Category: Science
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Large Machines and Tiny Particles | Craft and the #LHC
It’s been fascinating following the resurrection of CERN over the past year or so since the catastrophic failure of a few connections rendered it well and truly broke soon after it first came online. Things seem to be working very nicely now, but it struck me how extraordinary a piece of engineering this is: we…
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The Three Body Problem | Incalcuability
After hearing a chance snippet of something on the radio last week, I’ve been thinking about what is known in Mathematics/Physics/Astronomy as the ‘three body problem.’ It remains one of the great questions in Mathematics as to whether it will ever be solved, or if indeed it actually can be. The essence of the problem…
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Is Atheism a Tenable Position?
An interesting thread developing on Twitter with philosophybites – Nigel Warburton under the covers – around ideas of atheism and agnosticism. It’s building towards a telephone discussion on BBC Radio Five Live tonight from 1am (one for the podcast) about whether we should all just say we’re agnostics. Nigel notes today that there is ‘no…
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Let’s Talk About the Weather… | ‘Metereoethics’
In the conversation menu for The School of Life dinner I attended earlier in the week there were a number of aphorisms and quotations to get people thinking, and a few rules too. One rule was based on Oscar Wilde’s famous quote: Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative. I actually…
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Theology and the New Physics [6] | Heaven Is A [Parallel] Place [not quite] On Earth
Just a final thought to wrap up this series of posts reflecting on some theological implications of the new physics: as I mentioned, one implication of the Many Worlds Interpretation appears to be that of eternal life. The concept of Quantum Suicide suggests that at each ‘quantum moment’ I might die in one universe –…