Ken and I are just back from a wonderful few days in Rhode Island. Holly invited Ken to speak in the University of Rhode Island biology seminar series and we were delighted with the chance to visit the coast, meet some of Holly's students and colleagues, eat seafood, and most of all, spend real time with her, who we mostly see only virtually, and her husband Kevin.
A few of the things we pondered:
- Why is Elroy the dog digging that trench under the bushes in the back yard?
- White, tomato or clear clam chowder?
- If there are multiverses, and you die on every one of them, are you still immortal?
- Do dogs have self-awareness?
- Why are oysters so genetically diverse?
- What's worse, hurricanes or blizzards?
- Can science writers be advocates? Can they avoid being advocates?
- Are Maine lobsters better than Rhode Island ones?
- Why do so many genetic results point to polygenic causation when so many genes are conserved? Or, why are so many genes conserved when polygenic causation is ubiquitous?
- Does anyone understand quantum mechanics?
- Why do we live so far from Rhode Island?
And a few of the things we saw:
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| View from Beavertail lighthouse |
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| If I were a bee, I would be unable to pass this seductive hibiscus by (it is a hibiscus, isn't it?). Such lovely modularity, too. |
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| Cliff Walk; we pretended the Newport mansions behind us weren't there. |
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| Ken, Kevin and Holly: Were they talking about quantum mechanics or where to have our next meal? Can't remember. |
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| Elroy; a great dog, he's even written a book (and you can follow him on Twitter: @ElroyBeefstu). No doubt, dogs have self-awareness. And so much more. |
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| Or maybe they were talking about who makes Bad Boy vodka. |
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| We try to forget how landlocked Central PA is. |
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| And then we tried hard to figure out what this gull was eating, but failed. Crab? Skate? Mermaid's tail? |
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| The mesmerizing view of the indefinite, if not infinite sea... |
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| Before coffee, draped in hydrangea from the gorgeous bush in the front yard. |
Thank you so much, Holly and Kevin. Such a fine weekend.
No wonder roses of Sharon look like Hibiscus. They are: Rose of Sharon
ReplyDeleteNever knew that about Rose of Sharon. Good to add another identifiable flower to my (limited) repertoire!
DeleteI can't stop looking at these pictures.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Elroy the dog digging that trench under the bushes in the back yard? Can't help you there.
ReplyDeleteWhite, tomato or clear clam chowder? White!
If there are multiverses, and you die on every one of them, are you still immortal? It must be really crowded if there is no death. Also evolution would not work so well.
Do dogs have self-awareness? My working assumption is that we are all animals and absent some strong evidence to the contrary all the same. So if we postulate that people are self-aware so are dogs.
Why are oysters so genetically diverse? All there better to eat them. If they were all the same they would get boring.
What's worse, hurricanes or blizzards? Hurricanes are worse. More damage and no snow days off from school.
Can science writers be advocates? Can they avoid being advocates? They have to be. It would be dishonest to be otherwise. Like good scientists they need to address opposing opinions and weaknesses in the data they present.
Are Maine lobsters better than Rhode Island ones? Yes, Rhode Island is nice but everything is better in Maine plus the lobsters are better in the cold water.
Why do so many genetic results point to polygenic causation when so many genes are conserved? Or, why are so many genes conserved when polygenic causation is ubiquitous? Because so many genes are polycausual?
Does anyone understand quantum mechanics? No, they just know how to work the math that for imponderable reasons produces useful ressults.
Why do we live so far from Rhode Island? Can't help you there either.
I can only address the question about crowding in multiverses by referring you to a brief (and highly technical!) analysis I did for Evolutionary Anthropology, on a comparable problem: the evolutionary genetics of vampires:
Delete"Dracula! A paradigm shift in evolutionary genetics: Death of a theory at the hands of the undead?"
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/evan.21330/full
The answers to your other questions are beyond me!
Thank you for weighing in. It's good to know that the end of the weekend didn't mean the end of the pondering over these questions.
DeleteAs to overcrowding and multiverses though, there would only be overcrowding on a cosmic scale, so to speak. That is, as I understand it, the idea is that there are infinite iterations of every one of us, though on different multiverses. So, say, on some multiverse I actually know the answers to all these questions. But, just as we will die here, we'll eventually die everywhere -- but we'll also always be alive, somewhere, only to die (again?).
“Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?”
Delete― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead