Manufacturing scientific mystery
While I thoroughly enjoy questioning assumptions and engaging in conversations at the edge of scientific discovery, the quality of programming on supposedly reputable TV channels is terribly sad nowadays.
For example, the History Channel has the series, "UFO Hunters" where, based on the episode I watched, they assume everything is a mysterious unidentified object if they can't explain it clearly within a few moments, with little substantial research. I base this observation on a case where a man took a bunch of video of lights descending, and they plotted out where he was located and the direction he was facing in the various videos. They showed the following map with the location of major airports and discussed the one sight line to the west-southwest where there were no airports located. Their conclusion was that the objects were "unidentified" because there were no airports in the direction which the man saw the lights.
Problem #1 -- their standards for identifying an object or declaring it "unidentified" are very low. The very reason the objects were "unidentified" in this case was due to their lack of effort in identifying them.
Problem #2 -- 30 seconds of searching online would have revealed that there are no less than 3 airports in that general direction: Westchester County Airport, Teterboro Airport, and Caldwell Wright Airport.
There is certainly plenty of mystery in the world around us. Too bad there's not more time dedicated to exploring the real mysteries instead of the manufactured ones.
Side note: I am perfectly willing to believe in extraterrestrial life -- in fact, it seems statistically likely that we're not the only life in the universe. This post is a complaint about shoddy scientific inquiry (perhaps better described as non-scientific inquiry).
50 things we know now (we didn't know this time last year)
Broccoli compound targets key enzyme In late-stage cancer
ScienceDaily notes, "An anti-cancer compound found in broccoli and cabbage works by lowering the activity of an enzyme associated with rapidly advancing breast cancer, according to a University of California, Berkeley, study appearing Dec 3 in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081203092435.htmDevice could filter cancer cells from blood
From PhysOrg: "In a new tactic in the fight against cancer, Cornell researcher Michael King has developed what he calls a lethal 'lint brush' for the blood -- a tiny, implantable device that captures and kills cancer cells in the bloodstream before they spread through the body." http://www.physorg.com/news148236650.htmlWatching your dreams on a screen
I doubt the word "soon" in this article is accurate, but nevertheless this is both intriguing and a bit scary: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1093770/Have-dreaming-white-Christmas-Scientists-soon-watch-screen.htmlInjectable bone helps heal fractures
From the article: "A material that can be squirted into broken bones, where it hardens within minutes, has been developed by UK scientists." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7767406.stmFractal forest modelling
Not long ago I watched a Nova episode about fractals, titled "Hunting the Hidden Dimension". The part of the show that I found most fascinating was the use of ratios to calculate the tree density in a forest by looking at just one tree. It turns out that, at least in the study highlighted by this program, the ratio of limb sizes on a single tree strongly mirrored the ratio of tree sizes in any given section of the forest in which the tree was taken.
About Me
Matt KaufmanI am a philosopher, software engineer, computer geek, Buddhist, vegan and now, expert noun-lister.
My Email: ws.20.mdea at spamgourmet dot com
About Kompato: It means compassion in Esperanto.
My Code:
Teamspeak Monitor - A web application to monitor Teamspeak usage (PHP/MySQL)
tsmonwatcher - A client-side application that works with TeamSpeak Monitor to alert on TeamSpeak events (Python)
