Philosophy Wire: Change cranium… because?!?

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-03-17]: Surgeons have replaced 75 percent of a man’s skull with a custom-designed polymer cranium constructed with a 3-D printer. The surgery took place on March 4 and is the first U.S. case following the FDA’s approval of the implants last month. The patient’s reason for needing such extensive replacement surgery has not been revealed. [source: Science News] “Not revealed” ?!? What does that even mean? This is the first time I hear of a successful surgery that does not reveal the thing it “fixed”. We have all heard of weird medical experiments. Let us just hope this is not another case of “experimenting to earn more money”… Fixing what does not need fixing is not a first for modern medicine…

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Philosophy Wire: WIMP, Dark Matter, scientific delusions…

The unknown is starting to take shape. The nameless gets named. WIMP is the name you will hear more often in the future when Dark Matter is analyzed… And rest assured that someday there will be experiments that will “find” it… Because when you look for something you always find it... ALWAYS. After all, after you have named a hypothetical particle only a small step separates you from “discovering” it: one single measurement [like this] which has a value near the one you expect suffices for you to start celebrating (see Higgs)…

 

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The 100th monkey effect

Glycerine crystals which cannot be formulated in labs. When efforts reach a critical mass, suddently all laboratories in the world can create crystals by heating more than 100g of material! [1] Monkeys in a specific area learned by accident how to clean their food with water. When the 100th monkey learns the trick, suddently that knowledge is transferred to all the monkeys around the world! [2] Could Jung have discovered something more with his collective unconscious? What kind of fields bind the world together?

Philosophy Wire: Earth, Core, Peach…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-11-12]: An experiment to recreate the extreme conditions of the centre of the Earth was officially opened on Thursday. During the experiment samples are compressed at a pressure millions of times higher than that on the Earth's surface. High-power lasers are then fired through the diamonds at the samples, heating them to higher than 10,000C. Then X-rays are used as a probe to determine the precise composition and chemistry of samples [source: BBC News]. Science today is based on the premise that all phenomena can be reproduced (preferably to a funded laboratory). But what happens if that is not possible? Nature is full of unique phenomena. You cannot learn the taste of a peach unless you eat it, Buddhists say. The uniqueness of many phenomena is the Achilles's Heel of exact science today…

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Philosophy Wire: Faster than light, more stupid than Borat…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-09-23]: Scientists look baffled after discovering particles that seem to have travelled with a speed greater than the speed of light [source: BBC News] !!! If this is confirmed, all physics will have to be re-written from scratch! This happens when you build whole skyscrapers (physics modern models for the cosmos) on not-so-solid foundations (one experiment showing that the speed of light is constant regardless of the reference system)…

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Philosophy Wire: Animal experiments, Necessity and Ethics

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-07-13]: Experiments on animals increased in UK this year, following the steady increasing trend of the last years [πηγή: BBC News]. Many people criticize experiments on animals, but what is the other alternative? If you have done all the research you can do on a dish, how can you find out the consequences of a drug on a living organism if you do not test on a living organism? On the other hand, which can be the rules of such experimentation? Tough questions which all come down to one simple thing: Necessity is what drives our actions…

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Philosophy Wire: The electron, Mach and the faith in our senses

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-05-28]: A research from Imperial College London scientists shows that electron is almost perfectly spherical [source: BBC News]. The shape of the electron is important to find out if suppersymmetry exists or not. But wait a minute... You said that they are searching for the shape of the electron? But, haven't they seen it? No? But then how... Well, Mach would be very happy hearing this...

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Philosophy Wire: One particle, two particles, three... Zzzzzzz...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-04-27]: An internal CERN memo that "leaked" (not that the scientists of the 10 billion not-nearly-working collider do not need any advertisement...) was refering to the  possible doscovery of a new particle that could be the Higgs particle all scientists are craving for [source:  web news]. Ouaou.... Impressive... Maybe I will not sleep tonight due to my anxiety for the exceptional "discovery"... In the absense of a genious like Einstein, science has become more and more boring... No new ideas... No new models for the interpretation of the world... We have the "particles model" and we keep following it like sheep... No new theory... No new burst of genious like that of de Broige (dual nature of particles - both particles and waves) or Einstein (relativity of time and space)... In the old days theories changes like we now shange shirts... Now the new "god" is the  "particle" and we will continue to make them smash on each other until we are bored to death... And let me imagine... After the Higgs particle we will find... another particle! And then another! And another! Hmmmm.... I am feeling sleepy... One particle... Two partic.... Zzzzzzz...

Ah! Here! More! [2017-06-08]

Zzzzzzz....

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Philosophy Wire: Water, cooling, science and common sense...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-03-26]: Japanese scientists were "surprised" to find that the radiation level in the sea near the damaged nuclear plant of Fukosima is elevated well beyond the "proper" levels. What a shock... Water that was used to cool a wrecked nuclear reactor and then spilled again in the sea, contains radiation...(!!!) Science sometimes needs "evidence" to "prove" what the human common sense would tell us in seconds. If we wanted to prove that we live, we would die before science "proved" it...

PS. It is like the debate of whether the Japan earthquake will initialize a "domino" effect for the whole world. Science has yet to "prove" it, but Myanmar is now counting its dead...

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