Experimental and theoretical housekeeping
WILLIAM of Occam (or Ockham) provided one of the most powerful 鈥� or at the very least the most cited 鈥� tools in the box of methodological instruments: his famous razor. Feedback last translated this dictum as 鈥淒o not introduce entities without necessity鈥� (7 June 2008). As an example of its application: if you see an object moving impossibly rapidly across the sky, it may well be an unidentified flying object 鈥� but before introducing aliens or angels into your cosmology, first try cleaning your glasses and/or rinsing your eye.
Digging deeper, we discover that the of what the 14th-century theologian and philosopher actually wrote was: 鈥淣othing ought to be posited without a reason given, unless it is self-evident or known by experience or proved by the authority of Sacred Scripture.鈥� That puts a different slant on it.
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One of the things that scientists quickly learn is that 鈥渆ntities鈥� have a way of introducing themselves inconveniently into theory and experiment alike. To make progress, or just to create the appearance of progress, inconvenient results can be quietly swept under the carpet.
Ten years ago the biologist Sydney Brenner, in his collection Loose Ends from Current Biology (illustrated by Andrzej Krauze, whose work also graces this magazine鈥檚 Opinion pages) gave this useful, if murky, habit a name. Feedback enviously congratulates the Journal of Biology for adopting that name a couple of months ago for a new column: 鈥淥ckham鈥檚 broom鈥�.
鈥淪potting a white van advertising 鈥渂uilding in every dimension鈥�, Peter Vincent wants to know what these builders know about the construction of the universe that we don鈥檛鈥�
Evolution in accidental action
READER Eliot Attridge has been reading The Making of the Fittest by Sean Carroll, subtitled 鈥淒NA and the ultimate forensic record of evolution鈥�.
The book, he says, is 鈥渁n excellent, highly readable explanation of biogenics鈥� Amongst other things it goes into detail about the evolution of trichromatic vision in humans and related apes.鈥� It relates these topics to the work of Darwin and Mendel.
So Eliot was quite surprised to read this disclaimer in his edition: 鈥淭his book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author鈥檚 imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental鈥�.
Someone at the publisher has, it seems to us, reduced their chances of surviving to reproduce.
IS THE Australian company Liquid Snow Tours, in St Kilda, Victoria, anticipating the effects of climate change on its business, wonders Vanda Hamilton.
Indeed, on checking we find that 鈥渁re very aware that we depend heavily on snow and therefore global warming is no friend of ours鈥�.
They go on to trumpet their low paper usage as well as carbon-offsetting for flights from Australia to Japan. Will this be enough, though, to reduce the incidence of liquid snow?
Entirely new environmental threats
ENTIRELY new threats to the environment are identified in an article entitled 鈥淚dentity crisis鈥� in the magazine Conservation, which has Douglas Fox, also a contributor to New 杏吧原创, reporting that researchers at Toho University in Japan 鈥渆xtrapolated from a handful of examples to what they call a universal phenomenon: human activities homogenize natural environments by clouding the water, levelling typography, or planting monocultures鈥� ().
Feedback had always thought that, since the introduction of mechanical typesetting, typography had been self-levelling. Does the threat to typography not come from design abominations like the Comic Sans font (24 June 2006)?
Ben Haller, who alerted us to this interesting hypothesis, wonders whether this example of a typographical error involving the word 鈥渢ypography鈥� is unique 鈥� or does it cancel itself out, to become a topographical error?
Europe puts a rabbit on the moon
AN ARTICLE in London newspaper The Daily Telegraph about the first images from the European Space Agency鈥檚 orbiting Planck observatory ended with the paragraph: 鈥淭he telescope is looking at the heat left behind by the big bang. It is a job comparable to measuring the body heat of a rabbit sitting on the moon.鈥�
Peter Abrahams is frustrated by the lack of clarity of this statement and wants to see what he calls the lunalapin 鈥渄efined more precisely with regard to the size of the rabbit, the colour of rabbit, and whether it is in sunlight or shade鈥�. Only then is he prepared to decide 鈥渋f 1 lunalapin is an accurate measure of the sensitivity of the observatory鈥�.
FINALLY, former New 杏吧原创 editor Alun Anderson was searching the web for information about an obscure historical event called the 1832 Hannah Bay massacre. The sponsored link alongside the search results proclaimed: 鈥淢assacres on eBay for less. Over 11 million items to buy today.鈥�
With so many cheap massacres on offer, how does one choose?