Prime Stream
thescian | September 1, 2009A very limited list of things that nobody knows (as compiled by yours truly, a very limited human). As you may notice, most of the list treads close to things that may be broadly classed as epistemological questions. Do extend it with your own unknowns. There are some other more comprehensive lists: Science Magazine's list from 2005. NY Times list from 2003. A New Scientist list from 2005.
What's the matter with prime numbers. (Reimann Hypothesis)
What are the fundamental constituents of the universe. (see last question)
What is a dimension. How many of it does the universe have.
Can life as…
thescian | August 18, 2009You'll be docile when horizontal, apparently. So an insult won't move you to action that much when you are lying down. via NewScientist.
thescian | August 11, 2009From BBC News:
The extra cost of providing security for the three people identified as allowing the death of Baby Peter could rise to £1m a year, a union has said.
For those outside in UK, this is a heart-wrenching case of a baby being tortured to death. After reading the above news, I wonder how far a society can push The Law before The Law reaches its breaking point. What is the justification for protecting those who tortured and killed a baby? If the criminal mother after release decides to have another baby, is it OK?
When I started this post, I was seething with anger. But, one must…
thescian | August 3, 2009There is, I must say, a rather unconventional article in New Scientist called Evolution's third replicator: Genes, memes, and now what? by Susan Blackmore about ... what's the word I am looking for...hmm.. Human Culture + Technology.
Susan suggests that we have unleashed a technoculture goo. Remember Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation? Something like that--with mixed metaphors but without the encumbrances of technical nitty-gritty that Drexler had. So, what's this goo? Let Susan explain, because however hard I tried I could not write a summary (and I tried very hard, trust me).
What do I…
thescian | July 16, 2009Bill Gates has made it available online. You need to install Silvelight (the flash alternative from Microsoft). It's worth it.
thescian | July 9, 2009The world is serendipitous, for those who explore it sideways, that is. Two of them explorers are Dr Richard Wool of University of Delaware and Erman Senöz. One fine day, Dr Wool (is his name a great nominative determinism, or what) unplucked a chicken, threw away the meat and kept the feathers. He then cooked the feathers at 400 degrees and out came noodles of fine carbon nanotubes which can be used to make great many technological marvels a reality. The Economist has all the nuggets.
thescian | July 3, 2009Listened to an interview at All In the Mind[link corrected] with David Eagleman, Neuroscientist, novelist.
David Eagleman: ...if I were to take a piano and I were to hit the high note and then I would hit the low note and I would ask you which one is brighter,what would you say?
Natasha Mitchell: I would say the high note.
David Eagleman: Right, and if I asked you which one is bigger what would you say?
Natasha Mitchell: The low note, weirdly enough.
David Eagleman: Yeah, right. Well it turns out everybody does that, it turns out everybody gives the same answer to that, which is really…
thescian | June 22, 2009The French president has spoken in favor of Legislation against women wearing burka in public recently. I agree with the assessment that burka is a symbol of servitude. When women wear it for cultural and religious reasons, they are, as Sarkozy says, prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity.
But, what if some women like to wear burka for reasons they choose independantly for themselves? Replace Burka with Hoodies or some other striking dress code and you'll see what I mean. Why should their act be banned in public, just because the majority does not like it…
thescian | June 9, 2009The human brain is easily bored (yes, even amidst sex) that there are many happily married couple who would forgo sex and instead watch a comedy show. The operative word to remedy the situation is, of course, Variation. Here is an interesting read on this subject, especially the comments, at NY Times.
thescian | June 9, 2009Comprehensive review of the state of affairs at New Scientist. Surprisingly, the biological mechanism and the reason (or lack of it) for this is still not well known. My last conversation about this was about 12 years ago with a medical student friend of mine in college who obsessed over female ejaculation (he went on to win the top rank at his university, so, I guess it was a healthy obsession). Nothing much has been added to our understanding in all these years, it seems. Is this the female equivalent of moobs (man-boobs)?
thescian | June 3, 2009
The Red Planet is all over the revamped IEEE Spectrum website. I enjoyed reading Kim Stanley Robinson's 10 Favorite Mars Novels and CMU Team's Google Lunar X Prize efforts. There is an interview with Madhavan Nair, head of ISRO, podcasts by astronauts and more. Hop over to Why Mars? Why Now?
thescian | May 27, 2009How can you see hummingbirds, roses, orchids and not believe in Lord's splendor? But, if you're going to look at those things, you should look at other things, too. Think of an African boy with a parasitic worm boring into his eye. If you tell me God not only created but cares for us all, what about that boy? Are you telling me he says: "I understand. God deliberately created a worm that is going to blind me?" I find that intolerable.-David Attenborough in a recent New Scientist interview.*
As an optimist, I believe people are curious by nature and don't want to be willfully ignorant (…
thescian | May 25, 2009
. So, Mark Vernon wants us hard-nosed realists to feel warm and fuzzy. From this BBC post:
A prize-winning quantum physicist says a spiritual reality is veiled from us, and science offers a glimpse behind that veil. So how do scientists investigating the fundamental nature of the universe assess any role of God, asks Mark Vernon.
Before anything, a note on the aforementioned prize winning physicist: It's Bernard d'Espagnat, a French physicist, and more importantly, the prize is The Templeton Prize (aha, that explains it). Firstly, who and what the heck is God. Secondly, what the hell does…
thescian | May 24, 2009This news at the beebs.
A Catholic church in Malaysia which prays to Allah has prompted a court case over who can use the word.
Muslim leaders say Islam should be the only faith to use it, saying its use in other faiths could lead to confusion and conversions.
The medieval argument to own god's name has taken a modern twist: that of trademark ownership. I don't think there is a legally sound case here. But, this is in Malaysia and things may be different there.
thescian | May 19, 2009A few days back, I happened to watch a few scenes of an old Star Trek episode. There was the usual fare of beam-me-ups, tea materializer, mother levitator, etc. And then there was the Matter Displacement Detector. That piqued my interest. This device allows the Star Trek crew to check if there was someone at a place in the past. Presumably, the said person left eddies in the spacetime continuum that can be detected to ascertain the presence of the person in question. Naturally, I started wondering if the physics behind it is plausible in some way. It was not explained in the episode, so we…
thescian | May 14, 2009
Layman: What are the strings in String Theory made of?
Physicist: Well, they are not made of anything. They are fundamental.
Layman: Like how sometime back protons were fundamental, and then how quarks were fundamental?
Physicist: You see, physics usually advances gradually, building upon our earlier understanding. Sometimes, we have breakthroughs: times such as when Newton published his Principia, when Einstein published his Theory of Gravitation or when Quantum Mechanical Laws were published. New models of reality that change our conception fundamentally are found and we begin again. The…
thescian | April 30, 2009
It happens when matter meets anti-matter. That there is such a thing called anti-matter never ceases to amaze me. Paul Dirac, when he arrived at the famous equation for electron-, realized that the equation predicted two particles: one was the electron and the other a as yet unknown particle which he called the positron. Great physicists are guided towards Truth by the subtle hand of Beauty. Dirac's equation was exquisite. Hence, it must be true, he declared in 1928. The positron was discovered in 1932. (Dirac was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics the following year.)
The positron is…
thescian | April 9, 2009This at the BBC. So, when he was 10, Blair's father fell seriously ill. Blair prays for his atheist father with his headmaster.
"I said to him 'Before we pray, I should tell you that my father, he doesn't believe in God.
"And I always remember the headmaster saying to me 'Well, that doesn't matter because God believes in him'".
He described the experience as having a "tremendous impact" on him.
The emotional trauma that a 10 year old has to endure when his father is seriously ill is a terrible thing. But if the impact of irrational words stays even after one grows up to be a influential…
thescian | April 8, 2009Would you please piss-off. -Dawkins.
Dawkins responds to Mr Blair, who wrote:
The 21st century will be poorer in spirit and ambition, less focused on social justice, less sensitive to conscience and the common good, without a full and proper recognition of the role that the great faiths can and do play. I hope my foundation, in its own way, can work with others in those faiths to help harness their full power to transform our world for the better
How grandiose can a man get! Clearly, Faith facilitates - nay, actively promotes - one to be this delusional. Dawkins exposes this BS for what it…