The Tide is High
I am intrigued by tidal waters. Tidal flow has a remarkable predictability and, at one and the same time, a high degree of irregularity. The movement of the fluids of the earth are affected by a number of factors. If we focus only on the oceans for a while we can make a case for…
Continue readingThe Unselfish Gene
Richard Dawkins wrote The Selfish Gene in 1976. It represented some of his greatest writing and was much less antagonistic toward other philosophical and theological perspectives than his later writings. The book described a gene-centred view of evolution and was not a treatise on whether or not organisms are selfish. Yet, a persistent problem in…
Continue readingChicken Soup Too!
In February of 2011 I posted the lyrics of a song by Alan Root. I could not find the lyrics that our daughters and I used to listen to on the cassette we borrowed from the library. Alan Root has since re-written the song and made it more academic and less fun, and those rewritten lyrics were…
Continue readingMagneto and Sodium Man
When I was a kid, I used to look at my compass and imagine why one end of the needle pointed 17 degrees east of north. I imagined that there was a large chunk of negatively magnetized metal sitting just a little to the right of the north pole and another positively magnetized chunk of…
Continue readingMesons, Antimatter, and Why Things Exist
I enjoy reading about recent developments in science even when I find the specific concepts hard to understand. Particle physics is one of those areas in which my math is not up to reading the original publications so I read the summaries of recent discoveries on websites that give a simple explanation. Reading such articles…
Continue reading
More “Crowish” Science
I have previously written about amateur science that all of us can do as we observe the world around us. In that article I commented on crows that seem to have learned to do “crowish science” and “probability predicting” in order to get their daily caloric intake from their harvest of mussels. Of course, my…
Continue readingReading God’s Two Books
. . . let no man . . . think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both. These words were…
Continue readingFollow-up to Observation
As a follow-up to Saturday’s blog entitled “Observation,” I offer the following quotes related to science and observation. The first two are equally true although in tension with each other. [Those] who have an excessive faith in their theories or in their ideas are not only poorly disposed to make discoveries, but they also make…
Continue readingObservation
Because I have studied science most of my life, some people will confide with me that they wish they had studied more science. I usually tell them that it is never too late to start. The convenient thing about science is that one can begin studying at any time. Science, at its core, starts with…
Continue reading
Who Made the Moon?
I am currently guest blogging at the Cosmos website. Please take a look at my review of Sigmund Brouwer’s great little book, Who Made the Moon?
Continue reading