Some shocking comments from the Archbishop of Westminster. If atheists aren’t human, what are they? Animals?
Via Derren Brown.
Archive for category Science
I saw something quite odd this morning and I can’t quite explain it. When I woke up, there was what appeared to be a diffraction pattern projected on my wall, resulting from a small gap between the curtains (a single-slit diffraction pattern). But as far as I understand, single slit diffraction only occurs when the slit width is roughly the same order of magnitude as the wavelength of light.
In addition to that:
- the light source is reflected sunlight (which should consist of lots of different wavelengths) from the building opposite
- it was hard to see a whether the different bands had different intensities
- there were two bands which were red (why?)
- too many bands to be a diffraction pattern? Given the wall is probably ~5m from the window, the angle between each “slit” is actually tiny.
Here’s the curtain & slit:
If anyone could shed any light on this, it’d be appreciated 
photo: Un ragazzo chiamato Bi
There is a fascinating article over at Wired, “Brain Scanners Can See Your Decisions Before You Make Them”. It seems like researchers can predict people’s decisions seven seconds before they were even aware they made them.
It’s an interesting article and food for thought. As far as I know, science doesn’t really give us much evidence that free will does exist. At the level of physics, everything is generally deterministic. Of course, you get down to the quantum level and determinism doesn’t really exist there: but that’s randomness rather than free will. If free will was a quantum phenomenon, we would expect it to be totally random.
However on an evolutionary point of view, the perception of free will is probably something that would be selected for. After all, if you don’t believe in free will and people’s autonomy to make their own decisions, you can no longer hold people accountable for the things they do and the decisions they make. That’d totally undermine the whole system of law and order in our society today.
Sheep Poo Paper
May 4
A welsh company has launched a new environmentally-friendly paper product which helps the environment by recycling the very best and finest materials: sheep shit.
Instead of using the wood and fibres from trees, this paper uses fresh cellulose fibres from sheep poo:
We take great care to collect super-fresh sheep poo from the beautiful (and rainy) mountains of rural Wales and take it back to the mill, situated in southern Snowdonia. We don’t just make Sheep Poo Paper™ and for our other papers we use waste paper, rag and textile off-cuts and just about anything else we can think of that has good length cellulose fibers in it.
It may sound worrying but don’t worry - it’s sterilized by cooking it in a pressure cooker at 120 degrees using Welsh mineral water.
Perhaps we’re only years away from having a roll of sheep shit toilet paper by toilets throughout the nation.
I’m currently reading "Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!" written by the physicist Richard Feynman. Feynman was involved in the development of the nuclear bomb at Los Alamos and also did a load of other physics work which led him to earn the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.
This book is really interesting and is a collection of anecdotes and personal experiences. It does read a little bit like an autobiography; it certainly isn’t technical or scientific, or for that matter, boring.
According to Wikipedia:
It expounds upon his human side with a number of personal and mostly humorous anecdotes, detailing everything from his forays into hypnotism to his fascination with safe-cracking and his fondness for topless bars, as well as more serious topics such as the development of the atomic bomb and the death from tuberculosis of Feynman’s first wife, Arline Greenbaum.
Notable stories in the book which come to mind include pranks he played on waitresses, how he managed to break into safes at Los Alamos and how he managed to fail a US Army test for psychiatric reasons.
Reading the book helps you appreciate how much of a genius the guy was. You pick up a bit of Feynman’s philosophy on understanding and persisting with solving problems.
Recommended read!
Tony Darnell’s Deep Astronomy website is a really interesting read. Although the website says it isn’t a blog, it is regularly updated with astronomy-related articles and videos and has a RSS feed.
There are articles about dark matter, telescopes, cosmic background radiation, near earth objects and more. The articles are well illustrated with images, diagrams and videos. They’re not too technical and are easily approachable, even if you don’t know a lot about astronomy.
If it’s the only thing you look at on this site, I strongly recommend watching the powerful "Hubble Deep Field" video. It really gives you an idea about the size and expanse of our universe and is beautifully made. I love the music too. There is also a video about life in the universe.
- Topics: Astronomy, Science
- Reading since: 20th September 2006
- URL: http://www.deepastronomy.com/
Are we real?
May 4
I wrote an article on the simulation argument which puts forward the view that we’re living inside a computer and that we may indeed have a God/creator. The article explores various elements of astrophysics, life and xenobiology, history of computing, gaming and looks at various thought experiments such as "brain in a vat".
Procrastination
May 4
I’m sure it happens to all of us… We sit down to do something but we easily get distracted. We can blame modern technology - mobile phones, the internet, MySpace…
Science Daily reports about a study which found the formula for procrastination. Of course, it only took him ten years to work it out.
Steel has also come up with the E=mc2 of procrastination, a formula he’s dubbed Temporal Motivational Theory, which takes into account factors such as the expectancy a person has of succeeding with a given task (E), the value of completing the task (V), the desirability of the task (Utility), its immediacy or availability (Γ) and the person’s sensitivity to delay (D).
It looks like this and uses the Greek letter Γ (capital gamma): Utility = E x V / ΓD
The Toronto Star has a bit more analysis and information on the effects of procrastination.
"That stupid game Minesweeper – that probably has cost billions of dollars for the whole society," he said.
The U.S. gross national product would probably rise by $50 billion if the icon and sound that notifies people of new email suddenly disappear, he added.
…
"People who procrastinate tend to be less healthy, less wealthy and less happy," Steel said Wednesday. "You can reduce it, but I don’t think you can eliminate it.”
I did read an article in The Economist reviewing a book which suggested that procrastination and being messy is actually a good thing.
Procrastination makes sense too. America’s Marine Corps, the authors repeat (several times), never make detailed plans in advance. Leaving important things to the last minute reduces the risk of wasting time on things that may ultimately prove not important at all.
I will agree with the fact that tidying up your desk and re-organizing everything doesn’t improve your productivity, but I don’t think I’d go as far as to say that procrastination is a good thing.
Does anyone suffer from any big procrastination issues, and how have you tackled them?
Downloadable Coffee
May 4
The Coffee Replacement MP3 file is a sound file which claims to "keep you in an energizing state giving you a ‘caffeine’ energetic boost". There is an explanation to how it works; and it does sound pretty new age to me. I’m not sure if there is actually any scientific proof of how it works. According to the website:
When the brain is given a stimulus, through the ears, eyes or other senses, it emits an electrical charge in response, called a Cortical Evoked Response. These electrical responses travel throughout the brain to become what you "see and hear". This activity can be measured using sensitive electrodes attached to the scalp.
When the brain is presented with a rhythmic stimulus, such as a drum beat for example, the rhythm is reproduced in the brain in the form of these electrical impulses. If the rhythm becomes fast and consistent enough, it can start to resemble the natural internal rhythms of the brain, called brainwaves. When this happens, the brain responds by synchronizing its own electric cycles to the same rhythm.
See the theory page.
Brainwave Generator
You can make your own brainwave sounds using the BrainWave Generator. It comes with built in brainwaves such as creativity increase, meditation, headache control and sleep induction.
If you want, you can also generate your own brainwaves - you can add things such as background sounds (I used the Yes No Yes sound from Even Stephens) and customize all kinds of parameters such as frequency and type of wave.
From the programme, you can then export your brainwaves as a WAV file. The website does make some pretty silly claims such as that it can help you quit smoking or drinking. I’m certainly not a big believer in solutions such as this but, regardless, it’s a bit of fun.
Disclaimer from Website
The following people should not use brain entrainment:
- People subject to any forms of seizures or epilepsy
- People using pacemakers
- People suffering from cardiac arrhythmia or other heart disorders
- People taking stimulants, psychoactive drugs, or tranquilizers
Take note…
Via Download Squad.
Pharmaceutical Companies
May 4
Indonesia has refused to share samples of the bird flu virus in Indonesia with the World Health Organization, because the WHO was providing the samples to commercial companies in the West.
Indonesia will not share bird flu samples with the World Health Organization until the U.N. body agrees to stop providing the strains to commercial vaccine makers without its permission, the health minister said Thursday.
…
The country hardest hit by bird flu is worried drug companies will use its virus to make vaccines that will ultimately be unaffordable to developing nations.
In today’s world, big pharmaceutical companies will develop vaccines and other medicines and will patent the technology, hold exclusive rights and a monopoly on the product. These commercial pharmaceutical companies make billions every year, whilst holding the exclusive rights on these vaccines - vaccines which if shared could be mass produced around the world, potentially saving millions of lives.
Because of the intellectual property rights and market economics - the vaccines are generally provided to those companies which can afford them - the rich countries in the West. So poorer countries will be priced out of the market.
So these bird flu vaccines using virus samples provided by Indonesia will go towards developing vaccines will allow big companies in the West to develop vaccines which may never even reach the Indonesian people.
Intellectual Rights and Monopolies
Economic theory suggests that for research and development to be cost-effective, there must be barriers such as patents, intellectual rights, monopoly rights. Indeed, why would I spend £100 million on developing a vaccine just to have a rival take my work (without any R&D costs of their own) and to produce and sell it at a lower price?
So I guess we’re left with a bit of a moral dilemma. For a vaccine to be available to everyone regardless of where they live or how much money they have, the technologies and formulas for the vaccines must be open knowledge and available for free.
However if this were the case, there would be no vaccines. There would be no incentive for anyone to invest the money in research and development. There would be no profit to be gained in selling those vaccines; and certainly not enough to pay off those huge R&D costs.
So I suppose there are several questions:
How can vaccines and medicines be made available to as many people as possible whilst still encouraging and maintaining research and development?
Is it ethical for us to have these technologies which could save thousands from diseases or illnesses, but not to provide them on the basis that they can’t pay us for it?
Should vaccines be developed for the public good or for the pockets of shareholders in pharmaceutical companies?
Should the development of medical products be developed by governments for the public good?