Intro LO: The term reverse evolution in this Phys article (below) was new to me. Moreover, it’s “a term that tends to be controversial among evolutionary biologists”. Latter remark made me curious. “That's because evolution isn't supposed to have a rewind button. It's generally viewed as a one-way march toward adaptation, not a circular path back to traits once...
A local friend made the (Dutch) comment above. He urged me to consider this and write about it. His smirky smile suggested that his remark had an ambiguous (eg, sexual) context, which is rather common. Actually, Science (eg, Boston Uni, Physics, TH) agrees with his observation: Yes, friction is necessary for forward motion in many cases. When an object pushes...
Intro LO: Perhaps, the most important - though (very) implicit - conclusion is that all animal sounds are a form of communication. Our concept of (human) language is (“just”) a “single protein variant”. Moreover, this article strongly suggests that the Neanderthal must have had language skills, similar to ours. That would also support the ancient mating between Homo...
I suppose that many / most of you know examples of sentences by judges that have a political bias. The most common example is judges ruling about climate change, which is - by nature - a global rather than a national event. Supreme Courts appear to recognise such a political - and non-scientific - bias. Donald Trump changed the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court...
Intro LO: After digesting this recent Scientific American article, the conclusion is simple: it’s (nearly) impossible that life on planet Earth is a singular event within the Universe. There must be other life-forms throughout the Universe. Hence, science-fiction is (much) more like science - and technology - than like fiction. The (alleged) sightings of...
Mid December 2024, the journal Neuron published a study entitled The unbearable slowness of being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? I became aware through the NYT: The Speed of Human Thought Lags Far Behind Your Internet Connection, Study Finds. “It’s a bit of a counterweight to the endless hyperbole about how incredibly complex and powerful the human brain is,” said...
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