Jun 25 2015

The Breakfast Club (Lucky Us)

breakfast beers photo breakfastbeers.jpgSometimes the Science section scares me and I have a hard time coming to grips with issues that are more immediately and politically important like Climate Change and the Environment, instead favoring those that are more esoteric and intellectual.

This is one of those weeks where the news in general has been uniformly depressingly bad and the only place we seem to be making any progress at all is on the silly issue of whether the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia represents racism and should be removed from government sponsorship.

Of course it does.

But it is just another in the littany of Social Issues the Plutocrat thieves and their NeoLib minions use to divide and distract us from the fact they are robbing us blind and destroying the Environment, the Economy, and Peace and Freedom in the process.

I like to think as a writer I’m a positive and cheerful person (and what you think doesn’t really matter to me, I write for myself) so I make an effort to select good news and there is just not as much of it as I had hoped today.

So instead of pointing out how Genetically Modified Organisms are likely to create a world full of health problems and unintended consequences (add ‘Space Germs’ to your reading list), and the pettyness of Scientists (see ‘Jellyfish Gene’ and ‘Sexism in Science’); or talking about the destruction of our environment for marginal monetary gain and the determination of our government to strip us of our last scrap of privacy, freedom, and dignity; I have chosen instead today to focus on just how lucky we are.

Some physicists consider it a puzzle that certain constants they have discovered have the particular values they do because they seem random and arbitrary.  Those who argue this way are fond of pointing out that should any of the values vary the Universe as we know it wouldn’t exist.

There are 3 main camps of thought on this issue.  The first is called ‘Weak Anthropomorphism’ and basically contends the Universe is a fluke and we should all just be happy it is the way it is.  The second is called ‘Strong Anthropomorphism’ which says the Universe responds to observation like the Quantum State of Schrodinger’s cat.

The third, and this is the one to which I subscribe, says simply that if the values were different the Universe would be different.  Everyone pretty much accepts now the idea that the Universe will keep expanding until all the energy in the system is equal and after that nothing much will happen.  It’s called the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

It was fashionable for a time to think this would not occur, that a limit would be reached where the energy expanding the Universe would be overcome by Gravity and it would collapse on itself in another Big Bang.  Indeed for quite a while the existence of a Big Bang was denied entirely and a Steady State Universe was proposed where everything was always the same.

What changed?

Well, as we checked out the values of specific items predicted by each of the discarded theories we found out they weren’t that, they were something else.

But if they were that then that’s the kind of Universe it would be.

Now those who subscribe to the first two camps (and indeed physicists who insist this is a very important question) tend to dismiss this attitude as a mere multiverse cop out, but it’s much more subtle than that.

In complex equations there are often more than one right answer and their very nature frequently depends on the results of the previous ones.

Our mathematical structure is fundamentally arbitrary and derives it’s validity from internal consistency and practical use.  That means it’s not impossible to imagine a different mathematical structure.

Humankind’s Existentially Lucky Numbers

by George Johnson, The New York Times

JUNE 22, 2015

Rejecting the possibility that this was nothing more than a lucky accident, physicists have been looking for some underlying principle – a compelling explanation for why everything could only have unfolded in this particular way.

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But physics isn’t played that way: If a number called alpha, which governs the strength of electromagnetism, were infinitesimally larger or smaller, stars could not have formed, leaving a lifeless void.

Alpha’s value seems no more predictable than digits randomly spit out by a lottery machine: 0.0072973525698.

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Other values, like the mass of the Higgs, or the strength of the force that binds together the cores of atoms, appear to be just as finely tuned. Bump the dials just barely, and nothing like our universe could exist.

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Finally there are followers of a middle path, who seek to prove that the universe is not accidental but inevitable, with its set of defining numbers as constrained and mutually consistent as the solution to a Sudoku puzzle.

That was the goal of string theory when it rose to prominence three decades ago. The mathematics, with its extra dimensions and pretzel geometries, was so mesmerizing that the theory seemed almost certain to be true – a tightly woven description, when ultimately deciphered, of a universe just like our own.

Instead, string theory spiraled off in another direction, predicting a whole multitude of other universes, each with a different physics and each unobservable except for our own. Maybe some of the other universes have spawned different kinds of conscious beings, made from something other than atoms and just as puzzled (in some unfathomable equivalent of puzzlement) as we are.

What fundamentaly drives this issue is our collossal, egotistical, anthropomorphism that insisted for centuries that the world is flat and the Sun revolves around us.

Plenty of multiverse skeptics remain open to some version of string theory, one that doesn’t require redefining what counts as real. Maybe, lurking still hidden in the thicket, is a magic equation, showing that this universe is, after all, the only one that can be.

See?  It’s the same attitude that faced Copernicus.  What doesn’t change is people and their self centered ignorance.

Science Oriented Video

The law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations – then so much the worse for Maxwell’s equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation – well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

–Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1927)

Science News and Blogs

Obligatories, News and Blogs below.

Obligatories

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

I would never make fun of LaEscapee or blame PhilJD.  And I am highly organized.

This Day in History

News

Homegrown Extremists Tied to Deadlier Toll Than Jihadists in U.S. Since 9/11

By SCOTT SHANE, The New York Times

JUNE 24, 2015

In the 14 years since Al Qaeda carried out attacks on New York and the Pentagon, extremists have regularly executed smaller lethal assaults in the United States, explaining their motives in online manifestoes or social media rants.

But the breakdown of extremist ideologies behind those attacks may come as a surprise. Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims: 48 have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, including the recent mass killing in Charleston, S.C., compared with 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a count by New America, a Washington research center.

The slaying of nine African-Americans in a Charleston church last week, with an avowed white supremacist charged with their murders, was a particularly savage case.

But it is only the latest in a string of lethal attacks by people espousing racial hatred, hostility to government and theories such as those of the “sovereign citizen” movement, which denies the legitimacy of most statutory law. The assaults have taken the lives of police officers, members of racial or religious minorities and random civilians.

Autopsy shows Freddie Gray died of ‘high-energy injury’: Baltimore newspaper

Reuters

June 23, 2015 6:59 PM

The autopsy of the Baltimore black man who died after being hurt while in police custody shows he suffered a “high-energy injury” like those in shallow-water diving accidents, the Baltimore Sun reported on Tuesday.

The spinal injury to Freddie Gray, whose death in April triggered protests and rioting, was most likely caused when the police van in which he was riding suddenly decelerated, the newspaper said. It cited a copy of the autopsy report, which has not been made public.

The state medical examiner’s office concluded that Gray’s death fit the medical and legal definition of an accident. But it ruled the death to be a homicide because officers failed to follow safety procedures “through acts of omission.”

Subway Ditches Artificial Colors, but a More Serious Health Concern Lingers

By Jason Best, Takepart.com

June 23, 2015 6:54 PM

In a bid to avert what experts warn could be a major public health crisis, a broad coalition of public health, environmental, and other groups is calling on fast-food giant Subway to stop serving meat raised with excessive antibiotics.

The coalition of nearly 60 groups, including organizations such as Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, delivered a letter Tuesday to Subway’s president and CEO, Fred DeLuca, urging the chain to act immediately to end the routine use of medically important antibiotics in the production of chicken and to commit to a timetable to phase out such use in all the meat Subway sells, including turkey, beef, and pork.

No doubt, as the biggest restaurant chain in the history of the world, a major shift by Subway in sourcing meat raised without the egregious use of antibiotics could have a major impact on the livestock industry. But as significant as such a move would be, it only highlights the alarming dysfunction of our elected officials in Washington and the agencies they control in taking a less-than-lackadasical approach to addressing one of the most urgent-and utterly preventable-public health menaces of our time.

Chevy confirms the $30K, 200 mile range Bolt EV has entered testing

Tim Stevens, CNET

June 24, 2015

Josh Tavel, the Bolt EV’s chief engineer, said there are some 55 preproduction, camouflaged Bolts driving around right now, going through the sorts of testing preproduction cars receive — tuning suspension and minimizing unwanted sounds, that sort of thing. The sound factor is doubly important in an EV, because without an internal combustion engine to generate white noise, the driver can hear everything else much more clearly.

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Chevy is promising that the Bolt will offer a range of “over 200 miles,” which would put it firmly in Tesla Model S territory in terms of flexibility. But, a price of “around” $30,000 US (after the $7,500 tax credit) makes it far, far more accessible. It will also support fast-DC charging, which in most cars will fill the batteries to 80 percent capacity in less than 30 minutes.

The final production Bolt EV is expected to be unveiled sometime next year, and hopefully will enter production not long after. When released, Chevy promises the Bolt will be available in all 50 of the United States, and in select markets internationally.

Whole Foods under investigation for overcharging in NYC

By Justin Wm. Moyer, Washington Post

June 25 at 1:57 AM

Whole Foods – with nine stores in New York City already and one coming to Harlem – didn’t exactly deny the charges, but said any overcharges were not intentional.

“Because we always strive to satisfy and delight our customers, it has always been our policy to fully refund any items found to have been incorrectly weighed or priced,” Whole Foods said in a statement e-mailed to The Washington Post. “We assure our shoppers that we’ve NEVER intentionally used deceptive practices to incorrectly charge customers. Due to the ongoing nature of this matter, we have no further comment other than to say we disagree with the findings and we’re vigorously defending ourselves against allegations to the contrary.”

The agency said it tested 80 different kinds of pre-packaged products at New York Whole Foods outlets and found all had mislabeled weights. The U.S. Department of Commerce says a package can deviate from its stated weight by only so much, according to DCA; 89 percent of the packages DCA tested did not meet this standard.

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