Despite oft-repeated claims by the self-described cognoscenti, something new in science is being discovered all the time. As Hamlet opined, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” [Hamlet, Act 1, scene 5, 159–167] Today’s tidbit comes from the realm of physics and animal behavior, specifically this item that describes how bees …
When Junk Isn’t
I cannot document this, but ‘Way Back When, in the days when I was a graduate student studying the interactions between nucleic acids and proteins, I was firmly convinced that the then so-called “junk” DNA—which was comprised of all noncoding sequences in the genome—couldn’t just be junk. As much energy and resources were expended on maintaining its sequence as for …
Art vs. Reality
I’m a long-time fan of science fiction. Hard science fiction. This means made-up stories that are based in the physical reality as we know it, or within reasonable extrapolation of the boundaries thereof: Magicians, trolls, witches, warlocks and vampires need not apply! (Oh, I enjoyed The Tolkien Trilogy ‘way back when, but that’s not sci-fi.) One of my favorite activities …
Reading
Just a quick one for today, while I compile material for a more-extensive post: “A man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” –Mark Twain, American writer Questions: None. Just think about the ramifications.
More Signal, Less Noise
News this week included a report that planet-searchers have found a “super-Earth” orbiting a star just 42 light years from “regular “(but still impressive) Earth. [Given that distance, Bob Murphy, a colleague and friend, has suggested that we name the planet “Douglas Adams”, author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which that number has keen significance as the “Answer …
Do It Differently
I came across this interesting item last week, which describes how a person’s world view was changed by way of technology. It got me thinking about how wedded many of us are to doing things the way we have always done them, or how others have always done them, or, in some cases, not doing something at all because to …
Sci-fi? No; reality!
This video/animation of the launch-through-landing of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), aka Curiosity, was initially produced in 2011, long before the successful landing of Curiosity on Mars. Except for the juvenile need to include sounds where no sound could carry (i.e., outside the two planets’ atmosphers), this is exceedingly well done, and worth about five minutes of your time. The …
Sometimes, It All Just Works
As of this writing, the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory (aka Curiosity) is old news, but the technology that allowed it to happen and also allowed me to partake of the excitement is what I wish to address today. The night of the landing, I was exhausted—so much so that I just couldn’t get my act together enough …
“That’s Ridiculous!”
My reading is eclectic, and I never know when I get started what I’m going to find. A recent item got me thinking about technology and its uses—and potential “misuses”. (The reason for the quotation marks will become apparent in a few sentences.) First a bit of context: ‘Way back when I was an English major, I participated in a …
The Technology Spectrum
I came across two apparently unrelated items today that I managed to relate. The first has to do with what could be a major discovery in the realm of particle physics and its impact on our understanding of the underpinnings of reality: Scientists at CERN have announced that to a greater than 99.9999+ percent level, they have detected the long-sought …
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