Reminds me of an Asimov story "The Feeling of Power" written by Asimov in 1958. People of the future, who are totally reliant on personal computers, experience the wonder at being able to do arithmetic by hand.
One could argue that DNA is not an evolutionary adaptation, merely the basic chemistry upon which life Earth's life is based. (Can chemistry evolve?)
However, the article does mention photosynthesis as evolutionary, which is just a type of chemistry for energy generation. Why not include energy extraction by chemical oxidation of organic molcules on the list? And there are more ancient chemistries. Prior to photosynthesis oxygenating the atmosphere, hydrogen sulfide thermophiles probably dominated the pre-pre-Cambian seas.
If chemistry adaptations are recognized as evolutionary, then energy extraction by whatever means should rank as a big advance. It separates cell "life" from mere masses of organic chemicals that imitate reproduction as in the Miller-Urey experiment.
Then they let these 3 old machines run through the end of the year, unpatched.
Yup, all 3 failed within seconds.
For several years before y2k, there were dozens of stories each year, both reported and rumored, about computer controlled ships, buildings, etc., mysteriously shutting down at midnight of the new year. Many of these were probably more than mere coicidences. (Can't rule out "the full moon" effect, where people just remember them better because of a separate association.)
My take is that many control applications were simply ill written to account for year number changes and time clock rollovers, y2k or not. I'm sure some OS's, BIOS, and ROMs were also at fault. The corrections pre-y2k were clearly effective, since there were no BIG failures.
Amazingly, most modern techies actually do know something about programming.
This is a great list. Solvents, second hand smoke, you name it. Don't forget the lack of ketchup-as-a-vegetable for lunch.
I blame the pencil for kids' poor writing skills. If they didn't have the ability to erase mistakes, they'd make less of them. Bring back the chisel and stone tablet!
I think most people have an intutive sense that we are, indeed, alone in the universe. We have been looking for "life" outside of our planet for quite a while with nothing even approaching a hit.
I think Columbus thought he was state-of-the-art in sailing out to find a backdoor way to China, and lo, and behold!, he finds a whole new continent, with unknown people living there. Amazing that the Native Americans never tried to communicate with their highly cultured European brothers.
An "intuitive sense" that we are alone? For most of our civilization, the "intuitive sense" was that the Earth was the center of the universe and the stars were just nice little lights a few miles up in the sky, put there by God for our amusement.
We may not find ET life in our lifetime, but let's hope we reach a level of sanity that does not exclude the existence of other life, or its equal value as life. The last factor in the Drake equation is "lifetime of a sufficiently advanced civilization". Than can mean they either advance beyond a physical level of communication, or they destroy themselves. Not so sure which course we are on at the present....
What if humans just fail to recognize the enemy. The story line could use the "absentee landlord" device, e.g., the Dominion in Deep Space Nine. The Romulans use mercenary troops in land battles. They are only commanders or highest ranking officers of ships-of-the-line. They consider themselves superior to humans so they delegate all intership comm to the more subservient species. And on the offchance that a human briefly glimpses a Romulan on a busy planet's street or in the middle of a pitched battle, how would they know?
As for tapping into intraship comm to sneek a peek, i.e. TOS, they didn't have fiber optics in the 60's for the writers to realize that there are ways to keep video private. It would be stupid to write in a similar video tap with today's, or rather, 100 years' plus of technology.
This also presumes the Romulans will look like they did in the previous shows. Maybe they had they same change in appearance that the Klingons had to explain away in DSN; "We don't talk about it."
If the USA spent 10% of it's military budget on alternative energy sources then this nut could be cracked quickly...
And if we develop the Japanese motor (from last week's/.) that generates more energy than it uses, and if we develop the Newman motor from back in the 80's, and if we develop the water turbulence machine that generated more heat than energy added from the 70's, and if...
Face it, Tinkerbell, perpetual motion, i.e. free, unlimited energy, would solve a lot of problems, and it will come true if we all say, "I believe in fairies, I believe in fairies..." Show me the physics!
There are alternate energy sources: solar, geothermal, fuel cell, etc. But guess what. They are expensive! The days of chopping down every tree in site or "shooting at some food and up from the ground comes bubbling crude. Oil, that is." are over.
There's just something lacking in a show that focuses on such riveting legal issues as "should a player with a super-accurate bionic eye be allowed to play professional baseball?"
By taking place in the future, it might free up the writiers to deal with touchy issues of the present, without treading on someone's toes (think Murphy Brown, Dan Quail, and unwed motherhood). Looks like they already have some, but here's a few future issues that could spark some controversy:
human cloning for disease treatment vs longevity
computer graphic use of the dead and famous in movies and commercials
undetectable computer doctoring of photos and recordings in news reporting
competition in sports between normal and physiologically enhanced players
Back in college, we always wondered why the Jello cubes sat on a lettuce leaf instead of just being served on a bare plate. The lettuce was obviously preventing a reaction between the plate and the Jello, which emitted dihydrogen monoxide, aka Jello gas. Colorless, odorless, and you feel fine until dropping dead within 120 years. Sounds like "brain cloud" to me.
Compare it to the transition of a metal (or ceramic for HiTc) to the supersconducting state. There is a sharp and complete change in electical and magnetic properties.
I just realized that there would likely be a different effect for a plasma leak into the wing (as opposed to a hot gas). A plasma is highly conductive, and would electrically screw up everything electronic. It's also more destructive to material surface layers; thus it is used as an etch in the semiconductor industry.
Compare it to the transition of a metal (or ceramic for HiTc) to the supersconducting state. There is a sharp and complete change in electical and magnetic properties.
Then there are just things that are incidental. For awhile, there was a positive correlation between one of my friends attending football games and the team winning. Every game he attended, they won, the couple he missed, they lost. Well of course he didn't cause them to win, nor did their loosing cause him not to attend, it was just random luck.
Then again, if the team loses everytime the star quarterback fails to play, you can bet there's a direct, causal correlation. Since we understand the physics of CO2 gas and the greenhouse effect, it becomes reasonable to assume one causes the other.
Yes, it is hard to prove with 100% assurance that a correlation implies causation in some things. That's what control subjects in experiments are for. Problem with global warming, there isn't an easy cure if the placebo of doing nothing goes on too long, and the assumptions are proven correct!
Possibly because superconductivity is purely a quantum mechanical phenomena, applications don't get reported a lot, because it's hard to explain how such devices work to the general public.
Superconductivity also encompasses the Josephson effect. This is where paired electrons in a superconductor, when driven by microwave frequency radio signals, can pass through a thin insulating layer. The voltage generated across this layer is proportional to the microwave frequency. Thus, the unit of voltage is now determined by Josephson effect reference standards in labs all over the world.
An additional Josephson effect is an extreme sensitivity to magnetic fields. This is employed in SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices). SQUIDS are used in detecting the magnetic fields from nerve currents in the brain, internal flaws in metal structures, or submerged submarines.
Brian Josephson won the Nobel in physics in 1973, after figuring this weird, electron tunneling effect out as a grad student in 1962.
The standard Joseshson Volt is proportional to frequency, with the theoretical proportionality constant being h/2e [Planck constant/(2*electronic charge)]. That ratio was given an assigned number in 1990, chosen so that electrical power measurements in watts are as close as possible to mechanical power measurements. The decision was based on power measurements involving both units (and others). However, if the Kilogram keeps changing while the Volt stays the same, then eventually mechanical power will not equal electrical power. Thus, the "constants" appear to drift.
Slashdot Mirror
Reminds me of an Asimov story "The Feeling of Power" written by Asimov in 1958. People of the future, who are totally reliant on personal computers, experience the wonder at being able to do arithmetic by hand.
Are we there yet?
However, the article does mention photosynthesis as evolutionary, which is just a type of chemistry for energy generation. Why not include energy extraction by chemical oxidation of organic molcules on the list? And there are more ancient chemistries. Prior to photosynthesis oxygenating the atmosphere, hydrogen sulfide thermophiles probably dominated the pre-pre-Cambian seas.
If chemistry adaptations are recognized as evolutionary, then energy extraction by whatever means should rank as a big advance. It separates cell "life" from mere masses of organic chemicals that imitate reproduction as in the Miller-Urey experiment.
Then they let these 3 old machines run through the end of the year, unpatched.
Yup, all 3 failed within seconds.
For several years before y2k, there were dozens of stories each year, both reported and rumored, about computer controlled ships, buildings, etc., mysteriously shutting down at midnight of the new year. Many of these were probably more than mere coicidences. (Can't rule out "the full moon" effect, where people just remember them better because of a separate association.)
My take is that many control applications were simply ill written to account for year number changes and time clock rollovers, y2k or not. I'm sure some OS's, BIOS, and ROMs were also at fault. The corrections pre-y2k were clearly effective, since there were no BIG failures.
Amazingly, most modern techies actually do know something about programming.
This is a great list. Solvents, second hand smoke, you name it. Don't forget the lack of ketchup-as-a-vegetable for lunch.
I blame the pencil for kids' poor writing skills. If they didn't have the ability to erase mistakes, they'd make less of them. Bring back the chisel and stone tablet!
I think most people have an intutive sense that we are, indeed, alone in the universe. We have been looking for "life" outside of our planet for quite a while with nothing even approaching a hit.
I think Columbus thought he was state-of-the-art in sailing out to find a backdoor way to China, and lo, and behold!, he finds a whole new continent, with unknown people living there. Amazing that the Native Americans never tried to communicate with their highly cultured European brothers.
An "intuitive sense" that we are alone? For most of our civilization, the "intuitive sense" was that the Earth was the center of the universe and the stars were just nice little lights a few miles up in the sky, put there by God for our amusement.
We may not find ET life in our lifetime, but let's hope we reach a level of sanity that does not exclude the existence of other life, or its equal value as life. The last factor in the Drake equation is "lifetime of a sufficiently advanced civilization". Than can mean they either advance beyond a physical level of communication, or they destroy themselves. Not so sure which course we are on at the present....
What if humans just fail to recognize the enemy. The story line could use the "absentee landlord" device, e.g., the Dominion in Deep Space Nine. The Romulans use mercenary troops in land battles. They are only commanders or highest ranking officers of ships-of-the-line. They consider themselves superior to humans so they delegate all intership comm to the more subservient species. And on the offchance that a human briefly glimpses a Romulan on a busy planet's street or in the middle of a pitched battle, how would they know?
As for tapping into intraship comm to sneek a peek, i.e. TOS, they didn't have fiber optics in the 60's for the writers to realize that there are ways to keep video private. It would be stupid to write in a similar video tap with today's, or rather, 100 years' plus of technology.
This also presumes the Romulans will look like they did in the previous shows. Maybe they had they same change in appearance that the Klingons had to explain away in DSN; "We don't talk about it."
And if we develop the Japanese motor (from last week's /.) that generates more energy than it uses, and if we develop the Newman motor from back in the 80's, and if we develop the water turbulence machine that generated more heat than energy added from the 70's, and if...
Face it, Tinkerbell, perpetual motion, i.e. free, unlimited energy, would solve a lot of problems, and it will come true if we all say, "I believe in fairies, I believe in fairies..." Show me the physics!
There are alternate energy sources: solar, geothermal, fuel cell, etc. But guess what. They are expensive! The days of chopping down every tree in site or "shooting at some food and up from the ground comes bubbling crude. Oil, that is." are over.
TANSTAAFL
By taking place in the future, it might free up the writiers to deal with touchy issues of the present, without treading on someone's toes (think Murphy Brown, Dan Quail, and unwed motherhood). Looks like they already have some, but here's a few future issues that could spark some controversy:
human cloning for disease treatment vs longevity
computer graphic use of the dead and famous in movies and commercials
undetectable computer doctoring of photos and recordings in news reporting
competition in sports between normal and physiologically enhanced players
undetectable biologically induced physical enhancement
advanced math methods in accounting to artificially increase earnings
Wait, I think I've seen these somewhere before...
Back in college, we always wondered why the Jello cubes sat on a lettuce leaf instead of just being served on a bare plate. The lettuce was obviously preventing a reaction between the plate and the Jello, which emitted dihydrogen monoxide, aka Jello gas. Colorless, odorless, and you feel fine until dropping dead within 120 years. Sounds like "brain cloud" to me.
How would plasma fit into that phase transition?
Compare it to the transition of a metal (or ceramic for HiTc) to the supersconducting state. There is a sharp and complete change in electical and magnetic properties.
I just realized that there would likely be a different effect for a plasma leak into the wing (as opposed to a hot gas). A plasma is highly conductive, and would electrically screw up everything electronic. It's also more destructive to material surface layers; thus it is used as an etch in the semiconductor industry.
How would plasma fit into that phase transition?
Compare it to the transition of a metal (or ceramic for HiTc) to the supersconducting state. There is a sharp and complete change in electical and magnetic properties.
Then again, if the team loses everytime the star quarterback fails to play, you can bet there's a direct, causal correlation. Since we understand the physics of CO2 gas and the greenhouse effect, it becomes reasonable to assume one causes the other.
Yes, it is hard to prove with 100% assurance that a correlation implies causation in some things. That's what control subjects in experiments are for. Problem with global warming, there isn't an easy cure if the placebo of doing nothing goes on too long, and the assumptions are proven correct!
Exactly right. Also, people even tuned to other stations that weren't carrying the "news", and still didn't believe it was a show.
Possibly because superconductivity is purely a quantum mechanical phenomena, applications don't get reported a lot, because it's hard to explain how such devices work to the general public.
Superconductivity also encompasses the Josephson effect. This is where paired electrons in a superconductor, when driven by microwave frequency radio signals, can pass through a thin insulating layer. The voltage generated across this layer is proportional to the microwave frequency. Thus, the unit of voltage is now determined by Josephson effect reference standards in labs all over the world.
An additional Josephson effect is an extreme sensitivity to magnetic fields. This is employed in SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices). SQUIDS are used in detecting the magnetic fields from nerve currents in the brain, internal flaws in metal structures, or submerged submarines.
Brian Josephson won the Nobel in physics in 1973, after figuring this weird, electron tunneling effect out as a grad student in 1962.
The standard Joseshson Volt is proportional to frequency, with the theoretical proportionality constant being h/2e [Planck constant/(2*electronic charge)]. That ratio was given an assigned number in 1990, chosen so that electrical power measurements in watts are as close as possible to mechanical power measurements. The decision was based on power measurements involving both units (and others). However, if the Kilogram keeps changing while the Volt stays the same, then eventually mechanical power will not equal electrical power. Thus, the "constants" appear to drift.