Science – Harmonia Philosophica

Primitive. Actions. Ecology. Pendulums.

Fossil data, historical records, and underwater survey data have been used to reconstruct the abundance of staghorn and elkhorn corals over the past 125,000 years. Researchers show that these corals first began declining in the 1950s and 1960s, earlier than previously thought. (1) Even the most primitive actions of people alter the planet. Even the most essential functions of the planet alter humans. Trying to keep balance is difficult. For it entails actions which destroy it.

Look at the clock.

Time has stopped now.

A primitive hand.

Touching a flower.

A light wind.

Bringing a seed.

Look at the clock.

It is moving now…

Don’t you see?

A pendulum’s balance is that it has no balance…

Dying languages…

Over 6,000 languages are currently spoken worldwide, but a substantial minority — well over 5% — are in danger of dying out. It is perhaps surprising that this fraction is no higher, as most models have so far predicted that a minority language will be doomed to extinction once contacts with speakers of the majority language reach a certain level. Statistical physicists Jean-Marc Luck from Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France and Anita Mehta from the University of Oxford, UK have described, using mathematical modelling, two mechanisms through which this doomsday scenario does not occur, i.e. several languages come to coexist in the same area. This work is now published in EPJ B. (1)

Languages being born.

Languages getting extinct.

Languages dying. Spoken by very few.

These few will soon seize to be.

And their logos will be drifted away by the winds of existence.

Does that matter to anyone?

Will the universe cry?

Listen.

There is nothing to listen.

Embryos. Analysis. Zero.

Researchers have created the first complete description of early embryo development, accounting for every single cell in the embryo. This ‘virtual embryo’ will help to answer how the different cell types in an organism can originate from a single egg cell. (1)

Analyzing life, cell by cell.

Atom by atom.

Until we reach zero.

One by one.

And see nothingness inside everything…

Oh, look!

What a beautiful baby!

(Are you dead?)

Tides. Storms. Predictions.

A new international study applied a novel statistical method that — for the first time — captures the important interactions between tides and storm surges. These natural forces are caused by meteorological effects, such as strong winds and low atmospheric pressure, and their impacts have often been difficult to understand because of the complexity of Mother Nature. (1)

Calculating with greater and greater accuracy. Until we predict everything. And realize that we used to know that we will know. But we never really knew it…

But inside the storm.

We will feel it.

That calmness behind the rain.

Which breeds chaos…

Making all predictions useless.

Look. Clouds.

Yes, I know. Rain is coming…

Ghosts…

What scientists thought was a planet beyond our solar system has ‘vanished.’ Though this happens to sci-fi worlds, scientists seek a more plausible explanation. One interpretation: instead of a planet, it could be a dust cloud produced by two large bodies colliding. (1)

Ghost planets.

One day there.

One day gone.

Don’t be impressed.

You are also gone.

1,000,000 years from now.

You are not here.

This future will not come.

It has come already.

You are a ghost from the future.

A relic of the past.

Bright specks of existence.

On the void of Being.

Floating in nothingness…

Look.

Do you sense someone looking at you?

(Can you see what you don’t see?)