantum mechanics.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Superconductivity in the Chalcogens up to Multimegabar Pressures

Highly sensitive magnetic susceptibility techniques were used to measure the superconducting transition temperatures in S up to 231($\pm$5) GPa. S transforms to a superconductor with T$_c$ of 10 K and has a discontinuity in T_c dependence at 160 GPa corresponding to bco to beta-Po phase transition. Above this pressure T_c in S has a maximum reaching about 17.3(+/-0.5) K at 200 GPa and then slowly decreases with pressure to 15 K at 230 GPa. This trend in the pressure dependence parallels the behavior of the heavier members Se and Te. Superconductivity in Se was also observed from 15 to 25 GPa with T_c changing from 4 to 6 K and above 150 GPa with T_c of 8 K. Similiarities in the T_c dependences for S, Se, and Te, and the implications for oxygen are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 10 figure

From Mounds to Monasteries: A Look at Spiro and Other Centers Through The Use of Metaphor

Previous study of the extensive and elaborate funerary offerings at the Spiro site have explained their presence by an exchange system with Spiro functioning as a gateway center. More recently, Schambach has argued extensively and passionately for Spiro’s role as an entrepôt redistributive center. However, this argument fails to account for much of the accumulation of funerary items present at Spiro. As an alternative, I propose that some ceremonial centers such as Spiro functioned solely as religious centers, much like the monasteries of medieval Europe with parallels in the use of architecture, economic support, relics, and the treatment of individuals at death. A model based on the metaphor of monastic life provides greater explanatory potential than that of the economically-driven entepôt

Understanding Nicotine Addition: Dependency as a Result of Maladaptive Brain Structure

Nicotine addiction is the most prevalent, destructive dependency found in our culture. Despite its well-documented damaging health risks, nicotine use is still widely accepted and could be conceptualized as a social epidemic. Much of this acceptance may stem from nicotine’s lack of debilitating cognitive effects, as compared to those of other abused drugs. However, what may reign dominantly over nicotine’s legality is simple cultural precedent: tobacco has never been illegal and holds a place in human history. Therefore, attempting to alter this would prove highly unpopular and unsuccessful. This macroscopic irrationality, a blind favor for cultural precedents, parallels the irrational behaviors exhibited in an individual experiencing nicotine dependence. Just as the dependent brain unconditionally craves nicotine, our culture accepts longstanding practices and traditions, despite the contradictory state they may force upon our laws

Constraints on z~10 Galaxies from the Deepest HST NICMOS Fields

We use all available fields with deep NICMOS imaging to search for J dropouts (H<28) at z~10. Our primary data set for this search were the two J+H NICMOS parallel fields taken with the ACS HUDF. The 5 sigma limiting mags were 28.6 in J and 28.5 in H. Several shallower fields were also used: J+H NICMOS frames available over the HDF North, the HDF South NICMOS parallel, and the ACS HUDF. The primary selection criterion was (J-H)>1.8. 11 such sources were found in all search fields using this criterion. 8 of these were clearly ruled out as credible z~10 sources, either as a result of detections (>2 sigma) blueward of J or their colors redward of the break (H-K~1.5). The nature of the 3 remaining sources could not be determined from the data. The number appears consistent with the expected contamination from low-z interlopers. Analysis of the stacked images for the 3 candidates also suggests contamination. Regardless of their true redshifts, the actual number of z~10 sources must be <=3. To assess the significance of these results, two lower redshift samples (a z~3.8 B-dropout and z~6 i-dropout sample) were projected to z~8-12 using a (1+z)^{-1} size scaling. They were added to the image frames, and the selection repeated, giving 15.6 and 4.8 J-dropouts, respectively. This suggests that to the limit of this probe (0.3 L*) there has been evolution from z~3.8 and possibly from z~6. This is consistent with the strong evolution already noted at z~6 and z~7.5 relative to z~3-4. Even assuming that 3 sources from this probe are at z~10, the rest-frame continuum UV (~1500 A) luminosity density at z~10 (integrated down to 0.3 L*) is just 0.19_{-0.09}^{+0.13}x that at z~3.8 (or 0.19_{-0.10}^{+0.15}x including cosmic variance). However, if none of our sources is at z~10, this ratio has a 1 sigma upper limit of 0.07. (abridged)Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letter