Musings

Just a few words from astronomer Chet Raymo HERE.

Conficker Is Out There

The "conficker" virus lurks in cyberspace... and so far, no one knows just why:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/27compute.html?ref=science

Cantor and Infinity

Possibly nothing in math is more mind-blowing than infinity theory, as originally established by Georg Cantor. Here, for the Friday video, an introduction to infinity from a couple of YouTube offerings :

Food Production

Don't read this just prior to sitting down for your next meal:

http://tinyurl.com/nqlsf2

Why We Squander Money, Time, Energy...

Becuz' we can! Conspicuous consumption from an evolutionary psychology point-of-view HERE.

Ongoing Debate...

From the NY Times, Robert Wright on religion and science HERE.

Jane Goodall on Tour

Jane Goodall's upcoming lecture circuit listed here:

http://www.janegoodall.org/see-jane

Anyone who has the opportunity to see Jane Goodall speak in person should NOT miss the chance!

Wiseman Podcasts

Richard Wiseman briefly introducing his new podcast series, "Afternoon Tea With Richard Wiseman":

Flight of the Gossamer Condor

Friday video: Inventor Paul MacCready and his team won the first Kremer Prize of £50,000 in 1977 for achieving human-powered flight with his beautiful creation, the Gossamer Condor:

Math Conundrum

I was surprised to read over at another blog that there is no precise solution to this math problem; seems simple enough there would be one, but appearances can be deceptive.
It turns out there is an answer (to what is known as "Mrs. Miniver's problem") but it involves a transcendental number, and thus is only approximate.

Language and Thought

Scientific American takes another look at the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis (also known as "linguistic relativity"), which holds (to one degree or another) that our thoughts are shaped and limited by the language we learn.

Einstein Elaborated

Think E = mc^2.... think again:

http://www.scientificblogging.com/hammock_physicist/whats_wrong_emc2

Why You Readers Are Even Here...

The innate human drive to seek out... stuff (...food, pleasure, stimulation, information):

http://www.slate.com/id/2224932/pagenum/all

...and Jonah Lehrer's take on the same story HERE.

Physics Talking Heads

For the Friday video, more cosmology from "BloggingHeads.TV" with physicists Sean Carroll and Mark Trodden:

Paul Ehrlich

Article HERE on "provocateur" Dr. Paul Ehrlich, a scientist conservatives love to disdain.

John Burroughs

One of my favorite old naturalist/writers (and early conservationist) is John Burroughs (1837 - 1921)
Google books has a fair amount of Burroughs' work available for viewing (free) over at their site:

http://books.google.com/books?q=john+burroughs&btnG=Search+Books

Burroughs' material also available over at Project Gutenberg, here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/b#a1127

and Wikipedia entry for Burroughs here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burroughs

If you enjoy good nature-writing, Burroughs really set the stage (along with his contemporary John Muir) for much of the quality writing done since his day.

"Non-overlapping Magisteria"

Classic Stephen Jay Gould piece on science and religion here:

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_noma.html

Global Warming and Evolution

Carl Zimmer reports on the possibility of global warming as a rapid driver of natural selection and evolution here:

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2178

All a-Twitter

I'm only slowly playing around with "Twitter." Three feeds that I do find somewhat scientifically interesting/useful/entertaining (among no doubt plenty of others) are from mathematician/computer scientist Clifford Pickover, quirky, but always interesting British psychologist Richard Wiseman, and "Edge"-creator John Brockman. In case any of these may be of interest to other readers, you can check out them out here:

http://twitter.com/pickover

http://twitter.com/RichardWiseman

http://twitter.com/edge

Dolphin Bubble Rings

For the Friday video, dolphins blowing amazing bubble rings to play with:

Words From Barry Lopez

Today, an older essay, "The Naturalist" by Barry Lopez, here:

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/91/

It ends with the following words:

"Pay attention to the mystery. Apprentice to the best apprentices. Rediscover in nature your own biology. Write and speak with appreciation for all you have been gifted. Recognize that a politics with no biology, or a politics without field biology, or a political platform in which human biological requirements form but one plank, is a vision of the gates of Hell."

Ants and Neurons

Organization, intelligence, decision-making... what ant colonies may have to tell us about the workings of the human brain:

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/ants_and_neurons/

Stephen Gould as a "Radical"

Older essay here in honor of Stephen Jay Gould (by a couple of his colleagues) following his death in 2002:

http://www.monthlyreview.org/1102lewontin.htm

The Brain and the Internet

Is the internet warping our brains? Evolution of a new human brain in the works?? One man's thoughts here:

http://www.livescience.com/culture/090224-internet-brain.html

Sunspot Mystery

For over a year now our sun has been missing its usual number of sunspots... and no one knows exactly why??? Something significant or just a cyclic phenomena? See HERE.