Science History
Hank |
Biocentrism - life and consciousness are the bottom line in understanding the universe
Biology must be first among sciences in a theory of everything
Consciousness is a physics problem
Strange assumption/'paradox' - the universe is balanced for life to exist. p.13
Kuffler neurobiology harvard - great anecdote.
jdennehy |
The Origins of the Reductionist Program
"How can the events in space and time which take place within the spatialboundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?" Erwin Schrodinger - What is Life - 1944
This week's citation classic is a book by Erwin Schrodinger (of the cat fame), What is Life? It is notable, not for its influence on biologists, but rather for its influence on physicists.
Schrodinger was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, most cited for his work on wave mechanics, who had the temerity to cross disciplinary boundaries and publish a short text intended…
Mothers Rock!
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
Blessings on the hand of women!Angels guard its strength and grace,In the palace, cottage, hovel,Oh, no matter where the place;Would that never storms assailed it,Rainbows ever gently curled;For the hand that rocks the cradleIs the hand that rules the world.
William Ross Wallace
The development of all European languages has been something of a contest between the natural language which children learn from their mothers and the artificial constraints imposed by pedagogs and politicians. These are the two primary forces controlling the evolution of…
Most people know Edwin Hubble as a famed astronomer, the namesake of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Most probably don't know he also starred as a forward on the University of Chicago Maroons' Big Ten-champion basketball teams in the early part of the 20th century.
As an astronomer, Hubble showed that galaxies besides our own existed in the universe, and that the universe is expanding. These findings formed the cornerstone of the Big Bang theory of the universe's origin and opened the field of cosmology. As a basketball player, the 6-foot-2 Hubble was a member of…
A Brief History of the English Language Part 6 - Global English
Part 1 briefly covered the period from the 5th century CE to the 14th century.Part 2 describes Chaucer's influence on the development of English.Part 3 covers the period from Chaucer to the Elizabethan age.Part 4 describes processes in the natural evolution of English.Part 5 presents a brief overview of Early Modern English
Global EnglishModern English is a global language shared by many nations. It has its national variants: British, American, Canadian, Australian, Indian, Jamaican etc. Every human language evolves…
A Brief History of the English Language Part 5 - Early Modern English
Part 1 briefly covered the period from the 5th century CE to the 14th century.Part 2 describes Chaucer's influence on the development of English.Part 3 covers the period from Chaucer to the Elizabethan age.Part 4 describes processes in the natural evolution of English.
Grammar as an Evolutionary ProcessA major purpose of this short series is to show that the grammar, the set of rules for using a language, is a product of evolution, a continually evolving product of natural selection. A natural grammar is not a set of rules…
A Brief History of the English Language Part 4 - The People's English
Part 1 briefly covered the period from the 5th century CE to the 14th century.Part 2 describes Chaucer's influence on the development of English.Part 3 covers the period from Chaucer to the Elizabethan age.
The People's English
When people adopt rules for a language, most especially when they do it without conscious thought, the mere fact of a large number of language users thinking the same way leads to a convergence, a uniformity. The grammar of a language cannot be imposed by schools - it must evolve naturally or the…
Machines to move things and people
The Industrial Revolution was made possible by machines that multiplied the force of human strength. First water power, then steam, made possible the factories that transformed life in Britain at the end of the 18th century.
A Brief History of the English Language Part 3
The historical development of English is an excellent model of how a grammar naturally develops. I am trying to capture some of that history in this short series. Part of the problem of understanding how language works evaporates completely if one can see the beauty in a flow of words, the magic in a few blots of ink.
Part 1 briefly covered the period from the 5th century CE to the 14th century.Part 2 describes Chaucer's influence on the development of English.Part 3 now covers the period from Chaucer to the Elizabethan age.
Chaucer…
“We are not only observers. We are participators. In some strange sense this is a participatory universe.”
One Year has passed. On April 13, 2008, John Archibald Wheeler, the doyen of Modern Physics, died at the age of 96. When I heard the news that Wheeler is no more, I had strange feeling. A feeling of losing a dear and nearer one forever.
I have not seen him. I am not fortunate enough to hear his lectures. But his books, essays and compliments showered on him by his students and colleagues created deep impression on me. Then one day I stumbled…