And we are not sure which ones they are. From ScienceDaily: Research Centre (CNIO) reveals that up to 20% of genes classified as coding (those that produce the proteins that are the building blocks of all living things) may not be coding after all because they have characteristics that are typical of non-coding or pseudogenes […]
Month: August 2018
Newly discovered tiny tunnels run from skull to brain
They may be a shortcut for the immune system. From ScienceDaily: “We always thought that immune cells from our arms and legs traveled via blood to damaged brain tissue. These findings suggest that immune cells may instead be taking a shortcut to rapidly arrive at areas of inflammation,” said Francesca Bosetti, Ph.D., program director at the […]
Unique type of cell found in human brain: rosehip neurons
At least, it hasn’t been seen in other life forms. From ScienceDaily: Tamás and University of Szeged doctoral student Eszter Boldog dubbed these new cells “rosehip neurons” — to them, the dense bundle each brain cell’s axon forms around the cell’s center looks just like a rose after it has shed its petals, he said. […]
Could HAL 9000 ever be built? Robert Marks thinks so
But could the psychotic computer ever be conscious? That’s another story. Marks, an author of Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics, weighs in, on the 50th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey. At one point on the trip from Earth to Jupiter, HAL becomes suspicious that the crew might be sabotaging the mission. HAL then purposely tries […]
Horror in Israel: Schools don’t teach much “evolution”
The staff of a national newspaper is shocked and appalled: Biology classes in kindergarten and elementary school do not mention Charles Darwin’s theory that all life evolved from common ancestors, and in middle school it is only alluded to as part of general discussions, the TV report said. Four years ago, the high school curriculum […]
Professor: Maths should be a movement against “objects, truths, and knowledge”
Same ”Mathematx” prof, same bilge, more publicity, but no action: A U.S. professor who teaches future public school teachers will “argue for a movement against objects, truths, and knowledge” in a keynote to the Mathematics Education and Society conference this coming January, says her talk description. “The relationship between humans, mathematics, and the planet has […]
Imitating Silk: Ultra strong with passive cooling
Researchers study and imitate natural silk to make ultra-strong cooling materials better than today’s synthetics.
The fight over the universe has turned ugly, with accusations of “cheating”
We are told: “Wherever you look in the cosmos, things don’t seem to add up.” And now physicists like Sabine Hossenfelder are accused of cheating: Ethan Siegel, astrophysicist-blogger behind Forbes’ Starts With a Bang! blog, responded with a post titled “There’s A Debate Raging Over Whether Dark Matter Is Real, But One Side Is Cheating.” […]
Peter Ward: Epigenetics explains why there are fewer “species” than we think
Says biologist Peter Ward, because epigenetics changes can account for life forms that have been classified as different species: More and more, biologists are discovering that organisms thought to be different species are, in fact, but one. A recent example is that the formerly accepted two species of giant North American mammoths (the Columbian mammoth […]
Will increasingly sophisticated computer simulations “end” theoretical physics as we know it?
Hossenfelder: Perhaps one day, rather than doing calculations, we will just use observations of simplified systems to make predictions.
Daniel Dennett thinks a game can show that computers could really think
Fr. Robert Verrill, OP, takes different view: In his paper “Real Patterns,” Tufts University philosopher Daniel Dennett writes the following: In my opinion, every philosophy student should be held responsible for an intimate acquaintance with the Game of Life. It should be considered an essential tool in every thought-experimenter’s kit, a prodigiously versatile generator of […]
Karl “falsification” Popper was dogmatic, but was that such a bad thing?
Science writer John Horgan well remembers going to interview Popper, who had strong views on subjectivism in physics: Words poured from him so rapidly and with so much momentum that I began to lose hope that I could ask my prepared questions. “I am over 90, and I can still think,” he declared, as if […]
Bernays (father of PR) on Propaganda, 1928
Let us soberly ponder, reading between the lines: Food for thought. END PS: By way of sharpest contrast:
How to talk yourself into believing in a multiverse
It’s becoming obvious that post-modern science will have its multiverse irrespective of evidence from nature and will prefer it and its component beliefs to evidence from nature. That is why some of us think that the multiverse is science’s assisted suicide.
The Argument From Evil Explained
Many times we hear about the “argument from evil” as a knock-down argument for the non-existence of God. For those of you who are not familiar with the argument, I will explain it. It goes like this: All good arguments depend on the precise, clear and unambiguous use of language. The argument from evil is […]