Gary Marcus predicts that in a few decades, we may all not only have the option of traveling in driverless cars, we may even be obligated to do so.
Within two or three decades the difference between automated driving and human driving will be so great you may not be legally allowed to drive your own car, and even if you are allowed, it would be immoral of you to drive, because the risk of you hurting yourself or another person will be far greater than if you allowed a machine to do the work.
The program Science Friday looks at what happens when we are placed in a situation where reality is at odds with what we see. Even when we know exactly what is causing the discrepancy, a sense of disturbing disorientation sets in. [Read more…]
There has been some excitement because Pat Robertson, of all people, recently told a viewer of his TV show that the Earth is much older than 6,000 years, and that Christians should stop trying to pretend that it is and that everything happened within that time. He says that if parents try to fight ‘revealed’ science (whatever that is) they will lose their children. He even talks about radiocarbon dating and fossils in support of his position! (Via Pharyngula.) [Read more…]
I am not a fan of practical jokes. They are often cruel rather than amusing and it is not fun when one person is the victim and is being laughed at by others. Sometimes they can be excused because they cause just minor embarrassment but this too is dangerous because what can seem like something minor to the perpetrators can be traumatic for the victim. [Read more…]
In yesterday’s post, I discussed how the changing demographics of the US threaten the future of the Republican party. While I focused largely on ethnicity, there is one other demographic where the party is getting trounced and that is among scientists. In an article titled Why Conservatives Turned Against Science Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes lay out the figures. [Read more…]
Two dogs explain the different types of chemical bonds that form between elements.
My one suggestion for improvement is that the partner to a ‘cation’ should be a ‘dogion’ instead of the traditional ‘anion’.
(Via Maggie Koerth-Baker.)
Even though we were on the fringes of Hurricane Sandy, a massive pine tree in our backyard toppled over during the night, even though there was not much wind. We did not even hear it falling, suggesting that it fell over slowly rather than come crashing down, presumably because the cause was the soil being weakened by steady, but not heavy, rain rather than high wind. Fortunately it missed our house and garage and the neighbor’s house and garage and the main damage it caused was to the fence separating our two properties and to a smaller tree that was in its path. [Read more…]
My post about how to distinguish real science from fake science generated some interesting comments, especially over my assertion that we have not as yet been able to come up with an unambiguous way to distinguish science from non-science, and it prompted me to post a follow-up to try and clarify it. [Read more…]
One of the remarkable things about science is that it works. It produces results that are repeatable, testable, and useful. So what is it about this enterprise that we call science that makes it so successful? Philosophers and historians of science have struggled for over a century to answer this question and the related question of how to distinguish science from non-science (the well-known ‘demarcation problem’), and have basically come up empty. [Read more…]
The story of our ancestors never ceases to be fascinating to me.
The Colbert Report
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(This clip appeared on November 15, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)