Category: Knowledge
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Essential for life…
How did life arise on Earth? Researchers have found among the first and perhaps only hard evidence that simple protein catalysts - essential for cells, the building blocks of life, to function - may have existed when life began. (1) We seek what was the essential ingredients for life. But what is essential? Could life…
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Death.
Around 252 million years ago, the Earth changed drastically and catastrophically. Massive, ongoing volcanic activity in Siberia wrapped the planet in a thick shroud of ash for almost a million years, killing off most of the life that was around at the time. (1) Raw death. No explanation. No rationality. Just death. And then life.…
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The birth of consciousness…
Think about consciousness for long enough, and you'll drive yourself to distraction. To psychologist Julian Jaynes, the question of consciousness was big enough to last a lifetime. His answer? Consciousness is much smaller, much rarer, and much younger than we tend to think. Forget about wondering if a dog, cat, or earthworm has consciousness —…
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Learning the foundations…
Contrary to widely-held opinion, taking high school calculus isn't necessary for success later in college calculus - what's more important is mastering the prerequisites, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry - that lead to calculus. That's according to a study of more than 6,000 college freshmen at 133 colleges. (1) Great line of reasoning. Except that we…
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"Our theoretical understanding"...
"Improvements of our theoretical understanding of the material world..." This is the beginning of a phD thesis in a big university in the US. (Princeton, ProQuest number 22587372) Funny. We started from a real knowledge of the cosmos. By living in it. Then we moved on to understanding it. While standing aside. We seek knowledge.…
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