Click here to support the Daily Grail for as little as $US1 per month on Patreon

News Briefs 03-01-2012

By Jameskeon

Happy New Year, shame it is the last one.

  • The ghosts in the living room.
  • Marginal revolutionaries.
  • On Marc Hauser’s scientific misconduct.
  • Outsider physicists and the oh-my-god particle.
  • Why the Arabic world turned away from science.
  • Behaviourism at 100.
  • The scope-severity paradox.
  • How hard would it be for Avian flu to spread?
  • Dream of a universal currency just won’t die.
  • Scientists mystified as babies keep getting bigger and longer.
  • Not again! Thousands of birds fall dead in Arkansas on New Year’s Eve.
  • Sun stroke.
  • Scientists grow sperm in laboratory dish.
  • The microbes on your skin determine how attractive you are to mosquitoes.

Quote of the Day:

The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.

Peter Ustinov

Jameske
Related

6 Comments

  2. Discon-CERN-ing
    God particle… wow. What a name.

    Science is, beyond a doubt, the new religion. It takes no small measure of faith to buy into so much of it.

    100 years from now, will God have been found in physics or in faith?

    Or will we wake one day to find ourselves alone, disappointed and/or deserted by both?

    Good lord.

    1. from the Nubile-Minds-Dept.
      [quote=Redoubt]God particle… wow. What a name.

      Science is, beyond a doubt, the new religion. It takes no small measure of faith to buy into so much of it.

      100 years from now, will God have been found in physics or in faith?

      Or will we wake one day to find ourselves alone, disappointed and/or deserted by both?

      Good lord.[/quote]

      G_ddess has been “found“, Physicists (who I can call modern theologians) just don`t call it that :3

      (the G_ddess that old-style theologians talk aboot I see as an artistic concept and not an ontological concept)

      One of my favourite short stories of recent times is by the Canadian SF writer Robert Sawyer called
      “The abdication of Pope Mary III“.

      People just oughtta stop taking their own ideas so seriously & literally — that’s one of the main ‘problems’ with the world I think. So many silly conflicts over bits of dirt and marks on paper and various domesticated primate barkings.

      Here’s to more religions with senses of humour built in to them.

      (and oh, I’m sure the term G_d Particle was invented by some reporter somewhere…that’s part of their shtick)

      1. Science shenanigans
        [quote=Inannawhimsey]
        (and oh, I’m sure the term G_d Particle was invented by some reporter somewhere…that’s part of their shtick)[/quote]

        Nup, it was invented by physicist & Nobel laureate Leon Lederman. He used it for the title of his (straight science) book, The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?. Lederman isn’t the first, and nor will he be the last, to use catchy word play to gain publicity and popularity… and just for the sake of being clever. I don’t know why atheists get their underwear in knots over it — the term ‘God Particle’ isn’t literal, it’s just a metaphor for the Higgs Boson’s importance.

        1. from the Feynwoman-Recumbent-Dept.
          [quote=Rick MG][quote=Inannawhimsey]
          (and oh, I’m sure the term G_d Particle was invented by some reporter somewhere…that’s part of their shtick)[/quote]

          Nup, it was invented by physicist & Nobel laureate Leon Lederman. He used it for the title of his (straight science) book, The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?. Lederman isn’t the first, and nor will he be the last, to use catchy word play to gain publicity and popularity… and just for the sake of being clever. I don’t know why atheists get their underwear in knots over it — the term ‘God Particle’ isn’t literal, it’s just a metaphor for the Higgs Boson’s importance.[/quote]

          Nifty, thank you :3

          I’m always amazed how really serious people can take their various interpretations/metaphors, like “UFO”, “Ghost”, “Love”, “Beauty”, “Japanese”, “Steak”, “Vegetarian”, “Visnu”, “Atheist”, “Randi is a liar”, “Skepticism” and on and on with no end in sight. When a group of people believe in a particular interpretation, then it becomes even more amusing and more “real”.

          The human species is endlessly amusing and delightful :3

          (looking around, it looks like Leon Lederman has a good sense of humour)

    2. Finding God
      To all who replied… thank you 🙂

      It’s not as simple as being a belief. What we as individuals choose to believe is very personal. But what affects us all, affects us all. We are now, also, a media-driven species so, whether we see a Pope or a scientist or a leader or… or… it works the same but differently.

      The species is touched but effected differently..

      I agree, it is easier to dismiss than it is to contemplate and try to understand. But that is also one of our greater problems. We are always better than our opposites and at least above even the best of our equals or peers. That is the human condition.

      What we seek from God, or science or any other avenue, is a common quest. And we don’t have even the slightest fraction of having all the answers… yet we judge others by what they choose to believe and those paths they choose to follow.

      100 years from now, will God have been found in Physics or faith… or maybe somewhere else? It doesn’t matter. If we don’t find God, we will forever be looking. But, if we do find God, then there is a chance we will just come to a stop.

      So… would we know God if we met her/him?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mobile menu - fractal