Jan 13, 2017 06:45 PM
The Link Between Complicated Pregnancies and Child Prodigies
http://m.nautil.us/blog/the-link-between...-prodigies
EXCERPT: [...] The role of prenatal experience in the development of prodigies is a relatively new area of study, with attention beginning to be focused in the mid 1980s. One finding gleaned so far is an apparent over-representation of complicated pregnancies and premature births. For instance, the mother of Jake Barnett (a renowned math and physics prodigy) was hospitalized multiple times before giving birth. In another notable case, the mother of an eventual prodigy had an accident while pregnant, but not just any accident—she fell as she was helping her husband fight off an intruder they surprised trying to break into their house. Such instances seem to parallel the accidents and traumas that befell Alonzo Clemens and Jason Padgett, not to mention numerous other congenital and acquired savants.
[...] Tufts University psychologist David Henry Feldman presented a report that touches on the conjunction between the super memory of child prodigies and difficult pregnancies. One such child (pseudonym Adam) related, on the one hand, what seemed to be memories of his birth, including reaction to the bright lights of the delivery room and the placement of a suctioning bulb into his nose. He also related apparently prenatal memories, such as the sound of his mother’s singing and “the walls closing in on me—they hurt.” What makes this latter point so remarkable is that his mother’s pregnancy was beset by numerous complications, including uterine contractions that threatened to terminate the pregnancy from the fourth month onward.
Another indicator of the role that prenatal development may play among prodigies is the increased occurrence of preeclampsia among mothers of prodigies-to-be. Preeclampsia is a condition marked by a sudden rise in blood pressure and swelling of the face, hands, and feet. It generally occurs during the late second or third trimester and may be caused by an under-developed placenta. That, in turn, may be due to a genetic defect leading the mother’s immune system to treat the placenta like an invader.
It turns out that preeclampsia, in addition to being associated with more than its share of child prodigies is also significantly linked to the development of autism....
Why Rotation Makes No Sense Sometimes
http://m.nautil.us/blog/why-rotation-mak...-sometimes
EXCERPT: [...] Today, physicists think that Newtonian gravitation is merely a useful approximation to general relativity, a different theory of space, time, and gravitation that Einstein developed about a century ago. It turns out that orbital rotation in general relativity is much more subtle than Newton, or anyone else before the 20th century, imagined. In fact, David Malament, a philosopher of physics at the University of California, Irvine, has shown that there is no notion of rotation in general relativity that lives up to the basic picture sketched above. [...] Does this mean that the earth does not orbit around the sun? Not so fast. As it happens, Newton’s theory provides an excellent approximation to general relativity in our solar system, where the effects of frame dragging are very small. So for all practical purposes, it is still appropriate to say that the earth orbits the sun. But what Malament’s results do show is that rotation is a fragile concept. There are more extreme cases [...] where [...] the very concept of rotation breaks down....
http://m.nautil.us/blog/the-link-between...-prodigies
EXCERPT: [...] The role of prenatal experience in the development of prodigies is a relatively new area of study, with attention beginning to be focused in the mid 1980s. One finding gleaned so far is an apparent over-representation of complicated pregnancies and premature births. For instance, the mother of Jake Barnett (a renowned math and physics prodigy) was hospitalized multiple times before giving birth. In another notable case, the mother of an eventual prodigy had an accident while pregnant, but not just any accident—she fell as she was helping her husband fight off an intruder they surprised trying to break into their house. Such instances seem to parallel the accidents and traumas that befell Alonzo Clemens and Jason Padgett, not to mention numerous other congenital and acquired savants.
[...] Tufts University psychologist David Henry Feldman presented a report that touches on the conjunction between the super memory of child prodigies and difficult pregnancies. One such child (pseudonym Adam) related, on the one hand, what seemed to be memories of his birth, including reaction to the bright lights of the delivery room and the placement of a suctioning bulb into his nose. He also related apparently prenatal memories, such as the sound of his mother’s singing and “the walls closing in on me—they hurt.” What makes this latter point so remarkable is that his mother’s pregnancy was beset by numerous complications, including uterine contractions that threatened to terminate the pregnancy from the fourth month onward.
Another indicator of the role that prenatal development may play among prodigies is the increased occurrence of preeclampsia among mothers of prodigies-to-be. Preeclampsia is a condition marked by a sudden rise in blood pressure and swelling of the face, hands, and feet. It generally occurs during the late second or third trimester and may be caused by an under-developed placenta. That, in turn, may be due to a genetic defect leading the mother’s immune system to treat the placenta like an invader.
It turns out that preeclampsia, in addition to being associated with more than its share of child prodigies is also significantly linked to the development of autism....
Why Rotation Makes No Sense Sometimes
http://m.nautil.us/blog/why-rotation-mak...-sometimes
EXCERPT: [...] Today, physicists think that Newtonian gravitation is merely a useful approximation to general relativity, a different theory of space, time, and gravitation that Einstein developed about a century ago. It turns out that orbital rotation in general relativity is much more subtle than Newton, or anyone else before the 20th century, imagined. In fact, David Malament, a philosopher of physics at the University of California, Irvine, has shown that there is no notion of rotation in general relativity that lives up to the basic picture sketched above. [...] Does this mean that the earth does not orbit around the sun? Not so fast. As it happens, Newton’s theory provides an excellent approximation to general relativity in our solar system, where the effects of frame dragging are very small. So for all practical purposes, it is still appropriate to say that the earth orbits the sun. But what Malament’s results do show is that rotation is a fragile concept. There are more extreme cases [...] where [...] the very concept of rotation breaks down....