http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/james-heathers/ James Heathers is a research scientist and PhD candidate in psychophysiology at the University of Sydney. His work and research revolve broadly around the connection between the mind and body. He has worked in or around psychophysiology, social and cognitive psychology, exercise physiology and sports science, biomedical device design, human computer interfaces, and on a cold day, nutrition and food tech. He is on a completely futile quest to understand people entirely. In his spare time, he lifts things up and puts them down again. The views expressed here are his own, and not representative of any other organisation. He blogs at http://thepsychophysiologist.blogspot.com.au. Follow him on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/#!/thepsychophysio en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/can-professional-sport-ever-really-be-natural/ The Olympics are in a few months. They’d throw me out. Right now, I would fail an Olympic-style drug test so hard it would make your teeth rattle. None of this A sample/B sample business, both specimens would probably just glow in the dark. Why? Because I’m in the throes of a come-down from a workout that makes Pumping Iron look like Anne of Green Gables, and to survive it I took an array of stimulants which would give most people a coronary just looking at the bottle. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Heathers) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/can-professional-sport-ever-really-be-natural/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/can-professional-sport-ever-really-be-natural/#item8450 Wed, 09 May 2012 19:50:28 +0000 James Heathers | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-abortion-debate-goes-where-its-never-gone-before/ Imagine if the above headline was: “In support of the wholesale slaughter of babies.” Examine your reaction to it. Your reaction is the problem. Now, there are only two credible reactions to reading something like this. One is that it’s some kind of poorly-focused black humour, that the author is being deliberately provocative (and not very funny). The other is visceral moral outrage. The very idea that we should do such a thing. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Heathers) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-abortion-debate-goes-where-its-never-gone-before/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-abortion-debate-goes-where-its-never-gone-before/#item7933 Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:45:13 +0000 James Heathers | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-science-of-punching-on/ Recently, Jason Tin wrote a rather satisfying article about the imminent death of the internet due to it collapsing under the weight of its own vapid incivility. He’s right. And you’ve seen it, of course. An online comment section can turn a group of people who pay their mortgages and love their kittens into petty, hateful stupid people braying non-sequiturs at each other like Tourettes’ donkeys. But, why? Good question. Science, having nothing better to do, has come up with some rather intriguing answers. So if the internet is dead, then consider me the pathologist – the science wonk who goes picking around in its chest cavity with tweezers trying to determine what killed it. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Heathers) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-science-of-punching-on/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-science-of-punching-on/#item7692 Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:40:19 +0000 James Heathers | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-do-our-universities-teach-shonky-magic/ A few days ago, a group called the Friends of Science in Medicine wrote to the Vice Chancellors of Australian universities, speaking out against the teaching of complementary and alternative medicine in the curriculum. This group consists of more than 400 Australian professors, academics, researchers and scientists who work in biomedicine. I’m one of them – a very junior one. The strength of the reactions has been fascinating. In the last 48 hours alone, I’ve been a fascist, an elitist, arrogant, narrow-minded, a shill for sociopathic corporate interests, viciously protective of my orthodoxy and a generally morally reprehensible crusader for the intellectual interests of old, white men. I wonder how I have the time, to be honest. However, in the middle of all the noise and mutual disdain between both sides of the alternative medicine divide, what I think is the central point is being lost. And that central point is this: Magic is an insufficient basis for university teaching. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Heathers) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-do-our-universities-teach-shonky-magic/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-do-our-universities-teach-shonky-magic/#item7657 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:00:19 +0000 James Heathers | Author bios | The Punch