Diversity
The incredible diversity of life on this planet will never cease to amaze. A recent article in Science News shows bees and other insects up close and in full colour. The research lab that took these photos provides a service to help identify the various species of bees. “There are nearly 20,000 known species of…
Continue readingDeep Thoughts by Kilobot 142
The CBC news site had an article about a Harvard research group that built 1,024 tiny robots. The “Kilobots” have three tiny legs and are powered by a rechargeable battery. They express a “hive mentality” in which the researchers can send a signal to the group of robots and they will assemble into groupings of…
Continue readingMillions and Billions
When I was a teenager in Canada there was a time when many people were talking about the concept of a million. People would wave their lottery ticket and talk about how wealthy they would be when they won a million dollars. They talked about government debts that were measured in millions of dollars. People…
Continue readingQuantum Mathematics
Two experiences within a few days have shaped my thinking for this blog. Earlier this week a friend made the statement that our world cannot fight the truth. Some in our world want to say that certain things are right when the fact is that they are not. He then used the metaphor that 2…
Continue readingWhy is there something rather than nothing?
New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking are confident in their atheism; even if they still have a few issues to tackle. Philosophers continue to ask them why consciousness and morality exist. Why do concepts of good and bad, wrong and right persist? Are such things outdated; should they be discarded? Once one…
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Europa
The May 17 issue of Science News features a series of articles about Europa, the fourth largest moon of Jupiter. Europa is perhaps the most interesting moon in our solar system. At roughly two thirds the size of our own moon (with a mass of just 0.0080 times the mass of earth) it is still…
Continue readingOld Footprints
There is an interesting article at Science News about ancient footprints found in petrified mud in England. According to the explanations presented in the article, some ancient ancestors of humans walked through the mud at least 780,000 years ago, and the footprints stayed in that mud and were protected from erosion for many years until…
Continue readingOld Stars
CBC.ca recently had an article about a discovery made by two astronomers. They have discovered the oldest star seen in our sky. Using the wavelength signature of a star, astronomers can make accurate statements about the chemical content of a given star. Knowing the life-cycle of stars allows them to then give an accurate assessment…
Continue readingFollow-up to DNA Sequencing
Now that researchers have sequenced the first human genomes and several large mammalian genomes, attention has shifted to looking at ancient people groups and mixed ethnic persons to see what genes code for the distinctions between different collections of people. The reality is that we have many more genes in common and many more common…
Continue readingThe End of 2013
It is the end of 2013. I have been consistently blogging for five years and this is my 458th blog entry. Some entries have been short, just a quote from someone else’s writing; some have been longer examples of my own creativity. This blog is not restricted to a certain topic but rather ranges over…
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