blogjou
It seems like at least the European CORONA crisis is coming to an end, so I need another socially accepted excuse for never being around anywhere. A blog!It is not at all atrivial matter that there are such things as species...
It is not at all a trivial matter that there are such things as species; and they are not just artifacts of the biologist’s mind, as has sometimes been claimed. Ernst Mayr, the great ornithologist and biogeographer, likes to recount how, as a young researcher in New Guinea, he counted a hundred and twenty-seven species of birds nesting in the valley where he was working. The members of the local tribe counted a hundred and twenty-six; the only difference between their list and his was that they lumped together two very similar species of gerygone that Ernst, with his scientific training, was able to distinguish from each other. Even more important than the agreement among different sorts of people is the fact that the birds themselves can tell whether or not they belong to the same species. Animals of different species are not usually in the habit of mating with one another, and in the rare cases where they do, the hybrids they produce are likely to be sterile. In fact, one of the most successful definitions of what constitutes a species is the statement that there is not effective exchange of genes by ordinary means between members of different species.
Nietzsche introduced the distiction between...
Nietzsche introduced the distinction between “Apollonians,” wo favor logic, the analytical approach, and a dispassionate weighing of evidence, and “Dionysians,” who lean more toward intuition, synthesis and passion. These traits are sometimes described as correlating very roughly with emphasis on the use of the left and right brain respectively. But some of us seem to belong to another category: “Odysseans,” who combine the two predilections in their quest for connections among ideas.
Today the network of relationships linking the human race to itself...
Today the network of relationships linking the human race to itself and to the rest of the biosphere is so complex that all aspects affect all others to an extraordinary degree. Someone should be studying the whole system, however crudely that has to be done, because no glueing together of partial studies of a complex nonlinear system can give a good idea of the behavior of the whole. Chapter 22 describes some efforts just getting under way to carry out such a crude study of world problems, including all the relevant aspects, not only environmental, demographic, and economic, but also social, political, military, diplomatic, and ideological. The object of the study is not just to speculate about the future, but to try to identify among the multiple possible future paths for the human race and the rest of the biosphere any reasonably probable ones that could lead to greater sustainability. Here the word sustainability is used in a broad sense, including not only the avoidance of environmental catastrophe, but of catastrophic war, widespread long-lasting tyranny, and other major evils as well.
The fate and transit time of carbon in a tropical forest
The paper is on means and quantiles of transit times of C in the Porce forest (Columbia). Furthermore, the concept of $\mathrm{NPP}/\mathrm{GPP}$ as $\mathrm{CUE}$ is questioned and an interpretation as $\mathrm{NPP}/\mathrm{GPP} = R_h/\mathrm{GPP}$ is suggested.
It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvellous universe...
It doesn’t seem to me that this fantastically marvellous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different plants, and all these atoms with all their motions and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good or evil - which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama. So I believe it’s not the right picture.
I think I entered MIT in Math...
I think I entered MIT in Math (course XVIII). After a bit I went to Franklin (then head of Math Department) to ask “what is the use of higher mathematics beside teaching more higher mathematics.” He answered, “if you have to ask that then you don’t belong in mathematics.”
It appears the Greeks take their past very seriously...
It appears the Greeks take their past very seriously. They study ancient Greek archeology in elementary school for six years, having to take 10 hours of that subject every week. It is a kind of ancestor worship for they emphasize always how wonderful the ancient Greeks were - and wonderful indeed they were. When to encourage them by saying yes and look how modern man has advanced beyond the acient Greeks (thinking of experimental science, the development of mathematics, the art of the renaissance, the great depth and understanding of the relative shallowness of Greep philosophy, etc., etc.) - they say, “What do you mean - what was wrong with the ancient Greeks?” They continually put their age down and the old age up, until to point out the wonders of the present seems to be an unjustified lack of appreciation for the past. They were upset when I said that the thing of greatest importance to mathematics in Europe was the discovery by Tartaglia that you can solve a cubic equation - which, altho it is very little used, must have been psychologiclly wonderful because it showed a modern man could do something no ancient Greek could do, and therefore helped in the renaissance which was the freeing of man from the intimidation of the ancients - what they are learning in school is to be intimidated into thinking thet have fallen fo far below their super ancestors.
Simple questions with complicated answers are always asked by dull students...
Simple questions with complicated answers are always asked by dull students. Only intelligent students have been trainedto ask complicated questions with simple answers - as any teacher knows (and only teachers think there are any simple questions with simple answers).
Communicating scientific uncertainty
This paper tries to characterize, asses, and convey the uncertainties relevant to each of the following decision classes:
In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear...
“In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that is certainly universally the case in human affairs. Hence, what is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth.”