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Philip Stewart has constructed an alternate version of the periodic table of elements in the form of a “chemical galaxy”. “The intention is not to replace the familiar table, but to complement it and at the same time to stimulate the imagination and to evoke wonder at the order underlying the universe.”
Los Alamos From Below: Reminiscences 1943-1945, by Richard Feynman. Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first atomic bomb test which bomb Feynman helped build.
Molecular gastronomist Ferran Adria of El Bulli has his own Lay’s potato chips in Spain. “Having eaten the entire bag, we can now report that they were noticably better than your average potato chips; the crispiness was just a little grainier than usual, if that makes sense, and the flavor more pleasant.”
Television documentaries are slow, repetetive, and information-poor. The Brian Greene series on string theory had the same problem.
Male and female fire ants maintain their own independent gene pools. “The sperm of the male ant appears to be able to destroy the female DNA within a fertilized egg, giving birth to a male that is a clone of its father. Meanwhile the female queens make clones of themselves to carry on the royal female line.”
How to be more charismatic. “Don’t despair if you haven’t got these qualities because you can learn them. Professor Wiseman estimates charisma is 50% innate and 50% trained.”
Regular readers know that I love me some showering** so this news comes as a bit of a shock:
Taking regular showers could pose a health risk and even result in permanent brain damage, it has been claimed. Scientists believe that breathing in small amounts of manganese dissolved in the water may harm the nervous system. The damage may occur even at levels of the naturally occurring metal normally considered safe, say the US researchers. Although manganese levels in public water supplies are monitored, regulators have not considered the long-term effects of inhaling vaporised manganese while showering, they claim.
Inhalation of vaporised manganese…maybe that’s why I’ve been feeling off my game lately.
** Further reading on kottke.org about showers & showering:
Thinking in the shower
Short pieces on my shower
Improving the shower
40,000 year-old human footprints found in Mexico. Humans are thought to have come to the Americas only 11,000 years ago.
In celebration of its 125th anniversary, Science magazine has a list of the 125 biggest questions facing science over the next 25 years. “How did cooperative behavior evolve?”; “Do deeper principles underlie quantum uncertainty and nonlocality?”; “What is the universe made of?”
Jared Diamond calls agriculture “the worst mistake in the history of the human race”. “With the advent of agriculture [the] elite became better off, but most people became worse off”.
Why do we forget our childhood?. Because we don’t know the language at such a young age to form memories.
It’s not every day that a new form of matter is created. Physicists at MIT have created something called a superfluid, “a gas of atoms that shows high-temperature superfluidity”.
Rejected “grandmother cell” suggestion — that individual neurons respond to single concepts — may be true after all. “For things that you see over and over again, your family, your boyfriend, or celebrities, your brain wires up and fires very specifically to them. These neurons are very, very specific, much more than people think.”
One of my favorite Dashboard widgets is the Weather widget. It’s been pretty hot and sunny for the last few weeks here in NYC so I’ve been seeing quite a few pictures of my favorite yellow celestial object depicted on the widget. I recently had a chance to sit down with Mr. Sun, a long-time resident of both our solar system and the blogosphere, and I asked him about his Weather widget representations. Here’s a portion of our interview:
Jason: How did the Weather Dashboard widget project come about?
Mr. Sun: Funny story. I’m kicking back, combustin’ some rhymes, and this spacecraft approaches me. I’m about to throw a flare upside its flimsy-ass hull, when I notice it is sending a message out into the heliosphere.The damn thing is in Apple format, and I have Windows - so I have to download a special viewer. I finally decode the thing, and it’s from Steve Jobs about an “insanely great” idea. I vaguely knew about him, because I’d been doing some advance work for Satan on how best to burn Gates for eternity. I’m a special consultant, basically. Anyway, I figured — what the heck? So, that’s how it started. Look, what network are you with again? I don’t recognize you.
Jason: Is this the type of work you want to be doing at this point in
your 4.5 billion year career?
Mr. Sun: Look, I’m not going to radiate sunshine up your you-know-what. I’m struggling. Back in the day, I had a great agent — Nicolaus. Not the brightest guy in the cosmos, but totally devoted to me. He made me feel like I was the center of the universe. I remember I worked with Frank Capra on Our Mr. Sun. Just between you and me, that guy was a little too sunny even for me — ringing bells and angels wings — whatever. Then, there was the “Pee-wee incident” involving an unfortunate choice I made in a public setting. I know it’s no excuse, but I’ve warned you people to wear those glasses. I was in a slump. I started to get mean, sloppy, and pathetic. I wasn’t combusting properly — I had bad gas. So yes, I agreed to lend my likeness to the OS X weather widget. Is it where I want to be right now? No. Is it an honest gig? Yes, I think so. I’ve been thinking about starting a blog anyway; someone needs to let those other Sun Shadys know they are just imitating.
Jason: But do you really need any more exposure? You’ve got the most prime advertising position in the world — 5 or 6 billion people a day can see you by just looking up — what more are you looking for?
Mr. Sun: Eyeballs. Is that all you Internet types ever think about? You want to know who had a lot of eyeballs on him? Mahir. Do you want to be that guy for even one minute? I KISS YOU !!!!! You ask me how I can want more. Let me tell you a story that may help you understand. When I was younger, I watched Daedalus and his son fly just beneath me, soaring out of captivity on wings made of feathers stuck with wax to a flimsy wooden frame. Drunk with freedom, Icarus looked directly at me. I felt the panic of his watchful father, but I was mesmerized by his youthful passion. I met his gaze. He moved toward me and the rest they call myth. I made a vow that day to never stay still. Yes, I am fixed in the sky — but not at my core. The fire that sustains me is fueled by the memory of what it took for Icarus to make his way to me, and the debt I owe for my part in his fall to earth. I can’t repay that debt from 93 million miles away, but sitting on your desktop, I can at least start. I am also told the Internet is basically just one gigantic Porn Delivery Device, and I haven’t had any good jacking material since the Soviets from Mir jettisoned their garbage. Did you ever say where you are from? Was it the Wall Street Journal? I’d love to have one of those stencilled sketches of me.
Jason: The photography in this shoot looks more candid than in past shoots by NASA, ground-based astronomers, or vacationing amateurs. In one photo, it looks like you’re crying and in another you appear to be surrounded by a haze of marijuana smoke. Are we finally seeing the real you?
Mr. Sun: Looks can be very deceiving. In this case, however, they are not. Last year, I cried nonstop for three of your earth months. I cried because I burn anyone who comes close to me. I cried because I shine alone in the blackness of space. I cried because just once, I’d like to feel pretty and I know that will never happen. As for the haze of smoke around me, I am made of gas. If I wasn’t churning gas around, you’d all be as frozen as Ted Williams head, so maybe you should think twice before demoting me from life-sustaining star to orbital stoner. Look, I’ve been around the block a time or two when it comes to humanity. At first, you were fearful of me. Later, you worshipped me as a god. Now, you ask me these cynical questions. Fine, no problem. I’ll be around to see the cycle repeat itself a few thousand more times. I’m just a star, an ordinary star. Deal with it.
Thanks for joining us, Mr. Sun.
Scientists are opting out of public debates on evolution vs. creationism or intelligent design.
Fun new book from O’Reilly’s Hacks series: Astronomy Hacks. “This handy field guide covers the basics of observing, and what you need to know about tweaking, tuning, adjusting, and tricking out a ‘scope.”
Check out the moon illusion for yourself this week; it’s the lowest-hanging full moon in 18 years.
Having close ties to friends (but not family) may result in longer life.
The Economist reports of the current state of biomimicry. Includes information about “biological patents”, which I’d never heard of before.
Researching quantum honeybees. Can bees detect quantum fields and use them to find food?
2000 year old seed grows a previously extinct Judean date tree. It’s like a plant version of Jurassic Park.
Scientist hypothesizes that Ashkenazi Jews are more intelligent as a group because of natural selection. “Put these two things together—a correlation of intelligence and success, and a correlation of success and fecundity—and you have circumstances that favour the spread of genes that enhance intelligence.”
Why intelligent design isn’t. “Biologists aren’t alarmed by intelligent design’s arrival in Dover and elsewhere because they have all sworn allegiance to atheistic materialism; they’re alarmed because intelligent design is junk science.”
A historian disgraces himself. A rebuttal of “The Theory of Evolution: Just a Theory?”
The theory of evolution: just a theory?. “Historian Prof. William D. Rubinstein shares his doubts about the theory of evolution.”
As one gets smarter, how you use your memory changes. “Verbatim memory is often a property of being a novice. As people become smarter, they start to put things into categories, and one of the costs they pay is lower memory accuracy for individual differences.”
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