July 25, 2011

Is Time Travel Impossible?
Hong Kong physicists say they have proved that a single photon obeys Einstein’s theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light—demonstrating that outside science fiction, time travel is impossible. (AFP)

Hope in the Hunt for the Higgs Boson
The potential signature of the Higgs boson has turned up in an avalanche of data from both of the Higgs-hunting detectors at the Large Hadron Collider. The signature is not yet clear enough to constitute a discovery, but it suggests that the 10 billion dollar particle collider, arguably the biggest and costliest science experiment on Earth, just might be on the right track. (Alan Boyle, Cosmic Log, msnbc.com)

The Grandparent Boost
A theory claims that the older generation may have played a key role in the evolution of mankind. Fossil experts say the number of grandparents shot up dramatically 30,000 years ago as people started to live longer. With older people able to look after children, pass on knowledge, and share in food gathering, our ancestors were able to spread around the world and develop farming, tools, and civilization. (David Derbyshire, Daily Mail)

“Muslim-Western Tensions Persist”
Westerners and Muslims continue to harbor negative attitudes toward each other, but there’s a glimmer of change in Western attitudes, a new survey found. (Joe Sterling, CNN)

An Argument Against Moral Relativism
Paul Boghossian: Relativism is not always a coherent way of responding to the rejection of a certain class of facts. When we decided that there were no such things as witches, we didn’t become relativists about witches. (The Stone, Opinionator, The New York Times)

Daniel Kelly

Salon spoke with Daniel Kelly, an assistant professor of philosophy at Purdue University, about hiding the science behind disgust, why we’re captivated by things we find revolting, and how it can be a very dangerous thing. (Mandy Van Deven)

Category: Field Notes


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