2011年3月31日星期四

KHAN ACADEMY AIMS TO REINVENT EDUCATION THROUGH VIDEO

Salman_khanFrom PhysO
The problems with basic education, both in the US and other countries, are complex, but one website may have the ability to improve education on a global scale. The Khan Academy, whose mission is to "provide a free world-class education to anyone, anywhere," currently has 2,200 video tutorials on subjects ranging from math to science to history. Not only could the free educational videos help individual students learn better, but the concept could also reform schools by redefining the teacher’s role and laying the foundations for a global classroom.


Since the site was launched in 2006, the videos have been viewed millions of times. The videos have received positive reviews from viewers due to their clear, conversation-style approach and simple drawings, which are made in SmoothDraw. But, as founder Salman Khan explained at a TED conference earlier this month, he thinks the Khan Academy could do a lot more. Khan wants to increase the academy’s video library to tens of thousands of video tutorials - each about 10 minutes long - that  would watch in the evening as “homework.” Then the next day in class, the students would work on homework-like assignments, where they could ask the teacher questions and work with their peers. In essence, by “flipping the classroom,” students could watch a video lecture as many times as they like, at their own pace, and then have time in class to ask specific questions.


More here.

DYING FOR A LONG LIFE

Worm
From Nature:
A chemical dye that lights up the protein clumps characteristic of Alzheimer's disease also slows ageing in worms. The lifespan-boosting effects of the dye — called Thioflavin T or Basic Yellow 1 — support the idea that the build-up of misshapen proteins underlies ageing. Drugs that recognize such toxic detritus and alert the cell's natural repair and protein-recycling systems could, therefore, be used to treat diseases of old age, says Gordon Lithgow, a molecular geneticist at the Buck Institute in Novato, California, who led the study, published today in Nature1.
Proteins are essential for almost everything a cell does, from communicating with other cells to generating energy. But sometimes proteins form the wrong three-dimensional shapes. Misfolded proteins don't function properly and, worse, tend to accumulate and gum up other cellular systems. To prevent this from happening, cells deploy 'chaperones', whose job it is to refold misshapen proteins. In more extreme cases, cells can degrade these potentially dangerous proteins. "There's a growing appreciation that protein misfolding may be one of the very fundamental events of ageing," says Richard Morimoto, a molecular biologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who was not involved with the study. Worms genetically engineered to have a revved-up protein-recycling system, for instance, live longer than normal worms23.
More here.

口语诗人 Spoken Word Poet

Sarah Kay: If I should have a daughter 


Sarah 和她的老公都是口语诗人,有兴趣的朋友,可到他们的网站看看。http://www.project-voice.net/about-us/

2011年3月30日星期三

基本教义与民主

埃及修宪全民公投之后,很多人开始担心,年轻人发动的民主革命运动,会被带有基本教义色彩的穆斯林兄弟会(Muslim Brotherhood)骑刧。
民主与回教,都是中东民众所要的。相信,后革命的许多中东国家,不管葫芦里卖的是什么药,都会冠上民主回教国的名号。
其实,很多人都知道,以《可兰经》治国的民主国家,在理论上是不容易成立的。巴基斯坦的一位时事评论员法依沙(Feisal H. Naqvi)最近发表了一篇文章《面簿时代中的基本教义》(Fundamentalism in the Age of Facebook),谈到这个问题。
他说,所有穆斯林国家所面临的基本问题是,伊斯兰法律和自由民主之间,存在着根本的抵触。自由民主的实质是,政权的合法性来自被统治者自由授予。而伊斯兰主义的本质是,其合法性来自忠于一套真主钦定的的规则。任何一个伊斯兰政府,不论民主与否,如果它游离于这些规则之外,还可以是合法的。在人民的意愿和真主的意愿之间,只能有一个是最高的。
针对这一点,一般伊斯兰教徒的标准回应是,伊斯兰教也可以是民主的。他们辩称,《可兰经》就像西方的宪法,可以由一国的穆斯林公民自由接受(例如,通过全民投票的方式)。接着,就如同西方的政府不能逾越宪法的界限,伊斯兰政权也不能逾越《可兰经》的范围。
这个类比,虽然诱人,却是错误的。首先是理论问题:一部宪法的合法性,来自公民之间的协定,而非上帝的启示。即使全国公民一再热情声明,他们打从心底愿意接受《可兰经》的约束,这也不会让《可兰经》成为一部宪法。因为理论上,修改《可兰经》的可能性是不存在的。
第二个问题更具有实质性。比起一般法律,宪法通常比较抽象,往往是一些内涵广泛的通则,主要靠立法机关赋予明确的内容。然而,这些广泛的通则之间,冲突的元素是不可避免的。因此,在每一个民主国家,最高法院的法官都必须不时地重新解释宪法。但是,像这样的重新解释,伊斯兰法是不接受的。换句话说,伊斯兰的法律根本不允许对《可兰经》犹如一部宪法那样地解释。
这当然不是说,伊斯兰法律没有解释的余地。任何文本都需要解释,《可兰经》在这方面也不例外。然而,解释宪法的规范和伊斯兰法理学所能接受的解释,两者之间存在着巨大的差异。更准确地说,伊斯兰的法律与宪法法理的主要不同之处,在于伊斯兰法律没有一个变革理论。
例如,美国宪法第一修正案非常生硬地指出,国会不可以立法以限制言论自由。(Congress shall make“no law”...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.)“没有法律”(no law)一词究竟是什么意思,已被辩论了两个多世纪。美国联邦最高法院大法官雨果·布莱克(Hugo Black)认为:“没有法律”就是没有法律,斩钉截铁,不必多谈。不过,大多数的法学家,却都承认言论自由必须受到一些“合理”的限制,然后接着讨论某些特定限制是否“合理”。在美国历史中不同的时段,对何谓言论自由的“合理限制”的法理共识,差异极大。通过了第一修正案的同一个国会,还通过了1789年的《煽动法令》。几乎可以肯定的是,这一项法律,今天必然不能通过司法审查。
伊斯兰法的解读困惑
不过,伊斯兰法学家对特定经文的正确解释,往往也有长时间激烈的辩论。《可兰经》的解释与宪法解释,究竟有什么根本的不同?
要了解伊斯兰法律的解释是如何的不同,可以看一看伊斯兰法律关于男人能娶几个老婆,这个经常被讨论问题。众所周知,《可兰经》说一个人可以有了四个妻子,前提是他必须平等地对待她们。然后,《可兰经》进一步指出,没有人可以平等对待他们的妻子。
关干这一点,传统的解释是,穆斯林男人确实可以有四个妻子。不过,既然《可兰经》说过,绝对平等是不可能的,所以只要合理的平等对待就足够了。
今日现代改革派反对传统派的观点。他们认为,既然《可兰经》已经清楚指出,平等对待妻子是不可能的,所以伊斯兰法律只允许穆斯林男子有一个妻子。
这些激烈的争论,往往掩盖了一个事实。那就是,不论改革派或传统派,他们同样认定,只能有一个真正的伊斯兰法律,该法律的有效期是永恒——永远有效。因此,传统的学者认为,在公元611年,穆斯林男人可以有四个妻子,到了2011年他同样的可以有四个妻子。改革派辩称,穆斯林实际上只能有一个妻子,在611年本该如此,到了2011年也是如此。因为,不论是传统派还是改革派,都不允许伊斯兰法有任何变革的可能性。两派学者都有同样的一个假定,《可兰经》是永遠适用的,不论过去、现在或者将来。正是在这个意义上讲,伊斯兰法理有别于宪法学。承认昨天适用的法律今日已经过时了,对宪法学来说,不是什么大问题。可是在伊斯兰法,这是不允许的:要嘛,昨天今天都适用;要嘛,昨天今天都不适用。伊斯兰法学,不允许法律随时空而变化。
其实,在回教史上,曾经有过关於《可兰经》来源的辩论。基本上有两家学说。有一派认为,《可兰经》确实来自真主,不过,它的创作是有针对性的,是真主对一个特定时空人们的教诲。所以要正确地理解《可兰经》,必须结合历史时代背景。另一派则认为,《可兰经》不仅源自真主,其本质更是千古不易的神圣真理。所以《可兰经》不是创造出来的,它与阿拉一样,存在于时空之外。
《可兰经》的“创造”问题,是有法理后果的。因为《可兰经》是伊斯兰法律的根本来源。如果《可兰经》存在于时空之外,那伊斯兰法也是如此。如果伊斯兰法存在于时空之外,它就不能随时间的推移而变化。如果不能随时间改变,今日为真者,昨天也必然为真。反之亦然。另一方面,如果《可兰经》是在某个时空创造出来的,那么伊斯兰的“真”,就会随着时间地点而有所不同。
从某一个层面看,尤其在今天,争论伊斯兰法能不能随时间而改变,是相当可笑的。如果伊斯兰法真的是不容变化,那么奴隶制与纳妾习俗,在穆斯林社群里,应该还是合法的。
问题是,在今日回教世界里,“《可兰经》非创造论”这类可疑的说法,完全没有在公共领域受到质疑与挑战。其实,如果更严格的审视,创造论与非创造论都只是理论而已——都只是人类设想出来的理论,《可兰经》本身并没有说过,它是不是创造出来的。
根据法依沙的看法,造成这种形势的部份原因是,沙特皇室的金钱洪水,已导致整千年的伊斯兰法律学术研究,被相对简单的瓦哈比(Wahabi)神学,有系统地全面淹没了。
作者是本地自由撰稿人
联合早报 言论版 (2011-03-30)

2011年3月29日星期二

当年

人造树叶将能提供廉价能源

我们在地球上使用的能量几乎全部来源于太阳,通过植物的光合作用将太阳能封装到化学键内。现在,MIT的研究人员首次创造出一种真正实用且廉价的人造树叶,有可能在未来为我们提供无限的能量。人造树叶是一个硅片,形似扑克牌,每一面都涂有两种不同的催化剂。硅片吸收阳光,而催化剂利用太阳能去分解水,将水分解成氢分子和氧分子。氢分子是一种燃料,可燃烧或用于燃料电池去产生电力,最后都是重新生成水。这意味着,在理论上任何人只要有水,都有可能用人造树叶创造廉价、清洁、可用的燃料来源。MIT化学家、项目负责人Daniel Nocera称,新装置能将5.5%太阳能转变成氢燃料,而新的催化剂也高度稳定,试运行一周内转换效率没有下降。blackhat 发表于 2011年3月29日 11时00分 星期二

2011年3月28日星期一

科学家发现血清素影响老鼠性取向

北京生命科学研究所的研究人员发现,雄性老鼠大脑内的血清素含量高低决定其性取向。报告发表在最新一期的《自然》杂志上。缺少血清素的雄性老鼠对性交对象的性别不再挑剔。当把一只雄鼠放入笼中时,这些特别的雄鼠会对雄鼠发出交配信号。而通常雄鼠只向雌鼠发出交配要求。当缺乏血清素的雄鼠可以在雌雄之间做出选择时,它们对同性和异性的“性”趣一样大。研究人员另外繁殖的一组老鼠,缺乏制造血清素的色氨酸羟化酯2基因。这组老鼠在选择性配偶时也有同样的表现。只要向大脑内注入血清素,雄鼠对雌鼠的偏好便得以修复。研究得出结论说,血清素对雄鼠的性取向非常关键。这是第一次发现神经传递素对哺乳动物的性取向发挥重要的作用。老鼠的性活动与嗅觉有关,人类不是这么简单。blackhat 发表于 2011年3月25日 11时12分 星期五 

大鱼变小鱼

过渡捕捞导致海洋中的捕食性鱼类,如鲨鱼、鳕鱼,金枪鱼等,日渐稀少,部分种类的数量已经下降到了频临灭绝的地步。研究人员认为,大型捕食性鱼类可能将永远也不可能再次主宰海洋从1910年到1970年,大型捕食性鱼类数量稳定而缓慢的减少,而随着捕鱼船队的装备日益先进,捕食性鱼类的损失如火箭般上升。今天的捕食性鱼类只有1910年丰度的三分之一。大型鱼类将会越来越稀少,但海洋不会变得空旷,小型鱼类如银鱼柳等将填补空缺。全球的捕捞量在20世纪中期是每年大约1600万吨,在装备了拖网渔船和利用直升机指导围网后,捕捞量在90年代达到大约8000万吨。blackhat 发表于 2011年3月28日 16时48分 星期一

The Middle East Crisis Has Just Begun by ROBERT D. KAPLAN


[IRAN]For the U.S., democracy's fate in the region matters much less than the struggle between the Saudis and Iran


Despite the military drama unfolding in Libya, the Middle East is only beginning to unravel. American policy-makers have been spoiled by events in Tunisia and Egypt, both of which boast relatively sturdy institutions, civil society associations and middle classes, as well as being age-old clusters of civilization where states of one form or another have existed since antiquity. Darker terrain awaits us elsewhere in the region, where states will substantially weaken once the carapace of tyranny crumbles. The crucial tests lie ahead, beyond the distraction of Libya.

The United States may be a democracy, but it is also a status quo power, whose position in the world depends on the world staying as it is. In the Middle East, the status quo is unsustainable because populations are no longer afraid of their rulers. Every country is now in play. Even in Syria, with its grisly security services, widespread demonstrations have been reported and protesters killed. There will be no way to appease the region's rival sects, ethnicities and other interest groups except through some form of democratic representation, but anarchic quasi-democracy will satisfy no one. Other groups will emerge, and they may be distinctly illiberal.

2011年3月24日星期四

2011,巴厘


2004年的春天,布拉克3

2004年的春天,布拉克2


This Is Your Brain on Art

Can neuroscience explain art?
By Morgan Meis
Twenty percent of art can now be explained by neuroscience. That, at least, is what V.S. Ramachandran thinks. Ramachandran is the Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, and Distinguished Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego. He is, in short, one of the top neuroscientists around at the moment. He is also a clear and engaging writer. His 1999 book, Phantoms in the Brain, brought him much popular attention and his most recent book, The Tell-Tale Brain, is doing more of the same.
*                                
Much like Oliver Sacks, his friend and admirer, Ramachandran comes to many of his insights about the human brain by observing its dysfunction. Problems in the brain can tell us meaningful things about what is going on in a normal brain. Take, for example, people who claim that one of their arms belongs to someone else due to damage to their brain; they become lessons in how complex and multi-layered are the functions of consciousness. We seem to ourselves, when everything is going well, to be fully unified "selves." In fact, when we look at various disorders of the mind, we see how tenuous is the ground upon which that feeling rests. In looking at the disordered mind, Ramachandran gets the impression that he is looking "at human nature through a magnifying glass."

That is also why Ramachandran devotes two whole chapters of his book to the subject of art and aesthetics. Making art and appreciating art seems to be universal in the human species. From prehistoric cave paintings to modern conceptualism, where you find human beings you also find art. At the same time, no one has ever been able to give a very good definition of art, to explain in any rigorous and satisfying way what it is that human beings are up to when they make art and when they like art. It is a subject that touches on the strangeness of consciousness, the felt sense of being human that all of us experience every day but that is so resistant to explanation or analysis. Art is thus a kind of Holy Grail to those who seek to explain the murkiest aspects of human consciousness. But it is this very fact — the experiential and intangible nature of art — that would seem to preclude the possibility that science can intrude into the domain of art. As Ramachandran himself admits, "One is a quest for general principles and tidy explanations while the other is a celebration of the individual imagination and spirit, so that the very notion of a science of art seems like an oxymoron."

That is, indeed, more or less the problem. Theories of art have proliferated for as long as we've had philosophy and theory. All of them have tried, in one way or another, to elucidate general principles. The problem, as Ramachandran understands it, is that we simply haven't known enough about how the brain operates. Now, he says, that situation has finally changed. He claims specifically that, "our knowledge of human vision and of the brain is now sophisticated enough that we can speculate intelligently on the neural basis of art and maybe begin to construct a scientific theory of artistic experience."

Speculate he does. Ramachandran identifies what he calls nine laws of aesthetics. Let's look at one of them — law number two, which he calls Peak Shift — to get a sense of what neuroscience brings to aesthetics. Peak Shift refers to a generally elevated response to exaggerated stimuli among many animals. Ramachandran refers to a study in which seagull chicks were made to beg for food (just as they do from their mothers) simply by waving a beak-like stick in front of their nests. Later, the researchers pared down even further, simply waving a yellow strip of cardboard with a red dot on the end (adult gulls have a red dot at the end of their beaks). They got the same response. More interesting, and crucially for Ramachandran's law of Peak Shift, is that the gull chicks become super excited if you put three red dots on the cardboard strip. Something in the mental hardwiring of the chicks says, "red outline on lighter background means food." The wiring does not normally need to be more specific than that. It is enough for survival. So, the chick brains make the leap to interpreting the advent of several red outlines as being several times better. They go nuts.

This fact, Ramachandran thinks, can give us some real, neurologically based insights into the appeal for abstract art. Ramachandran supposes that with abstract art, human beings have learned to tap into their own gull chick response mechanisms. Abstract artists are thus "tapping into the figural primitives of our perceptual grammar and creating ultranormal stimuli that more powerfully excite certain visual neurons in our brains as opposed to realistic-looking images."

That is the argument. I, for one, suspect that there is a genuine insight here, mixed with a battery of oversimplifications that could be picked apart by any art historian. Ramachandran, to his credit, admits that fact. He does not want to be seen as a reductionist and his points about Peak Shift are not meant to exhaust the possible reasons for the emergence of and enthusiasm for abstract art. Neuroscience is not meant to replace other standpoints from which we appreciate and analyze art. Ramachandran thinks, in general, that neuroscience can make significant contributions to aesthetics without otherwise encroaching on the humanities. Our love of Shakespeare, he argues, is not diminished by our understanding of universal grammar. "Similarly, our conviction that great art can be divinely inspired and may have spiritual significance, or that it transcends not only realism but reality itself, should not stop us from looking for those elemental forces in the brain that govern aesthetic impulses."

Why the qualifications then? Why does Ramachandran continuously feel the need to reassure us that we can gain knowledge about art from neuroscience without losing anything? It seems to presuppose, at the very least, that the other option is a possibility, that looking for (and finding) elemental forces in the brain that govern aesthetic impulses could, in fact, transform our actual experience of art.

Perhaps past experience comes into play here. We are broadly aware of the fact, for instance, that there has been a vast accretion of knowledge about the natural world and about ourselves over the last two centuries. We are also broadly aware that the understanding we have gained has not been neutral. It has not left the world as it was. The understanding has transformed our relationship to the world, to one another, to ourselves. Maybe that is a simple way to describe the sense of crisis that has always been a constituent part of the experience of modernity. As we understand differently, we act differently. And how you act is, in some fundamental way, how you are. So, we have changed in who we are. We have become different. How different? No one can say, exactly. Has it been for the better or for the worse? Opinions are divided. The feelings of anxiety, though, are real and they've always been real.

The subtitle of Ramachandran's book is "A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human." The underlying assumption of that subtitle, I am suggesting, is that the quest is a fundamentally benign one. Philosophy, Aristotle said many years ago, begins in wonder. We want to know. We have always wanted to know. That is part of what it means to be human. Ramachandran thus presents his book as both a study in the things that make us human, and a contribution to the practice of being human. But is there another possible subtitle to Ramachandran's book lurking in the shadows? Would it be something like, "A Neuroscientist's Quest to Utterly Transform What It Means to Be Human?"

There is an interesting aside during Ramachandran's discussion of Peak Shift. He wonders, after discussing his principle of ultranormal stimuli and its relation to abstract art, whether our brains are simply hardwired to appreciate art. This raises the question, however, of disagreement in the appreciation of art. If we are analogous to chick gulls in our gut reaction to certain abstract forms, mustn't it then be the case that everyone actually likes, in some deep way, the sculptures of (for instance) Henry Moore? Ramachandran goes for the surprising answer here. He supposes that maybe everyone does. They just don’t know it, or they suppress that root "liking" with their higher cognitive functions, adjusting what they "like" to specific cultural mores or other similar considerations. Ramachandran goes even further. He proposes that we could actually test this hypothesis out. We could hook people up to sensors that test whether they are having a root response to Henry Moore's sculptures (even if they say they dislike the sculptures) and find out whether we share some basic and primitive response to the work. If nothing else, it could prove that basic universal aesthetic laws do apply, and that they play a role in our appreciation for art.

One can make easy fun of such examples. There is something creepy about the idea that we are forced, in some sense, to admit a liking for Henry Moore that we would otherwise deny. But I propose that we take it seriously for a moment. If, in rigorous test after rigorous test, neuroscientists such as Ramachandran can begin to establish many of these universal laws and fine tune the analysis of how they operate, is it possible that this would have no effect on how we then continue to appreciate and even to produce art? Maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe the Shakespeare analogy holds. Maybe there is something so solid, so intransigent to our humanness and to the way that we experience the world no amount of such knowledge can shake it apart.

I suspect, though, that we have no idea what the implications of discovering the laws of aesthetics would be. Ramchandran basically agrees. The final sentence in the last chapter of his book explicitly says it. He is speaking more broadly about the project of explaining human consciousness in total, but the thought applies to the specific realm of art. "We don't know," he writes, "what the ultimate outcome of such a journey will be, but surely it is the greatest adventure humankind has ever embarked on." Probably he is correct about this. To understand our own origins and to understand exactly how we got to be the kinds of creatures we are — this is the ultimate quest. It is also appropriate that such enthusiasm, such optimism guide the adventure.

No adventure, especially an adventure of such magnitude, has ever been embarked upon without a driving optimism. And no adventure has ever proceeded for very long without melancholic notes creeping into the affair. Thus the need, I think, for Ramachandran to pause along the way and reassure his reader (and himself?) that the outcome of this whole affair will not transform the object of his quest — "what makes us human" — into something unrecognizable. There is a passage in Ramachandran's discussion of his ninth law of aesthetics (Metaphor) where he begins to wax eloquently about the Nataraja, The Dancing Shiva sculpture that is India's greatest icon. It is clear that the sculpture is deeply meaningful to Ramachandran. Perhaps it evokes his childhood. Maybe he once had an intense experience with the sculpture. He doesn't tell us. Instead, he takes a moment to explain the statue, to interpret it. He mentions that Shiva is shown stomping on a demon, Apasmara, who represents the illusion of ignorance. What is this illusion?
It's the illusion that all of us scientific types suffer from, that there is nothing more to the Universe than the mindless gyration of atoms and molecules, that there is no deeper reality behind appearances. … It is the logical delusion that after death there is nothing but a timeless void. Shiva is telling us that if you destroy this illusion and seek solace under his raised left foot (which he points to with one of his right hands), you will realize that behind external appearances (Maya), there is a deeper truth.

Finally, Ramachandran breaks away from his reverie. He apologizes for straying too far afield. He assures us, once again, that his non-reductionist approach to neuroscience will in no way diminish great works of art. He wants it to be the case, and you can feel the desire in the passage, that the insights gained from neuroscience and his interpretations of the power of the Nataraja are deeply compatible. Maybe so, maybe so. Maybe the insights of neuroscience will "actually enhance our appreciation of [art's] intrinsic value." But the insistence strikes me as conveying a lingering sadness that Ramachandran never acknowledges. The sadness lingers in the between-spaces of his sentences, in the silent moments that fill up the pauses as he moves from one argument to another. He doesn't know, he can't know, what we will lose or what we will gain. And he is aware, as we are all aware in our heart's heart, that we aren't going to stop doing this anyway. We are going to go forward into the unknown in the quest to make art fully knowable and we'll deal with the consequences when we've arrived, joyful in our accomplishments and sad, too, at the inevitable loss of all that has been left behind. • 17 March 2011

2011年3月23日星期三

IT: 中国开始审查电话通话内容

《纽约时报》报导,最近许多居住在中国的人屡屡抱怨,当通话内容中包含一个“敏感词”后,他们的通话立即被切断,显示中国在加紧控制电子通讯,审查正从互联网延伸到其它领域。 上周,一位商人在手机上用英语和未婚妻讨论选择哪个餐厅,他引用了莎士比亚戏剧《哈姆雷特》中王后乔特鲁德对儿子哈姆雷特说的一句话“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”,类似网站被重置,当提到“protest”后电话即被切断。周一,另一位通话者在用普通话说了“抗议”后电话也立即中断。北京大学传播学教授胡泳称,政府改进审查技术,以应对新出现的潜在危险,为了控制日益增长的威胁敏感词的范围愈来愈广。


blackhat 发表于 2011年3月23日 08时36分 星期三

科学: 学生设计便捷式太阳能净化装置

一位一位大学毕业生的毕业设计是名为Solarball(太阳球)的可持续水净化装置,每天能制造三公斤干净的水。它通过吸收日光使里面的脏水蒸发。当蒸发发生时,污染物与水分离,产生可饮用的凝结液。凝结液被收集与储存起来以便饮用。 Jonathan Liow的这项设计受到一项需求的驱使:帮助全世界无法取用安全饮水的9亿人口。每年超过2百万儿童死于可预防的​​因素,大部分肇因于被污染的水。由于开发中国家快速城市化以及人口增长,饮用纯净水逐渐成为一大问题。Liow的设计简单而高效,十分耐用,使用简单,适合于湿热热带气候且资源有限的人们。
blackhat 发表于 2011年3月23日 18时54分 星期

2004年的春天,布拉克

缅想布拉克(2004的一个下午)

Isabel Behncke: Evolution's gift of play, from bonobo apes to humans

2011年3月20日星期日

爱因斯坦到底是不是个好学生?

我们反复听到过一个传说:爱因斯坦在年轻时不是一个好学生,并不擅长数学。但他的相对论完全是基于数学推演,相对论的创立者怎么可能不擅长数学?根据维基百科介绍,小学阶段爱因斯坦上最好的学生之一,他很早就展现出了数学方面的天赋。Scienceblogs德语版展示了1896年爱因斯坦从瑞士阿劳州立中学获得的毕业证书照片,显示他最差的是法语三分,几何和代数全是六分,物理是五分,大多数科目全是六分(瑞士教育系统采用六分制,六分最好)。不擅长数学的流言可能是一位专栏作家传出的。
blackhat 发表于 2011年3月18日 18时27分 星期五
评论: 
这个,我手头有一本1976年出版的《爱因斯坦文集》,其中有一篇文章叫做《自述片断》,剧编者说,这篇文章是爱因斯坦于1955年3月为纪念他的母校“苏黎世工业大学”所以写的一篇回忆录。最早发表于1955年秋出版的《瑞士大学学报》(Schweizerische Hochschulzeitung)上。
下面我从这本书摘几段话给大家看。
     “我的目的是要上联邦工业大学(Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule),可是一点不知道怎么样才能达到这个目的。我是一个执意而又有自知之名的年轻人,我的哪一点零散的有关知识主要是靠自学得来的。热衷于深入理解,但很少去背诵,加以记忆力又不强,所以我觉得上大学学习绝不是意见轻松的事。”
     “怀着一种没有把握的心情,我报名参加工程系的入学考试。可这次考试可悲的显示了我过去所受的教育残缺不全,尽管主持考试的人既有耐心又富有同情心。我认为我的失败是完全应该的。” “然而可以自慰的是,物理学家H.F.韦伯让人告诉我,如果我留在苏黎世,可以去听他的课。但校长阿尔宾·赫尔伯格(Albin Herzog)教授却推荐我到阿劳(Aarau)州立中学上学,我可以在那里学习一年来补齐功课。”(注:后文写到他最后确实去阿劳州立中学上了一年学)”
     “1986-1900年在苏黎世工业大学的示范系学习。我很快发现,我能成为一个中等成绩的学生也就该心满意足了。要做一个好学生,必须有能力去很轻快的理解所学习的东西;要心甘情愿的把精力完全集中于人民所教给你的那些东西上;要遵守秩序,把课堂上讲解的东西笔记下来,然后自觉的做好作业。遗憾的是,我发现这一切特性正是我最为欠缺的。”
“我以极大的兴趣去听某些课。但是我“刷掉了”很多课程,而以极大的热忱在家里向理论物理学的大师们学习。” “不过在这些学习的年代,高等数学并未引起我很大兴趣。……而且由于我的无知,我还以为对一个物理学家来说,只要明晰地掌握了数学基本概念以备应用,也就很够了;……”
     “在这些学习的年代里,我同一个同学马尔赛耳·格罗斯曼建立的真正的友谊。……在准备考试时他把这些笔记本借给我,这对我来说,就像救命的锚;我怎么也不能设想,要是没有这些笔记本,我将会怎样。”
     虽然这篇文章也没法说清楚爱因斯坦到底是好学生还是坏学生。因为好学生/坏学生这个标准实在是太宽泛了。但起码爱因斯坦对自己的学习没有信心,认为自己“能达到中等就很不错了”。 并且事实是,他在德国中学毕业后来到苏黎世参加苏黎世大学工程系入学考试,并没有考过,失败了。 然后再阿劳州立中学补习了一年。 并且,爱因斯坦上大学时经常逃课,考试的时候要靠同学的笔记来突击。
     所以说,只要这篇文章不是伪造的,起码在一般意义上来讲,爱伊斯坦应该不是一个好学生。我们要知道,爱因斯坦写完这篇文章不久就去世了,算是一个老人对他一生的回顾了。
flys (21556) 发表于 2011年3月19日 01时14分 星期六 

2011年3月16日星期三

人大代表提出愤青的波动学说

中科院小刘 写道"中国江苏网消息,全国人大代表、江苏亚萍集团董事长陆亚萍表示因为企业重物质轻精神,因此有些企业连发职工自杀,有的企业职工情绪波动很大,形成“愤青”。陆代表认为,办报纸、开员工日记,自办职工艺术团、时装队甚至博物馆式商场,都是加强企业文化建设的形式。她建议有关部门对企业文化建设进行硬性规定,提议以企业年收益的5%作为文化基金。"
blackhat 发表于 2011年3月14日 08时02分 星期一  

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education



未来的教育。

2011年3月11日星期五

人为何没有阴茎骨?

刘德华 写道"斯坦福大学的David Kingsley和合作者们对比了人类、黑猩猩和其它哺乳动物的遗传密码,发现在黑猩猩和其它哺乳动物身上的510个基因片段在人类中是没有的。这些缺失的几乎都是调控基因,它们对包括对生成老鼠那样有感知作用的胡须和阴茎骨负责。而没有这些基因片段也让人类有所得,比如更大的脑部。Kingsley说有阴茎骨的动物大都性交迅速,人类没有阴茎骨导致性交时间延长,使得一夫一妻制成为有吸引力的选项。研究论文发表在Nature上。
blackhat 发表于 2011年3月10日 09时02分 星期四 

2011年3月3日星期四

秘密的爱

supersonic electronic art25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_laaz34Ddgt1qz9v0to1_500.jpg

Super Nature Design Shanghaiwww.supernaturedesign.com/news/images/news_122010_bgimg.jpg

蓝天,你好!

Hey Mr. Blue Sky - Society6media.s6cdn.net/cdn/images/post_10/151834_2351635_l.jpg

科学与艺术的媒人 - 第三文化的创始人


John Brockman: Matchmaking with science and art

This article was taken from the March 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Cultural impresario and literary and software agent John Brockman has spent the last half century merging art and science to create what he calls the Third Culture. In 1988, the now 69-year-old Panama-hat-wearing New Yorker, who represents the literary works of big thinkers such as Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins, created the Edge Foundation, which publishes original writing of prominent thinkers in fields from evolutionary biology to mathematics. Wired asked him what it's like to live life on the edge.
What is Edge?
It's a conversation. We look for people whose creative work has expanded our notion of who and what we are. We encourage work on the cutting edge of the culture, and the investigation of ideas that have not been generally exposed.
Could you explain the Third Culture?
In 1959 CP Snow noted in his book The Two Cultures that, during the 30s, literary intellectuals took to referring to themselves as "the intellectuals", as though there were no others. This new definition excluded scientists such as the astronomer Edwin Hubble, the mathematician John von Neumann, and the physicists Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. In the second edition, Snow added a new essay, optimistically suggesting that a "third culture" would emerge and close the communications gap between the literary intellectuals and the scientists. Although I borrow Snow's phrase, it does not describe the third culture that he predicted. Literary intellectuals are not communicating with scientists. Scientists are communicating directly with the general public, and in doing so they are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.
Which new writers, scientists and artists should we be following at the moment?
Research psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who won a Nobel Prize for the creation of behavioural economics, is one. Jeff Bezos, Larry PageSergey Brin, Dean Kamen, Nathan MyhrvoldJimmy Wales and Salar Kamangar all came to an Edge seminar to hear him lecture. Kahneman is not exactly a household name -- yet among many of the leading thinkers in psychology, he ranks at the top of the field.
What is your media diet?
The New York Times
 and Wall Street Journal. In the sciences I read Nature,Scientific AmericanScienceNew ScientistDiscover. General-interest publications include The EconomistThe New York Review of BooksThe New YorkerWiredThe AtlanticProspect. In all cases, I read the print editions. Online, the first stop is always Arts & Letters Daily. I look at The GuardianThe IndependentThe Observer and The Daily Telegraph and leading German papers. Sometimes I look at Slate and Salon. I don't read blogs unless I'm sent a link. For serendipitous reading, I rely on my Twitter feed, on which I follow around 40 people, all of whom I know. If they take the time to put up a link to something they think is interesting, chances are it's worth reading.
What is it that gets you interested in a person or their work?
I am interested in people who can take the materials of the culture in the arts, literature and science and put them together in their own way. We live in a mass-produced culture where many people, even many established cultural arbiters, limit themselves to secondhand ideas. Show me people who create their own reality, who don't accept an ersatz, appropriated reality. Show me the empiricists (and not just in the sciences) who are out there doing it, rather than talking about and analysing the people who are doing it.
How do you find these people?
It's all based on word of mouth and reputation. Edge, contrary to how it may appear, is not exclusive. Elitist, yes, but in the good sense of an open elite, based on meritocracy. The way someone is added to the Edge list is when I receive a word from a Steven Pinker, a Brian Eno, a Martin Rees, an Ian McEwan or a Richard Dawkins, telling me to do so. It's as simple as that and I don't recall ever saying no in such circumstances.
How do science and art meet?
Typically, they meet as artists, acting as sensing and monitoring devices for a society. [They] go forward and send back signals telling us who and what we are. It was through artists in the New York avant-garde of the mid-60s that I first became excited about science. John Cage handed me a copy ofCybernetics by Norbert Wiener; Robert Rauschenberg turned me on to books by the physicists James Jeans and George Gamow.
What's the most exciting thing at the intersection at the moment?
It's not a "thing" but a person: HUO, Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator and co-director of the Serpentine Gallery in London's Kensington Gardens (see Wired 02.10). Known to his friends in the art world as "The Hurricane", he has singlehandedly (well, with a little help from me) put a focus on the intersection of science and art. In doing so, he has shone a bright spotlight on London, which is emerging as "the" interesting art scene in the world. HUO is too sophisticated to try to bring artists and scientists together for creative collaborations; instead, he will run projects such as "Maps for the 21st Century" and commission 50 artists to produce pieces, and lean on me to do the same with the science crowd. We did a similar event in 2007 on "Formulae for the 21st Century". The juxtaposition of these works was enlightening, the results marvellous.
Essential reading from the Brockman catalogue:
The Third Culture (1996)
Dawkins, Dennett, Pinker et al on the theories that underpin our world view.
The Next 50 Years (2002)
Scientists from Smolin to Hauser on the discoveries that will change the world.
What Is Your Dangerous Idea? (2007)Theories that could shake our fundamental beliefs.
This Will Change Everything (2009)
Edge contributors on the progress coming our way.
Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? (2010)
What the net means for us, by Shirky, Taleb et al.