We are but a speck ...
... in time and space.
January 21, 2010
December 31, 2009
Word of the day: hadron
You probably think that you've never come across the word 'hadron' but in fact you've possibly come across it in the context of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) without thinking what the word means.
The LHC is the world's largest particle accelerator, a machine some 27 km in circumference, located on the French/Swiss border near Geneva. Once it is fully operational, it will fire beams of hadron particles in opposite directions at 99.9999991% of the speed of light, recreating the conditions that existed moments after the big bang.
So what are hadron particles? They are any elementary particles that are capable of taking part in a strong nuclear interaction. All such particles are made up of quarks - either baryons, which are made out of three quarks, or mesons, which are made out of two quarks.
So now you know. But, if you're keen to know more, try here.
December 29, 2009
Word of the day: decoherence
It's a word I came across - for the first time- in a book I'm currently reading: a popular work on physics called "You Are Here" and written by Christopher Potter.
The book describes decoherence as "the passing from quantum reality to classical reality" - which is not very helpful. In more lay person's terms, I think it is the connection - or lack of it - between the Newtonian world of everyday objects that we can generally see and the Einsteinian world of sub-atomic particles which operate by very different rules.
However, if you're interested in pursuing the subject, you'll be amazed to learn that there is actually a web site devoted to the concept.
December 23, 2009
How old is the universe?
I'm reading a fascinating book of cosmology called "You Are Here" and written by Christopher Potter. It raises some challenging topics.
For instance, how old is the universe? Actually we have a reliable and precise answer to this question. It is 13.73 billion years, plus or minus 120 million years.
What is gravity?
I'm reading a fascinating book of cosmology called "You Are Here" and written by Christopher Potter. It raises some challenging topics.
For example, what is gravity?
Potter quotes John Wheeler as explaining: "Matter tells space how to curve and space tells matter how to move". But he also quotes Michio Kaku as arguing: "In some sense, gravity does not exist; what moves the planets and the stars is the distortion of space and time".
A discussion of gravity on Wikipedia states: "Modern physics describes gravitation using the general theory of relativity, in which gravitation is a consequence of the curvature of spacetime which governs the motion of inertial objects."
December 21, 2009
How many stars are there?
At the moment, I'm reading a fascinating book of cosmology called "You Are Here" and written by Christopher Potter. It's full of intriguing facts.
Potter takes the reader on a tour of the universe in 26 degrees of separation starting with the range 1-10 metres (10 to the power of 0 to 10 to the power of 1) and ending with the range over 10 billion light years (over 10 to the power of 26 metres). At the end, he concludes that the known universe contains between 30-50 billion trillion stars (that is between 3 x 10 the power of 22 and 5 x 10 to the power of 22).
Put in conventional numerical form, that is at least:
30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars
December 19, 2009
How many satellites are there?
At the moment, I'm reading a fascinating book of cosmology called "You Are Here" and written by Christopher Potter. It's full of intriguing facts.
For instance, how many satellites do you think there are orbiting the Earth? According to Potter, there are 417 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites (160-2,000 kilometres above the earth), 47 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites (2,000-35,800 kms) and 351 High Earth Orbit (HEO) satellites (at or above 35,786). That makes in 815 all.
In addition, there's loads of junk out there. It's estimated that there are around 600,000 pieces of man made debris larger than a centimetre orbiting the Earth below 1,000 km.
Where are the Boy Scouts when you need them to do a cleaning up job?
December 18, 2009
Have we found dark matter?
Dark matter is odd stuff - it may constitute some three-quarters of the universe but we're not even sure if it exists.
First postulated by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in 1933, according to this article we might have found some dark matter at last. But only two particles have been spotted and there's a one in four chance that the result is due to some other explanation.
Watch this space!
December 17, 2009
Are there hidden messages in water?
I was chatting with a friend this week and she was telling me about the work of Japanese 'scientist' Dr Masaru Emoto and his book "The Hidden Messages In Water".
In brief - and quoting from the Wikipedia page on Emoto - he claims that "if human speech or thoughts are directed at water droplets before they are frozen, images of the resulting water crystals will be beautiful or ugly depending upon whether the words or thoughts were positive or negative. Emoto claims this can be achieved through prayer, music or by attaching written words to a container of water".
This seems nonsense to me and I am struck by the fact that Emoto's work has not been replicated in double-blind experiments. You can check out an informed and detailed critique by the chemist Stephen Lower here.
December 08, 2009
Is there any other life in the universe?
There's good discussion of this question here.
When you've read that, try my short story "Letters From Above".
November 30, 2009
3D comes to discoland
If you're a lot younger than me, perhaps you go to discos, in which case you may know that the coolest thing around just now is the experience offered by 3D glasses. In the UK, they've been developed by the North East's Novak collective. To obtain a hint of what's involved, go here, click on 'videos', and - if you're under 30 - see what you're missing.
November 26, 2009
Proof of evolution - the laryngial nerve
This clip from a recent Channel 4 programme is fascinating:
October 25, 2009
Sixty years young
Today Vee and I attended a celebratory lunch to mark the 60th anniversary of our dear friend Georgeanne. She certainly doesn't look or act her age.
As well as a present, I gave her a print out of my web notes on "Why It's Fun To Be In One's Sixties In Britain".
October 16, 2009
Does water have memory?
I don't think so - but it's amazing how many people do and of course this theory is at the heart of the alleged efficacy of homeopathic medicines. This page from Wikipedia explains:
"While some studies, including Benveniste's, have reported such an effect, double-blind replications of the experiments involved have failed to reproduce the results, and the concept is not accepted by the scientific community. Liquid water does not maintain ordered networks of molecules longer than a small fraction of a nanosecond."
October 08, 2009
The obliquity of the ecliptic
What is it? Well, it's the reason why in the Northern Hemisphere the days are now becoming colder and shorter.
You'll find an explanation here.
October 03, 2009
The wonder of epigenetics
This week, my wife (a non-identical twin) and I watched two fascinating programmes on BBC1 television called "The Secret Life Of Twins". The programmes looked at identical twins, including some who grew up apart, to assess to what extent their personality, behaviour and health were similar.
The main conclusion was that identical twins have an amazing amount in common and therefore genes must be determining personality, behaviour and health. On the other hand, lifestyle - such as incidents in childhood plus exercise and diet - do have an effect.
The way this nature/nurture debate was resolved was the proposal that genes powerfully predispose us to particular characteristics and illnesses but that the likelihood of this predisposition to become actuality is affected by the environment in which we live.
The interaction between nature and nurture or between genes and the environment is a very important new area of medical research that might enable doctors to identify and address potential illnesses or ill-health in advance of the problems developing. This branch of medicine is called epigenetics.
The Wikipedia essay on epigenetics states:
"In 2008, the [US] National Institutes of Health announced that $190 million had been earmarked for epigenetics research over the next five years. In announcing the funding, government officials noted that epigenetics has the potential to explain mechanisms of aging, human development, and the origins of cancer, heart disease, mental illness, as well as several other conditions. Some investigators, like Randy Jirtle, PhD, of Duke University Medical Center, think epigenetics may ultimately turn out to have a greater role in disease than genetics."
July 19, 2009
The magic of homeopathy
For a more scientific critique of homeopathy, read "Bad Science" [my review here].
June 16, 2009
10 things you don't know about the Earth
Check out these facts here.
My favourite is that it would take about 42 minutes to fall down a hole to the centre of the Earth and reach the other side (try it and see).
10 things you don't know about the Sun
Check out these facts here.
My favourite is that, although the Sun is 4.55 or so billion years old, it has another 6.3 billion more years to live (that's somehow reassuring).
June 15, 2009
How does homeopathy work?
In the UK, today marks the start of Homeopathy Awareness Week. This is an annual event and this year's theme is a natural approach for the symptoms of hay fever.
So how does homeopathy work exactly? The site states: "Scientifically it can not yet be explained precisely how it works, but new theories in quantum physics are going some way towards shedding light on the process." So, basically they don't know.
What we do know is that the substances involved contain nothing that can have any pathological effect. The site explains that: "Homeopathic remedies are a unique, potentised energy medicine, drawn from the plant, mineral and animal worlds. They are diluted to such a degree that not one molecule of the original substance can be detected."
I'm currently reading "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre. He devotes 35 pages to a demolition of the nonsense that is homeopathy.
Of course, like all of us, I've met people who are adamant that homeopathy works. Of course, for some people it does 'work' - but it works no better than a placebo because it is a placebo.
June 12, 2009
How does Brain Gym work?
I've just started reading "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre. An early target of the book is a movement called Brain Gym which is practised in many schools in Britain and various institutions around the world. Goldacre calls it "so obviously, transparently foolish".
So how does Brain Gym work exactly? Well, let's go to the official web site for the movement in the UK and study the explanation. We are told "we have considerably greater experience of the effects of the programme than we have certainty as to how it works". It is said about why it works: "The investigation of the neuroscience that underpins Brain Gym is an eagerly awaited project for the future. We can only at the present time hypothesise about why without actually knowing."
Now do you understand how it works? No? Neither do its practitioners. Of course, it's sensible for children to take breaks, do exercises, and drink water - but there's no reason to invent 26 fanciful exercises and pretend that some special neuroscience is at work.
June 02, 2009
The magic of radionics
The "Daily Telegraph" has unquestionably achieved the scoop of the year with its exposure of the excessive and fraudulent expense claims of so many Members of Parliament. A lot of journalists have worked very thoroughly and professionally on this story.
So, why does the same newspaper report on so-called radionics without using the same need to obtain evidence that proves or disproves the claims? Shouldn't we expect this from a serious newspaper?
A totally uncritical piece from Christopher Middleton concludes "So how exactly does it work again? Best guess is that we all plug into some kind of universal energy grid and radionics constitutes a kind of battery recharging rescue service. From afar." If you ask me, this is as crazy as expecting the taxpayer to fund an MP's duck pond.
The Wikipedia page on radionics makes the matter very clear:
"Radionics is not based on any scientific evidence, and contradicts the principles of physics and biology and as a result it has been classed as pseudoscience and quackery by most physicians. No radionic device has been found effective in the diagnosis or treatment of any disease, and the United States Food and Drug Administration does not recognize any legitimate medical uses for such devices."So why do so many people believe so many weird things? I've attempted some answers here.
May 23, 2009
A brief guide to magic medicine
My views are captured completely in this guide
So why do people believe in these so-called alternative therapies? - see my explanation here.
Clearly none of these therapies has passed the sort of double blind test that I am currently trialling with the polypill - see here.
May 20, 2009
Who is Ida?
Ida is a 47 million year old, perfectly preserved primate recovered from the Messel Pit in Germany. This is the most complete early primate fossil ever found, and scientists believe that she could be one of our earliest ancestors.
She is a remarkable link between the first primates and modern humans and despite having lived 47 million years ago, her features show striking similarities to our own.
More information here.
May 12, 2009
You're never alone with a Vergatario
In the last week or so, my mobile has saved my sanity as I've struggled to regain my lost fixed line connection to the Internet [for the 10 days that shook my world, see here]. But my iPhone cost me £269 when I bought it days after it was first released in the UK a year and a half ago [my first posting on the experience here].
Suppose there was a mobile that has a camera, WAP internet access, FM radio and MP3 and MP4 players for music and videos. And suppose it cost just $15 (nearly £10). And suppose it was named after the male member. Would you be interested?
Well, at the moment, it's only available in Venezuela - more information here.
April 07, 2009
How to understand evolution
This week, I went along to the National History Museum in central London to see the Darwin Big Idea exhibition. The display boards carry very useful information but the display cases are dark and the text is hard to read.
However, the exhibition was originally put together by the American Museum of Natural History in Washington DC and they still have the exhibition information on their web site. This includes the full text of all the display boards.
So how does evolution actually work? The exhibition explains that evolution operates through natural selection and that this is a simple mechanism that causes populations of living things to change over time.
In fact, it is so simple that it can be broken down into five basic steps, abbreviated as V.I.S.T.A.: Variation, Inheritance, Selection, Time and Adaptation - a fuller explanation here.
March 02, 2009
How was humankind created?
"It is intriguing that 37% of people believe that humans evolved by a process of evolution which removes any need for God. 28% of people think that humans evolved by a process of evolution which can be seen as part of God’s plan. 11% believe in Intelligent Design (the idea that humans evolved by a process of evolution which required the special intervention of God or a higher power at key stages) and 17% believe that human beings were created by God some time within the last 10,000 years."This is an extract from a piece by the British think tank Theos commenting on a survey which the organisation commissioned on the beliefs of people across the UK. The "Guardian" has turned the results into a map so that you can see the variation in belief across nations and regions of the UK.
Me? I'm firmly in the 37% category.
February 12, 2009
Darwin's bicentenary
Today is the bicentenary of the birth of the English naturalist Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882). Darwin was the creator of the theory of evolution which has now been proved beyond any reasonable doubt and which has transformed our vision and understanding of the natural world and our place in it.
You can read all about the man here.
February 11, 2009
Is UFO report a wind up? (2)
A month ago, I did a posting about media reports that a wind turbine in Lincolnshire operated by Ecotricity had broken as a result of being hit by a UFO. At the time, Dale Vince, Ecotricity's managing director, told the BBC that the UFO theory was "the best ... that we have currently got". I ridiculed this assertion.
A report today confirms that the turbine was not damaged by an alien spacecraft but simply came apart because of a broken bolt - a bolt from the blue, you might say.
At the time, various experts were convinced that this was evidence of a UFO. How could they get it so wrong? I explain here "Why people believe weird things". And how could I - someone who knows nothing about wind turbines or space travel - be right? Quite simply, I followed my own advice on "How to think critically".
February 01, 2009
"Charles Darwin And The Tree Of Life"
I confess that I've never had a biology lesson in my life because, for most of my school years, my school did not have a biology teacher. But, of course, over the subsequent years I've read things around the subject. I've always been utterly unpersuaded by the notion of creationism - it makes no sense and there is no supporting evidence. Conversely, I've always found the idea of evolution totally convincing - it is an elegant explanation and it is supported by masses of evidence.
This evening, I watched a television programme that was the clearest and most illuminating that I've ever seen on the theory of evolution: ""Charles Darwin And The Tree of Life". It was written and presented by the brilliant David Attenborough. You can read more about the programme, see when it will be repeated, and find more information on evolution here.
Footnote (2/1/09): Today it is reported that, here in the UK, only one quarter of people believe that Darwin's theory of evolution is "definitely true" with another quarter holding that it is "probably true". Some 10% are young earth creationists while another 12% back intelligent design. The final quarter are unsure. This is why I wrote my essay on "Why people believe weird things".
January 18, 2009
Weird science - the what and the why (2)
I have already done a brief posting on yesterday's "Weird Science" event which I attended in London with three friends. One of those friends, the immensely thoughtful and knowledgeable Nick Hobson, crafted a report on the event for a mutual friend who could not make it. This account was too good not to share and, with his agreement, I now present it to you.
Continue reading "Weird science - the what and the why (2)" »
January 17, 2009
Weird science - the what and the why (1)
I've had a terrific day at the Conway Hall in central London attending an event called "Weird Science" organised by the Centre for Inquiry and the Ethical Society.
Four very clever and entertaining speakers each had a one-hour slot:
- Richard Wiseman, former magician and now professor based at the University of Hertfordshire, discussed the psychology of perception with reference to various paranormal phenomenon - more information here.
- Chris French, professor of psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, looked at such bizarre beliefs as dowsing and backwards Satanic messages - more information here.
- Stephen Law, senior lecturer in philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London, explained the meaning of evidence and demolished the arguments of young earth creationism - more information here.
- Ben Goldacre, doctor and journalist, attacked the role of compliant scientists, the popular media, and believing citizens in the misreporting of so-called scientific studies - more information here.
January 08, 2009
Is UFO report a wind up? (1)
It's everywhere from the "Sun" newspaper to BBC on-line. It is simply astonishing that the media can give so much space and credibility to the utterly absurd notion that a wind farm turbine at Conisholme was damaged by a UFO.
These aliens are supposed to have fantastic technology that enables them to traverse vast distances of space but they apparently haven't developed the radar that has been around on Earth since the Second World War. If that's the case, these little green men must be red with embarrassment.
December 08, 2008
October 19, 2008
Can we be bugged on the move?
At the moment, I'm reading a book by the American academic Jonathan Zittrain entitled "The Future Of The Internet - And How To Stop It". Today I reached page 110 which contains this statement:
" Mobile phones can be reprogrammed at a distance , allowing their microphones to be secretly turned on even when the phone is powered down."The nearest Zittrain gives to a source is a footnote which refers to this article by Brian Wheeler on the BBC web site in 2004. In fact, the relevant comment here is that:
"Mobiles communicate with their base station on a frequency separate from the one used for talking. If you have details of the frequencies and encryption codes being used you can listen in to what is being said in the immediate vicinity of any phone in the network. "This would suggest that a mobile does not even need to be "reprogrammed from a distance".
Is Zittrain correct? Is Wheeler right? Is there any evidence of such surveillance techniques being used?
October 11, 2008
Does homeopathy work?
I have blogged before on the subject of homeopathy here. On that occasion, I had two comments: one opponent and one supporter.
I return to the subject this week because I have been contacted by e-mail from someone with whom I was at university but with whom I have not been in contact for the intervening four decades (he found me via my web site). He is now a Registered Homeopath and wanted to challenge my opposition to homeopathy as expressed in one of the essays on my web site.
We have exchanged e-mails setting out our respective views and I thought that I would share an edited version of this exchange with you so that you can express a view.
September 10, 2008
Will the world end today?
Now why would i ask that. Well, today, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva will be switched on.
Curving round a vast subterranean chamber, the machine, some 27km in circumference, is the world's largest particle accelerator. Once it is switched on, it will fire beams of hadron particles in opposite directions at 99.9999991% of the speed of light, recreating the conditions that existed moments after the big bang.
Among other things, scientists hope that the collisions will produce the Higgs boson - a particle key to unlocking the secrets of the universe's creation.
Now some people - such as German chemistry professor Otto Rössler of the University of Tübingen - believe that the LHC could create a black hole that will devour the entire earth. If he's right, this blog won't exist shortly but then neither will you.
On the other hand, Professor Llewellyn Smith has assured Radio 4's "Today" programme that the LHC - designed to help solve fundamental questions about the structure of matter and, hopefully, arrive at a "theory of everything" - is completely safe and will not be doing anything that has not happened "100,000 times over" in nature since the earth has existed.
Let's see who's right. Oh, that's it - if Otto Rössler is correct, he won't be around to say "I told you so" and we won't be here to say "We should have listened to you". If the LHC does not destroy all (and I'm betting it won't), let's hope that it makes some exciting discoveries which aid our understanding of our universe.
July 29, 2008
Half a century for NASA
The United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created 50 years ago today.
In my teens in the 1960s, I thrilled to the achievements of the Administration and stayed up all night to watch the first moon walk live on television. I was convinced then that by now we would have permanent settlements on the moon and be reaching out to other planets - but it hasn't worked out that way.
You can check out the Wikipedia page on NASA here and the web site of the organisation itself here.
June 22, 2008
Earth's second moon
Ever heard of Cruithne? No - neither had I until this week.
It's an asteroid that was discovered in 1986 that is in orbit around the Sun in 1:1 orbital resonance with that of the Earth. Due to its unusual orbit relative to that of the Earth, it is what is known as a periodic inclusion planetoid and sometimes called "Earth's second moon".
More information here.
June 17, 2008
Can science secure our future?
American futurist Raymond Kurzweil certainly thinks so - as explained in this article from the "New York Times".
Key to understanding his optimism is appreciating that science grows not linearly but exponentially and acknowledging what Kurzweil calls the Law of Accelerating Returns:
“Scientists imagine they’ll keep working at the present pace. They make linear extrapolations from the past. When it took years to sequence the first 1 percent of the human genome, they worried they’d never finish, but they were right on schedule for an exponential curve. If you reach 1 percent and keep doubling your growth every year, you’ll hit 100 percent in just seven years.”
June 09, 2008
Be afraid, be very afraid, of the grim Reaper
If I was an al-Qaeda leader, my worst nightmare would be something called the MQ-9 Reaper.
The U.S. Air Force proposed the MQ-9 system in response to the Department of Defense request for global war on terrorism initiatives. It is larger and more powerful than the MQ-1 Predator and is designed to go after time-sensitive targets with persistence and precision and destroy or disable those targets.
The "M" is the Department of Defense designation for multi-role and "Q" means unmanned aircraft system. The "9" refers to the series of purpose-built remotely piloted aircraft systems.
You can read the technical specifications here.
The name chosen for the MQ-9 inevitably reminds me of the Hawker Hurricane IIC flown by my wife's father in 1942. At the height of his success, he had an emblem painted on the starboard side of his aircraft. It depicted a scythe in yellow and across it a banner in red carrying the name 'Night Reaper'
You can read more information on that particular aircraft here.
May 24, 2008
From 'brick' to (my) iPhone
May 21, 2008
Negroponte's new $75 e-book
I blogged earlier about my encounter with the original green version of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) computer at a House of Lords event addressed by Nicholas Negroponte. Initially Negroponte set a target of selling 100 million machines by 2008, but so far OLPC has only sold about 600,000 machines.
In an announcement today, details have been given on the new version of the XO laptop designed for schoolchildren in developing countries created by the OLPC project. It looks like an e-book and has had its price slashed to $75 per device. The first XO2 machines should be ready to deliver to children in 2010.
At the MIT launch event, Nicholas Negroponte announced the resumption of the Get-One-Give-One programme to allow people in wealthy nations to buy two XO laptops and donate one to a child in a developing country.The programme will be open to people in North America and Europe and start in August or September.
April 12, 2008
Making the most of my iPhone
I've had an iPhone since a few days after the mobile was launched in the UK and I've blogged about how much I love it.
But one of the few problems with the iPhone is that the guidebook is on-line and I don't find that a very user-friendly format. So I've just bought "iPhone UK: The Missing Manual" and this weekend I've been browsing through it and learning all sorts of new things about the ultra clever device.
April 08, 2008
Will we find the Higgs boson particle?
The Higgs boson is a sub-atomic particle whose existence is theorised but not yet proven. A boson is a particular type of particle and Higgs is Peter Higgs, emeritus professor of physics at the University of Edinburgh, who first postulated the existence of this particle in 1964.
Why is the particle important? It is the only particle in the Standard Model of particle physics not yet observed, but would help explain how otherwise massless elementary particles still manage to construct mass in matter.
How might it be discovered? This could out of the operation of the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator located at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, in a tunnel under France and Switzerland. The LHC opens to the public this weekend.
In this article in today's "Guardian", Peter Higgs expresses the hope that the existence of the particle will be proven by his 80th birthday on 29 May 2009. If it is, he will no doubt win a Nobel Prize.
February 29, 2008
When will Earth end?
There's a new estimate here.
January 26, 2008
I've seen the future - and it's Dutch (2)
I mentioned in an earlier posting that I've just returned from a two day visit to a small town called Nuenen in the south of The Netherlands which is outstanding for having wired up all its 8,000 households with optical fibre providing up to 100Mbit/s.
I've now produced a report on the Nuenen scheme which you can read here.
January 23, 2008
I have seen the future - and it's Dutch (1)
I've just returned from a two day visit to a small town called Nuenen in the south of The Netherlands which is outstanding for having wired up all its 8,000 households with optical fibre providing up to 100 Mbit/s. The workshop was organised by Close The Gap which facilitated the building of Ons Net (Our Net).
I'll be writing a full report which I'll put on my web site in a few days time. In the meanwhile, check out here the lovely hotel where we were accommodated.
January 12, 2008
How does it work?
Marvel at this set of chemical reactions:
In 1973, the spectacular demonstration was perfected by Thomas Briggs and Warren Rauscher, two amazing high school science teachers. Some thirty-five years later, chemists are still trying to fully understand how it works.
You'll find an explanation of sorts here.
January 03, 2008
The race to the moon
During this Christmas/New year break, I'm been reading a book on the space race which engulfed the United States and the then Soviet Union in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s.You can read my review here.
I was a young man at the time and found the whole enterprise incredibly exciting. It seemed as if every few months there was a new space spectacular whereas today space travel is of very limited interest.
As we know, the Americans won the race to the moon and, in fact, the Soviet Union never did land a man there. The USA's Apollo programme involved six lunar landings, but the last was Apollo 17 as long ago as December 1972.
In the intervening 35 years, nobody has been to the moon and the next planned human lunar landing – Orion 17 – is not scheduled until 2019. So, thrilling though it was at the time, I guess one has to ask what was the purpose of the space race and do we still have any intention of journeying to other parts of the solar system?
December 31, 2007
Dump the detox
Two of my interests are regulation (I'm a member of the Ofcom Consumer Panel) and blogging (I run two blogs - this one and a professional blog). But regulators and blogs are two words that rarely go together, since regulators are so incredibly cautious about how they communicate with consumers.
An exception is the Food Standards Agency (FSA) where the Chief Scientist runs a blog. He has used the topical 'hook' of Christmas to give some good advice on healthy living here.
December 08, 2007
Keeping in the picture
This week, our dear friends Hua and Zhihao bought us an exceptionally early and incredibly generous Christmas present in the form of a Hitachi 32" LCD television and this weekend our IT guru Eric came over to fit it all up for us. The picture quality is excellent and it is a whole new viewing experience.
We subscribe to Sky and have a Sky+ personal video recorder. So we all set for some good Christmas viewing.
December 01, 2007
Have we proved the parallel universe theory?
The idea that there might be parallel universes out there as an explanation of the peculiarities of quantum mechanics is topical as we await the opening in a few days of the first film in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" inventive trilogy [my review of the books start here] which has the notion as central to the plotting.
Indeed it is reported in some quarters that the theory is about to be proved. I'm personally skeptical about the notion, but what is for sure is that it not about to be proved any time soon. Writing in an article in today's "Guardian", Jim Al-Khalili, professor of physics and of the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey, states:
"It turns out that there is no proof that the multiverse exists, but rather that one of the main objections to it has been removed by an argument in logic and algebra that has yet to appear in any peer-reviewed scientific journal."
November 27, 2007
Is One Laptop per Child stalling?
A month or so ago, I blogged about the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project pioneered by Nicholas Negroponte. I pointed that, following support at a critical time from the then President of the Nigeria, Negroponte decided that the laptop would bear that country's national colours of green and white.
But that was then and this is now. It is reported that the new Government of Nigeria does not seem to have the same enthusiasm for the project. Indeed a spokesman for the project is claiming that a lack of "big thinking" by politicians has stifled the scheme. But Negroponte is not a man to give up.
November 20, 2007
What I love about my iPhone
It's a week now since I bought my new iPhone. I still have a lot to learn about it, but already it is a sheer joy to own for the following reasons:
- It is a wonderfully elegant design and very small and light considering what it does.
- It powers up much quicker than my previous phone a Nokia N80.
- The user interface is very user-friendly and intuitive.
- I don't need a stylus to input text as with my Palm Tungsten T3 PDA.
- The virtual keyboard has letters much larger than my old mobile or PDA.
- I can access the Internet as much as I want for no cost above the monthly subscription.
- The screen - which can be used portrait or landscape - is large enough to make web pages readable.
- By 'pinching' the screen, one can easily magnify text.
- I can find any place in the UK on a map.
- I can find satellite pictures of any location in the UK.
- I can instantly obtain a seven-day weather forecast.
- It is a great talking point at meetings and dinner parties.
November 14, 2007
"24" in 1994
The ring tone on my mobile is the same as that used by the phones in CTU in the television series "24". Of course, the series is noted for its use of advanced IT - but this amusing clip suggests what Jack Bauer would have had to suffer if the series was shot in 1994.
Of course, these days Jack should go nowhere without his iPhone.
November 13, 2007
I couldn't wait ...
The iPhone was launched in Britain at 6.02pm on Friday. I've been saying to myself for months that I'd buy one as a Christmas present to myself. But I just couldn't wait.
I bought one this afternoon. Now I have to activate the thing and learn how to use it. I wish that I had a youngster at home to help, but hopefully it won't be too difficult.
Up-date: I registered on-line without difficulty before i took Vee out for a birthday dinner. By the time we returned, the iPhone had been activated. Now I start to play ...
November 04, 2007
The Joint Strike Fighter programme
Recently I found myself at London's Heathrow airport having a light lunch before boarding an aircraft for Inverness. In a busy cafe, I sat at a table where someone was already eating and got talking to him.
Martin Parson turned out to be a freelance aeronautical engineer working in Preston on something called the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme which has resulted in a fighter aircraft called the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Since I have a lifelong interest in aviation, I was fascinated to hear him talk about this extraordinary project.
You've probably never hear of it but, at $276.5bn (£140bn), it is the world's most expensive military project. The first flight of the aircraft was on 15 December 2006. and some 2,400 of the aircraft are expected to be in service by 2027.
Britain's BAE Systems is one of the key players in the aircraft's development. It has pumped $2bn into the project, with the UK expected to take delivery of 138 fighters.
Along with the US and Britain, the F-35 is being co-financed by Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey. Total combined purchases for the F-35 could be up to 3,100 aircraft.
There are four variants of the F-35: one for the US Air Force, one for the US Navy, one for the US Marines and the fourth for the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.
If this photograph excites your interest ...
... then check out this video
Both my father and my father-in-law were fighter pilots in the early 1940s. They could never have dreamt of the power and versatility of the F-35
October 20, 2007
One laptop per child
It's not often in life that one meets someone who is truly charismatic and inspirational, but this week I was fortunate to hear Nicholas Negroponte speak at an event in Westminster entitled "Parliament & The Internet " and he totally capivated his audience with his enthusiasm and sincerity. He flew over that morning from the United States and was flying back that evening, but that afternoon he was with us to talk about his project for One Laptop per Child (OLPC).
The mission of the OLPC movement is to ensure that all school-aged children in the developing world are able to engage effectively with their own personal laptop, networked to the world. This has involved developing a unique computer with very special characteristics and an incredible price of around $100 a unit. It does not require a power source, it can be powered up by a child, it works in the sun, it connects to the Internet, and it uses open source software.
For me personally, the story started in 1995 when I read "Being Digital" by Negroponte [my review here]. Then, in 2000, I actually met the guy at a dot com launch in London and he signed his book for me. Then I blogged about the One Laptop per Child project when it was first launched two years ago [my posting here].
In his fluent and unscripted address, Negroponte called the laptop "such a cute and sexy device" but insisted that "We are not a laptop project - we are an education project". The laptop will be launched in the next few weeks, but he brought one along to the meeting and passed it around for us to play with. The plan is to ship 5-10M computers in 2008 and 50-100M in 2009.
I took a photograph of the laptop with my mobile:
A colleague took a picture of me trying out the laptop:
An interesting story: Negroponte was asked about the green colour of the laptop which it was assumed reflected his wish that the project was ecologically sound. Well, no, said the man. Following support at a critical time from the then President of the Nigeria, Negroponte decided that the laptop would bear that country's national colours of green and white
There's a lot of cynicism around but, if this project succeeds (as I believe it will), in a few years time Negroponte will be collecting the Nobel prize for peace.
October 10, 2007
A question for you
Over the centuries, it was placed at the Canary & Madeira Islands, the Azores, the Cape Verde Islands, Rome, Copenhagen, Jerusalem, St Petersburg, Pisa, Paris, and Philadelphia (among other places) before it finally settled down in London.
What is it?
October 08, 2007
Evolution vs creationism
A friend has drawn my attention to this story on the BBC web site which appeared while I was away in Prague last week. It seems that some British teachers are finding it harder to explain evolution because of the view that creationism is not simply a metaphor for construction of the universe by a supreme being but an historical fact that is to be preferred to the evidence base of evolution.
According to the Head of Science at London's Institute of Education Professor Michael Reiss, one in 10 people in the UK now believes in literal interpretations of religious creation stories whether they are based on the Bible or the Koran. If we do not relate belief to evidence, then all sorts of 'truths' become possible. It was concern about such a development that led me to write my web essay on "The Reason For Truth".
October 02, 2007
The start of the space age
This week - actually on Thursday - sees an interesting anniversary. Sputnik 1, which was launched by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, was the first artificial satellite to be put into geocentric orbit. This really was the beginning of the space age and this week we commemorate the 50th anniversary of that event.
At the time, I was nine years old and immensely excited by this huge leap of human endeavour. It seemed that every few months we had a new first: the first animal in space, the first man in space, the first woman in space, the first duo in space, the first orbit of the moon, the first landing on the moon. At the time, we were convinced that trips to the moon would become commonplace and that there would be a permanent base there.
However, space exploration seems to excite little interest these days and we hardly notice the latest human excursion into space.
September 15, 2007
Are mobiles harmful to health?
This week saw the publication of a 64-page study from the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme. The programme is funded to the tune of £8.8M and has taken six years. It collated the work of 28 studies it has backed as well other research from around the world. And the conclusion of the report?
To quote the official media release:
"The six year research programme has found no association between short term mobile phone use and brain cancer. Studies on volunteers also showed no evidence that brain function was affected by mobile phone signals or the signals used by the emergency services (TETRA). The MTHR programme management committee believes there is no need to support further work in this area.The research programme also included the largest and most robust studies of electrical hypersensitivity undertaken anywhere in the world. These studies have found no evidence that the unpleasant symptoms experienced by sufferers are the result of exposure to signals from mobile phones or base stations.
The situation for longer term exposure is less clear as studies have so far only included a limited number of participants who have used their phones for 10 years or more. The committee recommends more research be conducted in this area.
The MTHR programme also investigated whether mobile phones might affect cells and tissue beyond simply heating them. The results so far show no evidence for this and the committee believes there is no need to support further work in this area."
Reassuring. eh? But there was only modest media coverage for the report - not alarming enough, I suppose. And some of the follow-up comment is frankly banal.
In her column in today's "Mirror" newspaper, Fiona Phillips comments: "A study into the effects of mobile use has found that there is a 'very slight hint' that long-term use can cause cancer. I also heard that there was 'a very slight hint' that the Pope is a Catholic". Phillips is a presenter on GMTV and could be in a position to influence public opinion. Her silly non sequitur is utterly irresponsible.
September 05, 2007
What is a gamma-ray burst?
You may not have heard of the phenomenon known as a gamma-ray burst (GRB), but these things - short-lived bursts of gamma-ray photons, the most energetic form of light - are the most luminous events known in the universe since the Big Bang and they shine hundreds of times brighter than a typical supernova and about a million trillion times as bright as the sun. So they are pretty special, although they are detected once or twice per day from wholly random directions of the sky.
I saw a television programme recently which featured GRBs and I wanted to know more. There's a short tutorial on the subject here and a short computer animation [which takes a while to load] here.
August 29, 2007
How any sub-atomic particles are there?
I ask because currently I'm reading a book by John Gribbin called "In Search Of Schrödinger's Cat" and subtitled "Quantum Physics And Reality".
When my parents went to school in the 1930s, they were taught that the smallest particle was the atom, although the electron was discovered in 1897, the proton was discovered in 1918, and the neutron was discovered in 1932. When I was at school in the 1960s, I was taught about electrons, protons and neutrons but no other sub-atomic particles were mentioned, even though many others were then known.
What about today? In his book "A Short History Of Nearly Everything" [my review here], Bill Bryson writes: "Today the particle count is well over 150, with a further 100 or so suspected".
So, what are these other sub-atomic particles. Well to start with, protons and neutrons are both composite particles, consisting of smaller particles called quarks. A proton contains two 'up' quarks and one 'down' quark, while a neutron consists of one 'up' quark and two 'down' quarks. The quarks are held together in the nucleus by other particles called gluons.
And so it goes on. Most of the particles that have been discovered are not encountered under normal earth conditions but are found in cosmic rays and are produced by scattering processes in particle accelerators. We seem to be a long way from identifying all the sub-atomic particles and even further from understanding how they all relate to one another.
Currently the nearest thing we have to a comprehensive explanation is the Standard Model which consists of six quarks, six leptons, five known bosons and a speculated sixth called the Higgs boson (after the Scottish scientist Peter Higgs). As Bryson put it: "Physics is really nothing more than a search for ultimate simplicity, but so far all we have is a kind of elegant messiness".
August 24, 2007
How small is an atom?
I send out a "Thought For The Week" and this week's thought is as follows:
“The range of sizes, distances or speeds with which our imaginations are comfortable is a tiny band, set in the midst of a gigantic range of the possible, from the scale of quantum strangeness at the smaller end to the scale of Einsteinian cosmology at the larger”.Now, as regards "quantum strangeness", it happens that right now I'm reading a book by John Gribbin called "In Search Of Schrödinger's Cat" and subtitled "Quantum Physics And Reality" (if you don't know about Schrödinger's cat, check out the paradox here).
Richard Hawkins in “The God Delusion “ (2006)
Now one of the things Gribbin manages to do is convey some idea of the smallness of the atom. He explains that a typical atom is about 10 to the power of minus 10 metres across. That is, 0.0000000001 metres.
Think that's small? Try this then. At the heart of an atom is the nucleus (which contains the protons and neutrons). The size of a nucleus is about 10 to the power of minus 15 metres across. That is, 0.000000000000001 metres. That means that a nucleus is 10 to the power of 5 times smaller than an atom. That is, 100,000 times smaller.
Since volume is proportional to the cube of radius, it is more meaningful to say that the nucleus is 10 to the power of 15 times smaller than the atom. That is, a thousand million million times smaller.
Now that's small.
How BIG is the universe?
I send out a "Thought For The Week" and this week's thought is as follows:
“The range of sizes, distances or speeds with which our imaginations are comfortable is a tiny band, set in the midst of a gigantic range of the possible, from the scale of quantum strangeness at the smaller end to the scale of Einsteinian cosmology at the larger”.Now, as regards "Einsteinian cosmology", I guess that it doesn't get bigger than the universe (unless you subscribe to the multiverse theory of quantum physics). So how big is the universe?
Richard Hawkins in “The God Delusion “ (2006)
In his book "A Briefer History Of Time" [my review here], Stephen Hawking tells us that the size of the observable universe is a million million million million miles. That is: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.
Now that's BIG.
August 22, 2007
"Enemies Of Reason" (2)
I've been away so I've only just seen the second programme in the two-part series on Channel Four television entitled "Enemies Of Reason". In the first programme - on which I blogged here - Richard Dawkins attacked astrology, card reading, clairvoyance and dowsing. In this programme, he targeted various non-scientific claims to healing such as faith healing, Ayurveda and especially homeopathy. He pointed out that in the UK a third of us spend a total of £1.6 billion annually on such untested and unproven therapies.
Of course, for some people some of these techniques 'work' in the sense that the sufferer feels 'better' but, as Dawkins explained, this is the result of the placebo effect. Most of those who propogate such remedies refuse to acknowledge the placeo effect and assert instead that the cause is something to do with 'water with memory' or some version of 'energy'.
Supporters of homeopathy claim that it cannot be the placebo effect at work because homeopathy is effective for animals and of course they cannot experience the placebo effect. This is nonsense. It is not possible for animals to express a view on a treatment or on the alleviation of symptoms so the opinions are those of the owners of the animals or the people treating the animals and these people are experiencing the placebo effect (more information here).
August 21, 2007
Same objects but different words
In space it is called a meteoroid; in the atmosphere, it is termed a meteor; and, once it reaches earth, we describe it as a meteorite.
In the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, it is called a hurricane; in the Northwest Pacific, it is termed a typhoon; and, in the Indian Ocean, it is described as a cyclone.
Do you know any other cases of the same object having different names in different circumstances?
August 20, 2007
Would you like to find some stardust?
On 15 January 2006, the Stardust spacecraft's sample return capsule parachuted gently onto the Utah desert. Nestled within the capsule were precious particles collected during Stardust's dramatic encounter with comet Wild 2 in January of 2004 and something else, even rarer and no less precious: tiny particles of interstellar dust that originate in distant stars, light-years away. They are the first such pristine particles ever collected in space, and scientists are eagerly waiting for their chance to "get their hands" on them.
Before they can be studied, though, these tiny interstellar grains will have to be found. This will not be easy. Unlike the thousand of particles of varying sizes collected from the comet, scientists estimate that Stardust collected only around 45 interstellar dust particles. They are tiny - only about a micron (a millionth of a metre) in size! These miniscule particles are embedded in an aerogel collector 1,000 square centimeters in size. To make things worse the collector plates are interspersed with flaws, cracks, and an uneven surface. All this makes the interstellar dust particles extremely difficult to locate.
Would you like to help? To find out how, go here.
August 13, 2007
"Enemies Of Reason" (1)
I'm a fan of evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. He talks immense sense and is not afraid to challenge arrant nonsense. In January 2006, I watched his television programmes entitled "The Root Of All Evil?" when he attacked the falsity of religious belief [my blog posting here]. More recently, I read his book "The God Delusion" [my review here].
So this evening I really enjoyed the first of the two-part series on Channel Four television entitled "Enemies Of Reason". In this programme, he demolished the causes of such pseudo-science as astrology, card reading, clairvoyance and dowsing. This was a calmer, less arrogant, but no less incisive Dawkins than we saw in his earlier series and even more impressive and convincing for it.
My own modest contribution to this debate can be found in my web site essay on "The Reason For Truth".
August 09, 2007
Welcome to the world of spintronics
Continuing the scientific theme of this week's NightHawk postings, let's consider for a moment what might come after microelectronics which is reaching the physical limits of what can be achieved. The successor technology might be something called spintronics (spin-based electronics) which is also known as magnetoelectronics.
This is a science which exploits the spin factor of sub-atomic particles to enable the development of quantum computing. By harnessing the twist and turns of particles - detected as a weak magnetic force - scientists hope to unlock almost infinite computing power and storage without the heat of microelectronics.
Scientists are gathering in York this week to discuss the practicalities of this technology - more information here.
August 08, 2007
Discovery of new sub-atomic particle
This week, NightHawk seems to be focusing on science. Today's subject is sub-atomic particles, something on which I touched only recently in this posting.
Now it may have escaped your notice - it escaped mine at the time - but earlier this summer scientists issued a statement announcing the discovery of a new sub-atomic particle.
It is known as the "cascade b" and it is made of a 'down', a 'strange' and a 'bottom' quark. It is the first observed baryon formed of quarks from all three families of matter. Its discovery and the measurement of its mass provide new understanding of how the strong nuclear force acts upon the quarks, the basic building blocks of matter.
The "cascade b" fills a missing slot in the Standard Model.
August 07, 2007
Sorting out a million galaxies
At the weekend, Vee and I were in deepest and remotest Kent to visit our friends Derek and Mandy who live in a little village called Broughton-under-Blean. From the balcony of their house, we watched the sunset behind the orchard next to their home.
Derek was a colleague of mine in the Research Department of the Communication Workers Union and now runs a small company that operates excellent walking tours of the Pilgrims Way. You can check out his company called Walk Awhile.
Derek told me that he has been participating in an amazing collaborative effort to categorise what might eventually be up to million galaxies. This operation is called Galaxy Zoo.
Basically there are two types of galaxies: those shaped like rugby balls (or American footballs) which are called 'ellipticals' and whirlpool-like galaxies which are called 'spirals' .If you like, you can try distinguishing the types by taking this test.
So one minute Derek is looking at the sky to see the sun set and another minute he's looking at pictures of the heavens to categorise galaxies containing millions of suns.
August 06, 2007
The unnaturalness of nature
The variations in nature are simply amazing. We all know that there is a metal that is liquid at room temperature: mercury. But do you know about non-newtonian fluids? These are fluids that do not behave like regular liquids. For example, if subjected to sudden stress, a non-newtonian fluid will solidify.
These videos show a non-newtonian fluid composed of a mixture of cornstarch and water. In the first, you'll see fluid thrown into the air and caught. In the second, you'll see a man walk - well run - on a fluid.
July 28, 2007
What's the most complicated thing in the world to understand?
Dear reader - I give you: quantum mechanics.
- Do I accept the Copenhagen interpretation?
- How is it that light is both a wave and a particle (the wave-particle duality)?
- How can Schrödinger's cat be both alive and dead?
- How is that the physical universe is probabilistic rather than deterministic (Heisenberg's uncertainty principle)?.
Now, some 40 years ago, I did study A Level Physics, so I'm not totally unfamiliar with the behaviour of sub-atomic particles. On my reading pile is "In Search Of Schrödinger's Cat" by John Gribbin. In the meanwhile I've started to watch the three-part BBC4 series "Atom" presented by Professor Jim Al-Khalili. It's tough going ...
As Niels Bohr said: "And anyone who thinks they can talk about quantum theory without feeling dizzy hasn't yet understood the first thing about it."
June 23, 2007
Pale blue dot
I was a big fan of Carl Sagan, the American scientist who died in 1996, so it was a real pleasure to listen to him narrate this short piece on the importance of our planet.
June 22, 2007
Mayhem in Muscat
Friends of mine in Oman have sent an account of the devastation caused last week by tropical cyclone Gonu.
May 16, 2007
Have we found dark matter?
The planets, stars and giant clouds of dust and gas that astronomers can see with telescopes account for only 4% of the mass of the universe. The majority of the cosmos is made up of an invisible form of mass called dark matter.
No one knows what dark matter is made of, but astronomers believe it accounts for 80% of the mass of the universe stretching out to form a celestial skeleton around which galaxies form.
Dark matter is invisible so scientists look for the strong gravitational force it exerts on light shining from galaxies behind it. This technique, "gravitational lensing", bends the starlight and distorts the galaxies' shape, making them appear as if seen through a fish-eye lens.
It's just been reported that, after a search of some 70 years, it looks as if we have discovered some of this mysterious 'stuff' - see story here.
May 14, 2007
Can Uri Geller bend spoons?
Sure he can - but he doesn't need special psychic powers to do so, just a bit of clever trickery.
Really? So, how's it done? Probably, like this:
April 28, 2007
Fancy going weightless?
I have read several books by and about the brilliant British scientist Stephen Hawking who suffers from motor neuron disease and once I even heard him lecture at London's Royal Albert Hall. So I was delighted when this week he fulfilled his ambition to go weightless. He did it by taking a flight in a specially-adapted Boeing 727-200.
Hawking in zero gravity
If you fancy the experience yourself, then - at a price - it's available for almost anyone from this company. The ZERO-G Experience, which includes a flight of 15 parabolas, flight suit, complimentary merchandise, awards, a post-event party, photos, and a DVD of the flight, is offered at a price of $3,500 per seat.
April 06, 2007
Having trouble with your PC?
BT’s Home IT advisors are supposed to be trained to cope with anything that is thrown at them and a recent survey reveals some IT issues that have left BT’s specialist advice team scratching their heads. Some of the calls from customers may raise a smile, but I guess what they highlight is a demand for a service like BT Home IT Advisor.
Here are some of the quirkiest calls:
o Customer: My mouse mat isn’t wired up.
Advisor: I’m not sure I understand, your mouse mat shouldn’t have any wires.
Customer: Well how does it know where my mouse is? Is it wireless?
o Advisor: Press any key to continue.
Customer: I can’t find the ‘Any’ key.
o Customer: I keep getting inappropriate pop-ups on my computer and don’t want my wife to think that it’s me.
Advisor: I will remove them for you.
Customer: How do I get them back when she is not in?
o Customer: I met a man on the internet, can you give me his phone number?
o Advisor: You have spyware on your machine which is causing the problem.
Customer: Spyware? Can they see me getting dressed through the monitor?
o Advisor: Can you click on ‘My Computer’?
Customer: I don’t have your computer, just mine.
o Customer: My 14 year-old son has put a password on my computer and I can’t get in.
Advisor: Has he forgotten it?
Customer: No he just won’t tell me it because I’ve grounded him.
BT has resolved computer problems for 150,000 callers since the service began in March 2006.
March 27, 2007
How many elements do you know?
Check out this fun animation.
March 03, 2007
It's a kind of magic
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."This quote was in my mind as I read "Tricks Of The Mind" by the British magician Derren Brown. I've now finished the book and you can read my review here.
Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of The Future", 1961
February 16, 2007
The Milgram experiment
I'm currently reading the book "Tricks Of The Mind" by the British magician Derren Brown. This is a really interesting - if badly-written - book. I have just come across his account of the Milgram test - something I've heard of before but thought it would be useful to revisit.
The Milgram experiment of the early 1960s was a series of social psychology tests conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.
The test involved the person selected as the 'teacher' applying a series of electric shocks to the person selected as the 'learner'. These shocks were graduated in 15-volt increments all the way up to a deadly 450 volts. What proportion of the 'teachers' do you think were willing to 'kill' their inadequately performing 'learner'?
February 04, 2007
Do you want to live forever?
This weekend, I watched a fascinating Channel 4 programme with this title. It was all about the breathtakingly radical ideas of a Cambridge biomedical gerontologist called Aubrey de Grey who believes that, within the next 20-30 years, we could extend life indefinitely by addressing seven major factors in the aging process. He describes his work as Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS).
Aubrey de Grey looks like a modern-day Rasputin and sounds like a messiah - but this does not make him wrong. In September 2006, Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of the online payments system PayPal, announced that he is pledging $3.5 million "to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by aging." The gift will go to the Methuselah Foundation, at Springfield, Virginia, USA, a nonprofit organisation started and run by de Grey.
In the meanwhile, you can check out the scientist's web site here.
Of course, the science of this debate is beyond me, but I have no doubt that in time science will find ways to extend life significantly. What is special about de Grey is that he is convinced that in principle all the functions of the body and the mind can be replaced to enable those who wish in effect to live forever.
Whatever the scientific issues this possibility raises, there are of course profound ethical and social issues. If you could live forever, would you want to do so? If not, how long would you like to live? How would you decide how long your life would be? If humans could live indefinitely, would people still have children? If so, could the Earth sustain such a growing population? If not, what are the implications for society of an endlessly aging population?
Please post your answers below.
"The God Delusion" (2)
In an earlier posting, I explained that I was reading "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins and I promised to review it for my web site. I've now finished this stimulating work and it seems somehow appropriate to draw attention to my review on a Sunday.
February 03, 2007
Thanks for the memory
Earlier this week, I attended the latest monthly meeting of the Skeptics in the Pub organisation. These events are always very interesting, but the physical enviroment of the gatherings - an upstairs pub room that is suitable for a group a quarter of the size - is utterly inadequate.
This month's speaker was Dr Krissy Wilson who has just completed her PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her main areas of interest are the psychology of belief, the unreliable nature of eyewitness testimony, false memories and the impact of belief. For three years, she has been investigating a variety of different phenomena of memory for both normal and ostensibly paranormal events.
Her research focuses on the unreliable nature of eyewitness testimony and explores how far individual differences might render someone more susceptible to distortions of memory and in particular how belief in, and experience of, the paranormal impact on both perception and memory.
February 02, 2007
The IPCC report on climate change
It's the most serious issue facing humankind and this could be the report which forces governments around the world to take meaningful action. I refer of course to the issue of climate change and to the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the subject.
This argues that temperatures are probably going to increase by 1.8-4C (3.2-7.2F) by the end of the century and that this is almost certainly caused by human activity.
You can access the 21-page summary for policymakers here or the BBC's seven point summary of findings here.
January 29, 2007
Can one see the future in a glass of water?
Sounds silly? Well, BBC2 television devoted 30 minutes this evening to the story of an Irish healer called Mary Malone who claims to be able to foretell anyone's future simply by glancing at a glass of water. Clearly the presenter of the programme didn't believe this, so why give her the oxygen of publicity? However, looking at her web site, I see that, over the last twenty years of travel, she has had extensive press coverage and participated in approximately 3,000 radio shows and over a 1,000 TV shows.
Of course, Mary Malone is not alone; the world is full of people who ciaim to be healers or clairvoyants or possessors of various psychic powers and even serious newspapers and magazines regularly carry daily or weekly horoscopes and columns on complementary medicine. I just wish that the media would bring half of the skeptism to bear that they do with people from other walks of life such as politicans or doctors or scientists. We all need to think critically and to use our reason.
January 23, 2007
"The God Delusion" (1)
My first book of 2007 is "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins which I'm enjoying enormously. You can read the first chapter here. When I've finished the work, I'll be reviewing it for my web site and incorporating some of the ideas into my web page on "The Trouble With Religion".
January 13, 2007
Might we be Martians?
It is possible scientifically that the origins of life on Earth lie on another planet such as Mars. More evidence for this theorectical possibility emerged this week as explained here.
January 02, 2007
How many fundamental particles are there?
So far, we know of 16 elementary or fundamental particles - and they have wonderful names.
There are 12 fermions: quarks — up, down, strange, charm, bottom, top; and leptons — electron, muon, tau, electron neutrino, muon neutrino, tau neutrino. Then there are 4 gauge bosons – gluon, W and Z bosons, photon.
But there might be more fundamental particles and there is particular speculation over the existence of something called the Higgs boson particle (sometimes known as the God particle).
In 2007, there may be new discoveries as a result of the coming into operation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland.
December 07, 2006
Understanding photons
This week, I took a phone call from a student at the University of Manchester to discuss how I might contribute to the university's Alumni Fund. I was a student in Management Sciences at the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST) from 1967-1971 and UMIST has recently merged with the Victoria University of Manchester.
My caller turned out to be a young woman currently studying for an MSc in Photo Science. So, to be conversational, I asked her: "So tell me, Jennifer, is a photon a particle or a wave?" She replied immediately: "It's a duality, Mr Darlington".
Warming to my theme, I then asked Jennifer: "So do you think we'll find the Higgs boson particle". Totally unfazed, she responded: "I don't think so - but they are trying to locate it with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN".
At this point, I decided to let Jennifer get on with the fund raising and I went to watch the television news on the latest car-bombing in Bagdad.
October 31, 2006
Is cold fusion the real thing?
I've always been extremely sceptical about the notion of cold fusion: the idea that one could generate energy from a fusion of molecules near room temperature and pressure using relatively simple devices rather than in the extremely hot circumstances of a thermonuclear device. However, I was invited to revisit my doubts during a recent long weekend in Paris when I met a Canadian scientist by the name of Dr Norman Arrison who happened to be staying at the same hotel.
Norman insisted to me that the experiments of the scientists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons had been replicated and that cold fusion is a scientifically valid hypothesis that will ultimately transform the production of energy in our fossil fuel-starved world. He drew my attention to this web site.
I would like to be convinced but, for the moment, I remain sceptical.
October 08, 2006
Is string theory tying us in knots?
Is it possible to combine the theory of relativity (which explains the movement of large bodies) with quantum mechanics (which explain the action of sub-atomic particles) into a Grand Unification Theory (GUT) that would account for everything from the big bang to black holes? Ever since the 1980s, the best bet for such a GUT was something called string theory.
Now, in this article, the "Observer" newspaper's science editor today explains remarkably clearly the problems with string theory and why it is becoming less popular among physicists.
If this is something which interests you, you will know that the acclaimed scientist Stephen Hawking has now made three attempts to explain to a lay readership the concepts of theorectical physics that lie behind an understanding of the complete universe from unimaginably huge bodies like galaxies to unbelieveably small sub-atomic particles like quarks. First there was "A Brief History Of Time" in 1988; then there was "The Universe In A Nutshell" in 2001; and last year we had "A Briefer History Of Time".(my review here).
October 02, 2006
What's the time at the North Pole?
The answer is that it is always midnight. This information comes from a new book titled "Why Don't Penguins Feet Freeze?" and the "Mirror" newspaper today features 20 questions from the work.
August 26, 2006
What is a planet?
Amazingly, until this week, there was no scientific agreement on what constitutes a planet. So, since 1930, Pluto has been called one, even though there has been increasing challenges to this classification.
At the Interneraional Astronomical Union meeting in Prague this week, a definition was finally agreeed: a planet is a body that orbits the sun, is so large its own gravity makes it roughly spherical, and, crucially, also dominates its region of the solar system.
On this basis of this definition, Pluto is not a planet, so all our textbooks will have to be revised. However, there is now a new term: dwarf planet. Apparently there are three of these: Pluto, Ceres (an asteriod between Mars and Jupiter) and Xena (officially known as 2003 UB313). A third category covers all other objects except satellites.
So now you know. More information here.
What happened to the ozone hole?
For once, a piece of good news about the environment - the ozone hole has stopped growing. The announcement was made this week by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The discovery of the ozone hole over the Antartic was made in 1985 and, at its worst, it expanded to the size of North America.
However, the production of the offending chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) was restricted by the Montreal Protocol in 1987.and in 2003 there was the first evidence of a slowing down of the growth. The problem is not solved - the Arctic is expected to recover in the 2030s and the Antartic in around 2060 - but we have turned the corner. This is a scientific success story.
More information here.
August 20, 2006
Some of the toughest questions in science
- Does the Higgs boson (or God) particle exist?
- Is there life on any other planet?
- Is there a pattern to to the occurrence of prime numbers?
- How will the universe end?
August 18, 2006
The healing power of electricity
It seems that electric fields can speed the healing of cuts and grazes. It sounds incredible and it will boost the confidence of people I know who claim to be healers, but I argue in my essay "The Reason For Truth" that one should be guided by the evidence and there is scientific evidence for this in the current (sorry for the pun) issue of "Nature magazine as you can read here.
Also amazing is that the role of electricity in wound healing was first discovered in the mid-1800s by the German physiologist Emil Du Bois-Reymond who cut his arm and measured the electrical field across the wound.
August 09, 2006
The magic of cobalt green
We are reaching the physical limits of miniaturisation of micro-electronic components, but a new technology called spintronics may be coming to the rescue. Spintronics involves manipulating the magnetic properties of electrons to do the work of computers.
A major advance in this development is the use of something called cobalt green. Cobalt green is a mixture of zinc oxide and cobalt originally developed by the Swedish chemist Sven Rinmann in 1780.
Sound like science fiction? Well, check it out here.
August 07, 2006
Ever heard of Indigo children?
One of the themes of this weblog and of my web site is that lots of people believe lots of strange things and we have to have a rational means of identifying truth based on evidence. I'm currently working up a short essay on this subject for my web site. Meanwhile today let's look at another of these esoteric ideas for which there is little or no credible evidence.
I refer to the notion of Indigo children. I quote: "The Indigo Child is a boy or girl who displays a new and unusual set of psychological attributes, revealing a pattern of behavior generally undocumented before. This pattern has singularly unique factors that call for parents and teachers to change their treatment and upbringing of these kids to assist them in achieving balance and harmony in their lives, and to help them avoid frustration."
The concept was originally explored in a 1999 book but has grown so that the idea has its own web site. The Wikipedia entry states that: "Another tenet of the Indigo child movement is the belief that these children are born with an empathic connection to Earth and others' thoughts. However, due to natural limits in infant communication, Indigo childrens' supposed abilities (empathy, telepathy, extra-sensory perception and extra-normal perception) are often suppressed by negative parental or societal influence."
According to a recent "Guardian" article, believers in Indigo children are convinced that these children are super evolved and have special psychic powers. Of course, an alternative - and much more likely - explanation is that these children have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or something similar.
If you're interested in knowing more, a television programme called "Cutting Edge: My Kid's Psychic" is on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight.
July 26, 2006
What a piece of work is a man
At the moment, we have a Czech medical student staying with us for six weeks. He is 24 and has done five years of a six-year medicine degree at the University of Prague. He is spending six weeks with us while he works at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in central London. It's great to have him with us because he and his famliy have been really close friends for almost two decades.
We went together to Earls Court in central London to see a remarkable exhibition called simply "Bodies". This is the creation of an American institution, although all the human bodies look oriental.
Once dissected, the specimen is immersed in acetone, which eliminates all body water. The specimen is then placed in a large bath of silicone, or polymer, and sealed in a vacuum chamber. Under vacuum, acetone leaves the body in the form of gas and the polymer replaces it, entering each cell and body tissue. A catalyst is then applied to the specimen, hardening it and completing the process.
The exhibition is enormously educational, showing all the parts and functions of the human body and demonstrating its immense complexity. There is a display of the blackened lungs of a heavy smoker that should put tobacco users off. Not an exhibition for the squeamish though.
A few years ago, I saw a very similar exhibition in London called "Body Worlds" put on by Gunther von Hagens. His bodies looked oriental too.
July 14, 2006
What is it with labyrinths?
Almost everyone I know believes - always sincerely and often passionately - things about which I am (to be kind) deeply skeptical and which (to be less kind) I suspect are crackers. There are countless examples of such beliefs and I think that I'll have to write an essay on the subject for my web site. But, for today, let me just mention the latest phenomenon to be put to me by someone who is enormously intelligent, fluent and personable but seemingly on a different planet from me.
I refer to the labyrinth. Now this can be an attractive and appealing art form but is is more? Is it an expression of sacred geometry that connects man with God? Does walking a labyrinth induce a metaphysical experience in the walker? If so, how should one interpret this experience?
If the subject interests you, check out Labyrinthos, Labyrinth Enterprises or The Labyrinth Society.
July 08, 2006
The end of the human race
Now that's pretty BIG issue for any blog. How might it happen? And how might it be prevented?
For ideas on how the human race could end, look no further than a book I read recently by Martin Rees titled "Our Final Century". You can read my review here.
For thoughts on how the human race could survive, look at the responses to Stephen Hawking's question on Yahoo Answers. You can read them here.