TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[plaques]

Robotic science? I have read about super computers using IT algorithm programmes to look through thousands of drug reports to compare additional drug usage possibilities. This is far quicker than human searching which could easily miss a correlation that could save months of work. .

[Stanley]

We use search engines every day now Ken. Exactly the same thing.

[Tizer]

This sounds exciting!
`Nuclear blast sends star hurtling across galaxy' LINK

[Stanley]

I heard the report about that Peter. A wild and woolly universe! (Glad it missed us!)

[Stanley]

The latest images of the sun. (LINK) The orbiter will get a lot closer than this, we ain't seen nothing yet. Amazing achievement.

[Tizer]

The last Sky at Night programme was all about that research. It will help explain how the sun `works' and give us more information about how our telecomms might be affected in the future.

This makes me think of Terry Pratchett. In his Discworld novels he liked to talk about a magical colour that was blacker than black - perhaps these fish know what he knew!
`Scientists shed light on how the blackest fish in the sea 'disappear' LINK

[Stanley]

Could the pandemic and increasingly obvious evidence of global warming be increasing respect for the views of scientists and researchers? They don't always get it right but I get the feeling they are carrying more weight of late.

[Whyperion]

Generally, folk have had a good respect for scientists. The questioning has arisen on Statistics - collection, collation and presentation. Methodology - Repeatable and Replicable. Publicity- Too Soon and Hedlining to Provide 'evidence' for a view or reporters taking out of context. Control and Funding - Too Much ? What IF experimentation without controls or being thought through in Lab settings. Objectives not clearly set, Risk Assesments based at best on known knowns and the known Unknowns.
However : WHO confusion - and it has to be more than just mis-calculating the effectiveness of infection and passing on of Covid-19. And resonable discussion on climate change - what is driving it, and how it can be reversed painted on the background on general changes in other natural effects of the planet, and where is the best change made - how can the politics be influenced , there is a feeling that many are being asked to make sacrifices in their own lives that a few are not willing to make in their own which would have bigger effects.

[Tizer]

I'd love to be able to confirm that there is increasing respect for the views of scientists and researchers, boosted by the pandemic and climate change, but unfortunately the upsurge in populism is undermining it. Look at Trump's treatment of Fauci, for example. I'm sure respect for scientists, technologists and engineers is gaining more traction among the educated, open-minded folk but the others are strengthening their disbelief. The divide is getting wider and deeper. Look at the countries around the world who leaders are refusing to take action against the virus and instead are telling their people `God will protect you'. The only answer I can see is to ensure that education in the very early years of life gives children a firm basis for becoming responsible adults capable of making sensible decisions on technical matters as well as social.

[Stanley]

"ensure that education in the very early years of life gives children a firm basis for becoming responsible adults capable of making sensible decisions on technical matters as well as social."
Exactly Peter! I have been advocating just that for as long as I can remember.

[Tizer]

Let's hope someone is listening out there!

`River Thames 'severely polluted with plastic'' LINK
`The River Thames has some of the highest recorded levels of microplastics for any river in the world. Scientists have estimated that 94,000 microplastics per second flow down the river in places. The quantity exceeds that measured in other European rivers, such as the Danube and Rhine. Tiny bits of plastic have been found inside the bodies of crabs living in the Thames. And wet wipes flushed down the toilet are accumulating in large numbers on the shoreline..'.

[Stanley]

I heard that report Peter. We aren't fit to inhabit the planet! If I have any disposable plastic I put it in the waste bin and not the lavatory. That way I can be reasonably sure it goes to land fill or incineration, both imperfect but the best I can do. I say 'reasonably' but I am not 100% certain of that.

[Sue]

I had an interesting discussion with my niece the other day. She is an intelligent lovely girl but not scientific in any way. She was trying to convince me that to be in touch with my spiritual side I need to dispense with logic and science. Now the spiritual discussion is something else, but I was a little annoyed. I told her spirituality may be her gift, but logic and science was mine. I was never taught to be logical or a scientist I just was. I just learned to make the best of my gift. She seemed to think a knowledge of science was totally unnecessary to lead a fulfilled life. I told her I was very happy with ME and found little reason to change.

I feel I have successfully combined my scientific interest and abilities with more artistic interests since I retired. It is possible to be both.I have found over the years as a teacher of adults that some can do science and logic others just can’t, but rather than accepting the fact, many who can’t try to belittle those that can as if it is a poor quality to have. Its as if it is impossible to have an interest in matters scientific even if you can’t do it yourself. I blame much of this on the BALANCED SCIENCE curriculum of 20 years ago. Many of my ex students were left confused and rather bored with it all, and those that went on to study science found they had so much more still to learn than those that did individual sciences.


Sorry this was written at two different times and amended, as it was time to get up a d have a shower!

[Tizer]

Like most scientists I'm strong on logic but I'm also creative when pursuing research. I don't believe in supernatural beings like gods but I have great respect for the world around me, both living and non-living; in fact I have more respect than those religious people who start wars, abuse others and mess up the environment. I'm afraid if your niece believes a knowledge of science is totally unnecessary to lead a fulfilled life she's going to miss out on a lot in the future. We're in a scientific world and it's going to get more so as the years go by. Those with no knowledge of science are going to find it increasingly to cope with that world. It's another example of the divides in society that are getting wider.

Stanley, re your comment about not putting plastics down the loo. I've probably mentioned before how Mrs Tiz's grandfather, an engineer moved to New Zealand to be in charge of Auckland's water and sewage services. One of the first things he had to tackle was a blockage in a main sewer. None of the white workers would go down it but grandad led a team of Maoris down and they found a Maori canoe in the sewer!

[Sue]

I so agree Tizer. The discussion with my niece was going down a different route at the time, but I have frequently had discussions along your lines with friends and ex students . I think science is very important in this day and age, but i am not sure how it is motivated in the young who don’t want to know. Many a non scientific student has passed through my classes starting with nothing and leaving to do so e sort of biological , environmental or health orientated degree. I am proud of that fact, but I am not sure my motivational powers would activate a younger generation

[plaques]

Science as a basis for understanding generally follows a step by step advancement to an end result but to quote Richard Feynman what do you do when you don't get a result? Answer, You make a guess. Intuition or something else takes over. Creative Artists and composing musicians get inspiration from somewhere, but where. Jacob wrestling with the angel, Scientists with Black Holes. Much the same thing in my mind.

[Stanley]

I have no objection to people having different belief systems, in some cases I feel sorry for them, like the Jehovah's Witnesses who used to stand every day at the entrance to the Pioneer car park. ( They are absent of late... Covid?) What I seriously object to is them trying to persuade me that they have all the answers. What they don't know is that despite having a very logical brain, I have probably read more theology than all of them put together. After all, I don't go round in public banging on about harmonics in drive trains or fretting corrosion!
Sue, it's different with your niece. The young tend to think they are the first to discover things like sex and spirituality and genuinely want to share their blinding insights. They know that you understand the mechanics of sex, you have proved that by procreating but as for anything beyond the Missionary Position and in the dark, they would be shocked if they knew the truth. (I once saw a big study in the State on that subject and it was hilarious!)
I don't seem to have that problem, my kids all rail about the fact they turn into Stanley as they get older.... As for Bible Bangers, Jack identifies them at 100 feet and growls.

[Tizer]

Coincidentally we listened to this radio programme last night...
`Thinking Allowed: Strategic ignorance and knowledge resistance' LINK
Laurie Taylor talks to Mikael Klintman, Professor of Sociology at the University of Lund, Sweden about our capacity for resisting insights from others. At all levels of society, he argues, our world is becoming increasingly dominated by an inability, even refusal, to engage with others' ideas. It does not bode well either for democracy or for science. They're joined by Linsey McGoey, Professor of Sociology at the University at Essex, whose new study explores the use of deliberate and wilful ignorance by elites in pursuit of the retention of power - from News International's hacking scandal to the fire at Grenfell Tower.'

[Stanley]

"the use of deliberate and wilful ignorance by elites in pursuit of the retention of power"
Good point. Am I alone in thinking that this ploy has been raised to an art form today?
Sandwich flammable plastic between two sheets of aluminium and you have a cladding sheet that is cheaper than the opposition. Never mind (or ignore) the fact it's a combustion hazard. Everyone knew that but conveniently ignored it, particularly Westminster Council.
Worse still in my mind is when a government commissions a report, like the Dilnot Report on Social Care, it is universally praised for its clarity and insight and then completely ignored because it's expensive and will curtail the pursuit of vanity projects like Cross Rail or HS2.
Now contrast the opposite, Cummings reads a book by some weirdo social engineer, gets enthusiastic and persuades Johnson it's the 'in thing' and 'new thinking'. And away we go down the wrong track. Rasputin springs to mind. Think Roger Stone and Milton Crosby.

[Stanley]

Back to science. I listened to a conversation on world service. A Japanese scientist was describing how, due to much higher resolution of images of the Moon they have formulated a view that 800 million years ago a large asteroid 100km in diameter broke up and left the asteroid belt resulting in a bombardment of the Moon and Earth as well. When asked why we see no evidence of this on Earth he said that due to the oceans and the fact that Earth was geologically active, the craters and scars have largely cleared up. The question was raised about the coincidence that this coincides with a shift to very cold weather on Earth. It was agreed that while there is no clear linkage, the impact of so many strikes could have obscured the atmosphere and caused the cooling.
None of this is new but what fascinates me is the fact that in a world beset by so many immediate problems good brains are still asking fundamental questions like this.
If you are interested look at this LINK.

[Tizer]

Almost all the exposed surface of Earth has been recycled by plate tectonics over the millenia and there is little visible (on both the oceanic and continental crust) that is older than a few hundred million years. But there are a few very old craters - the oldest was recently identified in Greenland as about 3 billion years old. The `shift to very cold weather on Earth would probably be `Snowball Earth' which occurred about 650 million years ago.

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

When I caught a snatch of this on the radio I thought it was good news. I mistakenly thought the Afghan opium growers had given up growing the stuff and covered their fields with solar panels instead to make their money out of that instead of drugs. I should have known better - they'd never make as good a living out of solar power as they do from opium!
`What the heroin industry can teach us about solar power' LINK

[Stanley]

Yes, I noted that as well Peter. Cheaper than diesel power for their irrigation pumps.
What struck me was that it gives the lie to the usually promoted image of 'backwards peasant farmers'! We still suffer from the colonial image.

[Tizer]

Only a brief video but good to hear and see him looking so well and optimistic at 101!...
`James Lovelock: Gaia theory creator on coronavirus and turning 101' LINK