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Review, and some thoughts for an experiment.
The Science Delusion by Rupert Sheldrake.
I found this book rather disappointing, it seems to contain little that he hasn’t mentioned in his previous books and it has the feel of a career summation by a man disappointed himself that the scientific community has not taken him more seriously. In places the writing seems trite and clichéd and weary.
Sheldrake returns to the theme of crystallography and again makes the point that once a crystal of a novel compound has crystalised, further samples can sometimes seem to crystalise more readily. If this suggests the action of some sort of morphic field at work then it suffers from a falsifiability problem because Sheldrake asserts that morphic fields persist forever once created, so it becomes impossible to ever repeat the experiment with the same, no longer novel, compound.
I’ve always had a problem with the idea of the indefinite persistence of morphic fields. I rather suspect that Sheldrake harbours the belief that they provide some sort of mechanism for life after death.
Sheldrake then goes on to regurgitate familiar material about experiments that show that people seem to have some psychic ability to know when other people stare at them from behind and to guess correctly which of their friends has just rung them on the telephone before they pick it up to answer. Such experiments tend to give results above statistical chance, but not startlingly so.
Sheldrake has written an entire book called The Persistence of the Past.
However such parapsychological results do not seem to find an obvious explanation in terms of morphic fields that persist forever. If thinking about someone creates a morphic field that persists forever then why don’t people who can detect this remain irritated by the gaze or impending phone calls of others for the rest of their lives?
Sheldrake’s assertion that the sequencing of the human genome has so far failed to provide the medical breakthroughs promised remains true, however his further assertion that the genetic code of organisms cannot possibly completely specify their entire physical structure and that they will need additional morphic fields to develop properly seems highly questionable. The human genome has a huge size, we haven’t really decoded it yet, we haven’t the faintest clue what most of it does yet, and we know that chromosomes need the vastly complex environment of the cellular cytoplasm in which to do anything useful, and we haven’t really decoded that yet either.
I propose a fairly cheap and simple experiment to test the persistence of morphic fields.
Set up two chemical laboratories as identically as possible. Have a chemist prepare a warm solution of a completely novel compound; organic chemical compounds would probably prove the easiest option here.
Divide the solution into 2 equal portions and place each under reflux in the separate laboratories. Allow one to cool and record the time to crystalisation. Then allow the other to cool and record the time to crystalisation also.
Keep repeating this experiment until you find a compound that crystalises significantly faster the second time.
Then, and here comes the important bit, when you have a compound that appears to have demonstrated the morphic field effect, boil both samples to re-dissolve the crystals so that none exists and then re-time the crystalisation to see if it depends on actual crystals remaining in existence somewhere.
If this works then you have not only a repeatable experiment, but also, astonishingly, a method of non-local signalling that would have the quantum physicists and cryptographers leaping up and down in ecstasy.
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What I did on my holiday.
Belize, maybe you never heard of it, it’s a place the size of Wales tucked in under the Yucatan peninsula in Central America, it used to be called British Honduras.
A bunch of British pirates and privateers who later turned to mahogany logging kept the Spanish empire out and the poor chalky soils don’t farm easily. The Americans didn’t manage to interfere and turn it into a puppet banana republic so since independence from Britain it’s been a proper democracy and English speaking, and a pretty cool place with few social problems despite being rather poor in places. Not a single soldier or policeman in sight round the ramshackle parliament building – always a good sign. It has a mixed population of Spanish/Mayans and people from Africa, plus quite a few Europeans including Memonites, an obscure German protestant sect rather like the Amish, but they do use modern tractors to farm.
We went mainly to see the wildlife and the Mayan ruins, and had a fabulous treat of each. At Lamanai we climbed a gut churningly vertiginous pyramid which protruded above the jungle canopy and a 7 foot wingspan King Vulture obligingly performed a fly past. Giant Jabiru Storks fished in the lake, one pair had made a nest the size of a small car in a tree. Peculiar boat billed Herons like fat multicoloured penguins with big eyes nested in the jungle margins waiting for the night fishing. A big old crocodile basked on the banks of the swamp, he opened one eye and then closed it again as we passed, hey, I’m ancient, its baking hot, this mud is lovely, I think I’ll just wait for something to die of its own accord.
Then to the upland regions where we clambered and swam 600 yards into a mountain cave to see some stuff left by the Mayans about 850AD. Halfway in, we saw 2 obelisks on a rock ledge, one representing an obsidian blade and the other a stingray spine, both used for bloodletting in the Mayan religion. Then to the final chamber, a cathedral of stalactites containing 14 human sacrifices, the bones all encrusted with sparking calcite deposits – probably the most eerie sight ever in the gloom of the helmet lamps.
Then over the border into Guatemala (not such a happy place, soldiers and poverty everywhere) to see the ruins at Tikal. These consist of a whole city, largely unexcavated, with a number of soaring 250 foot pyramids in the central area. The Mayans had a vast civilisation of warring city states of perhaps 10m people and built all this without metals, wheels, or draft animals. It all went tits up around 900AD, well before the conquistadores arrived, probably through drought followed by social collapse; maybe they actually caused the drought themselves by massive deforestation. We saw the cute Coati, a sort of cross between a fox and a squirrel that likes to eat tarantulas.
The Mayans had a system of Hieroglyphic notation which anthropologists have since deciphered. It speaks mainly of dates and battles and regal lineages, unfortunately it doesn’t seem to record much in the way of myths and stories; but it all seems very calendrical. Just because some of the calendars seem to stop around now means nothing. I have a desk ornament in brass which tells me the day of the week for every day to 2045. If I aged it to verdigris in acid and then buried it I could maybe start a new end of the world movement.
Then back to the more laid back atmosphere of Belize, they have some interesting social innovations, no bicycles have brakes so everyone cycles slowly, it’s probably too hot to do otherwise anyway. If a road has insufficient potholes they put in lots of speed bumps so everyone drives slowly too, the whole country boasts only 4 sets of traffic lights. Even the poorest shacks are brightly painted and everyone seems cheerful and relaxed about everything.
We recovered from our jungle travels at Ambergris Quay where the giant Murricans come to wallow in the shallow waters inside the reef. They have to leave their guns in their northern nests to fly here so they are quite amiable and non-dangerous, but they have in many cases lost the power of locomotion on land and have to use golf carts to move anywhere.
We swam with turtles and sharks and a multitude of multicoloured fish on the reef, the stingrays were particularly inquisitive and glide past very close as you snorkel, they are okay so long as you don’t step on one whilst it’s resting on the bottom. The sharks seemed quite content with the sardines thrown in by the boatman.
Despite the fire ants (I stood on their nest whilst watching howler monkeys), the chiggers, the sandflies and the mosquitoes, it was the trip of a lifetime.
Whilst away I read Sheldrake’s The Science Delusion (not so good, review and suggested experiment to follow), and The Hydrogen Sonata by Ian Banks which is bloody brilliant, as usual.
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Electromagnetic and Strong Nuclear ‘unification’ in 3D time?
In particle physics we observe ‘Charge Quantisation’. If particles have electric charges they always exhibit a charge of 1.602 x 10-19 coulombs, or occasionally a multiple thereof, the basic charge on the electron or proton.
Now the quarks which seemingly compose baryons (such as the proton) and mesons apparently must carry fractional charges of one third or two thirds of this to account for the various types of observable baryons or mesons, although the quarks themselves remain unobservable individually.
If quarks carry 1/3 or 2/3 fractional electric charges we can still perhaps explain how they hold together as ‘whole’ electric charges using conventional strong nuclear chromodynamic forces based on gluons. However if fractional electric charges underlie the basic quantum of charge then conventional models cannot account for how fractional charges can stick together to form the charge on an electron.
HD8 models electric charge as arising from the spins of quantised units of spacetime along all three axes of time. Thus a quantum of basic electric charge has three more or less inseparable components. Quarks also apparently have a single colour charge but all observable particles manifest as ‘colour neutral’ by having either 3 or +1&-1 configurations. Now in HD8, colour charges also arise from spins of spacetime about the three axes of time, and this seems to allow quarks some kind of quasi-stability as 1 colour / 1 anticharge or one colour / two charge configurations, where colour partially stands in for charge.
However if this model can explain charge quantisation and the existence of colour charge then it throws into question the existence of a ‘colour force’.
Conventional strong nuclear ‘forces’ come in two types, the forces which holds quarks together in baryons and mesons, and the forces which hold the baryon particles the proton and neutron together in atomic nuclei. Unobservable gluons supposedly act as the force carriers for the former whilst the observable mesons such as pions supposedly act as the force carriers for the latter.
Yet in HD8 the geometry of spacetime itself accounts for the charge quantisation, ‘quark confinement’ and the colour neutrality of observable particles. Thus no inter-quark forces need to exist and colour charge merely adds mass to a particle, in a similar way to ‘generational charge’ which merely adds mass without creating an additional force.
However this model still needs to explain the forces between nucleons such as protons and neutrons. This so called ‘residual’ nuclear force actually accounts for the vast energies liberated in nuclear fission and fusion reactions which appear far greater than the energies liberated from the electromagnetic forces underlying chemical reactions.
The electric charges in chemical reactions operate at the distance scales of entire atoms, but if similar charges operate at nuclear distances the forces become immensely stronger as the following calculations show: -
Charge on electron/proton = 1.602 x 10-19 coulombs.
Force between charges, F = kq1q2/r2
Where k = 9 x 109 Nm2/C2
Nucleon radius 1.5 x 10-15m
Hydrogen atom radius 2.5 x 10-10m
Force in hydrogen = 9 x 109 x (1.6 x 10-19)2 / (2.5 x 10-10)2 = 3.68 x 10-9 N
Force at nuclear distances = 9 x 109 x (1.6 x 10-19)2 / (1.5 x 10-15)2 = 102 N
Thus we see that at nuclear distances, electric charges can create the sort of macroscopic forces per particlecharacteristic of nuclear reactions.
Now consider that stable atomic nuclei can only exist with neutrons to somehow moderate the electric repulsions between protons. Consider the electric charges on the constituent quarks of the proton and neutron (here multiplied by 3 to eliminate fractions for convenience, but to preserve ratios.).
Electric charge in proton quarks, uud, 2 2 -1. Electric charge in neutron quarks, udd, 2 -1 -1
Proton +2 +2 -1
Neutron -1 -1 +2
Now we know that protons and neutrons have a finite radius, they do not appear to consist of point particles like leptons as they have internal components which we call quarks. If these quarks have some mobility within the nucleons then the nucleons can exhibit a dipole moment resulting from a degree of charge separation. The majority of the possible configurations of dipole moments between various arrangements of the above charges give a markedly attractive effect which can easily explain the so called ‘residual’ strong nuclear forces.
In conclusion, whilst nucleon electric dipole moments can perhaps explain the strength of nuclear energy, the explanation of charge quantisation, quark confinement and colour neutrality purely in terms of the structure of a spacetime metric with 3 dimensions of time seems the most interesting result.
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Hi, Yog-Sothoth here again...
With a bit more on those pesky quarks...
Consider the flowing data in support of the idea that within baryons, u quarks may consist of superpositions of various amounts of u, c, and t quarks, and particularly that d quarks may consist of superpositions of various amounts of d, s, and b quarks. This idea offers an alternative to the conventional idea of attributing virtually all of the mass of the proton and neutron, and hence of virtually all matter, to gluons.
Free Quark Masses, in MeV.
u = 1.7 – 3.1 c = 1290 t = 173,000
d = 4.1 – 5.7 s = 100 b = 4,190
Baryon Masses, in MeV.
Proton = (uud) 938 Neutron = (ddu) 939
One Strange. uds = 1115 uds = 1192 dds = 1197 uus = 1189
Two Strange. uss = 1314 dss = 1321
One Charm. udc = 2286 udc = 2452 uuc = 2454 ddc = 2453
One Strange, One Charm. usc = 2467 usc = 2575 dsc = 2470
Two Strange, One Charm. ssc 2695
Two Charm. dcc 3581
One Bottom. udb = 5620 uub = 5807 ddb = 5815* (*bottom sigma)
One Strange, One Bottom. dsb = 5790* (*bottom xi)
Two Strange, One Bottom. ssb = 6165
Baryons apparently non-existing. usb, ucb, anything containing a t.
Observations.
1) The replacement of a d quark by a HEAVIER s quark changes a Bottom Sigma into a LIGHTER Bottom Xi, whereas one might have expected a considerably heavier one.
2) We should perhaps not expect baryons to contain t quarks because of their exceptional energy, nevertheless only the dsb Bottom Xi carries a quark of each generation.
3) We observe the ssb but not the usb or the ucb.
4) The dsb Bottom Xi thus appears to exhibit an unusual stability in the form of a lower energy.
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Firstly, Hail Dave!
Prime Minister UK, David Cameron, who has always seemed like a decent sort of chap and done nothing stupid so far, displays both statesmanship and tactical genius with his EU referendum proposals.
Vote for me and I’ll try and negotiate a more sensible deal with the EU and then we’ll have a referendum on the results.
He says he will campaign to keep us in, but of course he has left himself room and reason to change his mind if we don’t get a sensible deal.
He has wrong-footed the continental euro-federalists, for other nations will plainly join us in demands for reform.
So Britain can now either put the EU right or leave it. Splendid.
Cameron has also taken the wind out of UKIP’s sails for the time being. They have done a fair job of forcing this matter into the open, but they will probably always remain essentially a pressure group. Nevertheless I hope they stay in the game to prevent any backsliding on the renegotiation and the referendum.
The leaders of the illiberal dimocrats and the dreary spendthrift labour party don’t seem to have anything of substance to respond with. They effortlessly confirm their caricatures as a pair of whingeing twerps perhaps better employed as sociology lecturers at some obscure polytechnic.
We could end up with an EU that reverts to its original writ, as a free trade zone, in which case we should stay in it; or we could end up with an EU that develops into a full blown Non-Democratic Synarchist Totalitarianism, in which case we should not only leave it but also strive to destroy it.
In the meantime we need to prevent the vast influx of Bulgarians and Romanians into the UK that EU rules will allow next year. I’m sure they are all delightful people, but our housing stock, our benefits system, and our labour market cannot accommodate them. Neither can those countries afford to loose a whole generation of their younger, more mobile and ambitious people.
Secondly, a Poem. Two years into Bardic studies and rhyme and rhythm still elude me, but here goes anyway……….
Snow
I awoke a bit early, it seemed strangely bright
And quiet, so quiet, an odd muted hush
Its happened its happened
I can hardly believe it
The ground seemed too warm the previous evening
But my gardens become a fantasy scene
And I feel like a child again
Sparkeling whiteness and patches of gloom
Brightness vies with the shadows of doom
It looks so fragile in its parts
Yet so awesome in its extent
Blanketing the lawns, the sheds, the car
All up the trees, over the hills and far away
Its eight miles to work and I don’t have to go
What the heck, any excuse to go and see this
On Henbury Hill I begin to have doubts
Its cold with a full facial blizzard
Vehicles aslew and abandoned
Driver’s curses and screaming engines
Made soft whispers by the whiteness
Falcondale oh Falcondale
Thy slopes make mockery of transport
Shadenfreude, I have good boots
But they have lousy tyres
They slip and they skid
And they bash their panels and lights
Residents set up tripods and cameras
To immortalise the folly forever
Then up on the Downs its so very pretty
When its all black and white
You notice the things you didn’t before
And the pavements are full for once
With chatty people and their children
Saying hello and helping each other
Its Blitz Spirit time
And we’re all having fun
Then down by the uni
Post modernist snowmen
Traditional snowball fights
Then down Christmas steps
We cling to the shopfronts
‘Gainst treacherous slush and the ice
It feels like holiday at work
We few, we happy few, that made it in
Getting home was a bastard
Uphill in now greying mush
But the weekend awaits
A walk in the woods on Saturday morn
My dog seems perplexed
Maybe stuff looses its smell under snow
But the woods look pure magic now
Stark trees hold impossible burdens
With patient sombre dignity
In the cold still air
Even the birdsong goes strangely quiet
White silence pervades like holiness.