Chris Lee has a terrific post covering recent developments in holographic theories of the universe. In particular, a recent paper by Erik Verlinde offers up a way to reconcile quantum theory and gravity: gravity is a byproduct of informational density. Lee’s explanation is much better than mine.

Your backyard is the best place to discover new things, at least in the case of species. At least that’s what Stephen Fry claims in this episode of QI. Apparently a biologist in Leicester performed a long-term study of her own garden and over the course of several years discovered many species that had never been documented in Great Britain and four new species of wasp that had never been documented before at all.

Japan’s Soichi Noguchi is currently in residence aboard the International Space Station and is sending, somehow, a stream of images taken from a viewport there. Fantastic photos of Earth, moonsets, and space.

NewScientist recently posted this news:

NEPTUNE may have polished off a super-Earth that once roamed the outer solar system and stolen its moon to boot. The brutal deed could explain mysterious heat radiating from the icy planet and the odd orbit of its moon Triton.

The title about says it all. The article that does the analysis is here and is published by the International Journal of Biological Sciences. The abstract states:

We present for the first time a comparative analysis of blood and organ system data from trials with rats fed three main commercialized genetically modified (GM) maize (NK 603, MON 810, MON 863), which are present in food and feed in the world. NK 603 has been modified to be tolerant to the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup and thus contains residues of this formulation. MON 810 and MON 863 are engineered to synthesize two different Bt toxins used as insecticides. Approximately 60 different biochemical parameters were classified per organ and measured in serum and urine after 5 and 14 weeks of feeding. GM maize-fed rats were compared first to their respective isogenic or parental non-GM equivalent control groups. This was followed by comparison to six reference groups, which had consumed various other non-GM maize varieties. We applied nonparametric methods, including multiple pairwise comparisons with a False Discovery Rate approach. Principal Component Analysis allowed the investigation of scattering of different factors (sex, weeks of feeding, diet, dose and group). Our analysis clearly reveals for the 3 GMOs new side effects linked with GM maize consumption, which were sex- and often dose-dependent. Effects were mostly associated with the kidney and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, although different between the 3 GMOs. Other effects were also noticed in the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system. We conclude that these data highlight signs of hepatorenal toxicity, possibly due to the new pesticides specific to each GM corn. In addition, unintended direct or indirect metabolic consequences of the genetic modification cannot be excluded.

I read the article to the best of my abilities, but that doesn’t mean I am in a position to evaluate it. GM crops seems like such a terrific thing, but it may be that the technology has outpaced our ability to understand its impact on complex ecosystems, including ourselves.

The universe is sometimes an amazing thing. After yesterday’s correspondence with my dad, the Digital Humanities list brought me a link to this YouTube clip from Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man:

Earlier today I forwarded to family and some friends here in Louisiana, from whom I get the occasional e-mail of a conservative nature a piece on Ars Technica that summarized a recent Pew Trust study of the difference between public belief in scientists and science in general and the divergence that occurs on particular topics. In response, my dad asked me if I considered myself to fit in any of the categories. I wasn’t quite sure of his question, and so I ended up writing this:

Which categories? Scientist? Perhaps. I sort of work under the same rubric. (More on this in a moment.) Independent? Probably. I’m not a conservative (who apparently believe that the answer to everything is big churches and big business) nor a liberal (who believe the answer to everything is big government and big dreams).

I’m not a scientist, per se, but I certainly operate from an evidence-based approach to investigating the world, which often puts me in conflict with some of my fellow humanists who wish to bend the world to their particular point of view. This is not as ideological, in terms of secular humanists or liberal ideologues as you might want to believe. Some of my fiercest arguments when I first got here were with Barry Ancelet who wanted to paint everything in south Louisiana as Cajun, when in fact large chunks of Cajun culture are clearly African. (The smaller chunks that were German or Italian had slowly come to be acknowledged as Cajun studies matured.) And now the African dimension of the story is slowly becoming part of the discussion, which makes things a lot more complex but also potentially a lot more confusing.

In general, I don’t like it when anyone tries to boil down things to something simple just because thinking about complex stuff is hard. Some things are simple. Keep them simple. Some things are complex, let’s keep them complex. Evolution at the so-called micro level is demonstrably true and everyone in the U.S.A. knows at least one person saved by it. Evolution at the macro-level is also demonstrably born out by what we know of the archeological record. Science seeks to describe the world as we know based on things we can know. Sometimes those things are simple and obvious. Sometimes they are complex and take a long time to get a grip on.

I do what I do for the long term good of my fellow travelers in this world. This is not the way to advance oneself quickly in a career, but I take, on faith, that my task is to be humble before creation and not to imagine myself better than it. There are moments when I feel God in my life, or at least think that I do, and I embrace them. Once upon a time I questioned what was true and what was simply a byproduct of being raised Christian. Now I don’t worry about it. I accept when I feel God’s grace and I don’t worry whether it’s simply psychological or is in fact a moment of transcendence. Some may believe this makes me a poor Christian, and they would probably be right. I don’t think that Jesus Christ was actually the son of God. Instead, I think he was, as the historical record would seem to indicate, a Sadducee who saw the potential for good in more people than traditional Judaism would allow and that he recognized the power of love. What he did and the things he said were profoundly true then and are still now. I think in the years that followed a number of people, for various and probably good reasons, needed to simplify the story to make it more easily told and Jesus was transformed over time to become something as powerful as his message. I no longer worry if such a point of view puts me at odds with others, because I find that I pay less and less attention to what people say — I’ve seen too many Godly men and women do unethical and/or immoral and sometimes evil things — and I pay more and more attention to what people do. I like hanging out with Gerard Olinger not because he is a faithful Catholic but because he is a profoundly good man. I like and respect you not because you are Christian but because you are a profoundly good man trying your best to do the right thing in a world where all too many others try to take shortcuts. I try to do the same myself.

That is a long answer to your short question. You caught me a post-lunch contemplative moment.

An amazing talk by a molecular biologist:

From the Wired article:

NASA is taking the rare step of reaching out to the public for help. The space agency is looking for the best way to analyze and electronically catalog a precious collection of notes that chronicle the early history of the human space flight program.

“We’re looking for creative ways to get it out to the public,” said project manager Jason Crusan. “We don’t always do the best with putting out large sets of data like this.”

The notes are those of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, the fist director of NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and are typed with copious hand written notes in the margin. According to the official request for information, NASA needs ideas on what format to use, how to index the notes and how to create a useful database.

A new company has entered the race to commercial space: Reaction Engines. And they have an amazing video of their vehicle, powered by a proprietary engine called the Sabre.