“Einstein was a brilliant theorist, bold in his thinking, relentless and determined,” writes Dr. William Brown. “But he could be stubborn to the point of failing to recognize inconvenient facts derived from his own studies.”
In this week’s column from Dr. Brown, he traces the evolution of computer technology’s use in the field of scientific research, from its earlier, more elementary uses in the late 20th century, to the unfolding possibilities of today’s AI machine learning.
“Nobel committees don’t always get things right, but this time they made a spectacular, if controversial, choice,” writes Dr. Brown of this fall’s Nobel Prize wins in physics and chemistry.
“The formation of stars, galaxies and the natural elements combines the dominant themes of physics in the first half of the 20th century: General relativity … and quantum physics,” writes Dr. William Brown.
Gene editing once held “the promise of fixing mutant genes responsible for the mutant proteins that cause hundreds of other protein-related diseases,” writes Dr. Brown. “Unfortunately, transforming theory into practice is difficult.”
“With some exceptions, progress in science is usually incremental and biology, especially biochemistry,” writes Dr. Brown, analyzing how our understanding of the science behind DNA has evolved — while some central questions remain.
“Immigrants need safety and opportunity, and Western countries need their talents and energy to secure the country. It’s that simple,” writes Dr. William Brown.
“There’s no escape: good genes, a healthy lifestyle, timely, effective intervention and treatment along the way, and luck, may put off this or that threat, but in the end, there is an end,” writes Dr. Brown
“I’ve enjoyed learning and writing about those and other topics for much the same reasons I would imagine my readers do: we are curious and we want to understand as much as we can about who we are,” writes Dr. Brown.
“On good days, Jan knows precisely who I am and responds to cuddling and holding hands and most of my bad jokes,” writes Dr. Brown. “So, in some of the most important ways, I haven’t lost Jan.”
“The single most important technical development to have a major impact in commercial and military aviation after the war was the development of turbine jet engines,” writes. Dr. William Brown.
“Like the human brain, AI acquires large databases (sets for AI), which cover a broad range of subjects sequestered in different sets. The issue is: how does AI choose from among different sets of data to better focus and solve the problem or question at hand?” writes Dr. Brown.
“Connect the dots and look back; it seems Biden obvious was suffering from some form of dementia, which affected his memory, speech, thought processes and planning — made worse by the bad news piling up on his desk and pressure at home and abroad to look ‘in command,'” writes Dr. William Brown.
“The nocebo effect refers to the occurrence of harmful effects from consciously or unconsciously anticipating symptoms, one example of which was the June bug incident of 1962,” writes Dr. William Brown.
“The fact that Biden announced on July 21 he will not seek re-election is a relief for the U.S. and for him. That took courage but was the right decision given the trajectory of where his disease is headed in the next several years,” writes Dr. William Brown.
Studies have repeatedly shown that as many as one-third of patients suffering from pain see noticeable improvement thanks to placebos, a measure of effectiveness rivalling or surpassing the effectiveness of many pain medications, including over-the-counter drugs and opioids for painful disorders such as headache and lower back pain.
“As it is, the health-care system is overloaded. Physicians and patients alike are frustrated with long waiting periods to see physicians and nurse practitioners. For now, health-care organizations such as the Harvard system, see ChatGPT as a partner for physicians — but how long will that partnership be complementary and equal?” writes Dr. William Brown.
For much of our human evolution, climate played a major part in the success or failure of various human species variants — including the last, homo sapiens — the lone survivor as Chris Stringer so aptly put it in the tile of his 2012 book, “Lone Survivors: How We Came to be the Only Humans on Earth.”
As a species, humans consider themselves set apart from all other species because we possess gifts denied other creatures: our considerable powers of imagination, symbolic thinking and language, a compulsion to create and
The first black hole was not photographed until 2019. It’s gargantuan, billions of times the mass of the sun and much larger than the giant black hole found at the centre of our Milky Way, for which studies a Nobel prize was awarded and shared with evidence that general relativity provided a “robust explanation” for the shape of black holes.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic before effective vaccines were available, life-threatening cases were common even among healthy, young health care workers. Even so, most fatal cases involved the elderly, those with multiple comorbid
Beginnings and endings mirror one another in life. At birth babies are nearly defenceless and despite a brain with an enormous built-in capacity for learning, it takes many years before they’re fully capable
The evolution to where we are now as a species began five to six million years ago, with the last common ancestor to what would eventually become modern humans emerging 150 to 200
Dennis Overbye of the New York Times is one of the best science writers in the world for good reasons: he talks to the principal scientists involved in the subject of interest, other
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is one of nature’s worst diseases, up there with the dementias and some cancers. For some, cancer has become a manageable disease. Not so with ALS. It destroys motor nerve
© All Rights Reserved, Niagara Now.
