Clipmarks | wildcat's 'science' clips

Does your mind live in different worlds?

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 01:40:01 GMT

clipped by: adamc
clipper's remarks: Woah. I think I'm becoming more decoherent the more I try to make sense of this.

Clip Source: hanson.gmu.edu

Many times each day, your mind permanently splits into different versions that live in different worlds.

The startling prediction of the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics is that when systems like your mind interact with small quantum systems, every possible quantum outcome actually happens in a different "world." Quantum mechanics is our most basic theory of physics, and surveys of prominent physicists reportedly find majorities favoring this interpretation. (More here.)

Clip Source: www.hedweb.com

Loosely speaking a "world" is a complex, causally connected, partially or completely closed set of interacting sub-systems which don't significantly interfere with other, more remote, elements in the superposition. Any complex system and its coupled environment, with a large number of internal degrees of freedom, qualifies as a world. An observer, with internal irreversible processes, counts as a complex system. In terms of the wavefunction, a world is a decohered branch of the universal wavefunction, which represents a single macrostate. (See "What is decoherence?") The worlds all exist simultaneously in a non- interacting linear superposition.

Worlds, or branches of the universal wavefunction, split when different components of a quantum superposition "decohere" from each other [7a], [7b], [10]. Decoherence refers to the loss of coherency or absence of interference effects between the elements of the superposition. For two branches or worlds to interfere with each other all the atoms, subatomic particles, photons and other degrees of freedom in each world have to be in the same state, which usually means they all must be in the same place or significantly overlap in both worlds, simultaneously.

Tags: mind, worlds, many worlds, quantum mechanics, science, interesting

What's wrong with science as religion

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:44:19 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "Piercing a Communion wafer with a nail and throwing it in the garbage, as one crusading biologist recently did, does science no favors"

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Jul. 31, 2008 | PZ Myers is a true believer, a science crusader with the singled-minded enthusiasm of a televangelist. A biologist at the University of Minnesota at Morris and a columnist for Seed magazine, Myers has earned notoriety with his blog, Pharyngula, in which he reports on new developments in biology and indiscriminately excoriates those he views as hostile to science, a pantheon of straw men and women that includes theologians, journalists and churchgoers. He is Richard Dawkins without the fame or felicitous prose style.

Religion is dangerous, he wrote; it breeds hatred and idiocy. It is our job to advance humanity's knowledge "by winnowing out the errors of past generations and finding deeper understanding of reality." There is no wisdom in our dogmas, Myers warned, just "self-satisfied ignorance." We find truth only in science, looking at the world "with fresh eyes and a questioning mind."

Tags: science, vs, religion

Is the Internet Bad for Science?

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:28:26 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: as always, the answer depends on the person, in this case, who is the scientist doing the research.

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Using the internet to search for scientific articles is bad for researchers, says University of Chicago sociologist James Evans in an article published today in Science.

His argument is a classic computer-versus-paper library dilemma, updated for science: when researchers search online, they tend to arrive at just a few high-ranking articles. Lost is the breadth of scholarship encountered by old-fashioned, page-turning browsing.

"As more journal issues came online, the articles referenced tended to be more recent, fewer journals and articles were cited, and more of the citations were to fewer journals and articles," writes Evans, who analyzed the citation patterns of 34 million journal articles that went online between 1998 and 2005.

He conclues, "The forced browsing of print archives may have stretched scientists and scholars to anchor findings deeply into past and present scholarship

Tags: internet, science, journals, articles

Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:54:09 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Opinion
Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

America, founded in secularism as a beacon of eighteenth century enlightenment, is becoming the victim of religious politics, a circumstance that would have horrified the Founding Fathers. The political ascendancy today values embryonic cells over adult people. It obsesses about gay marriage, ahead of genuinely important issues that actually make a difference to the world. It gains crucial electoral support from a religious constituency whose grip on reality is so tenuous that they expect to be 'raptured' up to heaven, leaving their clothes as empty as their minds. More extreme specimens actually long for a world war, which they identify as the 'Armageddon' that is to presage the Second Coming. Sam Harris, in his new short book, Letter to a Christian Nation, hits the bull's-eye as usual:

placed by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver-lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen: the return of Christ . . .Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and ¬intellectual emergency. Does Bush check the Rapture Index daily, as Reagan did his stars? We don't know, but would anyone be surprised?

Tags: science, religion, dogma, god

Thin Ice: The Arctic Meltdown Explained

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:17:02 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

If the North Pole becomes ice-free this summer — the odds for that are 50-50, one scientist says — that doesn't mean that the whole Arctic region will become an open ocean.

Mark Serreze of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado told The Independent, a London-based newspaper, "I'd say it's even-odds whether the North Pole melts out."

The article, posted on the newspaper's Web site Friday, generated some confusion as to what would actually happen at the North Pole, and in the Arctic Ocean as a whole, as the summer melt season gears up in the next few weeks.

melt-out at the North Pole wouldn't mean that all Arctic ice would melt. Rather, the thin, newly-formed ice around 90 degrees latitude could melt away for a few days

Such an event would be significant, he said, because any holes that have appeared in the ice at the North Pole up until now have been a result of winds pushing the sea ice around and creating cracks

Tags: arctic, melt-down, science, north pole, climate change

Want to Enhance Your Brain Power?

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:37:38 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

Research hints that electrically stimulating the brain can speed learning.

A little brain boost is something we could all use now and then. A new option may be on the horizon. Researchers at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, in Bethesda, MD, are studying how applying gentle electrical current to the scalp can improve learning.

Previous small-scale studies have suggested that a stream of current can improve motor function, verbal fluency, and even language learning. To explore how effective such stimulation can be as a learning tool, Eric Wassermann, a neuroscientist at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, is using an approach known as transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS), in which an electrical current is passed directly to the brain through the scalp and skull

researchers found that direct current stimulation could improve memory in participants asked to learn and then recall a list of 12 words

Tags: brain, memory, enhancement, boost, science

According to Popper

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:16:45 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: According to Popper, a science without limits or imperfections or fixable flaws isn't science: it's metaphysics. In this sense, the end goal of science - the construction of a perfect mirror to reality - isn't just unrealistic: it's also unscientific.

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

It's a truism that the favorite philosopher of every scientist is Karl Popper. (In my own experience, this truism is mostly true.) Popper, or so the story goes, stood up for empirical fact when the post-modernists were descending into Deleuze and Derrida and difference. His popularity among experimentalists is also a side-effect of simplicity, as his fundamental idea is easy enough for just about anyone to understand: Popper famously pointed out that science never proves things true, it merely proves things false (this is the falsifiability doctrine). In other words, scientists proceed in stuttering steps, advancing by saying what theories are wrong. The truth is just what (temporarily) survives.

it's easy to not notice how radical an idea this is. But look closer. For Popper, all discovery is really just criticism

Scientific truth is true precisely because it is open to change, willing to reverse itself and admit its errors

Tags: popper, science, philosophy

The Science of Sarcasm (Not That You Care)

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:55:32 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

There was nothing very interesting in Katherine P. Rankin’s study of sarcasm — at least, nothing worth your important time. All she did was use an M.R.I. to find the place in the brain where the ability to detect sarcasm resides. But then, you probably already knew it was in the right parahippocampal gyrus.

What you may not have realized is that perceiving sarcasm, the smirking put-down that buries its barb by stating the opposite, requires a nifty mental trick that lies at the heart of social relations: figuring out what others are thinking. Those who lose the ability, whether through a head injury or the frontotemporal dementias afflicting the patients in Dr. Rankin’s study, just do not get it when someone says during a hurricane, “Nice weather we’re having.”

Tags: science, sarcasm

Put a Little Science in Your Life

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:56:10 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Allow me a moment to explain.

But here’s the thing. The reason science really matters runs deeper still. Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional. To be able to think through and grasp explanations — for everything from why the sky is blue to how life formed on earth — not because they are declared dogma but rather because they reveal patterns confirmed by experiment and observation, is one of the most precious of human experiences.

As a practicing scientist, I know this from my own work and study. But I also know that you don’t have to be a scientist for science to be transformative. I’ve seen children’s eyes light up as I’ve told them about black holes and the Big Bang

Tags: science, way of life

Absinthe

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:49:07 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Wormwood (in French, absinthe; in German, Wermut) is an herb with a perennial root system from which arise branched, firm, leafy stems that are almost woody at the base and reach a height of two to three feet. Its flowers are tiny, greenish-yellow and globular, and its indented leaves have a silvery-gray sheen. The species was cultivated from the Middle Ages to the early part of the 20th century.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Evidence of the pale-green liqueur’s toxicity eventually extinguished the fin-de-siècle infatuation with absinthe. The drink’s history began, however, long before the 19th century

Vincent van Gogh shot himself on the afternoon of July 27, 1890, in Auvers-sur-Oise, France; he died in the early morning two days later. Paul F. Gachet, the doctor who attended van Gogh during the last two months of his life, planted a thuja tree on the artist’s grave. The gesture was probably inspired by van Gogh’s admiration of thuja trees and his inclusion of their flamelike images in some of his Auvers paintings.

Gachet’s choice of a grave ornament was unwittingly pathetic. The thuja tree is a classical source of the chemical thujone, a constituent and indeed the toxic principle of the alcoholic drink known as absinthe. There is good evidence to indicate that van Gogh was addicted to absinthe, that his psychosis was exacerbated by thujone and that his fits with hallucinations contributed to his suicide.

Tags: absinthe, history, health, mind, science

Move over Galileo, it's Science 2.0

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:19:23 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Science 2.0 is about studying design of rapidly changing socio-technical systems. These studies are not replicable in a lab,”

Clip Source: physorg.com

In a provocative article in this week’s Science Magazine, the University of Maryland’s Ben Shneiderman, one of the world’s leading researchers and innovators in human-computer interaction, says it’s time for the laboratory research that has defined science for the last 400 years to make room for a revolutionary new method of scientific discovery.

He calls it Science 2.0., and it combines the hypothesis based inquiry of laboratory science with the methods of social science research to understand and improve the use of new human networks made possible by today’s digital connectivity. Through Science 2.0, the societal potential of such networks can be realized for applications ranging from homeland security to medical care to the environment.

“It’s time for researchers in science to take network collaboration like this to the next phase and reap the potential intellectual and societal payoffs. We need to understand the principles that are at work in these systems,” said Shneiderman.

Tags: social network, science

The Science of Fairy Tales

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:43:24 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Kids of any age love to read fairy tales because the storyline never limits the possibility that anything could happen. Curses, spells, and handsome princes reign in worlds beyond the reader’s imagination.

Although brown hair is thicker, Rapunzel's blonde locks are strong enough for several real-life princes to climb. Credit: Project Gutenberg
An artists' depiction of the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid." Scientists have developed technology that can block sound waves in much the same way the sea witch's curse silenced the mermaid Ariel's singing voice. Credit: Project Gutenberg

More Images

Although brown hair is thicker, Rapunzel's blonde locks are strong enough for several real-life princes to climb. Credit: Project Gutenberg

But are the most magical moments from some of our favorite stories actually possible? Basic physical principles and recent scientific research suggest that what readers might mistake for fantasies and exaggeration could be rooted in reality.

Tags: fairy tales, science, imagination

Mind Reading Is Now Possible

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:23:02 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "The more detailed the thought is, the more different these patterns get, because different people have different associations for an object or idea," says Haynes. "We're much closer to this than we were two years ago, but still far from a universal mind-reading machine." How far? The CMU group is determining the brain patterns that encode abstract ideas (honesty, democracy), words and sentences, a big step toward a mind-reading dictionary.

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

A computer can tell with 78 percent accuracy when someone is thinking about a hammer and not pliers.

Crime investigators always have their ears open for information only a perpetrator could know—where a gun used in a murder was stashed, perhaps, or what wounds a stabbing inflicted. So imagine a detective asking a suspect about a killing, describing the crime scene to get the suspect to visualize the attack. The detective is careful not to mention the murder weapon. Once the suspect has conjured up the scene, the detective asks him to envision the weapon. Pay dirt: his pattern of brain activity screams "hammer" as loud and clear as if he had blurted it out.

We'll get to the ethical implications of that, but first consider how quickly mind reading is advancing

Now research has broken the "content" barrier

If what your brain does when it thinks about an igloo is almost identical to what mine does, that suggests the possibility of a universal mind-reading dictionary,

Tags: mind, science, reading, ethics?

"Techno-Doping" and the New Olympics

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:27:10 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The evolution of technological augmentation is progressing faster than natural human biology, and it's clear that it won't be long until these physical enhancements will completely out-class natural human sports capabilities. The growing likelihood that, within the next decade, the fastest humans alive will be "disabled" holds the potential for profound "future shock." As I wrote about last year (in "The Accidental Cyborg"), young athletes facing the choice between rehabilitation and amputation for leg injuries are starting to pick amputation, knowing that the prosthetics could be an improvement, not an impairment.

Clip Source: www.openthefuture.com

Oscar Pistorius, AKA "Blade Runner" -- the South African sprinter who uses carbon fiber prosthetics in place of the lower legs amputated as a child -- has officially lost his bid to run in the 2008 Olympics. He's going to give one last appeal to the International Association of Athletics Federations, but his chances of success are slim. The official reason, according to the BBC:

"...his prosthetic limbs give him an advantage over able-bodied opponents..."

For now, Pistorius' artificial legs make him fast, but still human-fast (he came in second at a recent meet); although his prosthetics reduce his energy requirements by 25%, he has yet to hit the qualifying speed for the 400m race. It's entirely possible that, even had the IAAF accepted his bid, he wouldn't have made it to this Olympics.

But it's also entirely possible that, in 2012, he'd be breaking records right and left. And shortly thereafter, he wouldn't be alone in doing so.

Tags: science, sports, technology, olympics

Science Encyclopedia

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:35:27 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: an amazing resource, check the history of ideas particularly

Clip Source: science.jrank.org

Science Encyclopedia

Science Encyclopedia Vol 1

Aardvark, Abacus, Abrasives - How do abrasives work?, Abscess, Absolute Zero, Abyssal Plain, Acceleration - History, Linear Acceleration, Circular Acceleration, Force And Acceleration, Accelerators - Linear Accelerators, Circular Accelerators, Cyclotron Modifications, Applications, Accretion Disk, Accuracy - Accuracy In Measurements, In Calculations, Rounding, Acetic Acid, Acetone, Acetylcholine, Acetylsalicylic Acid - History, Mechanism of action, Adverse affects, Acid Rain - Atmospheric Deposition, Chemistry Of Precipitation, Spatial Patterns Of Acidic Precipitation, Dry Deposition Of Acidifying Substances, Acids and Bases - Classic Definition Of Acids And Bases, Strong And Weak Acids And Bases, Brønsted-lowry Definition Of Acids And Bases…

The History of Ideas Vol 1

Abolitionism - Political Ideas, Colonization, Religious Ideas, Economic Ideas, Tactics, Organizations,

Absolute Music - Beethoven And German Influence

Tags: dictionary, history, ideas, science

Clipmarks | wildcat's 'science' clips

Does your mind live in different worlds?

What's wrong with science as religion

Is the Internet Bad for Science?

Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

Opinion Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

Thin Ice: The Arctic Meltdown Explained

Want to Enhance Your Brain Power?

According to Popper

The Science of Sarcasm (Not That You Care)

Put a Little Science in Your Life

Absinthe

Evidence of the pale-green liqueur’s toxicity eventually extinguished the fin-de-siècle infatuation with absinthe. The drink’s history began, however, long before the 19th century

Move over Galileo, it's Science 2.0

The Science of Fairy Tales

Although brown hair is thicker, Rapunzel's blonde locks are strong enough for several real-life princes to climb. Credit: Project Gutenberg

An artists' depiction of the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid." Scientists have developed technology that can block sound waves in much the same way the sea witch's curse silenced the mermaid Ariel's singing voice. Credit: Project Gutenberg

Mind Reading Is Now Possible

"Techno-Doping" and the New Olympics

Science Encyclopedia

Science Encyclopedia

Science Encyclopedia Vol 1

The History of Ideas Vol 1

Opinion
Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God