395951
submission
mlimber writes:
The New York Times is running a provocative piece on the faith-based nature of science: "The problem with this neat separation into 'non-overlapping magisteria,' as Stephen Jay Gould described science and religion, is that science has its own faith-based belief system. All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way.... [B]oth religion and science are founded on faith — namely, on belief in the existence of something outside the universe, like an unexplained God or an unexplained set of physical laws, maybe even a huge ensemble of unseen universes, too. For that reason, both monotheistic religion and orthodox science fail to provide a complete account of physical existence.... [U]ntil science comes up with a testable theory of the laws of the universe, its claim to be free of faith is manifestly bogus."
394175
submission
jeffporcaro writes:
Paul Davies writes a guest editorial in the NYTimes (sorry, but that's where it is) in which he shares his opinion that science is no better/no different than religion, since it forces its adherents to take items on faith. Examples he gives of faith-based science include our belief that the laws of physics will not change tomorrow and the idea that there are multiple universes — both are non-falsifiable and therefore no better than religious faith. Similarly, the fact that fundamental concepts are not fully explained (Why are the laws that regulate motion the way that they are? Who/what made them that way?) proves to him that science is based on a faulty, "deeply anti-rational" foundation. See here for full story.
387619
submission
holy_calamity writes:
Microsoft Research think they can straighten out biologists by making them think like coders. Struggles with large datasets like the human genome are reduced if you structure models like computer programs, representing components like proteins or genes as subroutines, they say. A full PDF of the Nature paper is here. A new 'executable biology' research group is being set up.
384959
submission
Mortimer.CA writes:
As mentionted on Slahdot previously, there is a proposal to remove leap seconds from UTC (nee 'Greenwich' time). It wil be put to a vote to ITU member states, and if 70% agree, the leap second will be eliminated by 2013. There is some debate as to whether this change is a good or bad idea. One philosophical point opponents make is that the 'official' time on Earth should match the time of the sun and heavens. People with appliances that blink '12:00' can probably ignore this issue.
382365
submission
SoyChemist writes:
Many scientists have asked the question: Can Tasers kill people? Yet, the waters surrounding the less lethal weapon remain very murky. The Wired Science Blog has a compilation of some of the more spectacular safety studies. They include case reports of a dart penetrating the skull of a young man, a pacemaker logging cardiac data when an old man was zapped, and conclusions drawn from seventy-five separate investigations. This follows an earlier report in New Scientist which showed that some of the safety studies were funded by Taser International.
382273
submission
xplinuxmac writes:
A study about the positive effects of p2p music downloads:
Industry Canada undertook a music file sharing study during 2006-07 to measure the extent to which music downloads over peer-to-peer file sharing networks, for which the sound recording industry receives no remuneration, affect music purchasing activity in Canada. The data used for this analysis are from a Decima Research survey conducted between April and June, 2006, on behalf of Industry Canada. The report, prepared by University of London researchers, Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, found that music downloads have a positive effect on music purchases among Canadian downloaders but that there is no effect taken over the entire population aged 15 and over.
Complete Report
378413
submission
autofan1 writes:
VW's latest supermini features a new high-temp fuel-cell powerplant with lithium-ion batteries as well as an electric power plug and solar cells in the roof for extra power. This car could potentially run forever without the need for any fossil fuels.
