25 of the most provocative questions facing science

NY Times (Science Times) ^ | Nov. 11, 2003 | Anon.

[Pharmboy]

(1) Does Science Matter?

(2) Is War Our Biological Destiny?

(3) Will Humans Ever Visit Mars?

(4) How Does the Brain Work?

(5) What Is Gravity, Really?

(6) Will We Ever Find Atlantis?

(8) What Should We Eat?

(9) When Will the Next Ice Age Begin?

(10) What Happened Before the Big Bang?

(11) Could We Live Forever?

(12) Are Men Necessary? ...

... Are Women Necessary?

(13) What Is the Next Plague?

(14) Can Robots Become Conscious?

(15) Why Do We Sleep?

(16) Are Animals Smarter Than We Think?

(17) Can Science Prove the Existence of God?

(18) Is Evolution Truly Random?

(19) How Did Life Begin?

(20) Can Drugs Make Us Happier? Smarter?

(21) Should We Improve Our Genome?

(22) How Much Nature Is Enough?

(23) What Is the Most Important Problem in Math Today?

(24) Where Are Those Aliens?

(25) Do Paranormal Phenomena Exist?

[general_re]

Oh, dear. Jenny, jenny, jenny - if you only knew. I wish I could help, but I can't really offer you any tips on how to spot whether or not you're in the hands of the "wingman" - if he's a truly accomplished wingman, the first tip-off will be three days later, when he doesn't call like he said he would. But by then, he doesn't care, because it's game-over and mission accomplished!

For some reason, women are conditioned to think of themselves as the sly, manipulative ones - in the face of that, men haven't had much choice but to evolve certain instinctive tactics ;)

[Arthalion]

(1) Does Science Matter?
Ask yourself that as you take a cold pill, microwave your next dinner, or watch your favorite football team on TV. Our society is built on the inventions of science.

(2) Is War Our Biological Destiny?
Yes, but we can overcome it. When resources are limited, our natural reaction is to fight.

(3) Will Humans Ever Visit Mars?
I'm sure we will.

(4) How Does the Brain Work?
A combination of chemical and electrical reactions between neurons and other nervous tissue.

(5) What Is Gravity, Really?
Circular transdimensional strings not connected to our visible branes.

(6) Will We Ever Find Atlantis?
Already did. It's an island off the Greek coast that blew itself apart a couple thousand years ago.

(8) What Should We Eat?
Mmm...pizza.

(9) When Will the Next Ice Age Begin?
Probably when solar output declines again or interstellar matter intrudes into our system enough to reduce the solar energy striking Earth.

(10) What Happened Before the Big Bang?
Everything, anything, nothing. It doesn't matter because the Big Bang was the giant reset button that recreated everything...occurrences before the Big Bang have no effect on our current universe. But, to answer the common question, YES there could have been other stars, galaxies, and people. There also could have been purple unicorns flying around green suns orbiting worlds where gravity makes you fall UP. Nobody can ever know exactly, but anything is possible.

(11) Could We Live Forever?
Define forever. If your answer is infinity, then the answer is no. Even if you could stop aging and prevent yourself from dying in an accident, you still have the problem that our Earth's biosphere will die out within 3 billion years, and that the Sun will engulf the planet within 4 billion. That, of course, assumes that the solar system survives our galactic collision with the Andromeda galaxy in another 2 billion years. And if you were to get free of the galaxy? Eventually the stars and galaxies will drift apart and the universe as we know it will cease to exist. Molecular degradation would slowly cause you to disintegrate without matter to replentish yourself with, so once you lost access to a viable and life filled world, your days would be numbered (to a couple million years). You could live long enough to watch the universe die, but you'd follow soon after. That's not forever.

(12) Are Men Necessary? ...
Absolutely. A study just came out recently that indicated that the MEN provide the genetic diversity needed for our species to endure disease and trauma. Women could self-inseminate and propogate the species, but they would lose their ability to adapt and would eventually die out.

... Are Women Necessary?
Yes. Female is the natural state of humanity. Without them, reproduction is impossible.

(13) What Is the Next Plague?
It will probably be an airborne AIDS or SARS derived virus, but that's merely speculation.

(14) Can Robots Become Conscious?
Yes, and no. We will some day make robots that are self aware and "fear" for their own existance, which satisfies most peoples expectations of conciousness. I don't know that we'll ever develop a robot with self-impelled curiosity, however, which is one of the things that makes US human.

(15) Why Do We Sleep?
Because certain neural receptors in the brain become desensitized after extended use which causes progressive impairment of our motor and cognitive skills (tiredness). Sleeping allows the brain to "turn off" and reset those receptors. Depriving a person of sleep for an extended period can eventually cause total failure of those neural receptors leading to brain damage or even death.

(16) Are Animals Smarter Than We Think?
Yes. There is quite a bit of evidence that indicates that many animals experience rudimentary emotion, that they can perform many basic cognitive tasks including math and toolmaking, and that their memories are better than we had previously assumed. Are they as smart as us? No, but they're smarter than most people give them credit for.

(17) Can Science Prove the Existence of God?
No, but it can't disprove His existance either.

(18) Is Evolution Truly Random?
No, evolution is driven by outside influences on a species including food availability, terrain, and the presence of predators. Animals evolve to fit a specific biological niche, so their evolution is naturally driven by the constraints of those niches.

(19) How Did Life Begin?
Well, my wife and I were playing around one night...

Oh, you mean in general? God did it. There will never be any more accurate answer than that. Even if it's eventually decided that lighting somehow provoked natually occuring amino acids to join together and replicate, you'll never convince me that God didn't do it.

(20) Can Drugs Make Us Happier? Smarter?
Yes and yes.

(21) Should We Improve Our Genome?
Yes.

(22) How Much Nature Is Enough?
There is no finite limit...the more the better, but the existence of nature for natures sake strikes me as ludicrous. We should support nature for Man's sake.

(23) What Is the Most Important Problem in Math Today?
Sorry, I'm not a math geek.

(24) Where Are Those Aliens?
They could be behind you right now. It is the ultimate hubris to assume that we, who just figured out radio less than 100 years ago, could detect a civilization 1000 times older. It's an old paradox: We don't have the technology to detect transmissions from civilizations far older than us, we couldn't detect a civilization of the same level unless they were extremely close, and civilizations lower than us wouldn't be broadcasting anything at all.

(25) Do Paranormal Phenomena Exist?
Much of it, I'm convinced, exists only in the minds of those who want to believe. Other aspects of it, I'm also convinced, exist and are simply science that science hasn't figured out yet.

[Pharmboy]

Nice job.

[Old Professer]

It is incumbent on Man to search for first causes for no better reason than that Man is the only organism known to reason.

[thrcanbonly1]

The brain is an intellectual, he doesn't need to work.


The Brain works tirelessly every day trying to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!, but he usually messes it up.

[HeadOn]

You want to clarify that? All I see on that post is some kind of flow chart with helicopters, cows, and UN symbols...

[gcruse]

27) Does a missing link really exist?

Just as surely as a God of the gaps does.

[Twinkie]

Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Maybe. No.
Yes. Maybe. No. No. Yes. Yes. No. No. Yes.
Maybe. Maybe. Yes. No. No. Yes. Maybe. Yes.
and not necessarily in that order.

[ArGee]

<next available number> Is there intelligent life on earth?

Shalom.

[ArGee]

Does Science Matter?

Does matter science?

Shalom.

[Timesink]

might be worth a "misc" ping

[rintense]

LOL! I noticed that none of these questions even go near faith and religion. Science and religion have never been friends.

[gcruse]

I don't know. One of them was about science being able to prove there was a god.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Where is my zero calorie strong ale we've been promised for years? Lazy swines.

[Virginia-American]

"Sparse Distributed Memory" by Pentti Kanerva.

Thanks, I'll have to check this out.

[Ichneumon]

25 of the most provocative questions facing science

[null and void]

To fill up vollyballs and basketballs. Any Phys Ed major knows that!

[Doctor Stochastic]

The Continuum Hypothesis seems to have been settled by Cohen in 1964 or so. It's consistent with set theory; it's negation is also consistent with set theory. (Zerlemo-Frankel set theory anyway.)

I do not think the Riemann Hypothesis falls into the class of things that can be taken either way.

[Virginia-American]

I do not think the Riemann Hypothesis falls into the class of things that can be taken either way.

Check this guy out: G. J. Chaitin, IBM Research and some of the links from it. The RH may very well be unprovable, depends on the axions.

I don't know enough about foundational stuff, but isn't it logically consistent that it's possible to construct a non-critical-line zero, using the axiom of choice, and to prove that there is no such construction without AC?

[E Rocc]

LOL! I noticed that none of these questions even go near faith and religion. Science and religion have never been friends.

That's because science doesn't believe in the idea that certain questions "cannot be asked" and religion very much believed in it for centuries. Somehow the philosophies of Aristotle got intertwined into Christianity and became considered Holy Writ. The trial and imprisonment of Galileo for daring to prove Aristotle wrong was the final blow. It's a shame really, since before the Renaissance many of the greatest scientists were associated with the Church.

-Eric