We have heard all sorts of global warming (Climate change as per Bush’s policy makers) predictions and political spin around it. Scientific community is quite unanimous in voicing their concerns and putting the blame squarely on Time man of the year.
Dr Michio Kaku’s interview with scientist Joseph Romm was by the far the most chilling scenario I have heard in recent time. Coming from a scientist who knows what he is talking this should make people sit up and do something about this global issue. His book - Hell And High Water; uses tons of scientific data to make dire predictions. Which includes Manhattan under 10 ft of water by 2050 !
His solution for fixing this problem involves following three steps:
- reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by midcentury
- adopting a California-style energy-efficiency effort nationwide
- embracing high-mileage, advanced “hybrid” cars that can run on both electricity and biofuels
Acknowledging the problem is a first step towards solving any problem. There are still people out there who have peripheral notion of this issue and that must change.
I am wondering if we can borrow concepts from open source world to increase activism in this space? I am sure it will be a good thing to try.
Nova has been producing excellent science documentaries lately. Their production quality is simply outstanding. Today’s documentary on KQED was all about E=mc(2). Titled Einstein’s Big Idea it was a quite a feast for both mind and eyes. I would highly recommend this to anybody interested in physics and general stories of the golden era of physics.
While you are on the site also checkout some select quotes from Einstein. His take on individualism is worth mentioning here because of the recent emphasis on the importance of community for the general social advancement ( all the buzz around collaboration and community)
"It is important for the common good to foster individuality: for only the
individual can produce the new ideas which the community needs for its
continuous improvement and requirements—indeed, to avoid sterility and
petrification."
Thanks to Nova and KQED for showing this outstanding documentary.
[Via Slashdot] BBC lists Science magazine’s breakthroughs of 2004 -
- Winner: Water on Mars. Nasa’s Mars rovers
Spirit and Opportunity discovered compelling evidence for the prolonged
existence of salty, acidic water on the surface of the Red Planet.
- Runner up: Indonesian "hobbit".
A team of archaeologists made the mind-blowing discovery of a new
species of human that stood only one metre tall and lived on the
Indonesian island of Flores.
- Human cloning. South Korean
researchers made headlines across the world after announcing they had
cloned human embryos, the first published and "peer reviewed" evidence
this technique could work with human cells.
- Understanding condensates. In
2004, scientists made giant leaps in understanding ultra-cold gases
called condensates, shedding light on some key problems in physics.
- Hidden DNA treasures. Stretches
of "junk DNA" proved to be far more important than previously thought.
They turned out to be essential for helping genes turn on at the right
time and in the right place.
- Pulsar pair. Astrophysicists discovered the first known pair of pulsars, spinning neutron stars that shoot out jets of radiation.
- Declining plant and animal diversity.
There was disturbing news this year about the decline of species
diversity from large studies that surveyed amphibians, butterflies,
plants and birds.
- Water on tap. New results on the structure and chemical behaviour of water could reshape fields from chemistry to atmospheric science.
- Medicines for the World’s Poor.
"Public-private partnerships" emerged as a force in 2004, according to
Science magazine, affecting the way medicines are developed and
delivered to emerging nations.
- Genes in a Drop of Water. This
year, researchers hit on a new way to identify lifeforms too small and
too remote to see. They collected water from diverse environments and
sequenced the genes floating in it.
My personal favorite is Mars mission and the medicines for the world’s poor. Last one reminds me of a open source dual licensing model. Open source pharma !
(as always enjoy the Slashdot discussion at the bottom)
On why mathematics is will always cool:
Recently, Hardin and Saff analyzed a method for generating large
numbers of points that are spread with near uniformity over practically
any surface of any dimension. Their effort is described in the cover
article of the November issue of Notices of the American Mathematical
Society.
The procedure has a surprising number of applications. Among other
things, it comes in handy when trying to digitize curved surfaces for
computer graphics and animations with greater efficiency, in placing
the elements of a sonar net on the ocean bottom in the best locations
to detect the presence of submarines, and in testing radar systems in
aircraft to ensure uniform coverage.
Their theorems also help explain a variety of natural phenomena. They
describe some well known patterns such as that of spores on spherical
pollen grains and the way electrons distribute themselves on the
surface of a sphere.
They also promise to provide new insights into the nature of more
complex patterns such as the surface structures of some viruses and the
locations of cracks in crystalline materials. "It’s a nice mix of
mathematical theory, computation and physics," says Hardin.
