Links: Sociable robots/MSG/”Fresh”/Male pregnancy/Pubic hair fashions/Climate change

A Soft Spot for Circuitry (NYT)
Paro the seal, a sociable robot, accomplishes its lifelike interaction through hidden sensors that monitor sound, light, temperature and touch. Sociable robots are now being used as therapy for the elderly. “We as a species have to learn how to deal with this new range of synthetic emotions that we’re experiencing — synthetic in the sense that they’re emanating from a manufactured object.”

If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in Asia have a headache? (Guardian)
History of Japanese discovery of the fifth taste, ‘umami’ (translated ‘savoury,’ ‘deliciousness’) and the manufacture of MSG. How MSG got a bad reputation in the US and how the food industry fought back. Fascinating.

What’s the Matter With Corn Syrup? (NYT)
Review of documentary “Fresh” on industrial farming and its devastating toll on soil, health and livestock. More folksy in tone than “Food, Inc.” and more focused on practical solutions. Addresses class barrier to healthy eating.

The Case of the Pregnant Seaman (PLoS Blogs)
Scientists have now shown that normal, healthy men often undergo real bodily changes when they’re expecting children. What for years was considered a disorder of the mind is actually a natural physiological reaction to impending fatherhood.

Pubic hair removal: The naked truth (Guardian)
Why are we imitating porn stars and shaving our pubic hair? “Porn has introduced a new aesthetic – perhaps as a joke or momentary experiment – and women have responded with unquestioning servility and breezy abandon.”

Climate change doubled likelihood of devastating UK floods of 2000 (Guardian)
Floods devastated UK in 2000. New research finds global warming made them two and three times more likely to happen. First scientific quantification of human-induced climate change and floods. Major development in climate science

Older links

Image (Paro): The New York Times

Image (UK floods): The Guardian