Simian Farmer

All I said was, "That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah!"

An excerpt from a recent article in New Scientist:

"...creationist ideas have a powerful hold in the US, and science is still under attack. US Supreme Court decisions have made it impossible to teach divine creation as science in state-funded schools. But in response, creationists have invented "intelligent design", which they say is a scientific alternative to Darwinism (see "A sceptic's guide to intelligent design"). ID has already affected the way science is taught and perceived in schools, museums, zoos and national parks..."

For those unfamiliar with ID, it can be generally described as the assertion that certain parts of existence are best explained by positing the direct influence of an intelligent designer.  ie - The Supreme Being of your choice has elected to insert his finger in the pot and give it a stir every now and again while it's simmering.

Upon first getting wind of the concept of intelligent design, I gave it nearly no thought, sloughing it off as the preposterous premise of anti-evolutionary creationists.  I still think that, but the unfortunate part now is that it seems to be gaining some momentum.  There is a part of me that is very thankful for being Canadian since the vast majority of this sort of thinking seems so far to be rooted in America's conservative South.  (The supposition that the Grand Canyon is a by-blow of Noah's Flood ought to leave any sensible individual reeling in incredulity at the audacity of some of the claims made by those pushing the ID concept.)

I am still leery though; I know that if the ID movement continues to garner support, the first Canadian stronghold will undoubtedly rise up in my home province of Alberta.  Not that I doubt it has its supporters here already.  Take your pick of wacky, religious, right-wing movements and you'll find somebody waving its flag here.  Alberta: we put the 'fun' back in fundamentalist dogma!

Intelligent design sticks in my craw for a couple reasons.  First, as a scientifically minded and pragmatic individual, the evidence is overwhelmingly stacked in favour of evolution.  Any attempt to discredit evolution is an exercise in futility.  Natural selection, not god's intervening hand, has been the driving force behind existence and advancement on this planet.  For a very well thought out defence of evolution, go and read Paul's post on the topic.  He covered it more in-depth than I would take the time to.  ID is a one-legged stool in a windstorm.  If the creationists ever let go, it'll topple over of its own accord.  Conversely, evolution has come under scrutiny from its own proponents for years.  Such is the modus operandi of the scientific method.  And evolution is still standing.

Secondly, and more aggravating to me individually, is the notion of ID as it relates to my own spiritual beliefs.  I do not doubt for an instant that the universe and all of creation was brought into being by, again, the Supreme Being of your choice.  The notion that certain elements of our existence would require a nudge in the right direction in the midst of their development smacks of initial imperfection.  And why, in God's name, would God not have gotten it right In The Beginning?  If He were a bowler He'd be getting a strike on every throw without the need to nudge the ball away from the gutter every now and again.  (There is absolutely NO evidence to back any of this up.  This is just me and my personal opinion based on 30+ years of interpreted experience and increasing amounts of introspection.  I'm entitled to is as much as you are to yours.)

Intelligent design, my new favourite oxymoron, can be likened to George Lucas fiddling with his original Star Wars movie trilogy.  He didn't like everything that he did the first time so, 20 years later and armed with new technology,  he made changes.  In the '70s and early '80s he didn't have the budget, and the fledgling special effects efforts, though cutting edge for the time, still fell far short of his grand vision.  Deified though he may be by some, he is human and is entitled to make imperfect things.  He is also entitled, given the means, to modify his imperfect things as he sees fit.  (Not to say that they are now perfect, but this isn't the time for that whole 'Han Shot First' debate.)

I fervently hope that intelligence wins over the ID movement.  This is not the day and age for such incommodious thinking.

E = mc2 (geek post alert)

To commemorate the fact that 2005 is the World Year of Physics, the website spiked-online conducted a survey of scientists to determine what, if given the opportunity, they would teach the world about science, if they could teach just one thing. 

This is also to commemorate Einstein Year in celebration of the fella who devised the most reknowned, and least understood, physical equation: E = mc².  Spelled out, this means the total Energy of any physical substance is equal to its mass times the square of the speed of light (c).

As an example, my 14 carat gold wedding ring weighs about 10 grams, or 0.01 kg.

The speed of light (in a vacuum) is approximately 300,000,000 metres per second, or just over a billion kilometres per hour.

My ring's total potential energy then can be calculated as:

E = (0.01 kg) x (300,000,000 m/s)²

= 900,000,000,000,000 kg*m²/s²

This is 900 trillion Joules, or 900,000 Gigajoules (GJ)

To put THAT in perspective, the average WWII atom bomb unleashed an amount of energy approximately equal to 90 GJ.  This means that, on the third finger of my left hand, I have stored enough energy to equal ten thousand atomic bombs. 

He-Man wasn't the only guy to put a ring on his finger and claim, "I have the Power!!"  I could kick some serious Skeletor ass if I could unleash the huge amounts of whoop-ass in my wedding ring.

Now, it's impossible to convert all that mass to energy instantaneously; at least it is for me.  But it goes to show why you need so very little material to make a bomb of that sort, of which the vast majority of the stuff that goes BOOM doesn't even convert to energy.  Trippy!!

Unfortunately, this also debunks the rather neat idea of food replicators on the Federation Starship Enterprise.  They are purported to convert energy into substances fit for human consumption and other 'stuff'.  (How do they get the gravy to taste right?)  And while scientifically possible, it would take a couple truck-loads of energy to do that.  I don't think that large-scale matter-energy conversion is a real plausibility in the foreseeable future.

Basically what I'm saying here is: SCIENCE IS NEAT!!

Now getting back to the scientist survey, here's a small sampling of some of the responses garnered when individuals were queried what they would teach the world about science, if given only one choice.  (And FYI, if you're still reading this, the overwhelming top choices were the Theory of Evolution, and the Scientific Method.)

*********************************************

Science can validate experience, but not deny it

The scientific method

Modern biology starts with influencing the course of biological evolution

Beware the natural scientist who makes generalisations outside their area of expertise

Science is the art of doubt, not of certainty

All things are made of atoms

Charles Darwin's discovery of the creation and evolution of organisms by natural selection

Science is about how things are and how they work, and what makes everything work is energy

Knowledge of science is fundamental to our quality of life, and the application of scientific discovery is vital

The atom is the fundamental structure of matter

Science is not merely a collection of ideas, from which one is free to pick and choose according to taste

The scientific method - how science proceeds from theory to law

Amphiphiles are molecules that have an affinity for both aqueous and non-aqueous media
(I didn't read them all, but this was the lamest response I came across.  You have one topic to teach the entire world about science, and this is the best you can come up with!?)

Scientists fall in love - with experiments

The second law of thermodynamics - that spontaneous changes are accompanied by an increase of entropy, an increase in disorder

Real discoveries in science are unanticipated

Science = imagination + humility²

Evolutionary biology implies that human life is meaningless, and existential psychology asserts that human life is fundamentally absurd

Science is essentially disputative

The scientific method, and the basic statistical tools that support it

Science is nothing but trained and organised common sense

Science as the search for answers actually generates only more questions

Science is the only method for discovering truth which is potentially accessible to all human beings
(I don't fully agree with this one.  'only'?)

The periodic table

Science is based upon empiricism - the objective observation of natural phenomena, and the attempt to encompass them

The process of evolution - that life, in all its diversity, has come about by the process of natural selection acting upon chance genetic variation

You must have doubts about everything you experience

The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority

By dispassionate measurement and discussion, one can answer questions which are often the subject of heated controversy

Science is driven by truth, and is accountable to reality

Sit down before the facts as a little child; be prepared to give up every preconceived notion

If only I'd gotten a patent!

You know, in the numerous hours that I've spent running and doing other exertion type 'stuff' in the gym, I've often thought of this idea:

An enormous number of people in industrialized countries with sedentary jobs, health concerns, and/or obsessions about their physique voluntarily expend quantities of energy working out on cardiovascular machines, many of which plug into the wall. This is energy that we do not have to be paid to give up, in fact we happily pay for the privilege of expending it. In addition to the ubiquitous private gyms and YMCAs, with their banks of free laborers visible through plate glass windows overlooking a cafe, most universities, corporations, and hotels have their own hidden work-out rooms, with fleets of potential power-generators. Multiply all these gyms by the numbers of machines by the number of hours of average use, and think of the effects if the machines generated (rather than consumed) energy that could be collectively pooled.

Link here.

Say cheese

Via 3quarksdaily, space dot com presents the Top 10 Space Science Photos.  Very cool.  The one posted below is a portrait of the Earth as seen from the Voyager 1 space probe when it was 4 billion miles away from us in 1991.  How neat is that?!  Our entire planet reduced to a pixel in the cosmos.

The poet Laurie ate

Via 3quarksdaily, the winning poem in a contest put forth by the British Associate for the Advancement of Science (The BA).  The contest's theme: The works of Albert Einstein, in honour of National Science week and Einstein year.  (2005 is the centennary of his theory of relativity.  He was 26 when he came up with that little gem.)

Funky poem:

I once saw Einstein on a train
~Gordon Judge

I once saw Einstein on a train
Which whistled past our station.
“Your clock ticks much too slow,” I yelled.
“Ach, nein. That’s time dilation,

“I’m travelling near the speed of light
(A trick I’ve learned to master).
To me, your clock goes much too quick –
You’re getting older, faster!”

Herr Einstein wasn’t looking well,
He really looked quite thin.
He must have heard: “Nein, nein,” he cried,
And flashed the Einstein grin:

“A metre rule along my train
Is shortened by its speed, too;
That’s why I think I haven’t changed.
A ruler can’t mislead you!

“But even so, I must admit
I find it hard to move.
I have a theory why that is,
Which, one day, I will prove:

“When moving near the speed of light,
You need more energy
To shift a mass from here to there
Than when at rest, you see.

“All matter in the universe,”
The physicist declared,
“Holds energy whose magnitude
Is shown by mc2.

“When I return, I’ll stop the train
And you will learn the truth:
I’ve found the key to time and space,
And to eternal youth!”

Curiosity

I'll bet that I know what you're thinking right now:

You're thinking, "Geez, I have always wondered what would happen if our galaxy were to collide with another galaxy."

Well, wonder no more.  It's going to happen.  The Andromeda galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way.  And this collision ain't gonna have no creamy nougat filling.  These two galaxies are racing together at the mind-boggling speed of 500,000 km/hr.  That only gives us about 3 billion years to get ready for the most rocking-est roller coaster ride ever.  That may seem like a long time, but folks are starting to live longer these days, so your great to the nth power grandkids may be around to see it.  They'll be hairless, wing-ed, three-fingered waifs with the ability to disassemble their corporeal selves out of harm's way when the time comes, but they'll still ultimately have you to thank (indirectly) for their life.

Apparently, it'll take about a billion years for the collision to run its course and to have the heretofore separate galaxies form one 'elliptical' galaxy.  For a computer simulation of what the whole she-bang could look like, head over yonder.  Dancing on a cosmic scale.

That's no moon... Oh wait, yes it is.

In a very cool example of life imitating art, NASA has just released images of Saturn's moon Mimas, which bears a striking resemblance to a certain planet-destroying battle station from a 1977 science fiction movie.

Scientists first noticed Mimas's resemblance to the Death Star when the twin Voyager spacecraft flew past Saturn in 1980 and 1981. The second film in the movie series - The Empire Strikes Back - had just hit movie theatres, recalls Cassini deputy project scientist Linda Spilker.

Full article here.

There it is... hiding behind the Oort Cloud!

Scientists have recently discovered some matter that, up until now, was apparently missing in action:

Astronomers believe that five per cent of the universe is made from "ordinary" matter, such as atoms and ions that form stars, planets, gases and everything on Earth. They've only been able to find about half of the amount they expected.

Full article here.

Now if we can only get a handle on what exactly makes up the rest of the 95% of the universe, we can all sleep a little better at night.  Suddenly, I don't feel so bad for losing my keys.  I'm not the one that had misplaced 2.5% of all the matter in the entire universe!

Newton Week

While an interesting idea, a certain US physicist's notion to create a new calendar where every date falls on the same day of the week every year will likely not fly.  Especially given that he'd like to institute it for 1 Jan 2006.

AND he wants the whole world to work off Greenwich Mean Time; no more time zones.   Good luck, sir.

Rule of thumb

This evening, while watching Daily Planet, a most excellent science news show, and one of the few broadcasts that grasp my attention, there was a brief segment on beer.

One of the hosts was touring a brewery and explaining how there are only four ingredients in 'pure' beer.  As any good Canadian knows, these are: water, barley, hops and yeast.  The yeast is the last of these added to the magical beer making process and must enter into the mix at the right temperature.  Too hot, and the yeast dies.  Too cold, and the yeast cannot perform its task to its full potential.  In this here modern type age, the temperature is gauged most closely by thermocouples and other sensitive measuring devices.

The host then alleged that before this here modern age, beer temperature was gauged by an experienced brewer dipping his thumb into the mix to sense whether it was 'just right' to add the yeast.  Now, I have no idea if this really is true, but it makes for a moderately interesting story.

A really interesting story would probably involve voluptuous space nymphs rocketing to earth, beaming me aboard their nefarious Vixen Vessel and taking me back to their home planet of Boobula Prime (whereon the entire population consisted solely of females; the males having died off from a freakish Boobulaball World Series final game going into quintuple overtime, causing the men to starve to death).  Upon arrival I would be forced, completely against my will, to enter into procreative slavery wherein my sole purpose would be to repopulate the planet as quickly and as exhaustively as possible.  I would then be returned to earth, only one hour having transpired here while, well, at least a little bit more time had elapsed back on Boobula Prime.  I would be left with nothing but the secret of cold fusion as repayment with which to make my fortune and live out the rest of my days on a private island retreat, hunting the elusive jackalope.

Unfortunately, all I had to tell today was a moderately interesting story.  Besides, if the latter actually occurred, I probably wouldn't tell you about it anyway.