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The Next Great Discontinuity: The Data Deluge
Through the topology of the network we have begun to perceive what Michel Serres calls ‘The World Object’, an ecology of interconnections and interactions that transcends and subsumes the causal links propounded by grapholectic culture. At the limits of s
The Civil Heretic - Freeman Dyson
Dyson is well aware that “most consider me wrong about global warming.” That educated Americans tend to agree with the conclusion about global warming reached earlier this month at the International Scientific Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen (“
The Next Great Discontinuity: Grapholectic Thought and the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness
Of course my mini-history of scientific revolution should not be taken itself as a “truth”. I draw it as a parable of progress, as one silken thread leading back through time’s circular labyrinth to my very own Ariadne. What I do maintain though, is that
Science Cannot Fully Describe Reality, Says Templeton Prize Winner -- Lindley 2009 (316): 1 -- ScienceNOW
What is reality? French physicist Bernard d'Espagnat, 87, has spent a lifetime grappling with this question. Over the years, he has developed the idea that the reality revealed by science offers only a "veiled" view of an underlying reality that science c
Within Any Possible Universe, No Intellect Can Ever Know It All | Scientific American
Deep in the deluge of knowledge that poured forth from science in the 20th century were found ironclad limits on what we can know. Werner Heisenberg discovered that improved precision regarding, say, an object’s position inevitably degraded the level of c
Computers conquer the final frontier in board games
Go -- the Asian board game once thought too complex for computers to master -- is finally succumbing to silicon power. Today at AAAS, a computer program bested an American professional.
Readers build vivid mental simulations of narrative situations
A new brain-imaging study is shedding light on what it means to "get lost" in a good book — suggesting that readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights, tastes and movements described in a textual narrative while simultaneously activatin
What single book is the best introduction to your field? | Ask Metafilter
What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople? I'm particularly interested in introductions for non-experts to subjects like biology, physics and astronomy, but I thought that opening up the qu
Where Does the Entropy Go?
Gravity is a weak force, which makes it extremely difficult to do actual experiments (or perform astronomical observations) that would give us any detailed, up-close-and-personal data about the behavior of quantum gravity. We should be thankful, therefore
How novels help drive social evolution | New Scientist
WHY does storytelling endure across time and cultures? Perhaps the answer lies in our evolutionary roots. A study of the way that people respond to Victorian literature hints that novels act as a social glue, reinforcing the types of behaviour that benefi
Forty years since the first picture of earth from space
Earthrise, December 1968 – the first picture of our world taken from space was published 40 years ago this week and still retains its haunting power
What Makes the Human Mind?
During the past few decades, a mounting body of evidence has shown that animals possess a number of cognitive traits once thought to be uniquely human. Bees “talk” through complex dances and sounds; birds act as “social tutors,” teaching song repertoires
Books about the human brain | The Guardian
Half a century ago, passionate to study the brain, I began my graduate research in a gloomy, red-brick building in south-east London - the Maudsley Institute of Psychiatry. In the biochemistry department I was rapidly disabused of any idea that my researc
Edge: SELF AWARENESS: THE LAST FRONTIER By V.S. Ramachandran
One of the last remaining problems in science is the riddle of consciousness. The human brain—a mere lump of jelly inside your cranial vault—can contemplate the vastness of interstellar space and grapple with concepts such as zero and infinity. Even more
In Another city another me is writing
Take this article, for example. It is an unwinding spring of phonic sounds, encoded into a series of arbitrary symbols, stretching from left to right within an imaginary frame projected onto the surface of your computer screen. Here lies the perfect examp
Palimpsests Palimpsests Palimpsests
Modern technology has allowed art historians to 'look' at paintings with new, multidimensional, eyes. Shine certain wavelengths of light onto a Picasso painting and it becomes possible to read marks under the surface of the paint. What's more, apply sever
How Things Become: The Infinity of Definition
The perceiver's position in an architectural, or merely physical space, determines the dimensional imperatives of that person's mental qualia. It is interesting to note that each viewer of a rainbow stands at the centre of their very own optical illusion
World's First Computer Rebuilt, Rebooted After 2,000 Years
A British museum curator has built a working replica of a 2,000-year-old Greek machine that has been called the world's first computer. A dictionary-size assemblage of 37 interlocking dials crafted with the precision and complexity of a 19th-century Swiss
List of common misconceptions - Wikipedia
This list of common misconceptions details various ideas described as widely held by the general populace, but which are fallacious or flawed.
(This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.)
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Assignment 3: History of Western Astronomical Thought
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BAAS
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