Category: Theories
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Chirality. Pasteur. Art, intuition and science…
Louis Pasteur, the 19th-century French chemist and biologist, prevented diseases, developing a process — widely known as pasteurization — for killing microbes in milk and wine. He also created vaccines for rabies and anthrax. And his ideas led to the acceptance of germ theory, the notion that tiny organisms caused diseases like cholera. Pasteur even…
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“How” evolution works: Axioms and arrogance in today’s science… [OR: Why we need a philosophical tsunami to break the tea cup]
Research led by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the University of Washington has shown that the biological diversity needed for evolution can be generated by changes in protein modifications. The findings, published in Science, provide valuable insights into how different species adapt to different environments and could shed light on how pathogens evolve and…
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Drawing with or without lenses and mirrors. Craving for meaning in life. Science as a dead-end.
In a paper published in the Journal of Optics, Mr. O’Neill lays out a theory that Rembrandt set up flat and concave mirrors to project his subjects - including himself - onto surfaces before painting or etching them. He is not the first to suggest that old master painters used optics for their famous portraits.…
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Validating theories...
Two USC researchers have proposed a link between string field theory and quantum mechanics that could open the door to using string field theory -- or a broader version of it, called M-theory -- as the basis of all physics. "This could solve the mystery of where quantum mechanics comes from", said Itzhak Bars, USC…
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Imaginary particles. Explaining tangible things...
Tangible products—like a solar-powered hearing aid—may come from not-so-real particles. More particular, scientists analyze the behaviour of modern materials with the help of imaginary structures called quasiparticles. (1) In physics, quasiparticles and collective excitations (which are closely related) are emergent phenomena that occur when a microscopically complicated system such as a solid behaves as if…
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