tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post1778142450931475830..comments2024-03-27T14:50:47.345-04:00Comments on <center>Sandwalk</center>: The 2012 Edge QuestionLarry Moranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756598746605455848noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-31656606378624099182012-01-18T18:39:23.153-05:002012-01-18T18:39:23.153-05:00I'd like to second "Eratosthenes' mea...I'd like to second "Eratosthenes' measurement of the Earth's circumference". Lucid thinking at its best.DKnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-70204754280384958932012-01-18T18:33:15.172-05:002012-01-18T18:33:15.172-05:00My favorite is Bart Kosko's story about how th...My favorite is Bart Kosko's story about how the Sun will, within a few billion years, become a red giant and incinerate the earth. And still later on, that the fate of the universe is heat death, as all atoms decay, leaving only quantum noise. <br /><br />I like this story because it is true, and understandable to almost everone, but also because I know that there are a great many close-minded people who just cannot accept that this is our Universe's fate. That they cannot accept that science, and science alone, has allowed us to know how our world, and even the Universe, ends.crfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10726414637021391906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-58375030379146103142012-01-18T15:22:15.238-05:002012-01-18T15:22:15.238-05:00Not sure why you should dislike the response on Pa...Not sure why you should dislike the response on Pascal's Wager. If you read the response, O'Reilly dispenses with the religious baggage and focusses on the core idea, which is decision theory. And decision theory (and its soulmate, Bayesianism) really is an elegant theory.Iainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09376945981386467046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-30456342565932957692012-01-18T13:54:47.529-05:002012-01-18T13:54:47.529-05:00I also liked the essay by Raphael Bousso and saved...I also liked the essay by Raphael Bousso and saved this passage to a collection of quotes I am compiling:<br />'Many great theories in physics carry within them a seed of their demise. This seed is a beautiful thing. It hints at profound discoveries and conceptual revolutions still to come. One day, the beautiful explanation that has just transformed our view of the Universe will be supplanted by another, even deeper insight. Quantitatively, the new theory must reproduce all the experimental successes of the old one. But qualitatively, it is likely to rest on novel concepts, allowing for hitherto unimaginable questions to be asked and knowledge to be gained'.Shawnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-23606428363402702252012-01-18T13:39:40.960-05:002012-01-18T13:39:40.960-05:00It's pretty obvious from the first sentence wh...It's pretty obvious from the first sentence why you disliked Helen Fisher's essay. <br /><br />"To me, epigenetics is the most monumental explanation to emerge in the social and biological sciences since Darwin proposed his theories of Natural Selection and Sexual Selection."<br /><br />No discussion of deacetylase, global demethylation events throughout development, or the important distinction between heritability on the cellular and organismal level. <br /><br />Fisher: " Indeed, in 2010, scientists wrote in Science magazine that epigenetic systems are now regarded as "heritable, self-perpetuating and reversible."<br /><br />The complete quote from the 2010 Science piece: "So what is epigenetics? An epigenetic system should be heritable, self-perpetuating, and reversible (Bonasio et al., p. 612). Whether histone modifications (and many noncoding RNAs) are epigenetic is debated; it is likely that relatively few of these modifications or RNAs will be self-perpetuating and inherited."gilltnoreply@blogger.com