Jul 11 2009
Math is a very powerful tool that can be misused. Also, to the extent that it exists in people’s minds only, it is unreal. We shouldn’t forget that. There is math and there is reality; one can be used to explain and predict the other. Even as a tool math is imperfect. Why? Those who wield it — human beings — are imperfect.
This cartoon from xkcd perfectly illustrates my point:
Jul 10 2009
If I awoke in the middle of the night completely disoriented — not knowing if I were in one state of the United 50 or another — examining the stars above would provide no help. When it comes to the night sky, I am illiterate: I can’t read it. How ancient explorers navigated by these incredibly distant non-landmarks impresses me. But maybe it is a bit like a magic trick. What baffles the uninformed and untrained mind can seem ho-hum to the expert.
[photo thanks to NASA]
Jul 10 2009
Don’t look to prayer to transport you from Florida to Vermont in a little over three hours. Jet Blue has a direct flight. And we can thank science for their ability to fly –cheaply and safely at that. For a person to make a 1500 mile journey in less than a day, that ain’t natural. And while the speed may not be supersonic, it is certainly super.
Similarly, religion can’t heal the blind. Though religious groups can raise money to make their lives easier. In some cases, science can restore sight. In other cases, it can develop technologies to help blind people live better lives.
Although this does not qualify as a technology, a group a scientists led by Juan Antonio Martínez of the University of Alcalá de Henares in Spain are developing the use of echolocation to aid the blind.
Echolocation? In the future it may not be just for bats. What are the researchers doing to help the blind? Distinguishing the best sounds for echolocation and teaching individuals to make them; devising a protocol for training in the use of echolocation; and testing the effectiveness of the entire enterprise. A type of tongue click apparently works best and two hour a day of training seems to do the trick for many subjects.
The scientists recognise that they are still at the very early stages, but the possibilities that would be opened up with the development of echolocation in humans are enormous.
Cool! And, praise be to science!
[source]
Jul 08 2009
On Monday my wife and I were in Boston. On Tuesday night — in Montreal, where we are now. On the drive north we took a scenic route, stopping to stretch our legs by a small, ancient-looking cemetery tucked into the woods. Many of the tombstones were too weathered to read. This epitaph caught my eye and lodged itself into memory:
Death is a debt to nature due, which I have paid and so must you.
Blunt but profound. It brought to mind an element of the quantum world: virtual particles. These fleeting bits of matter appear out of a void. In a sense, they violate the conservation of matter and energy. But they do so for only a fraction of a tiny fraction of a second. I recall physicists referring to virtual particles as existing on a loan of energy. The more they borrow (the larger the loan of energy), the more quickly they must repay the loan.
As the universe expands, increasing entropy is the overall rule. A growing disorganization. And yet there are pockets, or perhaps packets, of life. Negentropy, negative entropy, an organization of atoms. Is this also akin to a loan that must eventually be repaid? Is all of life, in a sense, only virtually real, vs. an absolute existence?
Jul 07 2009
Jul 07 2009
The following blog carnivals have recently been posted. I plan on reading ‘em both:
The 39th Humanist Symposium over at Daylight Atheism.
&
The 13th edition of the Carnival of Evolution at FYI: Science.
Blog post collections are like dining at a buffet. There is a bounty of items and you are almost certain to find something you like.
Jul 05 2009
Yesterday I listened to a podcast that featured a personal hero of mine, Neil deGrasse Tyson, in which he responded to questions from the audience. Before answering one, he objected to the word “prove” in the question, saying he didn’t like that term. Right on! Neither do I. And he explained why he didn’t like the word, paralleling something I wrote here roughly a year ago.
Rather than providing proof, scientific findings support hypotheses; they boost our confidence in a theory; the increase the probability that our understanding of how things work is accurate.
To read more of that post, click here: Prove, Shmoove
Jul 02 2009
There are no banana leaves where I’m now at. I’m looking out a window at a huge maple tree and, behind it down a small hill, a rapidly flowing stream — I can hear it from a distance. The green-brown stream water is broken with patches of white. No whitewater in Florida. No mountainous terrain and rock obstacles to make it roil and froth.
It’s a nice change for my eyes. But the Internet connection is relatively horse-and-buggy. Clicking from one site to another takes not a second, or even three. More like ten.
How do people live like this?! Will I need to go fetch drinking water from that stream?
I’m on vacation. Maybe it’s time to put my intellect in low gear. To focus on socializing and recreating and relaxing. Man, it’s going to be tough. But the slow-crawl internet connection will actually help. If I don’t put my brain in low gear, I may just go crazy.
Jul 01 2009
This is where I’m going later today. But not the final destination. I almost wish the jet would stop when in the clouds so I could get out and walk around. Take a picture. Breathe the air . . . Hey! where did all the air go! If I did get out I’d likely suffocate, depending on the altitude.
Save for a few vertical miles on Earth, there aren’t many places habitable by us lung-breathers. Any spacecraft is a bit like a scuba tank you ride in. And breathe from.
Jul 01 2009
New research out of the University Fertility Center, Leuven University, Belgium, has found that -
Chromosomal problems affect nearly all human embryos.
My gosh. What is “nearly all”?
chromosomal abnormalities are present in more than 90% of IVF embryos, even those produced by young, fertile couples [IVF = couples using an in vitro fertilization procedure]
Could it be just the procedure? According to Ms Evelyne Vanneste:
Although in vitro culture conditions are known to have a limited influence on the rate of chromosomal imbalances in IVF/ICSI embryos, it is probable that the chromosome instability observed in vitro also occurs in spontaneous pregnancies since, at most, 30% of human conceptions result in a live birth and more than 50% of spontaneous abortions carry chromosomal aberrations. The high rate of chromosomal abnormalities is almost certainly responsible for the low fecundity of humans compared with other mammals.
Spontaneous abortions, or miscarriages, are very common. Seems now we better know why. Thanks to an imperfect human “design” the bodies of mothers around the world must naturally abort millions of post-conception “babies” each year.
Somebody ought to bomb the Designer. That ruthless killer.
By the way, I only advocate violence against nonexistent entities.
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