Category: science
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The Singularity & The Meaning of Life. Again
Last Friday I spoke of The Meaning of Life and how many believe it is highly coupled to the technological singularity. Now, in timely fashion, IEEE Spectrum has released it’s new issue, concentrating on this subject. Interesting reviews and quotes at kottke and Mind Hacks.
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The Placebo Effect – Once More With Feeling
I’ve just written a post on one of my favourite topics; the placebo effect. Triggered by the article Placebo is not what you think, it touches on the use of placebos by medical professionals (currently a banned practice) and the informed use of placebos by heroin addicts. Strangely enough, in the latter case the use…
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ACHOO Syndrome – Sneezing and the Sun
In the summer I always find myself sneezing whenever I leave a building and walk outside, hitting a wall of bright sunshine. This is not something I particularly make conversation about as, let’s face it, what exactly is there to talk about? The cause of my sneezing was obviously linked to sunlight… so what? However,…
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The $1m Test-Tube Chicken (Meat)
The X Prize Foundation is a non-profit institute that awards rather large prizes to non-governmental organisations who achieve a number of milestones, classed as beneficial to mankind. The most famous of these was the Ansari X Prize awarded to the first NGO to send a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice in two weeks –…
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The Large Hadron Collider & the Inevitable (?) Black Hole
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is due to start smashing protons together this summer which has lead some to theorise that the end of the world is nigh. Not to worry, though: we can all sleep soundly enough, as it’s unlikely anything other than some interesting physics is going to be happening underneath France and Switzerland.…
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The World Without Us
What would happen if humans disappeared from the face of the planet right now? What would happen to our infrastructure, the wild animals… our legacy? This is the topic Alan Weisman tackles in his speculative non-fiction book, The World Without Us (which I’m considering adding to my reading list purely out of curiosity). The Wikipedia…
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British Standard for Tea Brewing
Conforming to standards is an important part of many jobs, and tea brewing is no exception. In 1980 the British Standards Group produced a document, Method for Preparation of a Liquor of Tea, setting out, once and for all, the British Standard method for the brewing of tea. I’m sure its raison d’être was in…
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Visualising Complex Relationships
Complex networks are everywhere. From the moment we wake we are surrounded; from public transport systems to ‘real-life’ (shock horror!) social networks. They exist, but how can we visualise these in an efficient and succinct manner? That’s the challenge VisualComplexity has taken on. And won. VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone…
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Sir Arthur C Clarke’s Final Message – Peace and Climate Change
By now everyone knows that Sir Arthur C Clarke recently passed away – a truly sad event. However, you may not have watched his ‘final message to earth‘. Communication technologies are necessary, but not sufficient, for us humans to get along with each other. This is why we still have many disputes and conflicts in…
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Jill Bolte Taylor – Neuroanatomist On Her Own Stroke Experience
Lots of people have been saying how impressed they were by neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED Talk at this year’s conference. None, however, have summed it up better than Vaughan: It’s a bit poetic in places. You can almost hear the sound of a thousand cognitive scientists gritting their teeth as she describes the supposed…