Owner: Reflections, Ideas, and Dreams URL:http://blog.gravityatwork.com Join Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:48:53 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Reflections in science and its interplay with society: climate, the environment, astrobiology, natural history, evolution, spirituality, mathematics, and philosophical musings. Site statistics:Click here
Live and Direct 2007-04-04 00:46:10 Related to my entry on the Album.Listening to 3 hours of shuffled multi-artist music (such as a digital music collection) is an emulation of the radio experience--but with a personalized playlist.Listening to 3 consecutive albums is an emulation of the concert experience--but with a personalized band lineup. Read more:Direct
Divergence is a Feeling 2007-04-03 20:45:25 Some of the difficulties in teaching math and science come from the way we grasp knowledge in general. A textbook or lecturer can present many observations, theories, and conjectures, but a novice student (even one who is interested in the material) will initially have difficulty in creating a coherent framework. Even if students are able to remember everything they are taught, application to real-world problems will still be difficult because they have not fully synthesized the material. A student might know the mathematical and physical definition of a concept, such as divergence, but this does not ensure the ability to identify or process similar information in a textbook-deviant setting. Mathematics is a feeling, and true application only follows when practice and repetition lead to a deeper understanding. Read more:Feeling
Alien Religion 2007-04-06 04:13:00 Awhile back I asked myself a question: millions of years from now, when dolphins, whales, chimpanzees, gorillas, or other creatures develop further in intelligence, will they have any form of spirituality or religion? Alternatively, will an extraterrestrial intelligence have any form of spirituality or religion?I think I finally know how to begin answering this question. Read more:Alien
, Religion
Tattoo Design 2007-04-04 21:18:15 More on tattoos.I think I finally know the design I would use if I ever decided to get a tattoo: the phrase community of life written in Linear B. Of course, this does not mean I will be getting a tattoo, since there are at least two still unresolved issues:1) Bodily location of the tattoo2) Translation into Linear BI chose Linear B since it is a dead language with only loose ties to the rest of the world's writing systems, but this also has the disadvantage of making translation a difficult (or impossible) task.
Paper-to-Presentation 2007-04-09 18:50:46 Many times it is necessary to transform the content of a written document into a presentation. Wouldn't it be nice if this process could be automated? After all, most of the work already went into writing the document--why perform any unnecessary work? There are a few possible approaches to this. Here's an outline of one process that assumes Microsoft Office:1) Use the auto-summarize in MS Word to condense the content of a document2) Write a macro to create bulleted Powerpoint slides from the summary3) Write a macro to import figures (if any) from the original Word document4) Give the presentationAnyone out there who loves writing macros?
Quantum Tunneling & Solar Fusion 2007-04-11 21:20:19 I like this story because it is an interesting example of how a scientific idea forms. Scientific theories may have gaps, but it is rarely prudent to discard an entire theory. Sometimes a better idea comes along, but sometimes you just learn to think in new ways.Astronomers have long known that "the Sun is a mass of incandescent gas", but until relatively recent times it was not known to be "a gigantic nuclear furnace". Early views of the Sun assumed it was chemically powered--but this could only last for ~1000 years. Gravitational potential energy is sufficient to sustain the Sun for ~30 million years; but once it became apparent that the Solar
System was billions of years old, astronomers realized they had a problem.Nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium was a good solution, but there was one flaw in this theory. Any elementary school student who has played with magnets can tell you that like charges repel and opposite charges attract. The same is true for protons. But if protons rep
Album Suggestions 2007-04-10 23:35:51 Here's everyone's chance to add to my music library. The best way for me to discover new books and music is personal recommendation. Everyone can suggest five of their favorite albums they think I should hear. I have pretty eclectic tastes, so I usually end up with some good finds after doing something like this.To start things off, here's five suggestions from my music collection:Arturo Sandoval - Hot HouseBelle and Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab StrapBlue Man Group - AudioFatboy Slim - Better Living Through ChemistryTower of Power - T.O.P. Read more:Album
Big Ideas 2007-04-12 23:58:19 Certain ideas are unpalatable to some people. Criticism of these ideas is often attempted in a logical or scientific framework, but opposition to the idea is often more fundamental than a disagreement in methods. Over the next week or so, I will devote separate entries to each of the four ideas listed below. Some of these ideas carry more modern dissenters than others, but the collective significance of these four ideas is important in understanding our place as part of the community of life.1) Copernican Revolution - we are not the center of the Universe2) Discovery of Fossils - extinctions happen3) Theory of Evolution - we share ancestors with other creatures4) Global Climate Change - we are capable of altering our environment
Trees of Eden 2007-04-14 07:04:28 I just noticed this today in the classic Genesis story:Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever’— therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 6:22-24The way to the tree of life is guarded, but the tree of knowledge is still unguarded. Adam and Hava are the only mortals who could desire to eat from the tree of life, and none of the other living creatures have any want to eat from the tree of knowledge. The guard is only for Adam and Hava--and their offspring. Read more:Trees
The Copernican Revolution 2007-04-16 20:44:18 The realization that the Earth is not at the center of the Solar System or the Universe is known to modern minds, but when Copernicus published his ideas they were not received with enthusiasm by everyone. Historically, the Catholic Church was the primary antagonist against a heliocentric view of the Solar System. Some of the basis for the Church's opposition is the literal interpretation of certain Biblical passages to infer a physical cosmology. Religious doctrine only provided a vehicle for expressing distaste for the idea, however; if Biblical influences had not been present, other oppositions would have arisen. The problem is not religious but cultural.Around 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, a group of people began practicing totalitarian agriculture. That is, they farmed and created surpluses, and they used the land to the exclusion of other organisms. With the food surpluses came rapid population growth that led to expansion--expansion not only of people, but also
Fossils: The Lying Stones of Johann Beringer 2007-04-17 22:09:11 In 1725 in Würzburg, Germany, Dr. Johann
Beringer made a startling discovery. Occasional fossils had been found earlier, but only now were geologists and natural scientists locating large quantities of fossils that questioned their view of the world. Organisms were not known to go extinct, but scientists were finding organisms in rocks that were not observed in the present.Beringer believed that a perfect Creator could not make an imperfect creation, so it was impossible for fossils to be the remains of extinct life. Fossils
, he reasoned, must have been placed by God in order to test mankind's faith. Unfortunately for Beringer, not everyone shared his opinion. He soon became the victim of a famous geologic hoax, where he came into possession of a vast number of fossils such as those pictured below.For about a year, Beringer collected these fabricated fossils and wrote a book describing his findings. Soon the fossils took more esoteric shapes, such as shooting stars and Hebrew Read more:Lying
, Stones
Fossils: Dust to Dust 2007-04-19 22:22:38 The discovery of fossils on a large scale gave rise to the idea of extinction. Somehow, the imprints of non-existent creatures were in the geologic record. Barring supernatural influence, it soon became clear that these creatures lived long ago--before humans, even! This is not surprising news today, but at the time it was a revolutionary discovery. The prevailing worldview assumed human civilization had always existed in some form; this idea was present in the Christian theology of the time, but non-Christian views of the world also shared similar assumptions.Look backward, there was a thriving community of life long before humans ever appeared on the planet. And looking forward, the discovery of fossils foreshadowed the eerie possibility of human extinction. Humans were thought of as different from the rest of life, though, so the ramifications of this conclusion did not fully set in until the ideas of Charles Darwin. Read more:Fossils
Religious Origins 2007-04-18 21:19:06 Let's take a look at the CIA World Factbook for the population of religious groups. I have also included the region of origin for the religions in the table below.
Christianity33.03%Middle East
Islam20.12%Middle East
Hinduism13.34%India
Buddhism5.89%India
Sikhism0.39%India
Judiaism0.23%Middle East
Other Religions12.61%-
Non-Religious12.03%-
Atheist2.36%-It is interesting to note the geographical monopoly of the popular religions: the ones with definite regions are either from the Fertile Crescent area or the Indus Valley. And if we break down "other religions" into components, Shintoism, Taoism, and Confucianism (among others) have Asian origins. In other words, a vast majority of the religions on this table are Eurasian.All of these religions developed after people were distributed across the globe. How likely is it that Eurasia had a monopoly on the development of desirable religions? Why is the religion of the Maya, for example, nearly forgotten in practice today? Certainly the Read more:Origins
A Friday Afternoon 2007-04-20 22:48:32 I was going to make a blog entry, but instead I played my vibraphone. I think it was a good decision. I discovered two things as well: 1) It is much easier to sing and play than I thought it would be.2) I accompanied myself on a song I wrote several years ago. My feelings at the time were different than they are now, and singing the song was a nice reflection on how time can change things. Read more:Friday
, Afternoon
, Friday Afternoon
Sustainability and the Fermi Paradox 2007-04-27 05:56:05 I keep meaning to get to some posts on evolution, but I keep getting distracted by end-of-the-semester work (and winning money at poker). This is the concluding paragraph from a paper I just finished on the Fermi Paradox
for a class. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I'm interested to see what my advisor thinks of it.The Fermi Paradox cannot logically conclude that humans are the only advanced intelligence in the galaxy, but the absence of evidence for ETI colonization of the galaxy is uggestive that no ETI has successfully formed a galactic civilization. This is not because no sufficiently advanced intelligence has developed technology, but it is because civilization itself is an unsustainable mechanism. SETI assumptions often imply that civilization is a necessary consequence of intelligence—but even if this were true, the ecological instability of civilization would render any galactic civilization short-lived. A galactic civilization may arise in the Mil Read more:Sustainability
OotSSoERaAAP 2007-04-25 05:11:57 ...otherwise known as the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique. And, following the official guidelines, I am awarding myself the following badges:Talking science - If you've ever met me or read this blog, then you know it applies.I blog about science - Recursively: see this post.Has frozen stuff just to see what happens (level III) - Level III of this badge is for liquid nitrogen. I have never been overly fascinated with the kitchen freezer, but I have certainly used LN in recreation every chance I've had--I've frozen bananas, rubber bands, racquetballs, pencils, gloves, balloons, and chocolate, among other things.I bet I know more about computer languages than you, and I'm not afraid to talk about it - I know people who are better candidates for this badge than myself, but I think my posts on BrainF*** and Fugue help me qualify. (+++++++++[>++++++++<-]>++.<+++++[>++++<-]>+++.++.<+++[>++++<-]>.&l
The Effects of Global Change 2007-04-23 20:51:32 My brother sent me this in an email yesterday.I was reading Economics: A Very Short Introduction, and I found a part that made me think about global warming. I was watching CNN, and they were saying that the biggest producers of CO2 etc. are the ones who feel the ramifications the least. Coupled with that I found this quote: "In contrast to poor countries, agricultural output is a small fraction of national income in the rich world. The share of agriculture in GDP is about 25% in the poor world; less than 5% in rich countries. Less than 10% of the population in rich countries live in rural areas. In contrast, more than 70% of people in poor countries live in villages; which gives rise to the thought that people in poor countries mostly work in economies that draw their production inputs directly from Nature--they are 'biomass-based' economies. Ecology is of direct concern to the world's poor, in a way it isn't to the world's rich.'' Read more:Effects
, Global
, Change
The Age of Life 2007-04-30 21:09:15 Life did not take ~4 billion years to evolve on Earth.This statement often appears in conversation and print, but it grossly misrepresents the evolutionary mechanism. Current estimates suggest life originated between 3.9 and 4.1 billion years ago, which means life took between 400 and 600 million years to evolve. The origin of eukaryotic cells is estimated to be 1.6 to 2.1 billion years ago, corresponding to an evolutionary time of 2.4 to 2.9 billion years to develop.The 4 billion year number comes from the Cambrian explosion, which took place around 542 million years ago. Thus, the statement people actually mean to make is: "Complex animal life took ~4 billion years to evolve on Earth." And, of course, when people are talking about the development of complex animal life, they often have the appearance of humans in mind. But life is far more persistent than that. Without the Cambrian explosion, Earth would still be a vibrant planet thriving with life.
First Round Pop Draft 2007-04-29 23:12:16 If drafts work for sports, then why not for music? I think this could be an interesting concept: an organized pop music association whose members shuffle around every few years--where pop music refers to the most cheezy, made-for-radio music that generates up to one memorable song per album.Each band would be a franchise not owned by any of the musicians. The musicians would each sign contracts, and new musicians would be recruited through a draft system. Every year the lineup of each band would change by a small or large amount, thereby reducing the stagnancy of the pop music.And, as an added bonus, the end of every band season could culminate with a national battle of the bands playoff series. Read more:First
, Draft
Citations 2007-05-01 19:13:40 I saw this quote today on bash.org:<CtrlAltDestroy> Here is my impression of Wikipedia.<CtrlAltDestroy> "There are five fingers on the human hand [citation needed]"This raises an interesting question: at what point is knowledge considered common enough that it no longer requires citation? For writing in academia, the general rule is to cite ideas that are not your own, thereby leaving u-ncited statements as your own thoughts. But if I were to observe that "there are five fingers on the human hand", I certainly could not claim to be the discoverer of this information. It would not be difficult to find a source to cite, but would there be any purpose to it? Most people (and publications) are fine with allowing a statement like this to remain un-cited, but at what point is knowledge considered general enough that it can stand alone without a referenced authority?
The Incredible Theory of Evolution 2007-05-04 16:50:19 Done with the semester and finally getting back to exploring some Big Ideas in science.The specific criticisms of evolutionary theory by opponents has changed over the years, but the basic premise for the opposition has not. The debate is often separated into the "science vs. religion" groups, but--especially when Darwin published his ideas--this opposition is more fundamental than a religious objection.The discovery of fossils caused people to realize that organisms were not permanent players in the arena of life; life has remained present on Earth, but organisms have come and gone. The idea of extinction shook a basic premise of a prevailing worldview, but Darwin's idea took this realization to a new level.With the Origin of Species, Darwin did more than provide a mechanism for speciation: linking together all organisms on the planet led to the conclusion that humans are animals as well! We are the member of a species, subject to the same selection effects as any other living cr Read more:Incredible
, Theory
, Evolution
XOR 2007-05-03 23:55:50 Why is xor not part of everyday speech? It would make certain situations much less ambiguous:A) Would you like cream or sugar?B) Would you like soup or salad?In case A, it is generally acceptable to take cream, sugar, or both cream and sugar. In case B, though, the chose is exclusionary between soup and salad. But with xor in the lexicon, we can remove the degeneracy:A') Would you like cream or sugar? (inclusive or)B') Would you like soup xor salad? (exclusive or)See how much easier this would be?
Tribilations 2007-05-08 05:59:47 David Gerrold seemed to know a thing or two about population dynamics when he wrote the famous episode.McCoy: Do you know what you get when you feed a tribble too much?Kirk: A fat tribble?McCoy: No, you get a whole bunch of hungry little tribbles.
The Implications of Climate Change 2007-05-10 00:49:43 The theories of Copernicus and Darwin are not shocking to most people today, even though the implications of Darwin's ideas are knowingly or unknowingly rejected at times. Today global climate change has taken the stand as the "controversial" scientific theory. The perceived controversy does not stem from division within the scientific community, though, but instead from the implications of accepting human alteration of the biosphere.The global cultural worldview was shaken by the heliocentric and evolutionary theories because they challenged the notion that humans are not subservient to the biosphere but instead are masters of the world, whether by superior intellect or divine providence. Global climate change has taken this challenge one step further by showing our culture that consumption without regard can have real and lasting impacts on the biosphere. And in spite of the superior intellect that supposedly makes us "greater than the animals", there is no obvious technological Read more:Implications
, Climate
, Change
The Copernican Principle 2007-05-09 01:42:29 Stated generally, most often it can be assumed that an individual sample is close to the mean of the population.But what happens when a particular individual sample is on the tail end of the distribution? Read more:Principle
Remember the Clue (22) - Response 2007-05-08 19:10:03 The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.Marcel Duchamp Read more:Remember
, Response
Masters of the World 2007-05-12 00:03:29 Over a much longer time period than intended, I sketched out some of the primary scientific challenges to a common cultural worldview in our modern global society. The Copernican Revolution placed our planet in a typical galactic environment, and the discovery of fossils shattered the notion that life on Earth was permanent. The Darwinian Revolution placed humans in the same biological arena as the animals, and the realization of human-induced climate change make this assertion even more apparent. The modern global culture is resistant to the full implication of these ideas, since acceptance would require a behavioral change. Humans are not the masters of the world but are a single organism on the planet, subject to the same environmental pressures and feedback as any other creature. Yet the lifestyle of the modern global culture is one of consumption; the rate at which resources are used increases with time. The ideas sketched above imply that no society can biologically claim to supe Read more:Masters
, World
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