With Facebook, MySpace, and similar sites experiencing unprecedented popularity, gamers have started tapping into the power of social networks. "Social networking is a game in and of itself," explained Jennifer Pahlka, co-chair of the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. One example reported by BBC News is Mytopia.com, a site that lets users play Soduku, hearts, backgammon, and other games over MySpace and Facebook. Mytopia.com co-creator Guy Ben-Artzi says that playing these games over social networking sites with friends makes gaming more meaningful.

Expanding the definition of social networking, Gamelayers, currently being developed, is experimenting with turning the entire web into a gaming platform. Dubbed a PMOG (passively multiplayer online game), Technology Review reports that players download a tool bar onto their browsers, allowing them to participate in an online scavenger hunt through the web. Participants can leave gifts and popups, and send instant messages with other participants as they search the web on themed missions. As an example, Gamelyayers’ CEO says that Warner Brothers could create a Batman-themed mission to promote the new superhero movie.

If promoting the new Hollywood blockbuster doesn’t fit your idea of “meaningful,” researchers at the University of Washington have created a game that could eventually lead to a cure for HIV, according to ScienceDaily. The game Foldit creates a competition out of protein folding, a process of shaping biological building blocks that plays a crucial role in the human immune system. “There are too many possibilities [of protein shapes] for the computer to go through every possible one,” said David Baker, one of the game’s creators. Instead of relying on the computer, the game invites people to tap their intuition and come up with creative solutions for protein shapes. The goal, according to Baker, is “to use the brain power of people all around the world to advance biomedical research.”

Self-awareness doesn’t appear in the human consciousness until people are about 18 months old. Psychologists have determined this using a “mirror test” where a baby is placed in front of a mirror with a red dot his or her forehead. Early in life, babies will show no signs of recognizing their reflections in the mirror. Then, around 18 months, the babies will touch their foreheads or show some other signs of recognition. Psychologists believe the test shows when the child becomes aware of itself.

Later in life, self-awareness takes on a paramount significance in many people’s lives. People go on trips to “find themselves.” After breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, people have been known to say, “I finally feel like myself again.”

This process of finding one’s self can be painful, according to an article by Karen Wright in the latest issue of Psychology Today. Many people try to mask inauthenticity with “cosmetic surgery, psychopharmaceuticals, and perpetual makeovers.” According to Stephen Cope, author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self, “[p]eople feel profoundly like they're not living from who they really are, their authentic self, their deepest possibility in the world. The result is a sense of near-desperation.”

Although it can be hard work, there are real psychological benefits to self-recognition. Wright reports, “[a]uthenticity is correlated with many aspects of psychological well-being, including vitality, self-esteem, and coping skills” The other option—a life unexamined—often leads to anxiety or depression. It’s like the old joke: “You can never hide from yourself, because no matter where you go, there you are.”

 Image by Justin Donnelly, licensed under Creative Commons.

Drew Burrows was tired of coming home alone to an empty bed. So the young, single, New York University student created a virtual companion to keep him company: a thin, quiet brunette who exists solely for the purpose of curling up next to people while they sleep. The New York Magazine blog reports that Burrows invented a video projection designed for a bed that responds to people as they sleep. If a person curls up on his or her side, the projection will snuggle up close and spoon. Lay back and the projection will stretch out, but still keep close enough to almost feel. When asked how long he’d been single, the inventor replied, “[l]ong enough to come up with this idea.” 

You can watch a video of the projection from Burrows’ website below: 

Chronic illnesses can be ever-present for the people who suffer from them, even if the disease is invisible to everyone else. Fibromyalgia is one such illness: debilitating but difficult to diagnose. The disease’s invisibility is two-fold, Sheana Ochoa argues in the winter 2008 issue of Loudmouth (article not available online), the zine of California State University, Los Angeles’ women’s resource center. Not only is fibromyalgia diagnosed purely through patients’ reports of pain and fatigue—it cannot be pinpointed with any diagnostic test—it also remains pigeonholed as “a women’s illness.”

Eighty to 90 percent of people diagnosed with FM are women. It is no coincidence that in the 1980s, when FM outbreaks appeared across the country, the disorder was dismissed as the “yuppie flu,” an ailment of bored, affluent suburban housewives. FM afflicts both genders, children, adults, and people of color. Still, the label remains that FM is a “female” problem which has deterred progress in understanding FM, treating it, and funding research for it.

Computer monitors are notorious energy vampires—sucking up electricity even after the appliance has been shut off. PsyOrg.com reports that Fujitsu Siemens Computers could soon end the monitors’ reign of energy-wasting terror with the release of a new, “zero-watt monitor.” It’s uses no energy when it slips into standby mode, potentially saving electricity and money for computer users when it goes on sale this summer.

(Thanks, Arlington Institute.)

 Image by  Mike Fernwood , licensed under  Creative Commons .

Let's face it: The Earth got a raw deal, moon-wise. Other planets have multiple moons with mythologically-inspired names, and here we are with just one lonely, unimaginatively named Moon. You can see the sadness on the face embedded in its surface.

The moon might not have always been so alone, however, Cosmos reports. Astronomers recently published a paper in Cornell University's journal Icarus speculating that two asteroidal bodies, dubbed Trojans, may have formed 4.4 billion years ago, around the time the Moon we know came into being. The study uses mathematical modeling to show how the Trojans could remain stable in a gravitational equilibrium between Earth and the Moon, allowing them to orbit the Earth for a few million years. They were both tiny—probably about 100 kilometers in diameter—and would have appeared to Earthlings as two bright stars.

When these Trojans eventually left their orbits, the evidence suggests that they may have been among the debris that eventually slammed into the moon, creating the familiar pockmarks we see today. They also could have been burned up by the sun, or broken into smaller asteroids.

Recently redesigned and now biweekly rather than weekly, the venerable Science News chugs along at an awe-inspiring pace. The sheer diversity of scientific information contained in a single issue defies all reason. Except not, since Science News, a 2007 Utne Independent Press Award winner, details the cutting edge of research and reason, highlighting everything from how driving distractions “sap brain power” to new evidence that suggests what was once thought to be “nanobacteria” is not bacteria at all (it's actually a mineral). The publication is hardcore, geeked-out, and information-dense, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t well-reported and well-written. It offers excellent feature writing, including the May 10 issue’s cover story on “carbon sequestration.” For anyone who consistently marvels at newly minted technologies and the wonders of obscure research, Science News is the wellspring you’ve been missing.

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have been one of the most devastating weapons against American soldiers in Iraq. The design is simple, an explosive strapped to a rudimentary detonator, but the effect has been catastrophic on the technologically advanced U.S. Army. Soldiers who survive the blasts from IEDs have returned home with neurological damage that some of the world’s top neuroscientists are struggling to understand. Biomedical expert and Afghanistan veteran  Kevin "Kit" Parker told Technology Review, “With IEDs, the insurgents have by dumb luck developed a weapon system that targets our medical weakness: treating brain injury.”

Soldiers have been experiencing severe emotional, physical, and psychological damage due to the force IEDs have inflicted on the brain. These symptoms are often similar to post traumatic stress disorder, and the two traumas can often aggravate each other, but the causes are different. The military has tried to put pressure on scientists to step up the search for treatments, but progress has been slow. Neuropsychologist Jeffery Barth asked, “What will we do with all these people? We’re talking about thousands. This is going to overwhelm the VA hospitals.”

Image by abaporu, licensed under Creative Commons.

Toilet seats are cleaner than some office keyboards according to a new report by a consumer group called Which?, the BBC News reports. One keyboard examined in the study was five times as dirty as a toilet seat tested at the same time—registering at 150 times the recommended limit for bacteria. The practice of eating lunch in front of the computer was the likely culprit of the filthiness, due to the food particles that get caught inside the keys. Which? suggests tipping over keyboards, shaking out the extra particles, and occasionally wiping them down with “a soft, lightly dampened, lint-free cloth.” Gelf Magazine suggests eating your lunch over the toilet instead.

Image by basibanget, licensed under Creative Commons.

When Rapunzel let down her golden hair for the prince to climb up, the fairy tale may have left out some important caveats of physics. Chris Gorski of the American Institute of Physics investigates the science behind Rapunzel’s story finding that her hair has more than enough tensile strength to support the weight of a prince. However, she probably should have tied her hair around an anchor, rather than using her scalp to pull him up. 

(Thanks, Improbable Research.)

The poor have a rough time of it, in many ways.

Here's one more: As Ed Edelson reports for HealthDay, being poor causes physical pain.

Children just 3 months old prefer to look at people with similar skin color to their own. Babies also prefer people with similar accents and who speak the same language as they do. In fact, if a child is offered food from two people—one who speaks the baby’s language and the other who does not—the child will prefer the food offered by the native speaker. These innate preferences are being uncovered by a Harvard research team led by Elizabeth Spelke, profiled in the British newspaper Telegraph. Some hope that these discoveries will eventually able to reduce or eliminate racial prejudice, but before that can happen, Spelke says, “we have a great deal more to learn.”

(Thanks, 3 Quarks Daily.)

—Bennett Gordon

Image by Dean Johnson, licensed under Creative Commons.

Gamblers take note: Always bet on the red team. After analyzing 55 years of soccer results, researchers at Plymouth and Durham universities in England found that teams with red jerseys fared significantly better than other teams, Cat O’Donovan reports for Cosmos Online. Teams with yellow and orange uniforms did the worst. Some speculate that the advantage may come from an association between the color red and male aggression. O’Donovan writes that previous studies found a strong advantage for red-clad contestants in “wresting, taekwondo, and boxing, but not for team sports,” until now. Looks like China might fare well in the 2008 Olympic games.

—Bennett Gordon

“Beeping” or “flashing” is when someone calls another person’s cell phone and hangs up before the recipient can answer. The cell phone call log tells the recipient who has called, and the communication is almost entirely free. The latest issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication explores the culture of beeping, and how it facilitates low-cost communication throughout much of the world.

A major benefit of beeping is that it saves time. Personally, I often intentionally neglect to leave messages on other people’s cell phones. I think messages are often unnecessary, since recipients usually will see my missed call. At one point, my coworker admitted to me that she had more than 80 unheard messages lingering on her cell phone, having refused to listen to them over an extended period of time. Make no mistake, she returned most of the calls, she simply didn’t listen to the messages.

A slight change comes into play in dating situations. One Rwandan interviewee for the article said, “If you are chasing after a lady, you cannot beep. You have to call. Beeping is for friends. When a girl you do not know well beeps you, you have to call back if you are interested. You cannot even text. She has to see that the effort is being made. Borrow a friends' phone if you do not have airtime.”

In my informal research, beeping is often considered bad form in the United States, though it’s not a universal faux pas. The article reports on a “miss call culture” in Bangladesh, where beeps can mean “I’m thinking about you,” or a variety of other coded messages. According to the authors, the relational beep, often between friends with no expectation of hearing back, “is perhaps particularly attractive to shy teens, who can express interest in another person without having to compose a customized message.”

Much of the information for the beeping study was collected in Africa, where cellular communication can be quite expensive. Beeping culture is an innovative way for people to take part in new telecommunication technology, without prohibitively high costs. And since the social norm is that the “richer guy pays” for the call, distributing the costs of social interaction based on who is able to pay. Telecommunications companies have tried to set up a pricing structure based on calls and texts, but users have found away to skirt that structure, creating social norms and practices around the technology all their own.

—Bennett Gordon

Image by Ernie, licensed under Creative Commons.

Do you beep other people? Do you dislike it when people beep you? Discuss in the Utne Salons.