First – I love this latest cartoon from Jesus and Mo. Certainly typical of some conversations I have had with creationists. (Currently, though, it seems to be even more typical of the more extreme local climate change deniers).
But, my main message is about the question “Can science solve all problems?” Of course no scientist claims it can, although our critics sometimes attibute that hubris to us. Yet there are certainly some questions we won’t be able to solve.
This post from It’s Only a Theory (Tales in a subdued palette of chestnut and white) illustrates an important aspect. That just because we don’t believe that we can know everything using science (or anything else) doesn’t mean we should assume that knowledge in a specific area is impossible. I believe that is an arrogant claim. Anyway – read on:
“Charles Sander Peirce observed that it’s a poor bet to insist that science will never be able to solve some question. Make the bet, he says, and
“[t]he likelihood is that it will be solved long before you could have dreamed possible. Think of Auguste Comte who when asked to name any thing that could never be found out instanced the chemical composition of the fixed stars; and almost before his book became known to the world at large, the first steps had been taken in spectral analysis.*
Yet there are certainly some questions we won’t be able to solve. The problem, of course, is identifying which facts those are.
Traces of the past have been effaced, and so there are some facts about what the past was like that are unrecoverable. In explaining underdetermination to people, I use the colour of dinosaurs as an example. It may just be that the fossil record has not preserved enough for us to figure it out.
And yet researchers claim to figure it out based on microscopic bits responsible for extruding pigment; see the NYTimes article. The Sinosauropteryx, we are told, had “had a head-to-tail feathered mohawk in a subdued palette of chestnut and white stripes.”
The story goes on to indicate that other scientists challenge the result, that the data set is small, and so on. And I only ever used the example in a conditional way, to say that the relevant evidence might not exist in the fossil record. I only meant say that this kind of underdetermination will arise in historical sciences. Of course we can’t know with certainty which questions will be underdeterminated in this way.
Still, I need a new example.
* I give the full citation and more commentary in an old paper.”
“numerous communications (emails, phone calls and letters) accusing Dr. Michael E. Mann of having engaged in acts that included manipulating data, destroying records and colluding to hamper the progress of scientific discourse around the issue of anthropogenic global warming from approximately 1998. These accusations were based on perceptions of the content of the widely reported theft of emails from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Great Britain.”
Price: US$16.50; NZ$35.oo Perfect Paperback: 376 pages Publisher: North Atlantic Books (February 9, 2010); Scoop Media Publishing Language: English ISBN-10: 1556439245 ISBN-13: 978-1556439247
Journalist Suzan Mazur created a small flurry several years ago with articles on a planned scientific meeting (The 18th Altenberg Workshop in Theoretical Biology “Toward an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, ” July 2008. Organized by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller). She managed to interview some of the participants, but then got offside with the science community because of the way she presented these interviews, and the nature of the meeting, in her articles.
Just imagine yourself as a photographer on the International Space Station (ISS). Constantly changing scenery – and most of it beautiful.
One of the astronauts, Jose Hernandez, has been sending back some lovely photos. Here are a couple below. Click on them to go to the originals – the one with the space station can be enlarged.
Well, yes, I would love a bottle – or even the chance to taste some of these wines. But it’s the packaging that attracts me, this time. Washington State’s Wines of Substance, won the Seattle Magazine’s “Coolest Wine Label” Award in 2008 for these. The labels are presented in the format we are used to with chemical elements (Pg is pinot gris, Se for semillon, Gw for gewürtztramminer, for example).
But, as a chemist, what I would really like is the “periodic table” of wines this company has produced. I can just imagine it pinned up alongside Dmitri Mendeleev’sPeriodic table of Elements on my office wall.
Substance justifies their table because “wine is as much an art as it is a science. What better way to express this basis than a Periodic Table of Wine with each varietal reflected as an element or substance?” Their interactive “periodic table” website is a great example of this art (see WINES OF SUBSTANCE – Washington State Periodic Table of Wines).
This table is obviously aimed at the American consumer. But I reckon someone could produce a similar things for New Zealand. A periodic table sumarising our wine varieties and grape growing regions.
It would probably go down well with many consumers. Or at least the geeks amongst us.
I can still remember one of the few practical demonstrations I observed in my first year university physics class many years ago. This illustrated conservation of momentum. It involved our lecturer climbing on to the lecture room bench and standing on a plank of wood resting on (empty) beer bottles laid on their side (to reduce friction).
When he jumped forward by a small distance, the plank of wood shot back by a larger distance (conserving momentum). It was a risky experiment and several beer bottles broke.
I am not sure how many students appreciated the physical law being demonstrated. Practical demonstrations were not common in teaching those days. I suspect for many it just reinforced in their minds that this particular lecturer was, if not mad, at least eccentric.
In these more enlightened day I hope teachers use every advantage to practically demonstrate physical laws. Some of the videos being recorded on the International Space Station ISS could be useful for this.
Last week Astronaut Jeff Williams demonstrated the acceleration experienced inside the cabin during a planned ISS reboost. The ISS is reboosted periodically to maintain its orbit, and to prepare for visiting spacecraft, such as the space shuttle (a launch planned this week) and Progress vehicles.
Jeff’s experiment demonstrates that objects will continue in motion unless acted on by a force. In this case he shows that a free-floating body will move relative to the station when the station is accelerating.
A simple demonstration of an important physical law.
A public mass overdose of homeopathic remedies has forced the New Zealand Council of Homeopaths to admit openly that their products do not contain any “material substances”. Council spokeswoman Mary Glaisyer admitted publicly that “there´s not one molecule of the original substance remaining” in the diluted remedies that form the basis of this multi-million-dollar industry.
The NZ Skeptics, in conjunction with 10:23, Skeptics in the Pub and other groups nationally and around the world, held the mass overdose in Christchurch on Saturday to highlight the fact that homeopathic products are simply very expensive water drops or sugar/lactose pills. A further aim was to question the ethical issues of pharmacies, in particular, stocking and promoting sham products and services.
“You´re paying $10 for a teaspoon of water that even the homeopaths say has no material substance in it,” says Skeptics Chair Vicki Hyde. “Yet a recent survey showed that 94% of New Zealanders using homeopathic products aren´t aware of this basic fact – their homeopath or health professional hasn´t disclosed this. The customers believe they are paying for the substances listed on the box, but those were only in the water once upon a time before the massive dilution process began – along with everything else that the water once had in it — the chlorine, the beer, the urine….”
Price: US$12.91 Perfect Paperback: 241 pages Publisher: IPC Press; First edition (December 5, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 0970950519 ISBN-13: 978-0970950512
The virus metaphor has been extremely useful in computing. The parallel with biological viruses is close so the word provides an accurate but succinct description of the phenomena of, and problems created by, computer viruses. And this particular metaphor offends no one.
The idea of a “god virus”, which treats religious ideas in a similar way, also has some traction. Darrel Ray shows in “The God Virus” that this particular metaphor can be an accurate description of the problem. The metaphor is useful. But in this case some people do get offended.
Maybe they overreact? (Religious people often do). Ray does make clear the metaphor applies to other ideological viewpoints besides the religious ones. That it is more general. For instance, he includes communism and Marxism in some of the discussions. He also points out that, just as with ideologies, biological “viruses can be benign, even beneficial in some cases.” Although “parasite” may be a more suitable description of how ideas sometimes work – he wanted “to avoid the negative connotations” of that word.
I have been enjoying a weekly internet TV show produced by Robert Llewellyn, the actor who portrays Kryten 2X4B-523P in the popular TV series Red Dwarf. Its called Car Pool. And the idea behind it is novel and very successful.
Basically it’s a half hour interview with a personality from the worlds of science, theatre, televisions and technology. The intriguing feature is that the interview takes place while Llewellyn drives the subject somewhere in his car. The produces a very informal, even laid back, and friendly interaction. And it’s surprising how much information can be conveyed in this format.
But, my main message is about the question “Can science solve all problems?” Of course no scientist claims it can, although our critics sometimes attibute that hubris to us. Yet there are certainly some questions we won’t be able to solve.
And yet researchers claim to figure it out based on microscopic bits responsible for extruding pigment; see the NYTimes article. The Sinosauropteryx, we are told, had “had a head-to-tail feathered mohawk in a subdued palette of chestnut and white stripes.”
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by Suzan Mazur. 
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by Darrel W. Ray 
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