Getting close to mid-night: Bulletin of Atomic Nuclear Scientists

So, the famous Bulletin of Atomic Scientists believes we are two minutes closer to destruction than we have been in the past. Here's how they put it:

This deteriorating state of global affairs leads the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists--in consultation with a Board of Sponsors that includes 18 Nobel laureates--to move the minute hand of the “Doomsday Clock” from seven to five minutes to midnight.

This is another example of people with a certain expertise in one area, thinking they have expertise in another area. Scientists are generally smart people, perhaps some of the smartest on the planet we call home. But being smart as a scientist does not mean one is competent in other areas.

For example, while Richard Feynman was a genius in physics, he was no politician. That is, Feynman's expertise in physics did not mean that he had any deep insight in politics. He may have insight of his own, of course, but if you want political opinion it's best to go with a politician.

What's this have to do with the time creeping closer to mid-night?

Just this: the catastrophe that the Bulletin is "predicting" is more of a political catastrophe and not a scientific one. It is a political question as to whether nuclear bombs will be detonated not a scientific one. If the world ends due to nuclear bombs that responsibility rests with our political leaders; scientists have done their part already in building the bombs.

This year, The Bulletin also cites "Global Warming" as part of the coming (five minutes away!) catastrophe. Once again, the scientists have no say in Global Warming (if it even exists and I don't believe it). The question of climate is beyond the control of any scientist. Sure, scientists study climate and have opinions but whether the world will "end" due to some climate change is beyond them.

To try to predict "the end" is to scare people into believing others who, while smart in one area, have no business in other areas.

Invisibility: Mathematically possible

November 30, 2006: The invisibility cloak recently built by scientists at Duke University and Imperial College in London has received enormous attention all over the world. This breakthrough cloaking device makes a copper disk invisible at specific microwave frequencies. As it turns out, Mathematics Professor Allan Greenleaf of the University of Rochester along with Matti Lassas, who is now at the Helsinki University of Technology, and Gunther Uhlmann of the University of Washington, started the mathematics behind invisibility several years ago in the context of medical imaging and quantum mechanics. Joined by fourth member Yaroslav Kurylev of Loughborough University, the team has announced the mathematics of full-wave invisibility at all frequencies (http://www.arxiv.org/abs/math.AP/0611185). In their latest work, they examine the problem of cloaking not just passive objects, but also active devices that are emitting electromagnetic waves, and show that this requires modifying the original constructions.

(hat tip: Ilachina)

Goldbach conjecture: Proved?

Here's a paper that the authors say proved Goldbach's conjecture. From Wikipedia:

Goldbach's conjecture is one of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory and in all of mathematics. It states:

Every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two primes.

For example,

4 = 2 + 2
6 = 3 + 3
8 = 3 + 5
10 = 3 + 7 = 5 + 5
12 = 5 + 7
14 = 3 + 11 = 7 + 7
etc.

It's a very old problem and one that if solved, would be welcomed news in mathematics.

Journal of Fourier Analysis and Applications

The University of Maryland is having a two-day seminar on Fourier Series in February. As part of the program you can get a trial copy of the Journal of Fourier Analysis and Applications free, just follow link above.

The journal is math-oriented but worth perusing. Enjoy.

Junk science

Ian Gilmartin, 60, has invented a mini water wheel capable of supplying enough electricity to power a house - for free. The contraption is designed to be used in small rivers or streams - ideal for potentially thousands of homes across Britain.

It is the first off-the-shelf water-wheel system that can generate a good supply of electricity from as little as an eight-inch water fall.

Have a laugh and read the article.

Dark Matter: What matters to the universe

The study, published in Nature journal, provides the best evidence yet that the distribution of galaxies follows the distribution of dark matter.

Scientists have mapped a small part of the sky in terms of the distribution of dark matter. There is reason to believe that this will show that the evolution of galaxies follows this distribution and that dark matter does, indeed, play a unique role in the development of our universe.

Additional article here, original article from Nature here.