Random Thoughts

Nanobots seem to be well on their way to drastically expanding human life. Clusters of them are already regenerating the spinal cords of mice (Project, 2007), and soon it should be possible to…

Rarely does a scientific hypothesis - at least, not a useful or an interesting one - admit of a straightforward up-or-down, yes-or-no verdict. Valuable hypotheses survive the test of time in…

The Buzzword Blog #2 : What is a Buzzword? A buzzword is a word with a vague meaning, and which is commonly used in speech or writing to express a vague idea.  The buzzword category includes…

If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance 'God'.    - Jerry Coyne, Nature, Sep. 19, 1996

The Buzzword Blog #1 Invent your own ism! Sometimes the natural grammar of the English language can permit an excessive freedom in the coinage of new words and terms.  For example, there is a…

Finally, there is this possibility: after I tell you something, you just can't believe it. You can't accept it. You don't like it. A little screen comes down and you don't listen anymore. I'm going…

You aren't really somebody unless you have an aircraft carrier named after you and 40th US president Ronald Reagan has just that.   Now he will have a Miss California on board too; in this…

The displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is - second only to American political campaigns…

I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval…

For every complex problem, there is a simple, easy to understand, incorrect answer. - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, quoted in Robert Pennock, Tower of Babel, p. 367