Children are not born scientists....

I often hear the phrase "children are born scientists", which on the surface sounds beautiful and is based on the fact that a child will ask "why" incessantly — so it seems plausible. In my opinion it is simply not true.

Children are born believers. A scientist does not ask "why?". A scientist finds out why. Unfortunately children are not built with the ability to seek any truth other than the truths given to them by their environment (parents, teachers, religious figures, or group leaders) and they are told to accept what is told to them and they simply do. Children need to develop critical thinking for themselves, much as we all likely had to at some point in our lives to bring us here.

What can we do to help our children grow up to think critically about their world? Stop answering your children’s questions about the world and start empowering them with the necessary tools.

Take your kids to the library with a list of questions they have asked and go find a book to help them use the index. When THEY locate the answer they will remember it. It was them that answered their own question.
Show your child Wikipedia and how to do searches within it.

Once they find the answer make sure you assure them they have done a very important thing. Celebrate their success in learning. Help them to formulate a response if ever asked the question. The pride they will feel when answering the question with "I went to the library and looked this up and..." versus "My mom said..." will be worth the extra time from your day to help your child become empowered.

Thoughts?

Einstein confirmed again!

Astronomers confirm Einstein's theory of relativity and accelerating cosmic expansion

Thought: Cosmic expansion. One could assume we are in a relatively advanced stage of cosmic expansion. Could it be we really are some of the last remaining beings struggling to survive with almost insurmountable odds. We have no Galaxy to colonize it has simply become too big.

Madness: Odds are it will not get any easier for life.

"The data from our study are consistent with these predictions and show no deviation from Einstein's theories," says Van Waerbeke.

Einstein's theories really have stood up even in the most astounding ways ways that were impossible to predict even when he was developing them. These "truths" should be our religion. Should be fact. I understand scientific method. But there comes a point were you can no longer question certainty.

Way to go Ludovic Van Waerbeke of UBC. I wont hold the fact that your name sounds a bit like a vampire or evil lord of a crystal shard. I salute you in your glorious achievement!

SCIENCE!!

Beam me off, Scotty.

A pretty major milestone in the quest for in the field of teleportation has been achieved.

Detailed here, in Scientific American, if you are interested in reading the whole article. Basically what took place (or at least was reported to have taken place) is as follows:

A group of researchers, however, report today in Science that they've made headway in quantum teleportation, and thus communication. The team, led by physics graduate student Steven Olmschenk at the University of Maryland, College Park, succeeded in teleporting quantum information between ytterbium ions (charged atoms) three feet (one meter) apart.

Now it seems a small step towards the possibility of a star trek type transporter, and really at this point the only practical use would be in the field of quantum communications, which in itself is revolutionary.

But of course it got me thinking.

If the ability to transport was readily available to the population, would you use it? Would you have an issue standing in a pod or beam that would scan you at the atomic level, disassemble you in one place and reassemble you in a new place?

There is one possible problem that has been approached before. What if the transported you is not YOU at all but a copy of you that has no idea it is just a copy as it has all the memories you entered the pod with (including getting into the pod itself).

Now what if your old you simply stops existing.

For some reason I fear something like that more than even death. At least with death it is finite and you’re dead. But the thought of myself walking around as myself but not being witness by my SELF, is terrifying. Even though I can depend that my new self will perform in much the same manner as my original self, not being PRESENT to witness it freaks me out to no end.

I mean if I stepped in and went I would never know I didn't make it, but the possibility someone else (while still being me) would probably prevent me from trying it anyway.

And here lies a similar dilemma with the afterlife debate. If you get to the afterlife and there is nothing you can't tell anyone. If you go and there is something you still can't tell anyone. AND in the rare case where you are brought back from what you think was the afterlife. You still cannot be certain it was not a product of the lack of O2 or similar phenomenon. You can't know if you have eternal life after death without staying there.

As in the afterlife in teleportation, no matter how many people have done it you cannot say for sure the actual person perceiving the end result made it through.

So again I ask. Would you dare walk into one of these devices willingly?

Tuesday Talk Back — Slapstick Politics

When reading the following post, Slapstick Politics: More Than 650 Scientists Dissent over UN Global Warming Report by Julian Dunraven, I could not help but agree.

No matter what side of the fence you are on with the global warming debate, you have to agree that science is the method for finding the truths.

Politics entered the science stage a long time ago, but there has been few topics where the science can be this economically damaging to the "big guys". In a world driven by greed, it is little surprise they have gotten involved.

Science can prevail and the truth is achievable but only if the people get off their asses and learn to tell the difference between real science and political positioning.

As I said in a previous post. The earth is resilient. It will survive, whether it be through warming or cooling till we all die. All we can do is make sure we aren't killing ourselves, and the path to that is Science.