http://plus.maths.org/content/string-the...and-beyond
EXCERPT: ...Mathematics and physics have always influenced each other, with new mathematics being invented to describe nature, and old mathematics turning out to lend perfect descriptions for newly-discovered physical phenomena. String theory is no different and many mathematicians work on ideas inspired by it. These include the possible geometries of the hidden dimensions, the basic ideas of geometry when there is a minimum distance, the ways in which strings can split and come together, and the question of how we can relate strings to the particles in the world that we see.
String theory gives us an exciting vision of nature as miniscule bits of vibrating string in a space with hidden curled-up dimensions. All the implications of these ideas are yet to be understood. String theory is an active area of research with hundreds of people working to see how the theory fits together and produces the world we see around us....
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physic...cturalism/
EXCERPT: Under the heading of “structuralism in physics” there are three different but closely related research programs in philosophy of science and, in particular, in philosophy of physics. These programs were initiated by the work of Joseph Sneed, Günther Ludwig, and Erhard Scheibe, respectively, since the beginning of the 1970s. For the sake of simplicity we will use these names in order to refer to the three programs, without the intention of ignoring or minimizing the contributions of other scholars. [...] The activities of the structuralists have been mainly confined to Europe, especially Germany, and, for whatever reasons, largely ignored in the Anglo-American discussion.
[...] The three programs share the following characteristics and convictions:
• A metatheory of science requires a kind of formalization different from that already employed by scientific theories themselves.
• The structuralistic program yields a framework for the rational reconstruction of particular theories.
• A central tool of formalization is Bourbaki's concept of “species of structures”, as described in Bourbaki (1986).
Among the significant features of theories to be described are:
• Mathematical structure
• Empirical claims of a theory
• Function of theoretical terms
• Rôle of approximation
• Evolution of theories
• Intertheoretic relations
Medbots, Autodocs & Telemedicine
EXCERPT: ...One of the main and morally commendable reasons to create medical robots and telemedicine capabilities is to provide treatment to people in areas that do not have enough human medical professionals. For example, a medical specialist who lives in the United States could diagnose and treat patients in a remote part of the world using a suitable machine. With such machines, a patient could (in theory) have access to any medical professional in the world and this would certainly change medicine. True medical robots would obviously change medicine—after all, a medical robot would never get tired and such robots could, in theory, be sent all over the world to provide medical care. There is, of course, the usual concern about the impact of technology on jobs—if a robot can replace medical personnel and do so in a way that increases profits, that will certainly happen. While robots would certainly excel at programmable surgery and similar tasks, it will certainly be quite some time before robots are advanced enough to replace human medical professionals on a large scale
Another excellent reason to create medical robots and telemedicine capabilities has been made clear by the Ebola outbreak: medical personnel, paramedics and body handlers can be infected. While protective gear and protocols do exist, the gear is cumbersome, flawed and hot and people often fail to properly follow the protocols. While many people are moral heroes and put themselves at risk to treat the ill and bury the dead, there are no doubt people who are deterred by the very real possibility of a horrible death. Medical robots and telemedicine seem ideal for handling such cases....
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/201...pitalists/
EXCERPT: ...That humans live simultaneously real, physical lives and symbolic, meaningful existences means that they must die not once, but twice. As the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan wrote, it is possible in the human imagination for these two deaths, one symbolic and one real, to not entirely coincide. In such cases we enter a peculiar state, one he called “entre deux morts” — or between two deaths.
Those whose symbolic selves die while their bodies still live attain a kind of extra-worldly beauty. Lacan identified Sophocles’ great character Antigone with this state — condemned to death by Creon for having defied the state’s law by burying her treasonous brother, she burns with a righteous splendor that puts to shame Creon’s pathetic attachment to the state’s laws.
Those whose bodies die while their symbolic selves linger constitute an entirely different breed. Chained by a law or obligation to an animate state their bodies can no longer support, such beings become monstrous specters, condemned to walk the earth as embodiments of some insatiable hunger.
It is not too difficult to see in these two archetypes our modern vampires and zombies, the former “radiating a sublime beauty,” in Lacan’s words, the latter monstrous excrescences driven on by a fundamental imbalance in the world of men....
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/oct...-john-gray
EXCERPT: [...] A radically dualistic view of the world, in which good and evil are separate forces that have coexisted since the beginning of time, was held by the ancient Zoroastrians and Manicheans. These religions did not face the problem with which Christian apologists have struggled so painfully and for so long – how to reconcile the existence of an all-powerful and wholly good God with the fact of evil in the world. The worldview of George W Bush and Tony Blair is commonly described as Manichean, but this is unfair to the ancient religion. Mani, the third-century prophet who founded the faith, appears to have believed the outcome of the struggle was uncertain, whereas for Bush and Blair there could never be any doubt as to the ultimate triumph of good. In refusing to accept the permanency of evil they are no different from most western leaders.
[...] In its official forms, secular liberalism rejects the idea of evil. Many liberals would like to see the idea of evil replaced by a discourse of harm: we should talk instead about how people do damage to each other and themselves. But this view poses a problem of evil remarkably similar to that which has troubled Christian believers. If every human being is born a liberal – as these latter-day disciples of Pelagius appear to believe – why have so many, seemingly of their own free will, given their lives to regimes and movements that are essentially repressive, cruel and violent? Why do human beings knowingly harm others and themselves? Unable to account for these facts, liberals have resorted to a language of dark and evil forces much like that of dualistic religions....
Posted by: C C - Oct 28, 2014 04:14 AM - Forum: Zymology
- No Replies
Book review: ‘The Brewer’s Tale,’ a history of beer, by William Bostwick
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/b...story.html
EXCERPT: ...In keeping with the maker culture we live in today, Bostwick wisely structures “The Brewer’s Tale” around the makers, starting with the Babylonians, then moving on to shamans, monks, farmers, patriots, industrialists and so on. In every chapter he describes the ancient methods once used to brew beer and the reasons behind them — the beer-spoiling length of a voyage to India, say, or an effort to ward off the plague — and then he attempts a modern re-creation of an old recipe. Bostwick admits to being a careless home brewer, keeping no records and throwing in handfuls of strange but historically accurate ingredients....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/23...56896.html
EXCERPT: We're living longer than ever: The average American born in 2013 will be alive nearly four years longer than someone born 20 years ago. But until recently, it wasn't clear if the years we've added to our lives were good-quality years.
A recent study from the University of Massachusetts Medical School starts to answer that question. Researchers found that today, 25 year olds can expect to live "2.4 more years of a healthy life" and 65 year olds can look forward to 1.7 extra healthy years than people who lived two decades back.
However, those extra years are far from guaranteed. Childhood obesity and its associated diseases threaten to reverse the upward tick of American life expectancy, which is currently calculated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be just shy of 79 years.
Much of making it to your 100th birthday is beyond your control, as longevity is partly dictated by genetics and the medical history and health habits of your parents and grandparents. But there are also a handful (okay, a lot) of lifespan-enhancing practices that you can adopt today -- like taking your allotted vacation days, eating more leafy greens and getting enough sleep.
We scoured the research and sought advice from centenarians themselves. And while not all of these life-expanders are doable for everyone ("Be born in Japan," for example!), there is so much you can do to improve your odds of a long and healthful old age.
Find out what you're already doing right and where you can still improve in our list of 100 ways to live to 100....
