Posted in Health, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged COVID-19, Dr. Robert Murphy, Feinberg School of Medicine, Havey Institute for Global Health, Health, Masks, Northwestern University, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science, Social Distancing, Vaccines on May 13, 2022|
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Posted in History, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Artists, Conclusions, Futurologist, General Sir John Hackett (Ret.), History, Philosophy, Predictions, Quotes, Science, Scientists, The Third World War: August 1985, Trends on May 10, 2022|
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Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Albert Einstein, Carlo Rovelli, Daffodils, Fermilab, General Relativity, Muons, Muonstruck, Philosophy, physics, Quotes, Science, The Standard Model Of Particle Physics, Virginia Heffernan, Werner Heisenberg, William Wordsworth, Wired Magazine on April 28, 2022|
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The central contention of physics has it that the building blocks of the universe will endure even if, or even when, the humans who tally them, and the planet we live on, all die. To see into the deathless universe is to try to see nothing so flamboyant as [William] Wordsworth’s favorite daffodils and walnut groves, but to peer into the coldest spaces, the black holes and the fractional electric charge of theoretical subatomic particles. These entities have no blood flow, of course, but also no DNA; they’re not susceptible to pandemics, however virulent, or the dividends and ravages of carbon. They don’t live, so they don’t die. To model the universe as precisely as possible is to try to see the one thing that even the strictest atheist agrees is everlasting — to try to achieve, in a lab, an intimation of immortality. |
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Back to the living world that’s under our feet. [Carlo] Rovelli is right to caution against the potential delusions of those who are greedy for eurekas. But, as a fellow physicist with a radical streak, he is also sympathetic to their ambitions, a drive to “learn something unexpected about the fundamental laws of nature.” To Rovelli, whose latest book describes quantum mechanics as an almost psychedelic experience, a truly radical discovery entails the observation of phenomena that fall outside three existing frameworks in physics: quantum theory, the Standard Model of particle physics, and general relativity. Only by blowing up one of those frameworks can one achieve the kind of immortality that scientists get, the glory of someone like Einstein or Heisenberg. |
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But to keep looking, as Rovelli has, as Fermilab has with this study on the muon’s magnetism, is also to apprehend hints. To follow hints. In that way, the physicist’s work and the poet’s are the same. And if Wordsworth is right, immortality can be found, of all places, in the hint — the staggering proposition by nature itself that, in spite of all the dying around us, something of all we love might be imperishable, might still flicker or shine or wobble when the rest of our world is gone. |
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— Virginia Heffernan |
From her article: “Muonstruck“ |
Appearing in: Wired Magazine; dtd: June 2021 |
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On This Day In: |
2021 |
Keep Growing |
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I Keep Looking |
2020 |
I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Plans |
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One Earth |
2019 |
Beautiful Rules |
2018 |
Skepticism |
2017 |
WWGD? |
2016 |
Growing Greatness |
2015 |
When It Is Darkest |
2014 |
Knowledge And Doubt |
2013 |
Three Thoughts |
2012 |
Gentle Reader |
2011 |
Leave The Light On For Me Anyway |
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Posted in Environment, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Climate Change, Environment, Global Warming, Guy Finley, Limits, Philosophy, Quotes, Science, Social Appearance, Spiritual Substance, Understanding, Values on April 23, 2022|
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Posted in Environment, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Earth, Environment, Philosophy, Planet, Quotes, Science on April 13, 2022|
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Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. |
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The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. |
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Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. |
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The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. |
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It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known. |
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— Carl Sagan |
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On This Day In: |
2021 |
The Imposition Of Position |
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Rainin’ Fire In The Sky |
2020 |
Stand Up! |
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Crowd Sourced Scouting Report |
2019 |
Only One Direction |
2018 |
Respect Is Long Gone |
2017 |
Dream Of Dreamers |
2016 |
Dear Automakers |
2015 |
And Some Not So Brave Too |
2014 |
In My Lifetime… |
2013 |
Democracy |
2012 |
Borrowed Expectations |
2011 |
Not Necessarily True |
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Posted in Education, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Astronomy, Brain Calisthenics, Connections, Facts Review, Philosophy, Process, Quotes, Science, The Scientific Web Of Knowledge on February 19, 2022|
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THE IMPORTANCE OF PERIODIC REVIEW |
For precisely the reasons I’ve just outlined — that science is a process, not a set of accepted facts — it’s a good idea (and very common) for scientists, whether professionals or students, to review for themselves both how the scientific web of knowledge was assembled historically, and how it holds together nowadays. This kind of exercise is a sort of brain calisthenics; it keeps the mind fresh and clear. |
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Every time I reconsider what I know from scratch, I learn something new. Typically I find connections between well-known facts that I hadn’t previously recognized. Sometimes I discover gaps in my own logic, and a couple of times in my career I’ve even discovered gaps in the scientific community’s logic. So it’s well worth going through this kind of introspection, even starting at the beginning with basic astronomy. |
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— Professor Matt Strassler |
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[Found at one of the blogs / websites I follow: “Of Particular Significance“, at: https://profmattstrassler.com/ |
The specific post is: https://profmattstrassler.com/2022/02/11/why-simple-explanations-of-established-facts-have-value/ |
Please visit the original site if you have a few spare moments. — KMAB] |
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On This Day In: |
2021 |
I’m Retired, I Always Have Time For It! |
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Just Mice Elf |
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That Was A Shot In The Arm |
2020 |
Decide, Support, Vote |
2019 |
Aware Some |
2018 |
Know Any Christians? |
2017 |
The Only Thing I Can Give… |
2016 |
Wiser But Less Cocksure |
2015 |
Not Today |
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Wicked |
2014 |
…Am Too |
2013 |
Credible? |
2012 |
Both |
2011 |
Risking Hidden Linkage |
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Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Earth, Galaxies, Humanity, Philosophy, Quotes, Science, Stars on February 16, 2022|
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Posted in Education, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Human Fallibility, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Republicans, Science on January 14, 2022|
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Once we overcome our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe that utterly dwarfs — in time, in space, and in potential — the tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors. We gaze across billions of light-years of space to view the Universe shortly after the Big Bang, and plumb the fine structure of matter. We peer down into the core of our planet, and the blazing interior of our star. We read the genetic language in which is written the diverse skills and propensities of every being on Earth. We uncover hidden chapters in the record of our origins, and with some anguish better understand our nature and prospects. We invent and refine agriculture, without which almost all of us would starve to death. We create medicines and vaccines that save the lives of billions. We communicate at the speed of light, and whip around the Earth in an hour and a half. We have sent dozens of ships to more than seventy worlds, and four spacecraft to the stars. We are right to rejoice in our accomplishments, to be proud that our species has been able to see so far, and to judge our merit in part by the very science that has so deflated our pretensions. |
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— Carl Sagan |
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On This Day In: |
2020 |
A Weary Rehearsal? |
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Are You Poking Me Again? |
2019 |
At Least Mostly On Purpose |
2018 |
Only One You In All Time |
2017 |
Have You Hugged A Tree Lately? |
2016 |
Unconquerable Imagination |
2015 |
Just Plain Wrong |
2014 |
Finding Beliefs |
2013 |
Pretty Confident |
2012 |
Effective Ranges |
2011 |
Three Wisdoms |
2010 |
I’m Just Askin’… |
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Space & Time |
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Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Cosmos, Earth, Facts, Natural Selection, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Sacred Truths, Science on November 19, 2021|
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Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Falsehoods, Niels Bohr, Opposites, Philosophy, Quotes, Science, Truth on October 20, 2021|
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Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Beauty, Carl Sagan, Colors, Light, Mystery, Passion, Philosophy, Quotes, Science, Sunsets on October 16, 2021|
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Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy And Its Consequences, Insecurity, Isaac Asimov, John Allen Paulos, Philosophy, Pseudoscience, Quotes, Science, Uncertainty on October 3, 2021|
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Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, tagged Choice, Lies, MAGAs, Paradigm Change, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Reality, Science, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn PhD, Trumpism on September 25, 2021|
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