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typesearch classsearch-field placeholderSearch … value names />				/label>				input typesubmit classsearch-submit valueSearch />			/form>				/nav>!-- #site-navigation -->			/div>!-- #navbar -->		/header>!-- #masthead -->		div idmain classsite-main>	div idprimary classcontent-area>		div idcontent classsite-content rolemain>												article idpost-802 classpost-802 post type-post status-publish format-standard sticky hentry category-education-2 category-environment category-physics category-science category-science-communication category-the-scientific-method category-thingsexplained tag-communication tag-environment tag-global-warming tag-physics tag-proof tag-science tag-science-communication tag-the-scientific-method tag-theories tag-theory>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p802 relbookmark>What exactly is temperature? Ever wondered?/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classfeatured-post>Sticky/span>span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p802 titlePermalink to What exactly is temperature? Ever wondered? relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2010-11-03T16:04:40+00:00>November 3, 2010/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat9 relcategory>Education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat10 relcategory>Environment/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat20 relcategory>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat26 relcategory>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat27 relcategory>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat31 relcategory>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat244 relcategory>Things Explained/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagcommunication reltag>communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagenvironment reltag>Environment/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagglobal-warming reltag>global warming/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagphysics reltag>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagproof reltag>proof/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience-communication reltag>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagthe-scientific-method reltag>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheories reltag>theories/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheory reltag>theory/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>We take it for granted. We understand it. It is obvious what temperature is. Cold, warm, hot…obvious./p>p>But how many of us have asked the next question: what is the real difference between a hot stone and a cold one? The answer is interesting and helps us to realise that measuring temperature is much trickier than we tend to suppose./p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/2010/11/03/what-exactly-is-temperature/hot_metal/ relattachment wp-att-915>img decodingasync classalignleft size-medium wp-image-915 styleborder:10px solid white; titlehot_metal srchttp://jarrodhart.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/hot_metal.jpg?w200 alt width200 height145 />/a>/p>p>Over many hundreds of years, many clever people have devised lots of experiments to understand what temperature is, I hope in this article to round up the facts!/p>h3>Temperature and Energy/h3>p>For much of history, there were only a few sources of heat – the sun, fire, lava and of course the warmth of living creatures./p>p>People were puzzled by what created it, but it was immediately obvious that it had one consistency – whenever it had the chance, it flowed – put something hot next to something cold, and the heat would flow./p>p>Of course you could argue that it was the ‘cold’ that flowed (the other way), but there were no obvious sources of ‘cold’. While ice was clearly cold, it was not a sustainable ‘source’ of cold the way a fire was./p>p>It was also noted that heat melted things – like fat or butter and that it make some liquids (like molasses) thinner. It could even boil water and make it ‘vanish’. The mechanisms for these were unknown and a source of fascination for early scientists./p>p>a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyles_law>Early experimenters/a> noticed that gases would increase in volume upon heating, and that compressing gases would cause them to heat up. They also investigated other sources of heat, like friction, (rubbing your hands together)./p>p>It was the work with gas that led to the big breakthrough. Boyle and Hooke, as well as Edme Marriotte, working in the 17th century, realized that the temperature of a gas would increase consistently with pressure, and like-wise, decrease consistently with pressure. This sounds unremarkable, until you note that you can only decrease pressure so much…/p>p>Once you have a vacuum (no pressure), you should have ‘no temperature’. Thus their observations implied that there really was a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_zero>a limit/a> to how cold things could get, and predicted it was around -275 Celsius. They were of course unable to cool anything that far simply by expanding it because heat always flows into cold things, so to achieve this you need much better insulation than they had available./p>p>So they had a big clue in the search to understand what temperature is, but still no explanation./p>p>It took until 1738 until another great scientist moved us forward. Daniel Bernoulli realised you could use Newton’s (relatively new) laws to derive Boyle’s temperature-pressure relationship. He basically asked: what if gas was made of a large number of very small billiard balls flying around crashing into everything? What if pressure was just the result of all these collisions? Using this theory he realised, for the first time I think, what a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature>temperature/a> truly is./p>div idattachment_924 stylewidth: 310px classwp-caption alignright>a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Translational_motion.gif>img fetchpriorityhigh decodingasync aria-describedbycaption-attachment-924 classsize-full wp-image-924 titleTranslational_motion srchttp://jarrodhart.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/translational_motion.gif alt width300 height263 />/a>p idcaption-attachment-924 classwp-caption-text>Source: Wikimedia Commons/p>/div>p>It turns out that his model equated temperature with the speed of the billiard balls. A hot gas only differs from a cold gas in the speed of the molecules flying around. Faster molecules crash with more momentum and thus impart more pressure. Squashing the gas into a smaller volume does not give them more speed, but means more collisions each second, so higher pressure./p>p>This is a pretty serious finding. It basically says ‘there is no such thing as temperature’. There is only lots of little balls flying around, and their number and speed dictate the pressure they exert, and there is no ‘temperature’./p>p>If we put a thermometer into the gas, what is it detecting then? Great question./p>p>It turns out that solids are also made of lots of balls, except, instead of being free to fly around, they are trapped in a matrix. When a solid is exposed to a hot gas,  it is bombarded by fast flying atoms. When a solid atom is hit, instead of flying off, it starts to vibrate, like a ball constrained by a network of springs./p>p>So the ‘temperature of a solid is also a measure of speed of motion, but rather than linear speed it’s a measure of the speed of vibration. This makes a lot of sense – as the solid gets hotter, the balls are going literally ‘ballistic’ and eventually have enough speed to break the shackles of the matrix (aka melting)./p>div idattachment_925 stylewidth: 290px classwp-caption alignleft>a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thermally_Agitated_Molecule.gif>img decodingasync aria-describedbycaption-attachment-925 classsize-full wp-image-925 titleThermally_Agitated_Molecule srchttp://jarrodhart.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/thermally_agitated_molecule.gif alt width280 height280 />/a>p idcaption-attachment-925 classwp-caption-text>Source: Wikimedia Commons/p>/div>p>So this model of heat as ‘movement’ not only explains how gases exert pressure, but also explains how heat flows (through molecular collisions) and why things melt or vaporise./p>p>More importantly, it shows that temperature is really just a symptom of another, more familiar, sort of energy – movement (or em>kinetic/em>) energy./p>p>Energy a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/2010/08/24/energy-explained/>is a whole story of its own/a>, but we can see now how energy and temperature relate – and how we can use energy to make things hot and cold./p>h3>Making Things Hot/h3>p>There are many easy ways to make things hot. Electricity is a very convenient tool for heating – it turns out that when electric current flows, the torrent of electrons cannot help but buffet the atoms in the wire, and as they are not free to fly away, they just vibrate ever faster, ‘heating’ up./p>p>Another way to heat things is with fire. Fire is just a chemical reaction – many types of molecules (like methane, or alcohol) contain a lot of ‘tension’, that is to say, they are like loaded springs just waiting to go off. Other molecules (often oxygen)  hold the ‘key’ to unlocking the spring, and when the springs go off, as you can imagine, it is like a room full of mousetraps and ping-pong balls – and all that motion – means heat./p>p>youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?vPmy5fivI_4U/p>h3>Making Things Cold/h3>p>Manipulating energy flows to make things cold is much trickier./p>p>One way it to just put the thing you want to cool in a cold environment – like the north pole. But what if you want to make something colder than its surroundings?/p>p>Well there is a way. We learned earlier that gases  get hot when compressed – it turns out they do the opposite when decompressed or ‘vented’. This is the principle that makes the spray from aerosol cans (deodorant, lighter fluid, etc) cold. So how can we use this? First we use a compressor to compress a gas (most any gas will do); in the process it will warm up, then you let it cool down by contacting it with ambient air (through a long thin copper tube, but keeping it compressed), then decompress it again – hey presto, it is cold! Pump this cold gas through another copper tube, inside a box, and it will cool the air in the box – and hey presto, you have a refrigerator./p>h3>Measuring Temperature/h3>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/2010/11/03/what-exactly-is-temperature/thermometer/ relattachment wp-att-1026>img loadinglazy decodingasync classalignleft size-medium wp-image-1026 styleborder:10px solid white; titlethermometer srchttp://jarrodhart.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/thermometer.jpg?w150 alt width150 height200 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/thermometer.jpg 525w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/thermometer-225x300.jpg 225w sizes(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px />/a>Before we had thermometers, temperature was generally estimated by touch./p>p>However this is where temperature gets tricky. Because the temperature we em>feel/em>, when we put our hand on the roof of a car is not really the temperature of the car, it’s really the measure of energy em>flow/em> (into our hand), which relates to the temperature, but also relates to the conductivity of the car./p>p>This is why hot metal feels hotter than hot wood, why cold metal feels colder than cold wood – the metal, if at a different temperature to your hand, is able to move more heat into you (or take more heat away) faster than wood can. Thus our sense of temperature is easily fooled./p>p>The ‘wind-chill factor’ is another way we are fooled – we generally walk around with cloths on, and even without clothes we have some body hair – therefore, we usually carry a thin layer of air around with us that is nearly the same temperature as we are. This helps us when it is cold em>and/em> when it is hot – however, when the wind blows it rips this layer up and supplies fresh air to our skin – making us feel the temperature more than usual. Also, because our skin can be damp, there can be evaporative effects which can actually cool you below the air temperature./p>p>Scientists have long known that we cannot trust ourselves to measure temperature, so over the ages many tricks have been developed – can the object boil water? Can it freeze water? A long list of milestone temperatures was developed and essential knowledge for early scientists – until the development of the lowly a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermometer>thermometer/a>./p>p>It was noted that, like gases, solids and liquids also expand upon heating. This makes intuitive sense if you think of hot molecules as violently vibrating – they push one another away, or at least if the charge  (electric charge is what holds these things together) is spread just a little thinner, adjacent molecules will have slightly weaker bonds./p>p>The expansion of liquids may only be very slight, and if you have a big volume of liquid in a cup, the height in the cup will change only very slightly, but if its in a bottle with a narrow neck, the small extra volume makes a bigger difference to the level. This principle is used in a thermometer – it’s just a bottle with a very narrow and long neck. The bigger the volume and the narrower the neck, the more sensitive the thermometer. Of course the glass also expands, so it is important to calibrate the thermometer – put it in ice water, mark the liquid level – then put it in boiling water and mark the new level. Then divide the distance between these marks into 100 divisions – and hey presto! you have a thermometer calibrated to the centi (em>hundred/em>) grade (aka Celsius) scale. Now you know where that came from!/p>h3>/h3>p>So that is temperature explained in a nutshell.  If you enjoyed this article you may enjoy a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/energy-explained/>my related article on energy/a>./p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p802#comments>View all 3 comments/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-2189 classpost-2189 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-philosophy category-physics category-science category-science-communication category-the-scientific-method category-time tag-hypothesis tag-mathematics tag-maths tag-philosophy tag-physics tag-relativity tag-science tag-science-communication tag-the-scientific-method tag-theories tag-theory tag-time>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2189 relbookmark>Another way to think about Space-Time: A fresh start…/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2189 titlePermalink to Another way to think about Space-Time: A fresh start… relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2015-11-10T23:36:06+00:00>November 10, 2015/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat18 relcategory>Philosophy/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat20 relcategory>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat26 relcategory>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat27 relcategory>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat31 relcategory>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat32 relcategory>Time/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?taghypothesis reltag>hypothesis/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmathematics reltag>Mathematics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmaths reltag>maths/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagphilosophy reltag>Philosophy/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagphysics reltag>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagrelativity reltag>Relativity/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience-communication reltag>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagthe-scientific-method reltag>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheories reltag>theories/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheory reltag>theory/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtime reltag>Time/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>I have been kept away from writing a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1563 target_blank>on this/a> for a few years, due to life – three kids, crazy job, lot’s of travel, yada yada. But that was true before so that’s a bullshit excuse./p>p>The real reason I kept away because I was discouraged. /p>p>I had got stuck in my progress of understanding space-time./p>p>But today I got a wake-up call…/p>p>/p>p>I read a book excerpt (a hrefhttp://gizmodo.com/a-new-way-of-thinking-about-spacetime-that-turns-everyt-1741498475 target_blank>on Gizmodo/a>) of ‘Spooky Action at a Distance’ bu George Musser just published last week./p>p>And right there, in plain English, it was:  “If you agree that the fundamental level of physics is not local, everything is natural, because these two particles which are far apart from each other explore the same fundamental nonlocal level. For them, time and space don’t matter.” A quote of Micheal Heller./p>p>Damn. People thinking about quantum entanglement decided that if we accept distant entanglement was indeed ‘real’, as we accepted the speed limit on light is ‘real’, that space itself would adapt to avoid a paradox./p>p>/p>p>So what?/p>p>Well, in my own work I had decided that strong>exactly the same assumption/strong> could be used to explain away the weird interference in the double-slit experiment./p>p>My approach was this:/p>p>If we take the Lorentz Transformation to calculate the geometry of the double slit, we see that from the perspective of the single photon, the whole journey is compressed into a single spot. And under such conditions, interference between the ‘possible paths’ is no longer a contradiction. /p>p>It also hints tantalizingly that the wave nature of light is a sort of artifact of trying to cross section what is essentially a point event./p>p>I am therefore very grateful to George Musser, because he will allow me to pick up this thread and see where it leads. /p>p>/p>p>I like to start by imagining I am a photon, leaving from, say, my nose, and heading away from earth across the galaxy, eventually terminating somewhere, let’s say on a far-off star – being absorbed as an electron there leaps up to a higher orbital./p>p>From the photon’s own perspective, if that’s a possible perspective to have, time has not progressed – this means it leaves, travels and arrives at once. This means that even as the photon is waiting to leave an atom on my nose, there is a sort of connection with another atom, far away across the galaxy, which is waiting to accept the photon, and then click, all of that distance disappears, it’s all a single point in space, and the photon relocates, somehow without even having to move. My nose and the stars are somehow momentarily at one. Spooky…/p>p>This started as a fancy, but I can’t seem to break it!/p>p>For example – the approach also seems to have something to say about energy quantisation…/p>p>The issue there is that electrons should fall to the atomic nucleus, but don’t – this is because they can’t find an outlet for ‘that particular quantity’ of energy. /p>p>Now, with the idea that space and distance are illusory, we can look at every photon emission as paired with an ‘acceptance’ somewhere else. So far we’ve assumed these are unrelated events, but now we see they must be the same event – so it seems natural that these events require some degree of serendipity to occur. Not just any atom can absorb just any photon…/p>p>It strikes me we could test this thinking, how can we do it?/p>p>Can we send photons that really have no inevitable target? Seems like we could, but the maths is telling me no…/p>p>Help!/p>p>PS See a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1563 target_blank>my first public post about this subject from 2011 here/a>. /p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2189#comments>One comment so far/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-2161 classpost-2161 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-mathematics category-sports category-statistics-2 tag-cricket tag-football tag-luck tag-mathematics tag-maths tag-sports tag-statistics>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2161 relbookmark>England’s World Cup Failure: A nerd explains why all the pundits are wrong/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2161 titlePermalink to England’s World Cup Failure: A nerd explains why all the pundits are wrong relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2014-06-25T13:00:40+00:00>June 25, 2014/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat16 relcategory>Mathematics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat29 relcategory>Sports/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat250 relcategory>Statistics/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagcricket reltag>Cricket/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagfootball reltag>football/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagluck reltag>luck/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmathematics reltag>Mathematics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmaths reltag>maths/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagsports reltag>Sports/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagstatistics reltag>statistics/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/worldcupfootball.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/worldcupfootball.jpg altworldcupfootball width158 height878 classalignright size-full wp-image-2164 />/a>Every time I hear another pundit explaining their theory behind England’s failure at the world cup I get all hot and bothered. My wife could literally not care less about football or my feelings on the subject, so I thought I would share my them with you 😉/p>p>You see, it seems that football does not benefit, as cricket and baseball do, from that important type of pundit, the statistician./p>p>For if they did, they would realise that failing to make it into the last 16 this year is not a failure at all. /p>p>Why? Because we have to remember that there are, at time of writing, 209 national men’s teams registered with FIFA – and that FIFA estimates that 250 million people play the beautiful game. So just getting to the finals is a real achievement. /p>p>On the other hand you can argue that England em>should/em> be in the top flight – it has a decent population, it has money to spend and many aspirational heroes. /p>p>Well.. it em>does/em> do well, currently, England is ranked 10th in the world, a hrefhttp://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtools/compareteams.html#gm&t1ESP&t2GER&t3BRA&t4ENG&dRange4&fm8&fy1993&tm6&ty2014 target_blank>and has often been higher/a>. But does that mean it should always reach the last 16 of the world cup? No./p>p>Take a step back. Even with so many teams, that world ranking should mean a team like England should make it ‘usually’, but certainly not always. Indeed, it has made the last 16 every time since 1958, indeed it’s a surprise to me that they have run so long without missing out./p>p>It has always been known that football has a ‘luck factor’ indeed this is one of its best features – upsets happen – and that is why the league has a round-robin design, and also why some tournaments are done by knockout – the league aims to find the best teams, tournaments aim to find the best moments. /p>p>England did not play badly this world cup. The goals conceded were really pretty darn good, and England had more shots on goal than their opponents. But for the rub of the green, they could have been through and lauded by all. So how can the pundits have such strong opinions? /p>p>Easy. Because it’s their job to sound like they know. /p>p>a hrefhttp://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtools/compareteams.html#gm&t1ESP&t2GER&t3BRA&t4ENG&dRange4&fm8&fy1993&tm6&ty2014 target_blank>img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WorldCupRankingsPlot.jpg altWorldCupRankingsPlot width660 height472 classaligncenter size-full wp-image-2170 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WorldCupRankingsPlot.jpg 660w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WorldCupRankingsPlot-300x214.jpg 300w sizes(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px />/a>/p>p>strong>Addendum/strong>br />So how have teams like Brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands managed to a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings#Awards titleWorld Rankings target_blank>spend so much time/a> in the top 3? If it was all luck, they would not. Well, this means that there are actually recipes for better performance, elusive but real… /p>p>However, just as the government would hate for you realise they do not control the economy, football pundits and administrators alike would not like you to know (or indeed to know themselves) that this recipe is largely outside of their control – the biggest factors being: population size, other games to play, weather, virtuous circles (inspiration, promise of fame, etc) and last but certainly not least, luck./p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2161#respond>span classleave-reply>Leave a comment/span>/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-2141 classpost-2141 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-education-2 category-in-the-media category-medicine category-psychology category-science category-science-communication category-skepticism category-thingsexplained category-uncategorized tag-autism tag-bad-science tag-communication tag-education tag-media tag-mmr tag-polio tag-science tag-science-communication tag-skepticism tag-smallpox tag-statistics tag-vaccination>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2141 relbookmark>Vaccination ‘Hesitance’ Put Bluntly/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2141 titlePermalink to Vaccination ‘Hesitance’ Put Bluntly relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2014-04-26T16:19:49+00:00>April 26, 2014/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat9 relcategory>Education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat15 relcategory>In the media/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat17 relcategory>Medicine/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat24 relcategory>Psychology/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat26 relcategory>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat27 relcategory>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat28 relcategory>Skepticism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat244 relcategory>Things Explained/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat1 relcategory>Uncategorized/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagautism reltag>autism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagbad-science reltag>Bad science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagcommunication reltag>communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tageducation reltag>education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmedia reltag>media/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmmr reltag>mmr/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagpolio reltag>polio/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience-communication reltag>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagskepticism reltag>Skepticism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagsmallpox reltag>smallpox/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagstatistics reltag>statistics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagvaccination reltag>vaccination/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>Question: Do you know anyone who’s had smallpox? How about polio? No?img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/polio-247x300.jpg altPolio Vaccine width247 height300 classalignright size-medium wp-image-2143 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/polio-247x300.jpg 247w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/polio.jpg 304w sizes(max-width: 247px) 100vw, 247px />/p>p>Well no wonder there’s a sudden surge of doubt about vaccination – not because we’ve realise how well it works, but because we’ve forgotten what life was like before vaccines./p>p>I am a parent. I can understand the idea of injecting my child with something that turns out to be harmful would be hard to bear. First do no harm, they say. Can we be sure there is no harm?/p>p>Sounds a like a fair question… but… isn’t. It’s not that simple./p>p>Having a vaccine may seem like a dangerous intervention, and surely no action is better than a risky one? /p>p>Well if you believe that, you are not alone, but are making a cognitive error, the error to assume inaction is a virtue. As Haile Selassie said “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”/p>p>In order to help those stuck in this cognitive trap, I would ask them to consider this thought experiment./p>p>img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BluePillRedPill-300x156.jpg altBluePillRedPill width300 height156 classaligncenter size-medium wp-image-2150 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BluePillRedPill-300x156.jpg 300w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BluePillRedPill-1024x534.jpg 1024w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BluePillRedPill.jpg 1600w sizes(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px />/p>p>Rather than choosing to go to a doctor for a vaccine, say the famous ‘MMR’ triple-jab, or choosing to stay at home, let’s imagine the choice was one of two medications, one the MMR, with its supposed* risk of autism, but which gives immunity to measles, mumps and rubella – and the other is a compound with no known benefits, but a known risk of causing measles, mumps and rubella. And of course the added possibility of causing an epidemic at the same time./p>p>(*) Let’s add to the mix the fact that there is zero evidence of any link between MMR and autism, and also point out that failing to immunise your kids is reckless cruelty not only to them, but also to all those who cannot be vaccinated for ‘real’ reasons, such as being too poor, too young or too sick./p>p>To those still on the fence, this last bit is for you. /p>p>Do you not realise that what seems like concerned parenting has actually cost real people their lives? For what? /p>p>Yes, drugs go wrong. Yes, corporations are often tempted to hide bad news. Yes, the human body is complex and we do not understand every last detail./p>p>But if you think that those pressures overwhelm the ‘good’ in mankind that has led life expectancy to climb gloriously every single decade this last century, then you are missing all a hrefhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?vjbkSRLYSojo target_blank>the good news/a>. /p>p>img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/smallpox.jpg altsmallpox width182 height277 classalignleft size-full wp-image-2147 />No small part of the doubling in life expectancy was due to vaccines. /p>p>Please don’t take me with you back to 1900. Rather look at this picture of what smallpox does and thank your lucky stars she’s not your child./p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2141#respond>span classleave-reply>Leave a comment/span>/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-2104 classpost-2104 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-atheism category-education-2 category-evolution category-history category-science category-science-communication category-the-scientific-method category-time tag-atheism tag-darwin tag-education tag-evolution tag-hypothesis tag-media tag-natural-selection tag-proof tag-science tag-science-communication tag-skepticism tag-the-scientific-method tag-theories tag-theory>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2104 relbookmark>The speed of evolution – revisited…/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2104 titlePermalink to The speed of evolution – revisited… relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2013-12-02T15:49:28+00:00>December 2, 2013/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat3 relcategory>Atheism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat9 relcategory>Education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat11 relcategory>Evolution/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat13 relcategory>History/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat26 relcategory>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat27 relcategory>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat31 relcategory>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat32 relcategory>Time/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagatheism reltag>Atheism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagdarwin reltag>Darwin/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tageducation reltag>education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagevolution reltag>Evolution/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?taghypothesis reltag>hypothesis/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmedia reltag>media/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagnatural-selection reltag>natural selection/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagproof reltag>proof/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience-communication reltag>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagskepticism reltag>Skepticism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagthe-scientific-method reltag>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheories reltag>theories/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheory reltag>theory/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>I have been keeping my eye on the evidence that ‘life experience’ can be passed on in your genes.a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/DNA.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/DNA-246x300.jpg altDNA width246 height300 classalignright size-medium wp-image-2118 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/DNA-246x300.jpg 246w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/DNA.jpg 361w sizes(max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px />/a>/p>p>It has been proposed many times as a mechanism of evolution, and indeed was a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism>considered likely/a> before the concept of ‘selection’ was understood. It’s attractive because saying that ‘survival’ is the one and only way to adding value to the genes seems, well, wasteful./p>p>Surely, you’d think that a fear of snakes based purely on the idea that people who were not afraid of snakes were ‘taken out’ of the gene pool by snakes, is less efficient than a mechanism that captures experience – that snake killed my dog, I should avoid snakes, and so should my kids…/p>p>However, once DNA was understood and shown to be dense with what seemed to be all information that could ever be needed, dissent waned to an all time low. The mechanisms of DNA were pretty clear – your DNA was set at birth and while it might mutate a little randomly, had no way to ‘learn’ from your life before being combined with a partner’s to create offspring. The case seemed pretty settled. /p>p>There remained niggles though. I worried about the a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/?p32>speed of evolution/a> as we have so very much to learn and so little time to evolve! So I looked for ways evolution could amp up its power. It seemed to me that nature, so darn clever at self-optimisation would make improvements to our design based on non-fatal experience, or indeed passive observation. /p>p>Others similarly concerned continued, often in the face of deep scepticism, to study what is called a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics>epigenetics/a>, the science of heritance em>not/em> coded by DNA – and thus having the potential to be edited during our lives./p>p>I first heard about it around 10 years ago when media reported that the actual DNA sequence was not the only way info could be stored in cells – in theory the a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histone_modification>histones/a> present can affect how the DNA ‘works’ (how genes are ‘expressed’) and their presence could thus change the characteristics of any lifeform coded therein. The type and number of histones may be few (relative to the number of base pairs in DNA) however, the many locations and orientations they can take create a fair number of possible combinations and permutations./p>p>When I heard about this theory, I was put into a state of high curiosity. On the one hand, it was a little blasphemous, but on the other hand tantalising. If nature could find a way to combine the power of selection with the potential benefits of life experience, we could get much faster and more effective evolution./p>p>My curiosity was soon rewarded with another possible mechanism for smuggling info to the next generation. DNA methylation – the idea is that DNA can host little ‘attachments’ in certain places. These may be temporary, and reversible, but they have now been clearly shown to alter how the DNA expresses itself./p>p>On the face of it, the evidence that DNA expression is environment dependent is rather strong, but the idea that the environment around the DNA coil actually contains consistent and persistent intelligence picked up during our lives is much harder to prove./p>p>And so teams have been beavering away trying to get to the bottom of this, and this week one such group has fresh news for us. A a hrefhttp://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.3594.html>Nature Neuroscience paper/a> has tested the theory in a rather clever way./p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/labMice.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/labMice-300x187.jpg altlab mice width300 height187 classalignright size-medium wp-image-2114 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/labMice-300x187.jpg 300w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/labMice.jpg 460w sizes(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px />/a>They started by teaching some mice a new fact (that a certain smell would be associated with trauma) and then later, tested their kids. Lo and behold the kids whose parents had been taught fared significantly better in the test than untrained, unrelated mice./p>p>This may sound a little trivial, but you must remember that the current ‘popular’ understanding of genes is that they em>only/em> gain intelligence by surviving – or more precisely they shed stupidity by dying. However, here we are seeing information pass between generations without the need for anyone to die./p>p>Furthermore, because of the carefully selected lesson taught to these mice, the researchers were actually able to see that a specific part of the DNA, while not different in design was nevertheless more active./p>p>Now, I do not know enough about DNA to double-check this claim, but you can rest assured others will – because that’s what journals are for – and in this case the implications are huge./p>p>—————/p>p>Like what, you ask?/p>p>Well, off the top of my head, it means that much of what we do between birth and reproduction will affect all our descendents – this undermines the idea that one’s body is one’s own to do with as one pleases./p>p>It also indicates that there is potential for us to deliberately control the expression of our DNA, allowing us to do some genetic engineering without actually changing the DNA sequence. /p>p>More importantly, and more controversially, it would mean natural selection would not need to explain all the marvellous diversity we see around us on its own./p>p>It remains to be seen what proportion of our ‘design’ is coded for outside the DNA, or indeed how much this mechanism can improve or speed up evolution, however I for one hope it works out to be right and that mother nature has indeed figured out how to seriously boost the power of selection./p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2104#respond>span classleave-reply>Leave a comment/span>/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-2071 classpost-2071 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-education-2 category-physics category-science category-science-communication category-skepticism category-the-scientific-method category-thingsexplained tag-education tag-hypothesis tag-physics tag-science tag-science-communication tag-skepticism tag-the-scientific-method tag-theories tag-theory>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2071 relbookmark>Negative pressure: impossible surely!!?/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2071 titlePermalink to Negative pressure: impossible surely!!? relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2013-10-01T15:54:17+00:00>October 1, 2013/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat9 relcategory>Education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat20 relcategory>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat26 relcategory>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat27 relcategory>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat28 relcategory>Skepticism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat31 relcategory>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat244 relcategory>Things Explained/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tageducation reltag>education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?taghypothesis reltag>hypothesis/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagphysics reltag>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience-communication reltag>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagskepticism reltag>Skepticism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagthe-scientific-method reltag>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheories reltag>theories/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheory reltag>theory/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/two_tall_trees.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/two_tall_trees-225x300.jpg alttwo_tall_trees width225 height300 classalignright size-medium wp-image-2079 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/two_tall_trees-225x300.jpg 225w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/two_tall_trees.jpg 480w sizes(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px />/a>I read a hrefhttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?idbring-science-home-capillary-action-plant>some comments/a> on Scientific American today that instantly made my blood boil. Or cavitate at least./p>p>It was an explanation of how tall trees get water right up top. No I never thought about that before either./p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/water-borehole1.gif>img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/water-borehole1.gif altwater-borehole width266 height623 classalignleft size-full wp-image-2085 />/a>Anyhow, anyone who’s drilled a borehole knows you can only suck water up 33 ft before you get a vacuum forming, water boiling and general pumping failure. Hence the need to put a pump at the bottom of a deep borehole./p>p>Now, I had always thought capillary action was what sucked water up plants, handily bypassing this issue, and there, right in the comments, it was asserted that this was a ‘common misconception’… /p>p>What, me wrong!? Never!/p>p>After the shock, I did what a good scientist is supposed to do, fighting the desire to simply namecall, I watched a hrefhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?featureplayer_embedded&vBickMFHAZR0#!>her darn video/a>. /p>p>I remained skeptical. Very skeptical. I again overcame desires to write rude comments in youtube and went a read up on it properly…/p>p>/p>p>Ok, so it turns out that there is some sort of truth to it: indeed a hrefhttp://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/76/6/545.full.pdf>some clever people/a> believe water can be ‘sucked’ to the top of tall trees, which does indeed require a hrefhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22738888>negative pressure/a>. /p>p>So I ask, why won’t the water boil? a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Boiling-Water.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Boiling-Water-300x231.jpg altBoiling-Water width300 height231 classalignright size-medium wp-image-2087 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Boiling-Water-300x231.jpg 300w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Boiling-Water.jpg 500w sizes(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px />/a>/p>p>Because, they say, it’s ‘meta-stable’. Like super-cooled water, or superheated water, water can supposed go to ‘tension’ without boiling if only you can prevent that initial bubble forming. Simple!/p>p>A little more thinking and internal wrangling, and I slowly conceded it just might be. Yes, ok, negative pressure is not really all that radical, it is essentially tension. It’s common in solids, it’s just the idea that water can be ‘tense’ that is difficult to get one’s head around./p>p>So, the process had begun; I started to consider that maybe I was wrong. It’s not pleasant folks, and I am not trying to beat my own drum, I am sure there are plenty of other times when I’ve failed this test, it was just interesting because here I think I passed it…/p>p>Anyway, back to the point. Alas, I then read even more deeply, that though I find myself agreeing that water can indeed be under tension, and that sort of does mean negative pressure, I’ve yet to be convinced that ‘wicking’ it not at least involved in tree sustenance. Anyone who has dropped a dry cloth in water knows the water climbs into the fabric./p>p>Furthermore, if there was negative pressure in the tree’s ‘pipes’ why wouldn’t they collapse?/p>p>It took deeper digging, but now all my cognitive dissonance is resolved, and I feel just fine by closing my investigation with this makeshift conclusion: that while trees do suck water up (via transpiration and the pull of surface tension in narrow openings) the pressures needed are not too crazy BECAUSE OF THOSE GOOL OL’ WICKING EFFECTS!!/p>p>Yup, I have to conclude that the attraction of the fluid for the a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylem>xylem/a> walls helps ‘keep the water up’ and thus preventing it from pulling too hard on the water above it. /p>p>It turns out this is what many others think great minds for sure, and some ’nuff respect took the steps of building a pressure probe small enough to poke into a plant’s pipework. a hrefhttp://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/content/48/10/1753.abstract>What they found/a> supports my newly cherished (but alas already 120-year-old) a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylem#Cohesion-tension_theory>Cohesion-Tension theory/a> of tree hydration./p>p>In other words, while wicking (capillary action) is not a sole actor, it is there in a critical supporting role. Aaah that’s better, as you can see I wasn’t totally wrong 😉/p>p>PS. On the other hand, negative pressures seem to be a new a hrefhttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7210/abs/nature07226.html>and reproducible/a> fact for us to worry about!/p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2071#respond>span classleave-reply>Leave a comment/span>/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-1988 classpost-1988 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-education-2 category-in-the-media category-medicine category-physics category-science category-science-communication tag-diet tag-education tag-engineering tag-food tag-health tag-physics tag-science tag-science-communication>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1988 relbookmark>Want to lose weight? Try the Engineer’s Approach to Diet/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1988 titlePermalink to Want to lose weight? Try the Engineer’s Approach to Diet relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2013-09-16T10:05:06+00:00>September 16, 2013/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat9 relcategory>Education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat15 relcategory>In the media/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat17 relcategory>Medicine/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat20 relcategory>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat26 relcategory>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat27 relcategory>Science communication/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagdiet reltag>diet/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tageducation reltag>education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagengineering reltag>Engineering/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagfood reltag>food/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?taghealth reltag>Health/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagphysics reltag>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience-communication reltag>Science communication/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>Ok, if you’re tired of being lectured about your sweet tooth or laziness (or both), and just want the straight dope from an engineer, you’ve come to the right place./p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/farmall_mb.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync classalignright size-medium wp-image-1989 altA Tractor srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/farmall_mb.jpg?w200 width200 height150 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/farmall_mb.jpg 350w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/farmall_mb-300x226.jpg 300w sizes(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px />/a>You see, over the next couple of minutes, we’ll see that a human body is not much different to, say, a tractor. It’s a tough machine and just like a tractor has very few needs – a little fuel, a little air and a little water./p>p>Ok, ok, we’re a little more complex, but when push comes to shove, we are pretty similar, let me show you…/p>p>strong>Food  Fuel/strong>/p>p>My wife despairs, but she I must point out that she chose to marry an engineer with hardly any niceties. Yes, ok, food is more than just fuel, it’s one of the joys of life yadda-yadda, but, to the engineer in me food is just a handy  a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1988#more-1988 classmore-link>Continue reading span classmeta-nav>→/span>/a>/p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1988#comments>One comment so far/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-1984 classpost-1984 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-economics category-evolution category-philosophy category-psychology tag-economics tag-evolution tag-philosophy tag-psychology tag-science>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1984 relbookmark>Bacteria don’t think./a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1984 titlePermalink to Bacteria don’t think. relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2013-06-08T02:16:15+00:00>June 8, 2013/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat8 relcategory>Economics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat11 relcategory>Evolution/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat18 relcategory>Philosophy/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat24 relcategory>Psychology/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tageconomics reltag>Economics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagevolution reltag>Evolution/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagphilosophy reltag>Philosophy/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagpsychology reltag>Psychology/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>It seems a statement of the obvious, but bacteria don’t think./p>p>Yet bacteria get around, and indeed are remarkably successful. Same with viruses. So thriving as a species does not require planning, studying, concentration and imagination, all the things we humans are so arrogant about. /p>p>And I’m not just talking about surviving, I’m talking about achieving the incredible. Think of the fungi that take control of ants, get them to climb up to a good spot and hunker down so that when the fungus bursts out from the corpse like a slow motion firework (see the picture) it’s got a fair chance of spreading its spores./p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/20130608-110232.jpg>img decodingasync srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/20130608-110232.jpg alt20130608-110232.jpg alignmiddle />/a>br />Did the fungus plan it? Of course not, the trick ‘evolved’ as the most successful of many different permutations, via, of course the process of natural selection./p>p>So what?/p>p>Well, what about humans? We like to think we are the pinnacle of evolution with our big brains and our consciousness and our self-awareness. Our abilities to plan, co-operate and imagine have led us to dominate the planet. Or have they?/p>p>Could it be, that just as no ant envisions the design of the anthill, none of us can claim to have masterminded very much? Yes perhaps a building, a harbour or a town’s zoning, but who can claim to have masterminded New York or world trade or democracy?/p>p>Surely these ‘real’ achievements are not ours to claim, but should also be laid at the door of the power of evolution, of the unstoppable force of trial and error, of the natural a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence>emergence/a> of order from the chaos?/p>p>See more about the Cordyceps fungus:br />a hrefhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Cordyceps>http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Cordyceps/a>/p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1984#comments>View all 2 comments/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-1961 classpost-1961 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-cosmology category-economics category-education-2 category-mathematics category-philosophy category-physics category-relativity category-science category-science-communication category-skepticism category-the-scientific-method tag-bad-science tag-education tag-gravity tag-hypothesis tag-mathematics tag-maths tag-philosophy tag-physics tag-proof tag-psychology tag-relativity tag-science tag-science-communication tag-skepticism tag-the-scientific-method tag-theories tag-theory tag-time>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1961 relbookmark>Requirements for Promoting a New Scientific Theory/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1961 titlePermalink to Requirements for Promoting a New Scientific Theory relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2013-04-25T12:30:42+00:00>April 25, 2013/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat7 relcategory>Cosmology/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat8 relcategory>Economics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat9 relcategory>Education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat16 relcategory>Mathematics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat18 relcategory>Philosophy/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat20 relcategory>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat25 relcategory>Relativity/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat26 relcategory>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat27 relcategory>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat28 relcategory>Skepticism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat31 relcategory>The scientific method/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagbad-science reltag>Bad science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tageducation reltag>education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?taggravity reltag>Gravity/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?taghypothesis reltag>hypothesis/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmathematics reltag>Mathematics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmaths reltag>maths/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagphilosophy reltag>Philosophy/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagphysics reltag>Physics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagproof reltag>proof/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagpsychology reltag>Psychology/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagrelativity reltag>Relativity/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience-communication reltag>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagskepticism reltag>Skepticism/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagthe-scientific-method reltag>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheories reltag>theories/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheory reltag>theory/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtime reltag>Time/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>I have been reading some pretty strange stuff about Gravity recently. It seems there are some pretty odd folk out there who have taken thinking about physics to a new, possibly unhealthy, level./p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/gravity-newton.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync class wp-image-1967 alignright altGravity: Its the Law srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/gravity-newton.jpg?w178 width178 height200 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/gravity-newton.jpg 561w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/gravity-newton-267x300.jpg 267w sizes(max-width: 178px) 100vw, 178px />/a>/p>p>Basically, they are crackpots. Well I guess it’s a slippery slope – one day you wonder why the earth is sucking down on you, the next you decide to spend some time on the knotty question. Soon enough you think you’ve got it, it is clearly that the earth is absorbing space which is constantly rushing down around us dragging us with it. Or similar./p>p>So yes, its true, Einstein did not ‘solve’ Gravity, and there is still fame and fortune to be had in thinking about gravity, so this is the example I shall use today./p>p>The trouble with Gravity is that Einstein’s explanation is just so cool! He explained that mass warps space and that the feeling of being pulled is simply a side effect of being in warped space. It sounds so outlandish, but also so simple, that it has clearly encouraged many ‘interesting’ people to have a crack at doing a better job themselves./p>p>So, as a service to all those wannabe physics icons, I offer today a service, in the form of a checklist – what hoops will your new scientific theory have to jump through to get my attention, and that of the so-called ivory tower elite in the scientific community?/p>p>strong>Requirement 1: Your theory needs to be well presented/strong>/p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/presentation1.png>img loadinglazy decodingasync classalignleft size-medium wp-image-1968 altpresentation counts! srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/presentation1.png?w176 width176 height200 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/presentation1.png 350w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/presentation1-264x300.png 264w sizes(max-width: 176px) 100vw, 176px />/a>Yes, it may sound elitist to say, but your documentation/website/paper/video should have good grammar. Yes, yes, one should not use the quality of one’s english to judge the quality of one’s theory, and I know prejudice is hard to overcome, but this is not my point. My point is that in order to understand a complicated thing like a physics theory it needs to be em>unambiguous/em>. It needs to be clear. It needs to use the same jargon the so called ‘elite’ community uses. Invented acronyms, em>especially those with your own initials in them,/em> are out./p>p>strong>Requirement 2: Your proposal needs to be respectful/strong>/p>div idattachment_1969 stylewidth: 210px classwp-caption alignright>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/641px-mad_scientist_transparent_backgroundsvg.png>img loadinglazy decodingasync aria-describedbycaption-attachment-1969 classsize-medium wp-image-1969 altImage courtesy of Wikimedia Commons srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/641px-mad_scientist_transparent_backgroundsvg.png?w200 width200 height187 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/641px-mad_scientist_transparent_backgroundsvg.png 641w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/641px-mad_scientist_transparent_backgroundsvg-300x280.png 300w sizes(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px />/a>p idcaption-attachment-1969 classwp-caption-text>Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/p>/div>p>Again, this is not about making you bow to your superiors in the academic world. Indeed in the case of Gravity, the physics community is one of the most humble out there. While I agree academia is up it’s arse most of the time, this is about convincing the reader that you know your stuff. In order to do that, you need to show that you know ‘their stuff’ too. If you have headings like “Einstein’s Big Mistake” it is a bit like saying to the reader ‘you are all FOOLS!’ and cackling madly. Don’t do it!/p>p>Respect also means you need to answer questions ‘properly’. That means clearly, fully, and in the common language of the community. You cannot say “its the responsibility of the community to test your theory”. This is a great way to piss people right off. em>It is your responsibility to make them want to/em>. This usually means dealing with their doubts head-on, and if you can do that, I promise you they will then want to know more./p>p>strong>Requirement 3: You need to develop credibility/strong>/p>p>Sorry, as you can see we have yet to consider the actual merit of the theory itself. I wish it were not so, but we are humans first and scientists second. We cannot focus our thoughts on a theory if we doubt the payback. And if you say that aliens came and told you the scientific theory, then people are unlikely to keep listening, unless, perhaps they’re from Hollywood./p>p>But seriously, credibility is the hidden currency of the world, it opens doors, bends ears and gets funds. It takes professionals decades to build and it is really rather naive to waltz into a specialism and expect everyone to drop their tools and listen to you./p>p>That said, the science world is full of incomers, it is not a closed shop as some would you believe. If you follow requirements 1 and 2, and are persistent (and your theory actually holds water) then you are very likely to succeed./p>p>strong>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/penrose_triangle.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync classsize-medium wp-image-1970 alignleft altPenrose_triangle srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/penrose_triangle.jpg?w200 width200 height150 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/penrose_triangle.jpg 640w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/penrose_triangle-300x225.jpg 300w sizes(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px />/a>Requirement 4: Your theory needs to be consistent/strong>/p>p>I have seen some pretty strange stuff proposed. Gravity is a hrefhttp://vixra.org/pdf/1302.0073v1.pdf>a manifestation of the flow of information/a>, or the speed of light is determined a hrefhttp://www.members.shaw.ca/warmbeach/SPEEDLIGHT.htm>by a planet’s density/a>. Find your own at a hrefhttp://www.crank.net/>crank.net/a>. Let’s look at this peach as an example: a hrefhttp://www.einsteingravity.com/>http://www.einsteingravity.com//a>./p>p>This exhibit is great example of how not to go about promoting your theory. “Monumental   Scientific   Discovery  !” it screams across the top, then the first claim is this:/p>address stylepadding-left:60px;>strong>1) The Acceleration of earth’s Gravity x earth orbit Time (exact lunar year)  the Velocity of Light./strong>/address>address stylepadding-left:30px;>strong>(9.80175174 m/s2 x 30,585,600 s  299,792,458 m/s)/strong>/address>p>Now this is rather remarkable. Can it really be that you can calculate the speed of light to 9 significant figures from just the earth’s gravitational acceleration and the length of a year? Intuitively I suspect you could (eventually), but then I started to think, well, what if the earth was irregularly shaped? The gravitational constant is actually not all that consistent depending on where you are either. So I checked, then I noticed he said ‘lunar year’. What? Why? What is a lunar year? Then I calculated that the time he used was 354 days, which isn’t even a lunar year. Add to that that he gives the acceleration of gravity on earth to 9-figures despite the fact that nobody knows it that well (like I said it is location dependent). Does he do the same test for other planets? No. Well what if they have no moon!/p>p>So, 0/4 for on our checklist for a hrefhttp://www.einsteingravity.com/>einsteingravity.com/a>!/p>p>strong>Requirement 5: The theory needs to be be consistent with well-known observationsa hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/evidence.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync classalignright size-medium wp-image-1971 altevidence srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/evidence.jpg?w185 width185 height200 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/evidence.jpg 650w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/evidence-278x300.jpg 278w sizes(max-width: 185px) 100vw, 185px />/a>/strong>/p>p>Now if your theory has got past requirements 1-4 , well done to you, you will be welcome to join my table any time. Now is when you may need some more help./p>p>Once a theory is consistent with itself, it now needs to agree with what we see around us. It needs to explain apples falling, moons orbiting, light bending and time dilating. This is the hardest part./p>p>It cannot leave any out, or predict something contrary to the facts. It cannot be vague or wishy-washy. It needs the type of certainty we only get from the application of formal logic – and that old chestnut – mathematics./p>p>No you cannot get away without it, there is no substitute for an equation. Equations derived using logic take all the emotion out of a debate. And they set you up perfectly for requirement #5./p>p>strong stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/crystal-ball.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync class wp-image-1972 alignleft altcrystal-ball srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/crystal-ball.jpg?w157 width157 height200 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/crystal-ball.jpg 656w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/crystal-ball-236x300.jpg 236w sizes(max-width: 157px) 100vw, 157px />/a>Requirement 6: The theory needs to make testable predictions/strong>/p>p>If your theory has got past the 5 above, very nice job, I hope to meet you one day./p>p>We are all set, we have a hypothesis and we can’t break it. It has been passed to others, some dismiss it, others are not so sure. How do you create consensus?/p>p>Simple, make an impressive prediction, and then test that./p>p>a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_field_equations>Einsteins field equations/a> for example, boldly provide a ‘shape’ of space (spacetime actually) for any given distribution of mass. With that shape in hand you should then be able to predict the path of light beams past stars or galaxies. These equation claimed to replace a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtons_law_of_universal_gravitation>Newton’s simple inverse square law/a>, but include the effects of time which creates strange effects (like a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame-dragging>frame dragging/a>), which, importantly could be, and a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Eddington>were,/a> tested./p>p>The beauty of these equations, derived via logical inference from how the speed of light seems invariate, and now proven many times, is that they moved physics forward. Rather than asking, ‘what is gravity’, the question is now ‘why does mass warp space’. It’s a better question because answering it will probably have implications far beyond gravity – it will inform cosmology and quantum theory too./p>p>strong>Conclusion/strong>/p>p>So if you are thinking of sharing with the world at last your immensely important insights, and want to be listened to, please remember my advice when you are famous and put in a good word for me in Stockholm. But please, if, when trying to explain yourself, and are finding it tough, please please consider the possibility that you are just plain wrong…/p>p>————-/p>p>Jarrod Hart is a practicing scientist, and wrote this to shamelessly enhance his  reputation in case he ever needs to peddle you a strange theory./p>p>Further reading:/p>ul>li>span stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>John Baez’s classic /span>em stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>crackpot index/em>span stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>:br />/span>a stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px; hrefhttp://www.physics.smu.edu/scalise/www/misc/crackpot/crindex.html>http://www.physics.smu.edu/scalise/www/misc/crackpot/crindex.html/a>/li>li>span stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>The Crackpot page:br />/span>a stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px; hrefhttp://www.physics.smu.edu/scalise/www/misc/crackpot/>http://www.physics.smu.edu/scalise/www/misc/crackpot//a>/li>li>The warning signs of voodoo science:br />a hrefhttp://skepdic.com/voodooscience.html>http://skepdic.com/voodooscience.html/a>/li>li>span stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>Another bit of advice a bit like mine (honest I only found it after writing mine!):br />/span>a stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px; hrefhttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2007/06/19/the-alternative-science-respectability-checklist/>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2007/06/19/the-alternative-science-respectability-checklist//a>/li>/ul>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1961#respond>span classleave-reply>Leave a comment/span>/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-1931 classpost-1931 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-art category-education-2 category-psychology category-science tag-art-2 tag-cognitive-dissonance tag-creativity tag-economics tag-education tag-engineering tag-hypothesis tag-invention tag-lying tag-philosophy tag-psychology tag-science tag-science-communication tag-technology tag-theories tag-theory tag-thought>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1931 relbookmark>Leveraging the Inventiveness in your Mind/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1931 titlePermalink to Leveraging the Inventiveness in your Mind relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2013-02-15T10:53:01+00:00>February 15, 2013/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat2 relcategory>Art/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat9 relcategory>Education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat24 relcategory>Psychology/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat26 relcategory>Science/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagart-2 reltag>art/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagcognitive-dissonance reltag>cognitive dissonance/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagcreativity reltag>creativity/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tageconomics reltag>Economics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tageducation reltag>education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagengineering reltag>Engineering/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?taghypothesis reltag>hypothesis/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?taginvention reltag>invention/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?taglying reltag>lying/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagphilosophy reltag>Philosophy/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagpsychology reltag>Psychology/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience-communication reltag>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtechnology reltag>technology/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheories reltag>theories/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheory reltag>theory/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagthought reltag>thought/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>There are some tasks our brains find hard. We cannot remember long numbers or calculate square roots and we learn information at such a low rate, it takes a lifetime to fill up our hard drive/brain./p>div idattachment_1939 stylewidth: 202px classwp-caption alignleft>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/illusion.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync aria-describedbycaption-attachment-1939 classwp-image-1939  altillusion srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/illusion.jpg width192 height190 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/illusion.jpg 392w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/illusion-300x297.jpg 300w sizes(max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px />/a>p idcaption-attachment-1939 classwp-caption-text>The impressive visual tools in our brains are fun to trip up./p>/div>p>We are fooled by a hrefhttp://www.eatliver.com/i.php?n8175 target_blank>simple magic tricks/a>, a hrefhttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hidden-motives/201203/unreliable-memory target_blank>our memories can change/a> and we constantly a hrefhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Mistakes-Were-Made-but-Not/dp/1905177216 target_blank>lie to ourselves/a> in order to avoid a hrefhttp://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/f/dissonance.htm target_blank>cognitive dissonance/a>./p>p>Yes, we are pretty awful, and it’s pretty amazing we manage to get through the day. The reason we do is that our brains were not designed to remember long numbers or to calculate square roots, we were designed to …get through the day./p>p>Thus it’s no surprise that we can spot tigers hiding in the shrubbery, and judge someone’s intent from the curl in the corner of their mouth – things computers can’t even dream of!/p>p>em id__mceDel>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/evolution.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync classalignright  wp-image-1937 altevolution srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/evolution.jpg?w454 width262 height288 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/evolution.jpg 1000w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/evolution-272x300.jpg 272w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/evolution-930x1024.jpg 930w sizes(max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px />/a>/em>/p>p>strong>Amazing Things the Brain em>Can/em> Do/strong>/p>p>There are some really remarkable abilities the evolutionary arms race has given us. Consider for a moment how hard it is to teach these skills to a computer:/p>ul>li>Facial recognition (from any angle!) – and similar advanced pattern recognition/li>li>Theory of mind – our ability to realize that others have motives and intentions and the ability to guess them reasonably well/li>li>Inventiveness – our ability to make connections from disparate fields/li>/ul>p>Much has been said about these skills, and in particular, much value has been placed on theories about our inventiveness – if only we can understand how we invent, we can unleash a torrent of innovation!/p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/torrent_of_ideas.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync classalignleft size-medium wp-image-1940 alttorrent_of_ideas srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/torrent_of_ideas.jpg?w200 width200 height154 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/torrent_of_ideas.jpg 492w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/torrent_of_ideas-300x231.jpg 300w sizes(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px />/a>/p>p>The ideas usually run something like this: the human mind is so highly integrated that many concepts are forced to overlay one another so connections are inevitable – while others suggest the mind reviews new learning each night during sleep and tries to spot patterns, suggesting our innovative spark is really just our pattern recognition skill in disguise a hrefhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Works-Penguin-Press-Science/dp/0140244913 target_blank>1/a>./p>p>While I suspect there is truth to both theories, there is probably more to it than that…/p>p>strong>Another Amazing Skill Often Overlooked/strong>/p>p>Now – if you have ever caught a child being naughty, you may have been lucky enough to see another remarkable human talent…/p>p>Lying./p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/naughty-baby.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync classalignleft size-medium wp-image-1941 altnaughty-baby srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/naughty-baby.jpg?w200 width200 height160 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/naughty-baby.jpg 400w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/naughty-baby-300x240.jpg 300w sizes(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px />/a>/p>p>Lying is tricky. Lying requires amazing computation – it needs theory of mind, it requires creativity, and does its invention under pressure./p>p>Lying requires creating an entire alternate reality that fits the evidence but makes you look innocent of all crimes! It’s so hard that young kids a hrefhttp://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/7-hilarious-lies-kids-tell-221900094.html target_blank>don’t always get it quite right/a>, but at some point most of us master the art. Our brains can also be switched to this mode of inventive overdrive in another way: when we attempt to explain incomplete data./p>p>The most common opportunity to fit a narrative to incomplete data is when we recall faded memories – it turns out many of  us can bring out our internal Dr. Seuss when recounting our roles in past events.a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/dr-seuss-oh-the-thinks-you-can-think1.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync classsize-full wp-image-1949 alignright altDr-seuss-oh-the-thinks-you-can-think1 srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/dr-seuss-oh-the-thinks-you-can-think1.jpg width264 height360 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/dr-seuss-oh-the-thinks-you-can-think1.jpg 264w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/dr-seuss-oh-the-thinks-you-can-think1-220x300.jpg 220w sizes(max-width: 264px) 100vw, 264px />/a>/p>p>And because we all like to think of ourselves as pretty darn awesome, our memories cannot contain any information that could contradict this most evident truth. Thus when we recall situations when we did something downright shameful, our brains become positively electrified and we will magic up perfectly good reasons for what we did out of thin air./p>p>Almost everyone can do it. However, if you ask us to write a short bit of utter fiction, our ability instantly vanishes./p>p>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/writers_block4.jpg>img loadinglazy decodingasync class wp-image-1947 alignright altwriters_block srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/writers_block4.jpg width227 height222 />/a>/p>p>strong>Leveraging Brain Power/strong>/p>p>So the question is this… how can we tap into these remarkable abilities? Do creative people already do it?/p>p>I, for one am going to try!/p>p>————————————————-/p>p>1 a hrefhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Works-Penguin-Press-Science/dp/0140244913 target_blank>How the mind works – Steven Pinker/a>/p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1931#respond>span classleave-reply>Leave a comment/span>/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							article idpost-1902 classpost-1902 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-mathematics category-science tag-art-2 tag-communication tag-education tag-mathematics tag-maths tag-science tag-science-communication tag-the-scientific-method tag-theories tag-theory>	header classentry-header>						h1 classentry-title>			a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1902 relbookmark>Elegant Maths! If you can follow this it might blow your mind…/a>		/h1>				div classentry-meta>			span classdate>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1902 titlePermalink to Elegant Maths! If you can follow this it might blow your mind… relbookmark>time classentry-date datetime2013-02-11T12:05:57+00:00>February 11, 2013/time>/a>/span>span classcategories-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat16 relcategory>Mathematics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?cat26 relcategory>Science/a>/span>span classtags-links>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagart-2 reltag>art/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagcommunication reltag>communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tageducation reltag>education/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmathematics reltag>Mathematics/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagmaths reltag>maths/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience reltag>Science/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagscience-communication reltag>Science communication/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagthe-scientific-method reltag>The scientific method/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheories reltag>theories/a>, a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?tagtheory reltag>theory/a>/span>span classauthor vcard>a classurl fn n hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?author1 titleView all posts by jarrodhart relauthor>jarrodhart/a>/span>					/div>!-- .entry-meta -->	/header>!-- .entry-header -->		div classentry-content>		p>To most people, maths is just something we learned in order to avoid being ripped off. To some, maths is an essential tool, helpful in modelling plague outbreaks or cracking encryption ciphers./p>p>However, for an elite few, maths is simply a parallel universe and they are its explorers./p>p>Today let us discuss what I consider perhaps the most beautiful discovery to date. But first, some introductions…/p>p>strong>Part 1: Consider, to start, the circle/strong>/p>p>If you have a wheel a metre across, it will roll out about 3.14159…metres each revolution. This number, which we call π turns out to be some sort of fundamental property of ‘space’./p>p styletext-align:center;>a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi>img loadinglazy decodingasync classaligncenter alt srchttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Pi-unrolled-720.gif/200px-Pi-unrolled-720.gif width200 height63 />/a>/p>p>The Greeks were not very happy about the ‘messiness’ of this number. They preferred numbers that could be expressed as fractions – while 22/7 was close to π, it was not exact and they lost a lot of sleep trying to find a neat way to write π./p>p>Mathematicians have since grudgingly accepted that it cannot be written as a fraction, and indeed it cannot be written down at all because it has no ‘pattern’ and never ends, those digits just keep coming at (almost) random! Here are the first 100…/p>p>3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679 …./p>div idattachment_1933 stylewidth: 210px classwp-caption alignright>a hrefhttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/wife-of-pi.png>img loadinglazy decodingasync aria-describedbycaption-attachment-1933 classsize-medium wp-image-1933 altwife of pi srchttp://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/wife-of-pi.png?w200 width200 height200 srcsethttps://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/wife-of-pi.png 403w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/wife-of-pi-150x150.png 150w, https://theprovincialscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/wife-of-pi-300x300.png 300w sizes(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px />/a>p idcaption-attachment-1933 classwp-caption-text>The wife of pi…/p>/div>p>Understandably, they decided to call this sort of number ‘em>a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_number target_blank>irrational/a>‘./em>/p>p>strong>Part 2: Consider now, ‘powers’/strong>/p>p>Mathematicians may work tirelessly on some very pointless looking things, however, they are still fairly lazy when it comes to writing stuff down. They like shorthand. So rather than writing 3+3+3+3+3 they invented ‘multiplication’, giving them 5×3./p>p>Likewise, rather than writing 3x3x3x3x3 they invented ‘powers’, so they could write 3sup>5/sup>./p>p>Of course they then realized these tricks could be extended past ‘whole’ numbers. 2.5×3 is 7.5. But what about 3sup>2.5/sup>?/p>p>It works of course, a hrefhttps://www.google.co.uk/search?q3%5E2.5>the answer/a> turns out to be about 15.59 plus change./p>p>But em>what/em> does it mean? 3sup>2.5/sup> is three, times by itself, 2.5 times! or 3x3x3sup>0.5/sup>. What on earth is that?/p>p>Well it turns out, when you ponder this (maybe I should say, em>if/em> you ponder this), that 3sup>0.5/sup> is the same as √3. So ‘root three’ is three times itself half a time…/p>p>pregnant pause/p>p>Ok, let’s look at it another way/p>p>span stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>Consider, for example 3/span>sup styleline-height:19px;>2/sup>span stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>x3/span>sup styleline-height:19px;>3/sup>span stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>, which is the same as (3×3)x(3x3x3) which is the same as 3x3x3x3x3 which is the same as  3/span>sup styleline-height:19px;>5/sup>span stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;> , so 3/span>sup styleline-height:19px;>(2+3)/sup>span stylefont-size:13px;line-height:19px;>./span>/p>p>So using that logic…/p>p>3  3sup>1/sup>  3sup>(0.5+0.5)/sup>  3sup>0.5/sup> x 3sup>0.5/sup>/p>p>And what times itself is equal to 3? Well √3! So 3sup>0.5/sup> is √3…/p>p>It makes sense now, and we can even get used to saying things like 3sup>1.9/sup> x 3sup>0.1/sup>  9./p>p>Of course, these fractional powers also commonly yield those ‘messy numbers’, so abhorred by the Greeks. √3 is, roughly:/p>p>1.73205080756887729352744634150587236694280525381038062805580…/p>p>The logic follows through for negative numbers. 3sup>-2/sup>sup> /sup> is just 1/3sup>2/sup> which is  1/9./p>p>strong>Part 3. Now consider ‘e’/strong>/p>div stylewidth: 160px classwp-caption alignright>img loadinglazy decodingasync class  alt srchttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Exp_tangent.svg/250px-Exp_tangent.svg.png width150 height235 />p classwp-caption-text>ye^x. The slope is always the same as the value! This has the interesting effect that the tangent to the line always intercepts the y axis precisely 1 unit back…/p>/div>div stylewidth: 170px classwp-caption alignleft>a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_function>img loadinglazy decodingasync class  alt srchttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Exp.svg/200px-Exp.svg.png width160 height160 />/a>p classwp-caption-text>ye^x/p>/div>p>Here is a third sort of messy number, one which the Greeks are probably glad they missed. We have a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler target_blank>Leonhard Euler/a> to thank for discovering this one./p>p>He noted there was a number ‘em>e/em>‘ giving an equation of the form yesup>i>x/i>/sup> (see the graphs pictured), em>where the slope of the curve is the same as the height of the curve at each point/em>./p>p>Strange and pointless sounding perhaps but pretty simple. So y2sup>i>x/i>/sup> doesn’t work, y3sup>i>x/i>/sup> doesn’t work, but by trial and error you can find a value for a that works, which is, roughly:/p>p stylepadding-left:60px;>2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995…/p>p>It too has no pattern and no repeats so is also ‘em>a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_number target_blank>irrational/a>‘. /em>This number has a a hrefhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Story-Number-Princeton-Science-Library/dp/0691141347 target_blank>whole book written about it/a>, for those who are keen./p>p>strong>Part 4. Now consider ‘i’/strong>/p>p>The last piece of the puzzle now./p>p>Consider the equation 3 + x  0/p>p>Now solve for x. Seems pretty easy, but really you are cheating. span styletext-decoration:underline;>There is no number that solves that equation/span>. Really, to solve it you had to ‘invent’ the concept of a negative number./p>p>Ok. Now consider the equation xsup>i>2/i>/sup> + 1  0/p>p>Ah. Trickier! However it turns out that we can do the same trick; this time we simply invent another sort of number – the ‘imaginary’ number. Now if you’ve never heard about these numbers before, you may think I’m joking. Alas I am not. This is what mathematicians have been up to for the last few hundred years, just making stuff up as they go along./p>p>So we define i as √-1, or a number, that when multiplied by itself, yields the more respectable -1./p>p stylepadding-left:30px;>em>Aside: Just as -1 is a number which, when multiplied by any negative number renders it decent (i.e. positive) once more./em>/p>p>So isup>i>2/i>/sup> + 1  0 and the equation is solved. It turns out mathematicians were suddenly able to solve loads of em>really /em>tedious equations using this trick, which made their entire week./p>p>So we have now got i! At last we are ready to put the puzzle together./p>p>strong>Simplicity emerges from the complex…/strong>/p>p>So, now I ask, what happens if you raise e to the power of i? What does it even mean? It means, e times itself √-1 times. Ouch. Nonsense surely?/p>p>Well it works out at roughly 0.540302306 + 0.841470985 i, which is a right mess, something they call, for fairly self-explanatory reasons, a a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number target_blank>complex number/a>./p>p>So now lets stick our old friend from the circle, π, in there and see what happens:/p>p>What is esup>iπ/sup>?/p>p>Surely an even bigger mess? I mean its all these messy a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_number target_blank>irrational/a> numbers combined with this home-made a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_number target_blank>imaginary/a> number…/p>p>Google can a hrefhttps://www.google.co.uk/search?qe%5Epi&rlz1C1CHFX_enUS452US453&oqe%5Epi&aqschrome.0.57j65l2j0l2j62.1630&sourceidchrome&ieUTF-8#hlen&sugexples%3B&gs_rn2&gs_riserp&tokf50lAZrRrPisdhq_FK8Qhw&pqe%5Ei*pi&cp3&gs_idi&xhrt&qe%5E(i*pi)&es_nrstrue&pfp&safeoff&tbod&rlz1C1CHFX_enUS452US453&sclientpsy-ab&oqe%5E(i*pi&gs_l&pbx1&bavon.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvmbv.42080656,d.d2k&fp620e60432c3ada21&biw1600&bih742 target_blank>do it for you/a>… and the answer is…../p>p>-1./p>p>So there you have it, all these messy numbers – π, e and non-integer powers combine with i and the answer pops out as -1./p>p>Blows em>my/em> mind./p>p>—————–/p>p>For more info on whay the heck this is, look up a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulers_identity target_blank>Euler’s Identity/a>!/p>			/div>!-- .entry-content -->		footer classentry-meta>					div classcomments-link>				a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p1902#comments>One comment so far/a>			/div>!-- .comments-link -->					/footer>!-- .entry-meta -->/article>!-- #post -->							nav classnavigation paging-navigation rolenavigation>		h1 classscreen-reader-text>Posts navigation/h1>		div classnav-links>						div classnav-previous>a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?paged2 >span classmeta-nav>←/span> Older posts/a>/div>								/div>!-- .nav-links -->	/nav>!-- .navigation -->					/div>!-- #content -->	/div>!-- #primary -->		/div>!-- #main -->		footer idcolophon classsite-footer rolecontentinfo>				div idsecondary classsidebar-container rolecomplementary>		div classwidget-area>			aside idsearch-2 classwidget widget_search>form rolesearch methodget classsearch-form actionhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/>				label>					span classscreen-reader-text>Search for:/span>					input typesearch classsearch-field placeholderSearch … value names />				/label>				input typesubmit classsearch-submit valueSearch />			/form>/aside>		aside idrecent-posts-2 classwidget widget_recent_entries>		h3 classwidget-title>Recent Posts/h3>		ul>											li>					a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2189>Another way to think about Space-Time: A fresh start…/a>									/li>											li>					a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2161>England’s World Cup Failure: A nerd explains why all the pundits are wrong/a>									/li>											li>					a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2141>Vaccination ‘Hesitance’ Put Bluntly/a>									/li>											li>					a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2104>The speed of evolution – revisited…/a>									/li>											li>					a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p2071>Negative pressure: impossible surely!!?/a>									/li>					/ul>		/aside>aside idrecent-comments-2 classwidget widget_recent_comments>h3 classwidget-title>Recent Comments/h3>ul idrecentcomments>li classrecentcomments>span classcomment-author-link>jarrodhart/span> on a hrefhttps://theprovincialscientist.com/?p802#comment-92451>What exactly is temperature? 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