Breakthrough discovery in plants’ DNA may lead to slowing the aging process in humans, Sandee LaMotte, CNN, November 18, 2019 Topics: Biology, Civics, Civil Rights, Entropy, History, Philosophy My last post on this site was on my birthday this summer. I have been commuting to and from work in Durham during the government shutdown (aContinue reading “Travels…”
Category Archives: Philosophy
Likelihood…
Source: https://youtu.be/m9DmPRO4MPQ?si=PEyFXaHMGP2Wb9-j Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Civilization, Existentialism, Philosophy To Claude.ai: “What is the likely outcome of the United States and Israel attacking the nation of Iran on suspicion of having nuclear weapons?” An attack on Iran by the US and Israel would likely have severe and far-reaching consequences across multiple dimensions: **Regional Military Response** IranContinue reading “Likelihood…”
Equally Terrifying…
Topics: Civilization, Existentialism, Nanoengineering, Philosophy, Quantum Mechanics, Star Trek As an undergraduate Engineering Physics major, science classes disabuse you of notions that science fiction might leave you with. “2001” was released in 1968, the year Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Sr. were assassinated, the second year of the Star Trek franchise, oneContinue reading “Equally Terrifying…”
Eclipse…
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Philosophy, Planetary Science, Space Exploration There will be a partial eclipse here in Greensboro. These glasses (6 pair), I purchased in 2017 for ANOTHER partial eclipse that I missed due to working in the lab my first year in grad school. Nano took precedent over astro. The current show starts around 1:56Continue reading “Eclipse…”
Boltwood Estimate…
Credit: Public Domain Topics: Applied Physics, Education, History, Materials Science, Philosophy, Radiation, Research We take for granted that Earth is very old, almost incomprehensibly so. But for much of human history, estimates of Earth’s age were scattershot at best. In February 1907, a chemist named Bertram Boltwood published a paper in the American Journal of Science detailing a novelContinue reading “Boltwood Estimate…”
Brookhaven and Fake News
Climate of fear Anti-science protestors led to the closure of the High Flux Beam Reactor at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US 25 years ago using tactics that are widespread today. (Courtesy: iStock/DanielVilleneuve) Topics: Biology, Cancer, Carl Sagan, Civilization, Climate Change, Philosophy, Physics I typically don’t comment on articles, but this one resonated with myContinue reading “Brookhaven and Fake News”
The Wine of Consciousness…
Credit: Fanatic Studio/Gary Waters/Getty Images Topics: Education, Existentialism, Philosophy, Physics Physicists and philosophers recently met to debate a theory of consciousness called panpsychism. More than 400 years ago, Galileo showed that many everyday phenomena—such as a ball rolling down an incline or a chandelier gently swinging from a church ceiling—obey precise mathematical laws. For thisContinue reading “The Wine of Consciousness…”
The Decline of Disruptive Science…
The proportion of disruptive scientific papers, such as the 1953 description of DNA’s double-helix structure, has fallen since the mid-1940s.Credit: Lawrence Lawry/SPL Topics: DNA, Education, Philosophy, Research, Science, STEM The number of science and technology research papers published has skyrocketed over the past few decades — but the ‘disruptiveness’ of those papers has dropped, accordingContinue reading “The Decline of Disruptive Science…”
Martians and Vulcans…
Topics: Astrobiology, Astrophysics, Civilization, Existentialism, Philosophy, Special Relativity The Cold War was a genesis of angst about the future due to the detonation of the atomic bomb by the Soviet Union in Kazakstan in 1949. After WWII (WWI was originally called, “the war to END all wars,” until the sequel), the existential nervousness is understandable.Continue reading “Martians and Vulcans…”
Moments and Metaphors…
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Comets, Philosophy, Science Fiction On a recent morning, in Lower Manhattan, 20 scientists, including me, gathered for a private screening of the new film Don’t Look Up, followed by lunch with the film’s director, Adam McKay. The film’s plot is simple. An astronomy graduate student, Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), and her professor,Continue reading “Moments and Metaphors…”
Physics and Nano 