The best and the worst of ourselves

Science, ever a mirror reflecting what we bring to it, offers two intriguing tidbits:

• We are more generous when under observation -- even when the "observer" is just a picture of a crude robot. I guess the guilt/social wiring is at a deep enough level that just an approximation of a face reminds us of deeper obligations...
  
  
• On a less happy front, the military appears to be developing a new type of weapon which uses a "pulsed energy projectile" to create intense pain or even death from a substantial distance. Shiver.

(via boing boing)