Tag: Science

Your cosmic address: The edge of the Laniakea supercluster

This is pretty cool: New Map Locates Milky Way in Neighborhood of 100,000 Galaxies. A new map of the Milky Way's cosmic neighborhood shows where our galaxy lives in relation to thousands of others nearby, with scientists giving the newly discovered "supercluster" of galaxies a name: Laniakea, which means "immeasurable heaven" in Hawaiian. Throughout the universe, … Continue reading Your cosmic address: The edge of the Laniakea supercluster →

Genes show mysterious Paleo-Eskimos survived 4,000 years until sudden demise

Genetics seems to have really come into its own in recent years, shining light on many prehistoric mysteries: Genes show mysterious Paleo-Eskimos survived 4,000 years until sudden demise - The Washington Post. New genetic research on ancient bones reveals that a prehistoric population of hunters migrated into the high Arctic of North America and Greenland and … Continue reading Genes show mysterious Paleo-Eskimos survived 4,000 years until sudden demise →

Split brains and functioning consciousness

I've written before about split-brain patients, those who, due to severe epilepsy, had the connections between the two hemispheres of their brain severed, yet were subsequently able to lead normal lives without themselves even noticing any cognitive change, which has profound implications for how consciousness works. It turns out that there are people who are … Continue reading Split brains and functioning consciousness →

New theory could be an alternative to the multiverse

It seems like there have been a number articles recently talking about the soul searching currently going on in the Physics community over the failure of the LHC to find evidence for super-symmetry (at least so far), a theory that had a lot of theoretical work resting on it.  This article discuses that and a new … Continue reading New theory could be an alternative to the multiverse →

Is logic and mathematics part of science?

Last week was scientism week at Scientia Salon, and I reblogged a post by Coel Hellier on a defense of scientism, mostly by arguing that mathematics was actually part of science.  As I indicated in my comment on that reblog, while I agree with Coel that both logic and mathematics have foundations that are empirically … Continue reading Is logic and mathematics part of science? →

SMBC on “science” channels

I find that the actual Science Channel is still pretty good, with shows like 'Through the Wormhole' or 'How the Universe Works', which makes the terminology Wiener uses here unfortunate. But the point he makes fits for just about every other cable "educational" channel.  These channels once had decent material but have devolved into mostly crap of … Continue reading SMBC on “science” channels →

Logic has empirical foundations, sort of.

Massimo Pigliucci has an interesting post at Scientia Salon on philosophical zombies.  Massimo looks at David Chalmers's argument for philosophical zombie arguments and, I think, does an excellent job at showing the problems with them.  But in the discussion, a distinction is made that I find interesting. Apparently, Chalmers admits that zombies are probably not naturally … Continue reading Logic has empirical foundations, sort of. →

The double slit experiment and the utter strangeness of quantum mechanics

Occasionally I remark about how illogical quantum mechanics is.  Sometimes people either insist that it is logical, or simply assert some simple explanation that shows they don't really get how utterly strange this stuff is. This video of Jim Al-Khalili gives a relatively brief explanation of this experiment, including its freaky results. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9tKncAdlHQ If Al-Khalili doesn't strike … Continue reading The double slit experiment and the utter strangeness of quantum mechanics →