Science Category Archives
планеты, как мы
3 September 2010 | Science | No Comments
Стивен Хокинг, как всегда, совершенно изумителен:
Because there is a law such as gravity[1], the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist
прямо в точку:
It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.
оно и верно, к чему тут Б-г, если даже мы вот-вот[2] справимся:
The fact that we human beings – who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature – have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph.
заодно и видео, кстати.
–
[1],[2] — хотя не все так уж очевидно, разумеется.
roadmap
1 September 2010 | Science | No Comments
впрочем, если о картах, то эта куда интереснее:
500 Years of Science, Reason & Critical Thinking via the medium of gross over simplification, dodgy demarcation, glaring omission and a very tiny font.
The map of modern science was created to celebrate the achievements of the scientific method through the age of reason, the enlightenment and modernity.
падали яблоки
20 July 2010 | Literature, Science | 1 Comment
а гравитации-то больше нет:
Reversing the logic of 300 years of science, Erik Verlinde argued in a recent paper, titled “On the Origin of Gravity and the Laws of Newton,” that gravity is a consequence of the venerable laws of thermodynamics, which describe the behavior of heat and gases.
<...>
What is new, he said, is the idea that differences in entropy can be the driving mechanism behind gravity, that gravity is, as he puts it an “entropic force.”
<...>
Think of the universe as a box of scrabble letters. There is only one way to have the letters arranged to spell out the Gettysburg Address, but an astronomical number of ways to have them spell nonsense. Shake the box and it will tend toward nonsense, disorder will increase and information will be lost as the letters shuffle toward their most probable configurations. Could this be gravity?
кто-нибудь, скажите Пинчону!
предсказатели
24 June 2010 | Lifeform, Literature, Science | No Comments
Роберт Бойль тоже, оказывается, Нострадамус, — пишет “The Washington Post”:
In the 1660s, English chemist Robert Boyle wrote an extraordinary document, a combination of wish list and predictions of what science might achieve in the coming centuries.
<...>
Samples from Boyle’s list:
- The Prolongation of Life.
- The Recovery of Youth, or at least some of the Marks of it, as new Teeth, new Hair colour’d as in youth.
- The Art of Flying.
- The Art of Continuing long under water, and exercising functions freely there.
- The Cure of Wounds at a Distance.
- The Cure of Diseases at a distance or at least by Transplantation.
- <...>
но мы-то знаем, в чем дело.
via.
резервная копия
4 March 2010 | Architecture, Science | No Comments
лазерное сканирование окружающего нас мира развивается стремительнейшим образом:
The basic principle behind the laser technology is simple: A box, with a laser inside, sits on a tripod; as the box slowly rotates 360 degrees, the laser, moving up and down, bounces its beam off whatever is solid in front of it. In so doing, it registers some 50,000 points in space every second. Traditional surveyors might produce a couple of hundred measurements a day, prone to subjectivity and human error. Lasers collect millions of measurements per hour. A scanner can even identify certain materials, determining whether something is, say, made of glass or stone.
Aerial lasers and a hand-held version operate the same way. Combined, they can bring to life as 3-D images entire cities or a mountainside.
удивительнейшей точности, кстати:
So precise are these digital models that they can be used not only to facilitate much needed restoration work of deteriorating monuments but also to recreate them if they are completely destroyed by natural or man-made disasters. In other words, if the Bamiyan Buddhas had been laser scanned before they were obliterated by the Taliban, they could now be reconstructed with unbelievable accuracy.
и сканируют все подряд:
There are also those abandoned sewers, stormwater tunnels and subway tunnels. Day and night, laser scanners that have gone mobile will be deployed into these voids, and bit by pinprick bit, these labyrinths that once confounded, concealed and even consumed trespassers with their disorienting mazes will resolve into total comprehensibility. Every detail will be known to you.
Simultaneously, disembodied limbs out in some vast tract of land will get to work replicating these filigreed abysses. Once completed, it will look like a city eroded down to its subsurface infrastructure. It’ll be the playground for urban explorers who might be looking for more muted thrills and for architects who could no longer wait for the mythical Golden Age of WPA 2.0 to play out their desires.
ни дать, ни взять “Зодиак” Стивенсона, перемноженный на “Канализацию, газ & электричество” Раффа.
хочу все знать
26 February 2010 | Hardware, Lifeform, Literature, Science | No Comments
пользователь 
avva раскопал фотографии канавок на виниловой пластинке — снимки навевают различнейшие ассоциации, и пройти мимо наиболее прекрасной, не процитировав, я не могу:
А по этой канавке прет игла. От нее убегает Индиана Джонс с блондинкой на плече. Та вопит. Так оно и работает.
хоть мне они и напоминают больше марсианские каналы — как я их себе видел в детстве.
в обход
7 January 2010 | Metaphysics, Science | No Comments
кратчайшее разъяснение замечательной теоремы Гёделя о неполноте, между прочим.
black clinics of Chiba
25 December 2009 | Biology, Literature, Science | No Comments
определенно, с каждым днем все сильнее расползается по миру то будущее, что уже давно наступило, но пока ещё неравномерно распределено:
Chinese national Lin Rong, 27, reportedly paid surgeons 100,000 Yuan (~15,000 USD) to have the fingerprints from her left index finger and thumb swapped with those on her right hand.
дальше будет поддельная сетчатка глаза, поддельный геном. поддельная жизнь. спрос ведь рождает предложение — вот и еще одна характерная запись в гибсониане современности:
A 48-year-old woman with a stimulating electrode implanted in her right ventral thalamus started to compulsively self-stimulate when she discovered that it could produce erotic sensations and changes in autonomic and neurologic function.
<...>
Soon after insertion of the nVPL electrode, the patient noted that stimulation also produced erotic sensations. This pleasurable response was heightened by continuous stimulation at 75% maximal amplitude, frequently augmented by short bursts at maximal amplitude. Though sexual arousal was prominent, no orgasm occurred with these brief increases in stimulation intensity. Despite several episodes of paroxysmal atrial tachycardia [heart disturbance] and development of adverse behavioural and neurological symptoms during maximal stimulation, compulsive use of the stimulator developed.
At its most frequent, the patient self-stimulated throughout the day, neglecting personal hygiene and family commitments. A chronic ulceration developed at the tip of the finger used to adjust the amplitude dial and she frequently tampered with the device in an effort to increase the stimulation amplitude. At times, she implored her to limit her access to the stimulator, each time demanding its return after a short hiatus. During the past two years, compulsive use has become associated with frequent attacks of anxiety, depersonalization, periods of psychogenic polydipsia and virtually complete inactivity.
нам ли вырваться из этих сетей.
via.
тайное окно
18 December 2009 | Literature, Science | No Comments
свободные образовательные курсы в интернете, между прочим. вот, например, соверменная американская литература. есть и еще, наверняка — разве что у них там с категориями все вперемежку.
у меня в квартире в туалете лежат справочник по физике в трех томах, введение в теорию относительности, учебник по римскому частному праву и что-то еще вдобавок — это я, видимо, к слову о ценности знаний. и о том, где мы их приобретаем.
клоунада
5 December 2009 | Internet, Science | 1 Comment
eще раз про все эти (и другие) цирки — вот в нескольких словах предельно точно именно то, что уже давно чувствую:
будто сркн читаю…
не укладывается все это в голове.
рассказываю это все людям – ни одному слову не верят, смеются.
это какая-то мощная трансформация действительности…
не укладывается это в голове как-то. какой-то театр абсурда. только страшный очень.