Alice in Wonderland

I'm sure if you look straight over the screen, you can see a wall. It looks (depending on the office you sit in) more or less solid, has a certain colour and you just start asking yourself why the heck this wall could be interesting! Think about the things you know about this wall: We all know this wall consists of different molecules and if we look even closer, atoms. For the sake of simplicity, let's think of atoms as spheres made of tiny electrons circling around a core (called nucleus). The size of the atom or it's nucleus depends on its type. Carbon for example has a atom size of 70 picometres (=0.00000000007 metres) and a nucleus diameter of about 2 femtometres (=0.00000000000002 metres). That means the carbon atom is about 35000 times wider than it's nucleus. If you imagine the nucleus to be the size of a football, the electrons would circle in a distance of roughly 4025 metres (=2.5 miles) around it. This means a lot of empty space! To emphasize this point a bit more: The volume of the whole atom is about 42875000000000 times bigger than the volume of the core!! So if we could look inside an atom, we wouldn't see much, would we?
Let's come back to our wall! The wall consists of many different atoms with different sizes. For this thought experiment, we assume for simplicity that the atoms in the wall are stuck together like a lot of small balls. We are looking at an awful lot of balls here! But we just calculated that an atom is mostly empty space, so a lot of atoms together (with small spaces in between them) are just more empty space dotted by very small nuclei.
So why do we see a solid wall? We are also made of atoms, so if we are only considering cores and electrons, I should be able to walk straight through! With the odd wall electron bouncing into one of my nuclei or electrons and vice versa! A bit of wiggling should do, to resolve this.
But I can't.
Why not? As it's mostly empty space, what keeps me from seeing through? As the atoms themselves have no colour, where does it come from? Why do the materials have different properties? They all consist of atoms, don't they? Ok, different types different properties, but diamonds and charcoal are made of exactly the same type! Would you put a piece of charcoal on a ring?

Even the most boring thing in the world (and I guess most people would consider a standard wall pretty boring) holds enough open questions for us to make it appear magical. We just stopped looking at items that we can see around us all the time . If you take the time and look closely at them, they all hold a door ready that leads into a magical world.

There are always more questions and there always will be. Don't stop asking them!
You might not find speaking white rabbits or hookah smoking caterpillars, but it is going to be a mind-opening and magical journey for sure!

Sven

P.S: I found the same idea in "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. It seems I'm not the only one looking at walls in a strange way..... ;-)

Quote: Small Lies

'Thank you. Now...tell me...'
WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN'T SAVED HIM?
'Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?'
NO
'Oh come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact!'
THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.
She turned on him.
'It's been a long night, Grandfather! I'm tired and I need a bath! I don't need silliness!'
THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.
'Really? Then what would have happened, pray?'
A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.
They walked in silence for a moment.
'Ah,' said Susan dully. 'Trickery with words. I would have thought you'd have been more literal-minded than that.'
I AM NOTHING IF NOT LITERAL-MINDED. TRICKERY WITH WORDS IS WHERE HUMANS LIVE.
'All right,' said Susan. 'I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need ... fantasies to make life bearable.'
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
'Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little--'
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
'So we can believe the big ones?'
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
'They're not the same at all!'
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET-- Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME . . . SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
'Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point--'
MY POINT EXACTLY.

Terry Pratchett
(in "Hogfather", 1996)

Last Thoughts of 2007

Many people celebrated Christmas a short while ago (or other religious festivities) and refer to it as a special time of year, often mentioning a "Christmas mood" - time to spend with your family, time to relax, sit together in the warmth, escaping the problems of the outside world. It's only a few days, but people are looking forward to it for a long time. It's a time when people behave differently. For some people it is a depressing time, mostly because they see other people enjoying it and get even more depressed than normal.
I'm an atheist. I don't believe in the story of the birth of Christ. For me Christmas has lost it's religious background, but is still a special time which I spend with my family. A time where I can relax, meet friends and exchange gifts. For me Christmas is a family celebration. It hasn't lost any importance just because I don't believe in the religious bits and pieces. It is still a special time, but, to be honest, it could be any time of year.

Tomorrow the year 2007 ends. But what does that mean? We think of the new year as a new start, an opportunity to change things, to do things better than last year. Many of us have New Year's resolutions to exactly specify what they want to change; like a tick-list. We think of it as a new white sheet of paper which is waiting to be filled, a white canvas we can paint on. Are we really able to look at the sheet of last year, think about it, reset our life and draw it differently this time?
From a scientific point of view all that happens is the date changes. We have the calendar to count time and for reasons of convenience we use different units which enable us to speak about fixed periods of time: a month, a year, days, seconds. So all that happens is that the last chunk, the portion of the date called "year", gets incremented by one.
Time is flowing continuously and as time flows, so do our lives. Scientifically there is no resetting our lives at New Year's Eve, no new start. It just goes on. All that really changes is a number.

So, as an atheist, although Christmas has no background I still don't want to miss the time with my family. I just call it Christmas so everybody knows what I'm talking about. It's just a concept everybody knows. But, it doesn't have to be on the 25th of December, I could do the same things any other time. It's nice it's in winter (at least here!) but it doesn't have to be. As long as it is at least once a year! ;-)
As a scientist, I know that nothing changes on New Year's Eve but a number. Still, I think about a new year as a chance to do things differently than last year, to try new ideas. As with Christmas, New Year's Eve is also an abstract concept. Everything we associate with it just exists in our heads. Does this make it less important? I don't think so! Humans need concepts, sometimes more and sometimes less abstract. We use them to organise our world, to make it easier to understand and have gotten used to so many of them, we sometimes forget they are just concepts. But, concepts can be changed and should be questioned from time to time.

We need a time like Christmas so we don't forget the importance of a few relaxing days or the importance of family. We use the concept "year" and need New Year's Eve to partition the time given to us into chunks we can handle. But, many people forget the things we do in these times could be done all the time. I can change things in my life all the time, can spend time with my family all the time and can relax as often as I think is necessary. Christmas and New Year's Eve are concepts which help us remember, but we should not narrow it down to these few days only.

I hope you all had a nice few days over Christmas and have the list with resolutions ready for tomorrow. My only resolution is to celebrate "New Year's Eve" every day next year. Thinking about the last ones, perhaps I should omit the alcohol and only think about changes and opportunities! :)

Happy New Year everyone!

Sven

Quote: Freedom to doubt

"The freedom to doubt is an important matter in the sciences and, I believe, in other fields. It was born of a struggle. It was a struggle to be permitted to doubt, to be unsure. And I do not want us to forget the importance of the struggle and, by default, to let the thing fall away. I feel a responsibility as a scientist who knows the great value of satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, and the progress made possible by such a philosophy, progress which is the fruit of freedom of thought. I feel a responsibility to proclaim the value of this freedom and to teach that doubt is not to be feared, but that it is to be welcomed as the possibility of a new potential for human beings. If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. I want to demand this freedom for future generations."

Richard P. Feynman
(in "The Meaning of It All", Lecture 1, 1998)

Think before forwarding!

Chain-letters were already around on paper before the internet started (we all remember the "Send this on and you will find luck the next day" letters). Although money (postage) and work (making paper copies) was involved, the chain letters still found enough gullible people to be able to spread. With the start of electronic mail and the possibility to copy and forward hundreds of emails within seconds, the chain letter had its time of prosperity. Hoaxes and chain letters became a real threat to every mail server as they got flooded with millions of copies within minutes.

I couldn't understand why it worked before the internet at all, I understood why it flourished in the early days of the world wide web, as people just sent on everything they got if it sounded a bit reasonable (and it was just too easy to do!), but in the time of online viruses, worms and spam, I really thought people would start to think before they press the forward button!!

Most of the hoaxes and chain letters are easy to spot. If you are not sure, a simple search on google normally reveals their true nature. So why do people still believe that they can get anything for free if they send an email to all their friends?? In the beginning I was annoyed when I got the same email 20 times a day from friends....nowadays I'm almost getting angry! Somehow I have this strange opinion that people could spot and delete them themselves.

I have to be honest, I didn't get one for a while and there was a sprout of hope that we've reached a critical mass of people who are aware of them to kill them once and for all. But how wrong I was! Two days ago I saw the walls in Facebook filled with this message:

Attention all Facebook membeRs.
Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated,
There have been many members complaining that Facebook
is becoming very slow.Record shows that the reason is
that there are too many non-active Facebook members
And on the other side too many new Facebook members.
We will be sending this messages around to see if the
Members are active or not,If you’re active please send
to other users using Copy+Paste to show that you are active
Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks,
The user will be deleted without hesitation to create more space,
If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations but until then send this message to all your friends and make sure you send
this message to show me that your active and not deleted.

Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg

It has all features of a standard chain letter: It gives you a nice story about a problem (which is not there in the first place), threatens the receiver by telling you that something is going to happen to you if you don't forward it and askes you to send it to all your friends, pets, toys and future children! There are immideately several questions which should come up:

• Why can't Facebook check my activity within the system?
• Why don't they just send a message to everybody themselves?
• Would Facebook really delete accounts without hesitation?
• Why can't Mark Zuckerberg write "members" correctly???

So why don't people ask these questions, think about them, have a laugh and delete the post?
Facebook had to react (as walls filled up with millions of stupid chain letters) and delete them!

I hope everybody who read this post is going to think twice everytime a child wants a liver by email, some account is going to be closed down, Microsoft wants to send you money or the world can only be saved by sending on a message! It will never be true and I'm going to hate you for having to delete the emails/posts that reach me! And believe me, only one in a hundred is going to get a different reaction, like the mother of all chain letters or the anti-letter. So if you are not absolutely sure, don't try! ;-)

In hope to have changed the world again with this post,
Sven

Is this the right name for brakes?

I saw these brakes today on a bike. They look like really good brakes, but the name confused me a little bit! Is "Hope" really the right name for a company producing brakes? :) I can only hope it's well used irony or you never seriously have to brake :-D
(I don't want to comment on the quality of the product itself, as I've never tested them!)

Climate sins and absolution

I booked a flight for Christmas a few days ago with EasyJet. After fighting my way through all the rental car , hotel and insurance offers, deciding about number of bags and priority boarding, I suddenly found a new tick-box: Carbon Offsetting. Intrigued by this new option, I took the time to find out what this new check box was about. On the "Fly Greener Environment" page I found out that, by clicking the box (and spending a few pounds more), you

"[...]balance the effect of the carbon emitted from your flight by supporting UN certified projects like Perlabi Hydroelectric in Ecuador."
(from: EasyJet)

It seems that the opportunities to save the world are rapidly increasing! That means that the world should be save! Or not? Somehow the whole thing reminds me of the absolution practice in medieval times. You could buy a letter of absolution from the church to save your soul and be free from the sins you've committed. Great!
One can't help to see parallels to the emission trade and the carbon offsetting options these days. If I tick the box, does the plane I plan to board blow less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? Unfortunately not! Although it's good to invest money into "green" projects, it doesn't solve the problem itself, it just tries to counter the effects of flying (which isn't a bad thing, don't get me wrong!). But it seems to make people feel better about polluting our world! I can't help thinking that a lot of people seem to feel too good about it and just found a good excuse for not doing anything that really cuts down pollution. Something along the lines of: "I can drive the 5mins to the shops as I paid 5 pounds yesterday for the Brazilian rain forest!".

People always ask how I can cycle 20mins every day to my office and back. That's miles away!! Yes, it is! But only a few. And I can also stop at the shops on the way home. It really isn't difficult and one can avoid taking the car most of the time. I agree, there are times where you have to use one. But if we are honest, there are many times we could walk or cycle and therefore produce less carbon dioxide and even live more healthy (fresh air and so on!).

There are also many other little things we can do:

• Bring a reusable bag when shopping! Billions of plastic bags are used every day and this the most unnecessary waste of resources of all times! There are folding boxes you can put in your car, backpacks (if you are cycling ;-) ), jute bags that can be used for ages,..... the list of "green" alternatives is long!

• Try to buy goods that come in a recyclable container. Why does milk have to come in plastic containers? Glass bottles are reusable! In many countries now you can leave unnecessary packaging at the shops to force them to use less and recyclable packaging.

• Use public transport! It's a lot less stressful most of the times compared to driving at rush hour and it's a good alternative to cycling if the weather is bad.

• You can even save the world while jogging and become an Eco-Runner :)

I could go on for a long time! There are so many little things everybody can do without much change to our lifestyle. And you don't have to buy your peace of conscience by paying more and more for carbon offsetting. Paying for our climate sins seems to be the easy way out, but we can't buy a new earth if we've finally destroyed this one. And the "I'm only one individual in 6 billion, I can't change anything"-excuse doesn't apply here! If everybody is contributing even a little bit, the overall changes are huge! To say it with the words of a german punk band: "It's not your fault that the world is like it is, it only would be your fault if it stays like that!"

Ok, so...
recyclable bag with me? ...tick
cycled to university today? ...tick
£ 2.95 for a better conscience when flying home over Christmas??.....ah, whatever: TICK!

Take care!
Sven