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esiegel | March 27, 2014“The particle and the planet are subject to the same laws and what is learned of one will be known of the other.” -James Smithson
Now that the Higgs has been discovered, the Standard Model is complete. But are there any other new particles?
Image retrieved from Fermilab, modified by me.
If asymptotic safety is right -- and it's looking like the Standard Model might be stable up to energies far beyond the reach of accelerators the size of the entire Earth -- there might not be anything at all accessible to humanity as far as experimental particle physics is concerned. And a Higgs mass of…
jrosenhouse | March 25, 2014Recently I mentioned my new book Four Lives: A Celebration of Raymond Smullyan. I see the Kindle version is now available, so if you preferred an e-version, now's your chance!
The book is a tribute volume to mathematician Raymond Smullyan. He is best known for his numerous books of logic puzzles. In particular, he took puzzles about knights and knaves to a high art. He did not invent the genre, but he definitely elevated it. (I've been trying to trace the history of puzzles of this sort, so if anyone knows any good references then let me know.)
We are to imagine that on a particular…
jrosenhouse | March 24, 2014I'm back from Atlanta. Did anything happen while I was gone?
Well, some people replied to my previous post. Of course, I knew when I posted it that many would disagree with my views. What I had not anticipated was that the main criticisms leveled at me would be so far removed from anything I was actually arguing.
In a comment to the post, Josh Rosenau wrote this:
Yeah, screw the complexity and nuance of real people doing real things for real and complex reasons. While we’re at it, screw real historians for trying to actually understand that complexity and for objecting when people rely on…
jrosenhouse | March 18, 2014Having thrown some red meat with that last post, I guess it's time to leave town. So, tomorrow I'll be flying down to Atlanta to participate in the Gathering For Gardner Conference. Lucky me! That's Martin Gardner, for those not in the know. The conference brings together mathematicians, magicians, puzzle makers and other supercool nerdy types. I'll be back on Sunday, so blogging will resume at that time. Sunday Chess Problem will be taking the week off.
jrosenhouse | March 18, 2014Among those who argue that science and religion are compatible, there is a standard script that goes like this:
In the late nineteenth century, John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White published, respectively, History of the Conflict Between Science and Religion and A History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom. In doing so they established the warfare thesis about the relationship between science and religion, a complete myth that sadly retains a hold on the popular imagination. Unlike the ignorant polemicists Draper and White, more serious historians recognize that…
illconsidered | March 18, 2014A very good video on the gulf that exists between the climate science experts and the general population in terms of awareness and alarm regarding anthropogenic climate change:
(from a comment on a P3 thread)
The essence of this impending calamity is, more than anything else, a story of betrayal: betrayal of a naively trusting population by its political leaders and even more by its news media. When the denial of this crisis is finally seen to be as implausible and ludicrous as it already is, it may be too late. It may be too late already to avoid truly terrible consequences, but we must…
gregladen | March 18, 2014The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) was launched in January 2012 by Scott Mandia and Joshua Wolfe to provide valuable legal resources to our climate scientists who are in need. CSLDF needs your help.
CSLDF needs to raise $80,000. The great news is that philanthropist Charles Zeller has graciously offered to MATCH the first $40,000 that is raised and philanthropist Peter Cross has offered to put up the first $10,000. This means CSLDF already has the first $20,000 of the $80,000 goal. We need YOU to help CSLDF reach its goal.
For the previous two years, CSLDF has been managed by…
jrosenhouse | March 17, 2014Jerry Coyne liked yesterday's post about teaching ID. I do just want to clarify one point, though. Coyne writes:
Jason has a good point. And that point is that although it’s illegal (as well as dereliction of duty) to teach intelligent design creationism in public schools and universities, it is okay to criticize it, for you can criticize ID on the grounds of bad science without bashing religion. And I think Jason’s right, especially given the legal rulings so far on what constitutes an incursion of religion into public schools.
I certainly do think it's a dereliction of duty to teach…
esiegel | March 17, 2014“Despite its name, the big bang theory is not really a theory of a bang at all. It is really only a theory of the aftermath of a bang.” -Alan Guth
So, you've heard the big news by now, no doubt? Primordial B-modes have been detected in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background!
Images credit: Seljak & Zaldarriaga (L), Wayne Hu (R), via http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/~yuki/CMBpol/CMBpol.htm.
But how robust is this? Will it hold up under scrutiny? And is it statistically significant enough to call a "discovery" just yet?
And finally, whether it does or it doesn't, what does it…
gregladen | March 16, 2014I'm not big on Saint Patrick's Day. And yes, that's because I'm Irish.
But I thought this was OK:
Not his best work. So I'll add this:
jrosenhouse | March 15, 2014After our recent excursions into the wacky world of selfmates, it's time to get back to saner fare. This week's problem was composed by Milan Vukcevich, who is a strong contender for greatest problem composer ever. This problem calls for Mate in Three:
Recall that when we write down chess moves, we label the vertical files a--h from left to right, and the horizontal ranks 1--8 from bottom to top. So, in this position the black king is on h2, while the white king is on f7.
The main theme this week is known as a Bristol clearance. Sometimes, in chess, one piece gets in the way of another…
jrosenhouse | March 15, 2014This one requires some set-up.
Eric Hedin is an assistant professor of physics at Ball State University. Last year, he was accused of teaching intelligent design, and of making disparaging remarks about non-Christian religions, in a science seminar that he was teaching. Some students complained, and the situation came to the attention of Jerry Coyne. Jerry made a big fuss about it at his blog and wrote letters to Ball State. Eventually the university forced Hedin to stop doing what he was doing, and they issued a strong statement that intelligent design was religion and therefore had no…
gregladen | March 13, 2014Peter Sinclair has tackled this difficult topic with an excellent video and informative blog post. The blog post is here, and I've pasted the video below.
This is a complicated issue. The water problem in California is obviously made worse by increased demands from population growth and expansion of agriculture. Under "normal" (natural) conditions, California and the American Southwest is fairly dry and can undergo extra dry periods. But climate change seems to be playing a role here as well. It appears that recent lack of rain in the region is the result of changes in atmospheric…
esiegel | March 12, 2014“We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from… Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements.” -William Shakespeare
Every element found on Earth was made in either the Big Bang or the cores of stars… except these three.
Image credit: Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., via http://chemistry.about.com/od/periodictableelements/a/printperiodic.htm
When you look at the periodic table of the elements, you're likely familiar with the fact that everything found on Earth is made up of some…
gregladen | March 12, 2014We are reaching the point where Arctic Sea ice tends to max out, in terms of extent (I will not be talking about volume here, though that is vitally important). Using data provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, I ran an informal "Science by Spreadsheet" analysis and came up with a prediction for the minimum extent of sea ice this year, which would be some time in September.
This is mostly a seat of the pants analysis and don't take it too seriously, but feel free to put your bets in the comments section.
The data over the last few decades shows a generally declining extent of…
sa smith | March 12, 2014More HIV news!
HIVs ancestor, SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus), has been around a LOT longer than we previously thought.
As I have mentioned before, we always assumed retroviruses like HIV, lentiviruses, are evolutionarily 'young'. They are relatively complex, so probably 'newish' in retrovirus-world, but they do not fossilize well (we have found very few lentiviral ERVs), so it has been hard to elucidate HIVs ancient genealogy.
Several years ago, researchers used an isolated colony of primates to estimate SIVs age at 32,821-132,780 years old.
Well, HIVs ancestors just got older... er!…
esiegel | March 11, 2014“The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.” -Carl Sagan
I haven't been shy about sharing my hopes for the new Cosmos series, which aired its first episode earlier this week.
Image credit: Fox Studios / Cosmos.
Personally, I thought it was good, even though it wasn't the series I would have chosen. Although that isn't really the point of Cosmos, is it? You see, there's a story being told here -- a story that's the one thing unifying us all in the Universe -- a story of our shared history. And for the first time in a generation, that story is…
jrosenhouse | March 9, 2014Last week I introduced the idea of Allumwandlung, abbreviated AUW. This refers to a problem in which all four pawn promotions, to queen, rook, bishop and knight, appear in some way. The problem I showed last week was a crystal clear illustration of the theme, and deservedly won second place in the annual selfmate tourney in The Problemist magazine.
As it happens, the third place winner in that tourney also showed AUW, but it makes for quite a contrast with last week's problem. Whereas that showed impressive elegance and clear logic, this one is just a demented, brilliant mess. It was…
jrosenhouse | March 9, 2014Check it out!
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My new book Four Lives: A Celebration of Raymond Smullyan has just been released by Dover Publications. Don't know who Raymond Smullyan is? Well, buy the book and find out! Or you can read his Wikipedia page.
Smullyan is best known for his many books of logic puzzles, but he has also written widely in mathematics and philosophy. He had a big influence on me growing up. I stumbled on to his book What Is the Name Of This Book? when I was about nine, He's currently 95, and he's still churning them out.
So, for me, being asked to edit this tribute volume to him was a bit…