http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/201...ore-154632
EXCERPT: [...] This is merely the latest example of a powerful rhetoric centered on the word “terrorism” that has shaped — and continues to shape — popular conceptions about contemporary political conflicts, making it difficult to speak intelligently about their real sources. If individuals and groups are portrayed as irrational, barbaric, and beyond the pale of negotiation and compromise, as this rhetoric would have it, then asking why they resort to terrorism is viewed as pointless, needlessly accommodating, or, at best, mere pathological curiosity. Those normally inclined to ask “Why?” are in danger of being labeled “soft” on terrorism, while the more militant use the “terrorist” label to blur the distinction between critical examination and appeasement....
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/scienc...onism.html
EXCERPT: [...] This month a group of Native Hawaiians, playing drums and chanting, blocked the road to a construction site near the top of Mauna Kea and stopped the groundbreaking ceremony for the Thirty Meter Telescope, often called T.M.T. Larger than any now on earth, it is designed to see all the way back to the first glimmers of starlight — a triumph in astronomy’s quest to understand the origin of everything. But for the protesters, dressed in ceremonial robes and carrying palm fronds, T.M.T. has a different meaning: “too many telescopes.” For them the mountain is a sacred place where the Sky Father and the Earth Mother coupled and gave birth to the Hawaiian people. They don’t all mean that metaphorically. They consider the telescope — it will be the 14th on Mauna Kea — the latest insult to their gods. Push them too far, the demonstrators warned, and Mauna Kea, a volcano, will erupt in revenge....
Matrix: Simulating the world Part I - Particle models
http://plus.maths.org/content/os/issue42...nell/index
EXCERPT: Building models forms the core of many areas of scientific and engineering research. Essentially, a model is a representation of a complex system that has been simplified in different ways to help understand its behaviour. An aeronautical engineer, for example, might build a miniaturised physical model of a fighter plane to test in a wind tunnel. In modern times, more and more modelling is being performed by computers — running mathematical models at very high rates of calculations. A computer model of the flow of air over a supersonic wing is incredibly sophisticated, but it is based on very basic principles of program design and simulation. In this article, the first half of a two-part feature on model behaviour, we'll take a look at how simple computer models can be programmed to study some very interesting natural systems as well as focus on how a few scientists are using similar models in their own front-line research....
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Matrix: Simulating the world Part II: cellular automata
http://plus.maths.org/content/matrix-sim...r-automata
EXCERPT: In the first part of Simulating the World we saw how simple mathematical models can be built to study everything from the flocking of birds to the collision of entire galaxies. In these examples, a matrix, or a grid of numbers, was used as a convenient way of storing information on all the objects included in the simulation, so that it can be updated each time step as the simulation progresses. In this second article, we'll take a look at another class of mathematical models; ones where the matrix or array isn't just a way of storing information during the simulation, but actually is the simulation itself.
Many real-world situations can be simplified as a sequence of objects in a line or an arrangement across a flat space — in other words, they can be faithfully represented by either a list of numbers (a one-dimensional matrix) or a regular grid of cells (a two-dimensional matrix). During the course of the simulation, the objects interact with those near-by according to a set of predefined rules, with the identity of each discrete position on the line or plane changing over time. Such a system is called a cellular automaton model....
http://plus.maths.org/content/cognition-...nd-riemann
EXCERPT: Modern neuroscience suggests that number, space and time aren't so much features of the outside world but more a result of the brain circuitry we evolved to move around in it. And this circuitry is all about judging less than/greater than relationships. In the 19th century the mathematician Bernard Riemann suggested that the mathematical ideas of space, quantity and measure should not depend on the outside world, but defined abstractly and in relation to each other. Joselle DiNunzio Kehoe finds some interesting parallels between these two ideas....
http://plus.maths.org/content/designing-loudspeakers
EXCERPT: The loudspeaker cone is forced to vibrate by an electric current passing through a coil at its base set in a magnetic field. When the cone vibrates, the vibration is transferred to the air and thus to our ear-drums. In this article we consider briefly two aspects of the loudspeaker. Firstly, the vibration of the cone itself and secondly, the air in the box or cabinet which contains the cone....
http://plus.maths.org/content/richard-elwes
EXCERPT: [...] Do higher dimensions exist? Mathematics provides a surprisingly emphatic answer to this question. Just as a 2-dimensional plane can be described by pairs of coordinates such as (5,6) with reference to a pair of axes, so 3-dimensional space can be described by triples of numbers such as (5,6,3). Of course we can continue this line of thought: 4-dimensional space, for a mathematician, is identified with the sets of quadruples of real numbers, such as (5,6,3,2). This procedure extends to all higher dimensions. Of course this does not answer the physicist's question, of whether such dimensions have any objective physical existence. But mathematically, at least, as long as you believe in numbers, you don't have much choice but to believe in 4-dimensional space too.
Well that is fine, but how can such spaces be imagined? What does the lair of Yog-Sothoth actually look like? This is a much harder question to answer, since our brains are not wired to see in more dimensions than three. But again, mathematical techniques can help, firstly by allowing us to generalise the phenomena that we do see in more familiar spaces....
http://www.theguardian.com/science/life-...tunnelling
EXCERPT: Quantum tunnelling sounds like science fiction, and does indeed feature quite often in the genre. But it is real, and plays a role in nuclear fusion, chemical reactions and the fate of the universe. Here’s how it works... The recent claim from Stark Industries Lockeed Martin that a compact fusion reactor could be built soon is, if true, a breakthrough in engineering rather than basic physics. The basic physics of fusion has been known for some time, and a key element of understanding it is quantum tunnelling. Nuclei have a positive electric charge, and since like charges repel, there is an energy barrier to be overcome. Once the barrier is overcome, the strong nuclear force takes over. One way of overcoming the barrier is ‘quantum tunnelling’, and, weird though it sounds (and indeed is) the maths and physics of that is quite well understood....
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/c...inaccurate
EXCERPT: Abraham et al. show that a paper by ‘sceptics’ Spencer & Braswell is rife with unrealistic assumptions in an overly simple model... Well, again this year, I’ve wasted my time (and my colleagues’ time) by rebutting a 2014 paper published by the darling of the Dwindling Few, Roy Spencer. Dr. Spencer wrote a paper earlier this year that used a very simple ocean model to suggest that standard climate models overestimate the Earth’s sensitivity to carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere. You can see his manuscript here although it is behind a paywall so you will have to shell out about $40 to read it. Dr. Spencer and his colleague Danny Braswell made a number of basic math and physics errors in the article that call into question their conclusions....
