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kottke.org posts about science
Bosnian pyramid
The pyramid is 100 metres high and there is evidence that it contains rooms and a monumental causeway… The plateau is built of stone blocks, which indicates the presence at the time of a highly developed civilisation.
Science triumphs again with the solution to
Science triumphs again with the solution to the wobbly cafe table problem. Aside from a caveat or two, it’s always possible to correct 4-legged table wobbliness by rotating the table until it’s stable. (via cd, which is on fire lately)
With 5 weeks to go in hurricane season,
With 5 weeks to go in hurricane season, tropical storm Alpha breaks the record for most named storms in the Atlantic Ocean. All of this year’s names have been used up, which means the remaining storms will be named after sequential Greek letters.
Why do people believe in God? Evidence
Why do people believe in God? Evidence suggests that it’s partially inherited. “The degree of religiosity was not strongly related to the environment in which the twin was brought up. Even if one identical twin had been brought up in an atheist family and the other in a religious Catholic household, they would still tend to show the same kind of religious feelings, or lack of them.”
“The only debate on intelligent design that
“The only debate on intelligent design that is worthy of its subject”. Hootingly funny. (And I have no doubt that someone from the other side of the debate could construct something equally as amusing, so…)
Astrology is valid science?
Not from The Onion: US biochemistry professor admits that astrology would be considered valid science according to his own personal definition. Said a spectator of Pennsylvania ID trial: “I can’t believe he teaches a college biology class”.
For some real controversy over evolution, check
For some real controversy over evolution, check out evo devo, or “evolutionary developmental biology”. Its proponents claim that evolution works primarily by changing when certain genes are expressed, not via changing genes themselves. Scientific American has more.
In the five years since the sequencing
In the five years since the sequencing of the human genome, “much of the data have little immediately useful meaning, and the research has produced only a trickle of medicine”. And where medical science has failed, hucksters have filled the gap.
Twenty percent of the human genome is
Twenty percent of the human genome is patented. I expect that someday in the future, my morning will be interrupted by a lawyer telling me that the company he represents holds a patent on the biochemical conversion of foodstuffs to energy suitable for powering a biological organism and that I should cease and desist eating my Cheerios.
Frans de Waal on low frequency audio
Frans de Waal on low frequency audio as a social instrument: “The host, Larry King, would adjust his timbre to that of high-ranking guests, like Mike Wallace or Elizabeth Taylor. Low-ranking guests, on the other hand, would adjust their timbre to that of King. The clearest adjustment to King’s voice, indicating lack of confidence, came from former Vice President Dan Quayle.” (via mr)
Time magazine asks Moby, Malcolm Gladwell, Tim
Time magazine asks Moby, Malcolm Gladwell, Tim O’Reilly, Clay Shirky, David Brooks, Mark Dery, and Esther Dyson about their views on the future: religion, culture, politics, etc. Gladwell: “If I had to name a single thing that has transformed our life, I would say the rise of JetBlue and Southwest Airlines. They have allowed us all to construct new geographical identities for ourselves.”
Two of the biggest pessimists in the
Two of the biggest pessimists in the business, Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil, outline their case for not releasing the genome for the 1918 influenza virus. “The genome is essentially the design of a weapon of mass destruction. No responsible scientist would advocate publishing precise designs for an atomic bomb, and in two ways revealing the sequence for the flu virus is even more dangerous.”
In the real world, the process of
In the real world, the process of design depends on evolution: “To consider the iPod, it did not spring fully formed from the mind of a powerful Designer, but rather it represents one distinct point on a long evolutionary timeline.” Intelligent design is bad science and bad design. That doesn’t leave much.
College football and network theory meet at
College football and network theory meet at last. In a recent paper, a pair of researchers have devised a ranking system based on network theory (with teams that didn’t directly play each other, the theory determines who’s the better team based on games played versus a mutual foe) that is more accurate than the current polling system used to choose a college football national champion. (via cd)
Further discovery of Homo floresiensis bones
Further discovery of Homo floresiensis bones have strengthened researchers’ argument that the so-called Hobbit is a new and distinct human species. More on Flores man at Nature, which is doing a weekly podcast now.
Evollucinations
Is it strange that every time I go into my bathroom and look at the box of tissues sitting on the shelf, I see Charles Darwin looking back at me?
It does look like Darwin, yes? Or have I been reading far too much about science and evolution lately?
Note: My bathroom Darwin orchid has nothing to do with Angraecum sesquipedale, an orchid that Darwin discovered in 1850. At the time, he speculated that in order for the plant to be pollinated, a moth with a 12” proboscis would have to do it, even though no such moth had been shown to exist. This freakish moth was eventually discovered (not in my bathroom) in 1903, 20 years after Darwin’s death.
Scientists want to build an array of
Scientists want to build an array of submillimeter telescopes across the whole earth to peer “inside” the massive black hole at the center of the galaxy.
Update: Many people wrote in to correct me in saying that “submillimeter” referred to the size of the telescopes…it of course referred to the EM wavelength. Me brain not working right.
Brian Greene on Einstein’s most famous equation,
Brian Greene on Einstein’s most famous equation, E =mc^2. When he finally gets around to it in the middle of the article, Greene’s got a pretty good layman’s explanation of what the formula actually means.
Regrading this: Summer Movies Other Than March
Regrading this: Summer Movies Other Than March of the Penguins That Conservatives Are Rallying Behind. “The Dukes of Hazzard: Not once is the word ‘evolution’ used in this movie. Many pundits proclaim this to be a tacit endorsement of intelligent design.”
Freeman Dyson on his friend and colleague
Freeman Dyson on his friend and colleague Richard Feynman for The New York Review of Books.
The Matthew effect
Nick Paumgarten’s Talk of the Town piece opens with an anecdote about the doorman’s role in elevating the social status of their building’s tenants:
When Peter Bearman, a professor of sociology, moved from North Carolina to New York, seven years ago, to take a post at Columbia, he found his new colleagues unusually arrogant and difficult, even for the Ivy League. After considering other factors, he laid the blame on the doormen in their apartment buildings. He reasoned that the doormen had an interest in elevating the status of their tenants in order to enhance their own status, and so they treated the professors like big shots — for example, by addressing them as “professor” — until the professors came to believe that they really were big shots. Bearman felt that he had discovered a previously unobserved variant of the Matthew effect, Robert K. Merton’s theory concerning the compounding of iniquity among prominent and marginal individuals — the rich getting richer, and so forth.
I’d never heard of the Matthew effect before, so I looked it up in Wikipedia:
In sociology, Matthew effect was a term coined by Robert K. Merton to describe how, among other things, eminent scientists will often get more credit than a comparatively unknown researcher even if their work is similar; it also means that credit will usually be given to researchers that are already famous…
Here is Merton’s original paper.
Steven Johnson’s thoughts on Web 2.0. He compares
Steven Johnson’s thoughts on Web 2.0. He compares it to a rain forest, with the information flow through the web being analogous to the efficient nutrient flow through a forest. “Essentially, the Web is shifting from an international library of interlinked pages to an information ecosystem, where data circulate like nutrients in a rain forest.” Compare with Tim O’Reilly’s recent thoughts on the subject.
A rare interview with Stephen Hawking about
A rare interview with Stephen Hawking about his remix of A Brief History of Time. The interview’s a bit weird…the interviewer doesn’t seem to know a whole lot about science.
Neat applet that displays orbit patterns for various particle arrangements.
Neat applet that displays orbit patterns for various particle arrangements.
Flowers don’t smell as good as they
Flowers don’t smell as good as they used to and part of the reason is breeding…they’re breeding flowers for looks and longevity, not for scent. I believe Michael Pollan discusses this in his excellent The Botany of Desire (tulip chapter).
Bats may be the source of SARS. “
Bats may be the source of SARS. “Researchers found a virus closely related to the Sars coronavirus in bats from three regions of China”.
First photos of the giant squid ever
First photos of the giant squid ever captured. In capturing the photos, they ripped one of the squid’s tentacles off, which has made the squid a bit angry.
Scientists have explained the Cheerio Effect, answering
Scientists have explained the Cheerio Effect, answering why things like Cheerios floating in milk tend to clump together.
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