10 Greatest Ideas in the History of Science by Big Think Editors While science often moves forward in awkward leaps and bounds, Peter Atkins compiled a list of 10 concepts that are considered "so rock solid, that it is difficult to imagine them ever being replaced with something better." So our friends at RealClearScience's Newton blog write about Atkins's 2003 book, Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science. While Atkins's picks might be incredibly worthy ones, many are also a bit hard to comprehend, so a guide to these concepts can be found on the Newton blog here, and are summarized briefly below. The 10 Greatest Ideas in the History of Science: 1. "The power of evolution comes from its ability to explain both the unity and diversity of life; in other words, the theory describes how similarities and differences between species arise by descent from a universal common ancestor." Read more here. 2. "It wasn't until 1952 that scientists determined that DNA was the molecule responsible for transmitting heritable information."
Why Narcissism Is a Profoundly Misunderstood Psychological Disorder Interesting read, though if you're really looking for an understanding of narcissistic personalities I would highly recommend you spend some time reading through Heinz Kohut's in-depth work on narcissism. I would also argue against your statement that, "On their own, psychoanalytic explanations are inadequate and unconvincing." While I wholeheartedly agree with you that current discoveries in neuroscience and neuropsychology can support psychoanalytic conceptualizations, the ideas themselves have been widely validated and accepted within the psychoanalytic community. Also, I think this article would benefit from more of an explanation that narcissism is not an "unhealthy" trait. ...but the whole understanding of the fear response is so interesting!!!! Thanks for putting out such a great read!!!!!!!!!!!
Solar Roadways - About Us Julie and Scott Brusaw Co-inventors and co-founders of Solar Roadways Scott is an electrical engineer (MSEE) with over 20 years of industry experience. This includes serving as the Director of Research and Development at a manufacturing facility in Ohio (developing their line of products for over 12 years), a voting member of NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association), and developing several networked control systems from the ground up. Scott has multiple patents and his hardware and software have been sold internationally. Julie has a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology from Humboldt State University in northern California. The history leading to the Solar Roadways In retrospect, it seems that every aspect of Scott's past has led to the creation of the Solar Roadways project: He's learned the danger of dependency upon foreign oil.He's seen how our own oil companies work. Scott & Julie Sandpoint, Idaho Contact Us: For technical questions or suggestions:scott@solarroadways.com
Mathematicians Extend Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity beyond Light Speed | Physics Mathematicians from University of Adelaide, Australia, have extended the theory of special relativity to work beyond the speed of light. Einstein’s theory holds that nothing could move faster than the speed of light. Published in 1905, the theory explains how motion and speed is always relative to the observer’s frame of reference. It connects measurements of the same physical incident viewed from these different points in a way that depends on the relative velocity of the two observers. “Since the introduction of special relativity there has been much speculation as to whether or not it might be possible to travel faster than the speed of light, noting that there is no substantial evidence to suggest that this is presently feasible with any existing transportation mechanisms,” said Prof Jim Hill of the University of Adelaide’s School of Mathematical Sciences, who co-authored a paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Bibliographic information: James M.
Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace: The Saudi businessman who recruited mujahedin now uses them for large-scale building projects in Sudan. Robert Fisk met him in Almatig - World - News With his high cheekbones, narrow eyes and long brown robe, Mr Bin Laden looks every inch the mountain warrior of mujahedin legend. Chadored children danced in front of him, preachers acknowledged his wisdom. 'We have been waiting for this road through all the revolutions in Sudan,' a sheikh said. 'We waited until we had given up on everybody - and then Osama Bin Laden came along.' Outside Sudan, Mr Bin Laden is not regarded with quite such high esteem. And 'this job' is certainly an ambitious one: a brand-new highway stretching all the way from Khartoum to Port Sudan, a distance of 1,200km (745 miles) on the old road, now shortened to 800km by the new Bin Laden route that will turn the coastal run from the capital into a mere day's journey. He is a shy man. Within months, however, Mr Bin Laden was sending Arab fighters - Egyptians, Algerians, Lebanese, Kuwaitis, Turks and Tunisians - into Afghanistan; 'not hundreds but thousands,' he said. 'No, I was never afraid of death. How many?
A Realistic Video of What You'd See Flying Through Deep Space I've read that the sky contains 12.7 million times more area than the Hubble Deep Field, and I've always been amazed at that. So using the metaphor that is commonly used, that's a lot of eight-foot soda straws. And I'm inclined to ask: Even if we do develop FTL like an Albicuierre drive or something like that, would intergalactic travel be feasible? Would traveling to M31, millions of light years away, be as easy as going to Proxima Centauri, "just" a few light years away? Once we break the light speed barrier, can we go as fast as we want to other galaxies like in this video? It would seem that the distances involved would prohibit extragalactic travel, even at light speed it would take millions of years.
Dogs Are More Like Humans than Primates - Softpedia News for Mobile According to a new growing consensus in the scientific community, dogs are more close to humans than primates, even though the latter share many of our genes. The researchers who advocate this point of view say that dogs have become closer to us after 10,000 to 20,000 years of common evolution. Over this period of time, the two races have grown so accustomed to each other, that some canines have even evolved larger brains in order to comprehend more complex commands given to them by their owners. A scientific paper detailing the new study has been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of the journal Advances in the Study of Behavior. The team hypothesizes that the first domesticated dogs were unable to understand their owners, when our ancestors pointed in a direction. In their experiments, Hungarian team members have asked a 16-year-old boy and a pet dog to perform a series of actions, including running in circles, moving objects, or fetching things.
Chinese physicists measure Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance' speed: At least 10,000 times faster than light A team of Chinese physicists have clocked the speed of spooky action at a distance — the seemingly instantaneous interaction between entangled quantum particles — at more than four orders of magnitude faster than light. Their equipment and methodology doesn’t allow for an exact speed, but four orders of magnitude puts the figure at around 3 trillion meters per second. Spooky action at a distance was a term coined by Einstein to describe how entangled quantum particles seem to interact with each other instantaneously, over any distance, breaking the speed of light and thus relativity. As of our current understanding of quantum mechanics, though, it is impossible to send data using quantum entanglement, preserving the theory of relativity. To get this figure, the physicists entangled pairs of photons at a base station, and then transmitted half of each pair to two receiving sites. Where do we go from here? Now read: Quantum entangled batteries could be the perfect power source
Why science is so hard to believe There’s a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s comic masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove” in which Jack D. Ripper, an American general who’s gone rogue and ordered a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, unspools his paranoid worldview — and the explanation for why he drinks “only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure grain alcohol” — to Lionel Mandrake, a dizzy-with-anxiety group captain in the Royal Air Force. Ripper: “Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?” Mandrake: “Ah, yes, I have heard of that, Jack. Ripper: “Well, do you know what it is?” Mandrake: “No. Ripper: “Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?” The movie came out in 1964, by which time the health benefits of fluoridation had been thoroughly established and anti-fluoridation conspiracy theories could be the stuff of comedy. Science doubt has become a pop-culture meme. In a sense this is not surprising. Related:
Feel Like an Impostor? You're Not Alone Sometimes I find myself waiting for the e-mail saying: “Sorry, we’ve made a huge mistake, you are fired.” Every success is a fluke. Each mistake is a disaster I play over and over again. I’ve convinced myself that one day it will all come crashing down. Does any of this sound familiar? It’s most likely what has been cleverly coined as impostor syndrome and it’s more common than you might think. Why do we feel this way? Psychologists Suzanne Imes, PhD, and Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, were the first to describe impostor syndrome in the 1970s. Up to 70% of people have suffered from impostor syndrome at some point in their lives. This leads people to feel as if they are undeserving of their success, or that their success is the result of some external or superficial source. “Still, differing in any way from the majority of your peers — whether by race, gender, sexual orientation or some other characteristic — can fuel the sense of being a fraud.” What does this tell us? Talk about it
15 Things That Scientists Just Can't Explain Speed of Light May Not be Constant Posted March 26th, 2013 at 3:39 pm (UTC+0) Einstein’s famous equation (Image: Quatrostein via Wikimedia Commons) The speed of light has long been calculated to be 299,792.458 km per second, but now new research from France and Germany indicates that light may not travel at a fixed rate after all, but instead can fluctuate. A key component of Einstein’s famous E=MC2, the speed of light has been thought to be finite since 1676 after Danish astronomer Ole Rømer first established his findings while studying the motion of Jupiter’s moon Io. Danish astronomer Ole Rømer (Image: Frederiksborg Museum via Wikimedia Commons) Two separate studies by scientists from the University of Paris-Sud in France and from the Max Planck Institutes for the Physics of Light in Germany are disputing the long established belief concerning the nature of a vacuum. Researcher Marcel Urban and his colleagues in France said they had identified a “quantum level mechanism” for understanding vacuum. Gerd Leuchs and Luis L.
The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science Illustration: Jonathon Rosen "A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Festinger and several of his colleagues had infiltrated the Seekers, a small Chicago-area cult whose members thought they were communicating with aliens—including one, "Sananda," who they believed was the astral incarnation of Jesus Christ. Through her, the aliens had given the precise date of an Earth-rending cataclysm: December 21, 1954. Festinger and his team were with the cult when the prophecy failed. Read also: the truth about Climategate.At first, the group struggled for an explanation. From that day forward, the Seekers, previously shy of the press and indifferent toward evangelizing, began to proselytize. In the annals of denial, it doesn't get much more extreme than the Seekers. The theory of motivated reasoning builds on a key insight of modern neuroscience (PDF): Reasoning is actually suffused with emotion (or what researchers often call "affect").