Climate Change Meets New Age Mysticism

Every year Saint Petersburg has a maze with lights around it for kids to walk through. This year they decided to give it a theme:

The labyrinth is The Pier Aquarium's free outdoor activity in South Straub Park for St. Petersburg's family-oriented New Year's Eve Celebration. Traditionally a labyrinth is used as a walking meditation or spiritual practice and we have adapted ours, built in the Classic 7 Circuit Pattern dating back some 4,000 years, to include an interactive educational science component on Climate Change. The walkers strolling the labyrinth will pass by (and hopefully read!) luminary bags decorated with environmental messages and the posted Climate Change information signs.

Critics of climate change theories have questioned the theories based on their apparent lack scientific rigor. Some critics think the people who tout climate change due so out of a belief system that deifies nature. So, imagine my shock to see climate change tied to an ancient religious ritual that deified nature.

Beyond the fact that this isn't a very inclusive event (I saw parents dragging their children away from it!) are signs on paper lanterns the proper format to have a vigorous debate? And don't think that's a facetious question, because one of the first signs literally asked "Does climate change exist?". This display pretended to debate the question. For five-year-olds.

Blowing bubbles: 1704

If a Bubble be blown with Water first made tenacious by dissolving a little Soap in it, 'tis a common Observation, that after a while it will appear tinged with a great variety of Colours. To defend these Bubbles from being agitated by the external Air (whereby their Colours are irregularly moved one among another, so that no accurate Observation can be made of them,) as soon as I had blown any of them I cover'd it with a clear Glass, and by that means its Colours emerged in a very regular order, like so many concentrick Rings encompassing the top of the Bubble.

--From Opticks--

Soap bubbles were one of the experimental subjects which helped Newton develop his theories on the properties of light! Only kids play with them now, but they were like the particle accelerators of their day.

Aliens: 1761

Two Frenchmen and four negroes having set out in a canoe towards the coast of a little dessert isle situated south of Martinico, and separated from the island by a strait of about a league in breadth, they stopped at an advanced point of ten or twelve paces into the sea, and eight or ten feet high above the water. There, within eight paces of them, they saw a Triton, or sea-man, the half of whose body appeared above water.

--From The Universal Magazine--

Well, a bunch of people saw it, so it must be real (they got a picture and everything!).

Playing with your dog: 1667

An Account of an Experiment made by M. Hook, of Preserving Animals alive by Blowing through their Lungs with Bellows.

I did heretofore give this Illustrious Society an account of an Experiment I formerly tryed of keeping a Dog alive after his Thorax was all displayed by cutting away the Ribbs and Diaphragme; and after the Pericardium of the Heart also was taken off....

...the Dog being kept alive by the Reciprocal blowing up of his Lungs with Bellowes, and they suffered to subside, for the space of an hour or more...

--From Philosophical transactions--

I bet there weren't a lot of stray dogs around Hook's house.

Playing with your food: 1667

This is a continuation of yesterday's post. The philosophers, having bled a sheep until it was faint and given it a blood transfusion from a calf, have noticed the sheep seems strong again:

Then resolving to bleed the Sheep to death, we bound her the second time, and opened the emittent part of the Vein again; whereupon having bled about 60 ounces, she fell into Convulsions; and after the loss of about 5 ounces more, she died upon the place: and being dressed by the Butcher, there did not, in all the usual places, appear above 3 ounces of blood; and the whole Sheep looked a lovely white; and the meat of it (to the taste of those, that eat of it) was very sweet.

The Sheep being dead, we resolved likewise to see the Calf bleed to death...

...about 25 ounces of blood, of a very lovely and vivid colour...

--From Philosophical transactions--

I find it interesting that they call the sheep a "she" instead of an "it", have no problem slaughtering and eating the sheep after curing it, and then comment on the loveliness of the flesh of the sheep and the blood spewing from the calf.

Someone might say: "If you saw an animal being slaughtered you would have a problem eating it." But if everyone around you acted like nothing gross was going on, and you didn't have the idea that it was gross in your head, it wouldn't bother you at all. Thirty years ago I might have made the statement that no one in America would eat raw fish, but now sushi is sold in supermarkets. Has the idea that eating raw fish is gross stopped people from eating it, or encouraged it?

Xenotransplantation: 1667

I took a Calf and a Sheep, both of the larger sort, and having prepared a Jugular Vein in each, I planted my Pipes and Quills, as is usual, both in the Jugular Vein of the Calf (designed to be the Emittent) and in that of the Sheep (intended for the Recipient.) Then I took out of the Sheep 49 ounces (Haver de pois weight) of blood, before any other blood was let, in about which time, the company concluding the Sheep to be very faint, and finding the blood to run very slowly, I stopped the Vein of the Sheep, and unstopped the Pipe in the Calf, letting run out 10 ounces into a Porringer, which was done in about 40 seconds of a Minute. Then I conveyed Pipes from the Emittent Calves Vein, into the Recipient Sheeps Vein, and there ran a good free stream of blood for a space of 5 minutes...

--From Philosophical transactions--

Thank God for animal testing, becuase these people would have used humans if they could. Of course, they probaby went and used this technique on people after trying it on animals.

Inquiring minds want to know: 1667

Inquiries for Suratte, and other parts of the East-Indies.

15. Whether there grows a Wood in Java, that naturally smells like human Excrement. And if so, what kind of ground it grows in.

17. Whether near the Fort of Ternate there be a Plant, called by the Inhabitants Catopa, whence fall little Leaves, which are turned into Butter-flies.

36. Whether there be found in the head of a certain Snake, a Stone, which laid upon a wound of any Venemous Creature, sticks fast to it, and draws away all the poison; then being put in Milk, voids its poison, and turns the Milk blue; and then applied again, draws out the rest of the poison, that may be behind, till the wound be perfectly cleansed.

--From Philosophical transactions--

These are some questions the Royal Society wanted answered. They were stupid questions, but the type of stupid questions that are good to ask. Modern science is the result of them.

Car reviews: 1835

They performed a road test:

I find on this hard road the wheels are severely tried; but this road, hard as it is, has been of inestimable value to me in regard to experience, pointing out, with unerring certainty, where more strength is wanting.

Reported on reliability:

The crank shaft severed at a bad part of the bad pavement in Finsbury-square a day or two after she commenced running; but this was replaced, and the carriage started the next morning at the usual hour, and has ever since continued at work, with the omission of only one journey...

On mileage:

The consumption of coke has hitherto been from 8 to 12 lbs. a mile, and about 100 lbs. of water for the same distance.

And safety:

We have, up to this time, carried nearly 4,000 passengers in perfect safety.

--From Arcana of science and art--

Lactose intolerance: 1888

Some complain that they cannot drink milk without being "distressed by it." The most common reason why milk is not well borne is due to the fact that people drink it too quickly. If a glass of it is swallowed hastily it enters into the stomach and then forms in one solid, curdled mass, difficult of digestion. If, on the other hand, the same quantity is sipped, and three minutes at least are occupied in drinking it, then on reaching the stomach it is so divided, that when coagulated, as it must be by the gastric juice, while digestion is going on, instead of being in one hard, condensed mass upon the outside of which only the digestive fluids can act, it is more in the form of a sponge, and in and out of the entire bulk the gastric juice can play freely and perform its function.

--From Good housekeeping--

Can you imagine people watching a clock as they drink a glass of milk, making sue it takes them at least three minutes? And they'd still have intestinal problems.

Anthropomorphic Global Warming: 1863

It would appear, then, that man is really capable of exercising a certain control over the humidity of the climate, by thinning the forests, or by renewing them in the manner represented; nor can it be doubted, that the same effect will be brought about by drainage, which carries off the redundant waters into their appropriate channels, instead of allowing them to stagnate upon the surface.

And in thus altering the character of a country with respect to its humidity, he may hope to bring about a corresponding change also in its temperature, for the tendency of swamps and stagnant waters is to cool down by their evaporation the surface of the earth, as well as to intercept the rays of the sun by the mists and fogs they engender.

I'll buy that. It even sounds testable, go figure.

--From Climate: an inquiry into the causes of its differences...--

Creepy crawly things: 1862

--From The Intellectual Observer--

They're beautiful! I suppose something like this image is the dream of all insect collections.

Space aliens: 1698

We know that Mercury is three times nearer that vast body of Light than we are. Whence it follows that they see him three times bigger, and feel him nine times hotter than we do. Such a degree of Heat would be intolerable to us, and set afire all our dry’d Herbs, our Hay and Straw that we use. And yet I warrant the Animals there, are made of such a temper, as to be but moderately warm, and the Plants such as to be able to endure the Heat. The Inhabitants of Mercury, it’s likely, have the same opinion of us that we have of Saturn, that we must be intolerably cold, and have little or no Light, we are so far from the Sun. There’s reason to doubt, whether the Mercurians, tho they live so much nearer the Sun, the Fountain of Life and Vigour, are much more airy and ingenious than we.

--From Cosmotheoros--

This is nothing next to his reasoning that aliens must have hands so they can write down their astronomical observations. But that's metaphysics for you.

The Universe: 1715

--From Astro-theology--

Forget about the Earth revolving around the sun. The big realization was that stars were like the sun and perhaps even had planets of their own, which is why this diagram shows the distant stars as having planets orbiting around them.

In our solar system the planets were all thought to likely be habitable and the consensus was that the Moon was covered in oceans. But even though there was a consensus, people who claimed the Moon had observable liquid water were still willing to listen to dissenters. Before telling his personal account of seeing lunar oceans, the author of this book quotes Huygens:

In the Moon I find no likeness of Seas although Kepler and most others are of a different opinion. For those vast plane regions, which are much darker than the Mountainous parts, and are commonly taken for Seas, and bear the names of Oceans; in those very places viewed with a long Telescope, I find little round Cavities, with shadows falling within them; which cannot agree with the Surface of the Sea...

If your theories are strong, they can withstand the criticism of others.

Perspective: 1715

The prodigious and inconceivable Rapidity assigned by the Ptolemaicks to the Heavens, is by the Copernican Scheme taken off, and a far more easy and tolerable Motion substituted in its room. For is it not a far more easy Motion for the Earth to revolve round its own Axis in 24 hours, than for so great a number of far more massy, and far distant Globes, to revolve round the Earth in the same space of time? If the Maintainers of the Ptolemaick Systeme do object against the Motion of the Earth, that it would make us dizzy and shatter our Globe to pieces, what a precipitant, how terrible a Rapidity must that of the Heavens be? What a Velocity must the Sun have to run its course, at the distance 21 or 22 Semidiameters of the Earth? What a Velocity must that of the Fixt Stars...

--From Astro-theology--

Does the Earth spin in the universe or is the Earth fixed and the universe spin around us?

If we were fixed then the star Betelgeuse, which is about 640 light years away, would travel 3.80 X 10^16 km every day at a speed of 1468757.4 times that of light. Since nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (other than a rumor) the planet Earth must rotate.

So, if you think the universe revolves around you, hopefully this demonstration of math and physics will convince you of the error of you ways.

Reflections on Francis Bacon: 2009

Often disagreements about God degenerate into shouting matches because the participants aren't there to discuss, they are there to live out a revenge fantasy against those who have taken away their faith in God, or made them have the faith in the first place.

The deists think the proponents of science are like they themselves used to be, people who have given in to doubt but not yet repented. The hard-core atheists think the deists are like they used to be, proponents of ideas that will lead to shameful self-realizations. Both are worried about backsliding and science gets stuck in the middle.

But what neither of them understand is that some of us have faith in science; we haven't given up our faith as either of them have, we never lost it. And I call it faith because of the enormity of the questions we seek to answer and the inadequacy of the tools with which we seek to answer them: our fragile human reason and our frail human senses.

Whole foods: 1915

Those who are at all interested in the progress which has been made in the scientific knowledge and practical handling of our common foodstuffs must be aware to how great an extent to-day both serious and popular attention has become fixed on the subject of the so-called whole or natural foods, and their relation, in the sense of prevention or cure, to certain recognized physical disorders known as "deficiency" diseases.

--From McClure's Magazine--

Yes, whole foods are a subject of serious and popular attention, both today and back when "today" had a hyphen in it.

Physics: 1620

Nor shall we thus be led to the doctrine of atoms, which implies the hypothesis of a vacuum and that of the unchangeableness of matter (both false assumptions); we shall be led only to real particles, such as really exist.

--From The New Organum--

 Now I want to go back in time and chase Francis Bacon around with a vacuum cleaner.

Science projects: 1620

For instance, if a man wishes to superinduce upon silver the yellow colour of gold or an increase of weight (observing the laws of matter), or transparency on an opaque stone, or tenacity on glass, or vegetation on some substance that is not vegetable, — we must consider, I say, what kind of rule or guidance he would most desire.

Bacon had the idea that it would be possible to modify one property of a substance at a time, like making something change color or making something denser.

In gold, for example, the following properties meet. It is yellow in colour, heavy up to a certain weight; malleable or ductile to a certain degree of extension; it is not volatile, and loses none of its substance by the action of fire; it turns into a liquid with a certain degree of fluidity; it is separated and dissolved by particular means; and so on for the other natures which meet in gold.

If you were able to modify each quality of a substance you could eventually turn base metals into gold.   This sounds ridiculous now, but by using Bacon's methods we do in fact know how to turn base metals into gold: just put them in a star and wait for it to explode.  Some day we may be able to it more conveniently; you never know.

--From The New Organum--

Product life cycles: 1620

Whereas in the mechanical arts, which are founded on nature and the light of experience, we see the contrary happen, for these (as long as they are popular) are continually thriving and growing, as having in them a breath of life; at first rude, then convenient, afterwards adorned, and at all times advancing.

--From The New Organum--

Bacon isn't inspired by Greek philosophies, in fact he points out the lack of progress they have achieved over their two thousand years of existence.  Instead he is inspired by the product life cycle of machines, which he is able to notice in 1620.  He wants to let human senses and understanding improve in the same way he sees technology improving around him.

Kaleidoscopes: 1620

...human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolours the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.

--From The New Organon--

Lots of people would have used such an observation to say that knowledge of anything is impossible.  Bacon said if our senses are distorted we should seek to improve them.

In that sense every scientific experiment and every piece of equipment is like a pair of glasses or a hearing aid (and every one of us is like someone who is deaf and blind and can barely think).