Hover-fly on black-coloured variety of cornflower, Aug 2011, England
White fossil
Friday, 21 October 2011
Monday, 17 October 2011
What matters?
I suspect there comes a point in everyone’s
life when they start to wonder if they are spending their days well
and if whatever they are toiling away at is really worth the effort. For the most part, it probably gets marked down as “middle age angst”, apathy, or something similar and people
make a few changes and then plough on, much as before. In science, though, the answers matter because what "we" as a society chose to fund and what "we" as individual scientists chose to prioritise can really affect the future of mankind. The potential is always there for any individual scientist to change the world for the better.
Even though my scientific career has not been all that long, I have been a lot of scientific conferences and I have come away from some of them feeling that the most important things for mankind are not always those receiving highest priority.
Even though my scientific career has not been all that long, I have been a lot of scientific conferences and I have come away from some of them feeling that the most important things for mankind are not always those receiving highest priority.
Today’s post, then, is just a question- “what do you think matters to
mankind?” “Which questions and problems should scientists/mankind be
trying to answer most urgently?”
For what it is worth, the picture below is doodle from my notebook- my own crude, first-draft attempt to answer these questions (in no particular order- click to enlarge).
What would you prioritise?
For what it is worth, the picture below is doodle from my notebook- my own crude, first-draft attempt to answer these questions (in no particular order- click to enlarge).
What would you prioritise?
 |
| click to enlarge |
I am asking these questions for several reasons, one reason is in response to an article on line called "What are the most important questions to answer in physics?" You can find the the article on this site, by Dr M. Rulison-
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9xhDZz/www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/~m_rulison/top10.htm
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9xhDZz/www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/~m_rulison/top10.htm
I don’t claim to be qualified
enough to attempt to answer that question, or comment upon Dr Rulison’s ideas,
but they do make interesting reading.
On a lighter note, pictures have
now emerged of a baby pygmy hippo born in early September in Zurich zoo. The print
version of The Telegraph newspaper had a wonderful photograph of it, but I can’t
find this online. You can see a video of the baby hippo here- (WARNING: this
video has music)
Friday, 14 October 2011
Autumn & Link of the day-Bacteria and the power of teamwork
Welcome (back) to Weirdbeautiful. Greetings from a decidedly autumnal Northern England (pictures above and below).
First link-of-the-day today is the science article "Bacteria and the Power of Teamwork" published in The Guardian newspaper and available online here-->
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/13/bacteria-power-teamwork
(Thanks to "Gene's Sci-Tech Daily" by Gene Wilburn for this link.)
Second link-of-the-day is to this science article raising hopes of a vaccine against HIV-
http://uk.health.lifestyle.yahoo.net/Vaccine-could-reduce-HIV-to-a-minor-chronic-infection.htm
Cute animals, Disease Virulence and Black Death
Welcome (back) to Weirdbeautiful
Just three links today-
The first is this cute picture of a
baby panda-
The second, is to a gallery of adorable wildlife
photographs including a baby tiger and monkey-
The third is somewhat less cute; an
article about the DNA of Black Death, which has now been isolated from bodies
in plague pits and analyzed scientifically-
Some years ago (circa 1999/2000),
when I was still a microbiologist and busily looking for a PhD studentship, I was
interviewed for a project looking at virulence in foot-and-mouth disease. Over
the course of the interview, it became apparent that the project would,
essentially, involve devoting three years of my life to examining a small
section of RNA at one end of the Virus’s genome and culminate- in all
probability- in a single scientific paper on the subject. The aim was to
investigate which mutations caused the virus to become more deadly/virulent and
which, less so. If I remember correctly, the section of RNA to be examined was only
around 100-bases long and it seemed such a tiny specialization that, at that point- mid interview- my interest in the project nose-dived. Perhaps that was shallow or superficial, but it is probably not a unique experience.
As students, we are taught in summary and we view the bigger picture. But, as a researcher, one toils every day on a tiny piece often of a tiny puzzle; each day of research is just a drop in the ocean of a research career and that is a drop in the wider ocean of science itself. It is easy to sit, absolutely rapt, in lectures about virology, to marvel at the ingenuity of past microbiologists and to be excited by the prospect of working on similar puzzles. The problem, is that reality- in the form of various doctoral projects- often does not seem to match up. For this reason, the most enthusiastic students do not always make the most eager researchers.
On the other hand, being funded to spend three years working on a project that does capture your imagination, is a really wonderful experience. For my part, I switched to zoology, studied jellyfish and spent three and a half awesome, globe-trotting years working on about a dozen different species.
Incidentally, a couple of years after that foot-and-mouth PhD interview, the UK suffered a very costly, widespread and fairly unexpected foot-and-mouth outbreak. So, whoever did get that studentship must have taken some pleasure in the fact that their project, although narrow in focus, has undoubtedly proven useful- arguably, far more useful for mankind than my own doctoral research, but that is another issue altogether...
As students, we are taught in summary and we view the bigger picture. But, as a researcher, one toils every day on a tiny piece often of a tiny puzzle; each day of research is just a drop in the ocean of a research career and that is a drop in the wider ocean of science itself. It is easy to sit, absolutely rapt, in lectures about virology, to marvel at the ingenuity of past microbiologists and to be excited by the prospect of working on similar puzzles. The problem, is that reality- in the form of various doctoral projects- often does not seem to match up. For this reason, the most enthusiastic students do not always make the most eager researchers.
On the other hand, being funded to spend three years working on a project that does capture your imagination, is a really wonderful experience. For my part, I switched to zoology, studied jellyfish and spent three and a half awesome, globe-trotting years working on about a dozen different species.
Incidentally, a couple of years after that foot-and-mouth PhD interview, the UK suffered a very costly, widespread and fairly unexpected foot-and-mouth outbreak. So, whoever did get that studentship must have taken some pleasure in the fact that their project, although narrow in focus, has undoubtedly proven useful- arguably, far more useful for mankind than my own doctoral research, but that is another issue altogether...
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
News story of the week- Hummingbird Smuggling
Welcome (back) to Weirdbeautiful.
Strangest story of the week is this piece about a Dutchman arrested in French Guiana whilst attempting to smuggle live hummingbirds out of South America in his underpants-->
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2042474/Traveller-arrested-trying-smuggle-live-HUMMINGBIRDS-special-pouches-sewn-pants.html
You can read the full story in (the British tabloid newspaper) the "Daily Mail" [here].
Many animal species have been made extinct or nearly extinct by export for the pet trade- most famously, Spix's Macaw (below), although, in the case of the macaw, several other factors also contributed to the creature's decline. The hummingbird story above, does at least have a happy ending, since the hummingbirds were captured alive.
 |
| Spix's Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii) . Picture by Joseph Smit, 1878, copyright lapsed. |
Friday, 23 September 2011
Links of the Week- Siberian Tigers, Talking Gorillas and Exceeding the Speed of Light
Welcome (back) to Weirdbeautiful.
The big Science news story of the week is that scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland believe that they may have broken the speed of light.If they have, indeed, succeeded in accelerating neutrinos faster than the speed of light, this essentially disproves Einstein's theory of relativity. The researchers have requested that other laboratories check and attempt to duplicate their findings-
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/scientists-proved-einstein-theory-wrong-230650760.html
Weird story this week is the case of an Irish coroner ruling that a 76-year old Galway man died of spontaneous human combustion-you can find the full story here-->
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/coroner-rules-irish-man-died-of-spontaneous-combustion.html
One of the most beautiful or heartwarming stories in recent weeks has been this piece-->
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8765172/An-audience-with-Koko-the-talking-gorilla.html
originally published in The Sunday Telegraph about a journalist's visit to Koko the Gorilla at her home in California. Koko, who was rescued by Dr Penny Paterson of The Gorilla Foundation from a zoo, has learned to communicate with her keepers using a form of sign language and has a vocabulary of around 1000 words, but can understand around twice that number. For the full story, click [here].
Finally, picture of the week is of a dog wet-nursing Siberian Tiger cubs at a zoo in China after their mother is unable to care for them-
http://news.uk.msn.com/week-in-pictures-23-september-2011#image=13
The big Science news story of the week is that scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland believe that they may have broken the speed of light.If they have, indeed, succeeded in accelerating neutrinos faster than the speed of light, this essentially disproves Einstein's theory of relativity. The researchers have requested that other laboratories check and attempt to duplicate their findings-
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/scientists-proved-einstein-theory-wrong-230650760.html
Weird story this week is the case of an Irish coroner ruling that a 76-year old Galway man died of spontaneous human combustion-you can find the full story here-->
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/coroner-rules-irish-man-died-of-spontaneous-combustion.html
One of the most beautiful or heartwarming stories in recent weeks has been this piece-->
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8765172/An-audience-with-Koko-the-talking-gorilla.html
originally published in The Sunday Telegraph about a journalist's visit to Koko the Gorilla at her home in California. Koko, who was rescued by Dr Penny Paterson of The Gorilla Foundation from a zoo, has learned to communicate with her keepers using a form of sign language and has a vocabulary of around 1000 words, but can understand around twice that number. For the full story, click [here].
Finally, picture of the week is of a dog wet-nursing Siberian Tiger cubs at a zoo in China after their mother is unable to care for them-
http://news.uk.msn.com/week-in-pictures-23-september-2011#image=13
Friday, 16 September 2011
Quote of the week- the importance of finishing things- Charles Babbage/ Lord Moulton
Welcome
(back) to Weirdbeautiful.
Quote-of-the-week this week is somewhat longer than
usual:-
“ One of the sad memories of my life is a visit to
the celebrated mathematician and inventor, Mr Babbage....He took me through his
work rooms.
In the first room, I saw parts of the original
calculating machine, which had been shown in an incomplete state many years
before...I asked him about its present form. “I have not finished it because,
in working at it, I came on the idea of my Analytical Machine, which would do
all that it was capable of doing and much more.”
We went into the next work-room, where he showed and
explained to me the oworking of the elements of the Analytical machine...” I
have never completed it”, he said, “because I hit upon an idea of doing the
same thing by a different and far more effective method...”
Then we went into a thirds room...I saw no trace of
any working machine. “It is not constructed yet, but I am working on it and it
will take less time to construct it altogether than it would have taken to
complete the analytical machine.”
I took leave of the old man with a heavy heart; when
he died a few years later, not only had he constructed no machines,
but....everything was too incomplete to be capable of being put to any useful
purpose”.
-
-- - Lord Moulton (John Fletcher Mouton)
-
British Mathematician,
-
(1844-1921)
Source: Inaugral Address to the
Napier Tercentenary Congress, Edinburgh, 1914, printed in Napier Tercentenary
Memorial Volume 1915.
This quotation comes from the “Eccentricity”
exhibition which is currently on in the Museum of The History of Science in
Oxford. "Eccentricity" is an appropriately eccentric exhibition, with a collection of typewriters and moveable type jostling for space with tables for microscope slides and cabinets of hand-painted projector slides.
For details of this and other
exhibitions in Oxford’s Museum of the History of Science, take a look at their
website [here]. Materials from their previous exhibitions are online [here]. The
Museum, which is one of the hidden gems of Oxford, also contains a blackboard used
by Albert Einstein and still covered in equations written in his own hand. Admission to the museum is free.
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