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Topic

Richard Feynman

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 27, 2022
Categorized
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Mathematics
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At Mind Matters News: Unexplained — maybe unexplainable — numbers control the universe

Denyse O'Leary
March 27, 2022
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Mathematics
Nobelist Wolfgang Pauli (1945) is said to have remarked, “When I die, my first question to the devil will be: What is the meaning of the fine structure constant?” At any rate, he thought about it a great deal during his life. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 12, 2022
Categorized
Human evolution, Intelligent Design
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At Mind Matters News: Has the human sense of smell declined in recent millennia?

Denyse O'Leary
February 12, 2022
Human evolution, Intelligent Design
To be sure that our sense of smell has declined, we would first need to see whether concerted efforts to improve it were successful. Richard Feynman tried it. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 25, 2021
Categorized
Intelligent Design, Religion, Science
Tagged
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Some thoughts from Richard Feynman on science and religion

Denyse O'Leary
April 25, 2021
Intelligent Design, Religion, Science
Feynman: These scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged simply as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems to be inadequate. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 19, 2020
Categorized
Astronomy, Intelligent Design, Science
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Isaac Newton and Richard Feynman on ancient sources who thought Earth is a sphere, orbiting the sun

Denyse O'Leary
March 19, 2020
Astronomy, Intelligent Design, Science
So, unlike modern pundits, Newton and Feynman knew a lot about the actual carefully thought-out views of ancient astronomers. But what, after all, did they really know? None of those people had smartphones. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 27, 2019
Categorized
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Philosophy
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Massimo Pigliucci: Feynman was wrong about truth and beauty in science

Denyse O'Leary
December 27, 2019
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Philosophy
He starts out well but notice how Darwinism, flung into the works like an old shoe, undermines the topic completely. If beauty is really “in the eye of the beholder” full stop, there is really no such thing as beauty. If the “capacity for aesthetic appreciation” evolved “possibly involving natural selection,” then it is unrelated to the object and best understood in terms of how many children artists have. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 28, 2019
Categorized
Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Science
Tagged
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Feynman, says Massimo Pigliucci, is wrong about beauty and truth in science

Denyse O'Leary
June 28, 2019
Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Science
Massimo Pigliucci: But as the German theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder has pointed out (also in Aeon), there is absolutely no reason to think that simplicity and beauty are reliable guides to physical reality. She is right for a number of reasons. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 4, 2018
Categorized
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Mathematics
Tagged
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New Scientist on the glitch at the edge of the universe

Denyse O'Leary
October 4, 2018
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Mathematics

The constant 1/137 may be variable after all. This immutable number determines how stars burn, how chemistry happens and even whether atoms exist at all. Physicist Richard Feynman, who knew a thing or two about it, called it “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding”. Now its mystery is deepening. Controversial hints suggest this number might not be the universal constant we had assumed, instead varying subtly over time and space. Michael Brooks, “There’s a glitch at the edge of the universe that could remake physics” at New Scientist 137 is a prime number and 1/137 is the fine-structure constant: The importance of the constant is that it measures Read More ›