China’s “Heavenly Eye,” and (Sometimes Willful) Blindness

Some interesting recent science articles:

It’s interesting to compare this piece

“Scientists Pinpoint Where Dark Matter Is Hiding in the Universe”

to this one:

“What is Dark Matter? Even the Best Theories Are Crumbling”

I like that fact that we’re now learning to read muck from below the seabeds:

“The Earth’s Memory Is Locked in Ancient Seafloor Muck”

An intriguing historical “who [or what] dunnit”:

“How Did Anyone Survive the 19th Century? — Strands of hair shed light on doomed 19th-century Arctic expedition:  The final days of Franklin’s 1846 expedition have long been a tragic mystery.”

Indeed, how did anybody survive the nineteenth century?  Consider this case of what was, evidently, once considered cutting-edge medicine:

“The ‘Father of American Neurology’ Prescribed Women Months of Motionless Milk-Drinking: Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were both patients of his infamous rest cure.”

In contemporary science, though, it’s that time of the year:

“Why Nobel prizes fail 21st-century science: It is the ultimate accolade, but critics claim the award is now out of step with modern collaborative research methods”

And here’s a rather longish but extremely thought-provoking essay that ranges far beyond what even the title suggests — including, no less, a passing reference to Utah’s Bingham Canyon open-pit copper mine:

“What Happens If China Makes First Contact?  As America has turned away from searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, China has built the world’s largest radio dish for precisely that purpose.”

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Browsing through the frequent comments that one especially frenetic misreader of this blog makes (elsewhere) regarding my science-related posts, I’m reminded of a corollary to Murphy’s law:

It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

And here’s a variant of it:

Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently capable fool.

I’m often informed (usually by anonymous people online who’ve never met me) that I’m a young-earth creationist, that I hate and fear science, and so forth.  Now, though, I’ve learned that I believe that, if Charles Darwin was wrong in anything, he was wrong in everything — which, of course, makes me a hypocrite because I don’t hold the founders and leaders of my church to the same completely absurd standard.

Which reminds me of one of my favorite lines from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream — a line, spoken by Puck, that often seems remarkably apt:

Lord, what fools these mortals be! (III.ii.115)