Textbook Coverage of Inframarginal Externalities
Externalities are an important concept in economics as they are one of the many potential issues with markets. Negative externalities, for example, occur when costs are imposed on others outside the market system. Air pollution is but one example.... continue reading
Alchian-Allen Effect in Higher Education
The Alchian-Allen Theorem states that when there are two substitute goods of differing quality and a fixed per unit amount is added to the cost of the product, consumption will shift towards the higher quality good as it is relatively cheaper. The... continue reading
MAOI and St John's Wort treatments for OCD may have a similar radical-based mechanism. Six years' unrelieved total compulsive thinking was cured by the MAOI Phenelzine, with also a role for radical-releasing phenols which enter the CNS very little... continue reading
Imagery in Rock and Ancient Art Influenced by Pareidolic Response to Environmental Stimuli
A Pareidolic Response to Environmental Stimuli occurs when it is triggered by a certain richly textured surface or object . This human trait is a result of a survival mechanism, where the environment is quickly scanned for potential threats. A... continue reading
Microbial butanol tolerance: mediated by toxicity or by phase equilibrium?
It is conventionally assumed that the achievable concentration of a bio-alcohol molecule by fermentation is limited by the toxicity of that molecule to the micro-organisms producing it. In the case of ethanol, for example, extremely high titers... continue reading
Effects of temperature on alcohol tolerance of microbes
It has been established that dissolution of membrane lipids plays a role in the toxicity of ethanol and butanol to micro-organisms; a matter of particular importance for the production of bio-alcohol fuels using fermentation by microbial activity.... continue reading
In a typical household there are appliances for heating and other appliances for cooling. The former, including geysers, stoves, ovens and space heaters, typically use a heating element - an inefficient approach from an energy usage standpoint.... continue reading
From Publication to Impact: When publication isn’t enough for patients, measure what matters.
The ultimate beneficiary of a biomedical journal article should be the patient. To realize this benefit, a publication must provide both the rational evidence plus a reason to act on the part of a healthcare professional. Sponsors of clinical... continue reading
On the Impossibility of Aggregating Individual Cloud Accretion Rates
The rate of accretion onto the Milky Way (MW) by an individual cloud (or satellite) can be written as dM/dt = M v / R, where M is the cloud mass, v the cloud velocity toward the MW, and R is the distance from the cloud to the MW. Over the time t =... continue reading
Beyond Gaia: A Deep-Space Astrometric Mission To Obtain ~1% Parallax Distances at 10 kiloparsecs
The Gaia space telescope is currently measuring parallax distances for Galactic stars with ~1% precision out to ~1kpc. This will be a revolutionary data set, but order-of-magnitude improvements are possible with... continue reading
This is the Journal of Brief Ideas - citable ideas in fewer than 200 words.
Before you can create a new idea, you'll need to log in using the link above. You also can't vote on existing ideas without signing in too.
Click on the icon to vote on an idea. You can't vote on your own ideas.