IdeaFestival

Reading a chimp's mind

2009-11-13T09:09:49-05:00

"Do chimps understand what Jon Stewart (or another chimp) believes?" That's the title of a post from Dave Munger, who, pointing out that Stewart brings up the subject, uses the opportunity to ask to what extent chimpanzees possess object permanence, and more importantly, whether they can attribute thoughts to other chimps and make inferences when it comes to competition for a tasty treat. A cleverly constructed experiment suggests they can, though less well than a six year old human.

Wayne

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/patries71/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Saturn equinox

2009-11-13T08:28:39-05:00

With its famous rings edge on to its star, Saturn experiences equinox in this image taken by robotic explorer Cassini last August.

Wayne

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The good guys always wear White hats

2009-11-12T09:03:04-05:00

In some cases metaphors are not mere rhetorical hacks, but point out something deeper in human nature. Would you believe that concerns about personal hygiene predispose people to seeing the world in black and white? Otherwise known as the Macbeth effect, some enterprising psychologists used one of the most famous experiments in the field to make the connection. Hat tip: Futurismic

Wayne

Wikipedia: Conceptual metaphor

"Fractal forecasting"

2009-11-11T09:48:41-05:00

With help from an orbiting meteorological spacecraft, scientists have found a atmospheric patterns that can be broken down into a series of cascading events, each of which in turn spawn smaller processes that follow "scale-by-scale simplicity."

If they are right, behind towering complexity lurks mathematical beauty.

Like some plants whose fronds contain ever smaller versions of the same overall leaf on a plane, atmospheric processes may unfold to reveal the the same process being repeated on smaller and smaller scales in three dimensions.

The result, according the article "Tomorrow's Weather, Cloudy with a Chance of Fractals," could be a dramatic improvement in very local forecasts and provide a valuable check on climate models.

Wayne

Image:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardcox/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Michio Kaku to debut Science Channel series, "Sci-Fi Science"

2009-11-10T08:15:08-05:00

According to his website, IdeaFestival '07 speaker Michio Kaku will debut a new series December 1 on the Science Channel, "Sci-Fi Science," or the "physics of the impossible." For a glimpse into what I'm sure will be one provocative topic, check out the following video in which he compares time to "old man river."

The first "IF Conversation" from IF'09 will be available soon.

Wayne

Michio Kaku

Violins are magic onstage and in-world

2009-11-09T10:58:28-05:00

Describing the value that the best violins have for their owners, and how they have appreciated at a 3.5 percent annual clip since 1850(!), virtual worlds economist Edward Castronova writes that the status accorded the instruments in virtual worlds is equally impressive.

Wayne

Kentucky revolutionizing orbital research

2009-11-09T08:22:32-05:00

This weekend Kentucky Space passed a significant milestone, delivering the first of three standard "racks" capable of hosting up to 48 individual experiments, called Cubelabs, for offgassing and EMI testing - read more about these processes on the Kentucky Space blog - in preparation for a Shuttle launch to the International Space Station early next year.

Shortly after its public debut on September 21, IF'08 participant and Managing Director Jeffrey Manber described in this video how NanoRacks is partnering with Kentucky Space to make microgravity research available to many more organizations.

Wayne

Friday links: An explanation for the Arrow of Time and the future of sin

2009-11-06T09:28:15-05:00

Have a great weekend!

Would a "complete understanding of everything" be boring?
Derived from a deeper understanding of human immunology, artificial immune systems can be applied to a range of engineering problems.
As wolves age their killer instinct fades, and humans are an acquired taste for lions.
Using its ion propulsion, the spacecraft Dawn has been maneuvering through asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter on its way to a July 2011 encounter with the protoplanet Vesta.
A speculative branch of physics, quantum cosmology, could explain the arrow of time, according to the physics arXiv blog. Unfortunately, there is no way of testing the theory.
Looking for the "devil inside," new cognitive research could help explain temptation.
Bob Berman's suggested at IF09 that any consistent "biocentric" science would first have to explain consciousness. Eric Schwitzgebel presents an argument against any general theory of consciousness.

Wayne

Seeking the truth about lies

2009-11-05T09:43:21-05:00

Aiming to settle a long running debate on the nature of gossip, ethnographers have returned from a trek to elementary school with the truth about lies.

Wayne

Saturns' geyser moon, Enceladus, gets close up

2009-11-04T09:13:06-05:00

[Cross posted from Kentucky Space] Pointed out by Emily Lakdawalla at The Planetary Society, Cassini has just returned this raw unprocessed image of the geyser moon of Saturn, Enceladus.

Cassini, which has flown through the plumes visible in this image and returned data that confirms the presence of water vapor and organic chemicals, has made repeated visits to this very surprising little world. Planetary scientists speculate that an internal ocean may be the source of the eruptions.

Wayne

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute