It happens in the best families, so they say. Two experiments work 24/7 to produce an improved result on the Higgs search, and the result is disappointing, to say the least.
I am talking about the Tevatron, of course. For a little while longer, CDF and D0 will have the exclusive on Higgs boson searches. Last March, we all rejoyced when we saw that the Tevatron was starting to become sensitive to a high-mass Higgs, and indeed it excluded its existence in a range of masses between 160 and 170 GeV. We were waiting for more exclusions for the winter conferences of 2010, when more data would be used to produce improved results. Instead, no improvement, but actually, a retractatio. How is that possible ??
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Attentive readers of this blog may have noticed that those who post comments to my entries often show two interesting and complementary attitudes: a fundamental distrust of (if not downright contempt for) philosophy, coupled with an overly enthusiastic endorsement of science. Take, for instance, my recurring argument that some (but not all!) of the “new atheists” engage in scientistic attitudes by overplaying the epistemological power of science while downplaying (or even simply negating) the notion that science fundamentally depends on non-empirical (i.e., philosophical) assumptions to even get started.
I recently discussed here the Tevatron results of searches for new Z bosons in electron-positron or dimuon samples collected by CDF and DZERO, pointing out that there seem to be a couple of intriguing upward fluctuations in the data. One of the dielectron fluctuations sits at a mass of 240 GeV, the other, also in the dielectron spectrum, is at about 720 GeV. Neither is compelling.
Hubris is traditional defined as a man (or woman) acting as if they are the equal of the gods. This flavor of hubris has a tendency to piss off the gods, who know that humans are not the equals of the gods. The practitioner of the hubris also tends to come in for some serious smiting as a gentle reminder of their sub-god status. My favorite example is Bellerophon.
The Associated Press, that bastion of scientific knowledge, shares with us a list of "pests that are benefiting or could benefit from global warming", starting with:
_Ticks that transmit Lyme disease are spreading northward into Sweden and Canada, once too cold for them.
_Giant Humboldt squid have reached waters as far north as British Columbia,
threatening fisheries along much of the western North American coast.
No one draws pictures of heads with little gears or hydraulics inside any more. The modern conceptualization of the brain is firmly computational. The brain may be wet, squooshy, and easy to serve with an ice cream scooper, but it is nevertheless a computer.
However, there is a rather blaring difficulty with this view, and it is encapsulated in the following question: If our brains are computers, why doesn’t size matter? In the real world of computers, bigger tends to mean smarter. But this is not the case for animals: bigger brains are not generally smarter. Most of the brain size differences across mammals seem to make no behavioral difference at all to the animal.
However, there is a rather blaring difficulty with this view, and it is encapsulated in the following question: If our brains are computers, why doesn’t size matter? In the real world of computers, bigger tends to mean smarter. But this is not the case for animals: bigger brains are not generally smarter. Most of the brain size differences across mammals seem to make no behavioral difference at all to the animal.
The metric system rocks, right? And that's because it's an organic system of measure, derived directly from the circumference of the earth, right? And hasn't been subject to any malingering, gerrymandering, finagling or other debased punking by dirty human hands, right? Um, not exactly.
Last May the CDF collaboration published their observation of the
Today, November 16, is the 35th anniversary of a coded radar beam that was directed out into the galaxy by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, who used the enormous radio telescope dish at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to send a message from the Earth. Those signals are now 35 light years away. They have already passed the nearest stars, and may even have been intercepted, with a reply heading our way.
If that has happened, and we can decipher the incoming message, there will be some very happy people at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Our perception of the human race, living on a small planet circling an ordinary star, will be forever changed. We will no longer be alone.
If that has happened, and we can decipher the incoming message, there will be some very happy people at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Our perception of the human race, living on a small planet circling an ordinary star, will be forever changed. We will no longer be alone.
A story in the local newspaper related how a pit bull was turned into the animal shelter after having been found abandoned in a ditch with all of its teeth filed down to the exposed roots, emaciated by starvation (weighing less than 40 pounds), and having just given birth to 9 puppies that morning. The mother also had a few pressure sores from where bones rubbed against skin. All the puppies still had the umbilical cords attached and were wet.
This level of human cruelty and stupidity is beyond understanding and one wonders what could be done to bring such behaviors under control.
This level of human cruelty and stupidity is beyond understanding and one wonders what could be done to bring such behaviors under control.
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