A possible problem with festive virus strategies
Which of the different approaches to coronavirus for the festive season in Europe will have worked best? The most important factor at play will have been psychology (12 December 2020, p 12).
The first wave of the virus was governed by fear, trust in science and broad compliance with the rules. Yet after a year of lockdowns and restrictions for most people in Europe and North America, the pent-up desire to see loved ones and friends was huge, while failed promises and wrong predictions caused public trust in governments following “the science” to suffer.
There may have been little difference between countries over Christmas because people were largely making and following their own rules by then.
Cashing in on fossils has long been a problem
The sale of valuable fossils to the highest bidder is unfortunate, but not new (28 November 2020, p 23). In 1861, when the first largely complete Archaeopteryx fossil was discovered, it was quickly acquired by collector Karl Haberlein, who made his fortune a year later when he sold it to the British Museum, with the rest of his collection, for 拢700 鈥� a lot of money at the time.
About 15 years later, his son acquired the next Archaeopteryx fossil and made a packet selling it to a musuem in Berlin.
Empathy isn't necessarily always a good thing (1)
To lead a country, large business or institution, you need people skills, often in a Machiavellian way (5 December 2020, p 34). This means you must be good at understanding other people’s minds 鈥� in other words, you need a high degree of empathic ability.
So, if Simon Baron-Cohen is right and there is a biological trade-off between empathy and systemising ability, the best innovators and problem-solvers aren’t the people who have climbed the corporate or political ladders, but the people who are literally unable to do so.
Empathy isn't necessarily always a good thing (2)
The assertion that the bone flute was “the beginnings of music” cannot go unchallenged. Humans can make music through their vocal cords, so no instrument is needed at all.
More views on the population debate (1)
Your article on overpopulation is too little and definitely too late (14 November 2020, p 34). I once had the chance to ask M. King Hubbert, he of peak oil theory fame, if he thought we had enough time to salvage our future, considering overpopulation and its effects on the planet’s diminishing geologic resources and increasing environmental problems. His reply: oh no, to dock a large ocean liner, you must start slowing down far from shore, not when you see the dock.
More views on the population debate (2)
We, the deist gods, widely believed to have existed since before time began and ever constantly watching over our cosmic creation, have recently become very interested, even concerned.
Our worries are centred on the tiny planet Earth, currently suffering from a potentially serious infection of humanitis. The cause seems to be a relatively recently evolved bipedal organism named Garmentcladia infestans. It threatens, parasitically, to become more widely 鈥� even cosmically 鈥� infectious. Now it is disrupting the local ecosystem that has given us much pleasure to watch.
Cosmic events 鈥� asteroidal or a sufficiently near supernova, say 鈥揷ould intervene and allow Earth to recover, perhaps with another dominant species, maybe of a different genus, class or phylum.
The trolley problem: how to stay out of jail
Sylvia Terbeck presents two versions of the trolley problem: one in which you divert a trolley that will kill five people so it only kills one other person, and another in which you push someone into the path of the trolley to stop it (31 October 2020, p 23). This addresses the problem as a moral issue, with differences between the two cases.
However, people may also consider a legal question in their decision: am I guilty of murder? In the second case, almost certainly; in the former case, probably not. Also, doing nothing wouldn’t be considered a crime.
I wish more people would think like Kari Leibowitz (1)
Thanks for the early Christmas present of the Kari Leibowitz interview on positive mindsets (5 December 2020, p 40). What a refreshing article. I wish more doctors and therapists, not to mention friends and relatives, were more like Leibowitz. I wonder how much of the damage of, say, being “clinically obese” can be traced to the overt and subliminal disapproval of doctors, media, colleagues, friends and family?
I wish more people would think like Kari Leibowitz (2)
The interview with Leibowitz was full of sage advice. Of particular interest must be the fact that we have some control over our own mindset and can change it for the better, just by thinking positively. It would seem that the arts and sciences may be at one on this. John Milton summed up the whole thing in two lines some 350 years ago: “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.”
We need AIs that are good at folding of another kind
Michael Le Page writes about the exciting news that an AI system has learned how to predict how proteins fold (5 December 2020, p 15). That is all well and good and I am sure it will help the human condition immeasurably, but when will the great scientific minds teach a robot to fold the clothing after a wash and dry?
You're twistin' my melon man
After reading about efforts to put a quantum twist on Einstein’s theories of space and time, I think I am getting a torsion headache (28 November 2020, p 34).
For the record
Bureau of Land Management and American Wild Horse Campaign birth control programmes for wild horses in the US are separate entities (19/26 December 2020, p 12).