In 1916, 23 yr old chemist Alice Ball discovered a breakthrough in treatment for Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease). She was the 1st woman & 1st Black chemistry professor at UHawaii.
Tragically, Ball passed away months after her discovery due to complications from a lab accident.
What happened next? Arthur Dean, head of her dept, continued the work publishing Ball’s process as “Dean’s method.”
If leaders in the Global North had shown true leadership 50 years ago — or perhaps 40 years ago or even 30 years ago — and begun an urgent shift away from fossil fuels and away from the mantra of growth-at-all-costs, then maybe we would be in a position today where some form of modern society could be maintained without enduring catastrophic collapse.
But they did not make that choice. They did not display any vision or show true leadership. Instead, they did the exact opposite.
Since 1990, greedy capitalists and the governments they own have doubled down (see attached graphs), completely wrecking our climate and environment, placing not only humans but thousands of other plant and animal species in grave danger of extinction.
If you've been following me for a while and reading my posts, chances are you already understand how bad our current situation really is. But if you're just being introduced to this topic, or if you simply want to learn more about our impossible predicament, then here is an article filled with relevant information:
I believe the most important phrase in science in coming decades will be "ontological shock." Our approach to scientific advancement thus far has largely focused on observing matter and energy at micro and macro scales, but it is clear that observation alone does not explain the behavior of said matter and energy.
In quantum mechanics, we see we do not understand the behavior of the tiniest constituents of matter.
In our observation if distant galaxies, we see we don't understand the nature of matter on a macro scale (ie: socalled "dark matter).
We have reached our limit of understanding by looking only at matter as a physical phenomenon, and we are on the brink of a new paradigm that will upheave everything we thought we knew.
This will overhaul our understanding of the nature of spacetime, quantum fields, and consciousness, through a "nonlocal" lens.
Maybe folks can settle a #Debate for me and a friend.
I have a glass measuring cup. I fill it with two cups of water, and microwave it to bring it to a boil. The cup has not come in contact with any other materials or ingredients.
That cup is CLEAN right?
After pouring out the water, it can go back in the cupboard?
Why are political leaders so blatantly unwilling to make the hard choices needed to confront the existential threat of climate change?
One reason, of course, is that their main focus is simply to be re-elected. Voters don’t like hearing that they may be required to alter their lifestyles, and so politicians won’t tell them that, even if they know they should.
But another reason could be that these elected officials are getting some bad advice, especially from economists, whom they are far more likely to listen to than scientists...
Scientists say severe climate change is now the greatest threat to humanity. Extreme weather is expected to upend lives and livelihoods, intensifying wildfires, and pushing ecosystems towards collapse as ocean heat waves savage coral reefs. The threats are far-reaching and widespread.
So what effect would you expect this to have on the economy in coming decades? It may surprise you, but most economic models predict climate change will just be a blip, with a minor impact on gross domestic product (GDP).
Heating the planet beyond 3℃ is extraordinarily dangerous. The last time Earth was that warm was three million years ago, when there was almost no ice and seas were 20 metres higher.
But economic models predict even this level of heat to have very mild impacts on global GDP per capita by century’s end. Most predict a hit of around 1% to 7%, while the most pessimistic modelling suggests GDP shrinking by 23%.
In these models, some countries are completely unaffected by climate change. Others even benefit. For most countries, the damage is small enough to be offset by technological growth.
This, it is becoming clear, is a failure of the modelling. To make these models, economists reach into the past to model damage from weather.
But severe climate change would be a global shock that is wholly outside our experience. Inevitably, models can’t come close to capturing the upheavals climate change could cause in markets fundamental to human life, such as agriculture.
This article by Timothy Neal, a senior lecturer in Economics at the Institute for Climate Risk and Response, UNSW Sydney, is truly frightening. The political, governmental, and economic systems currently in place, which control the world, are wholly incapable of responding to the threat we face.
Rosalind Franklin’s research was crucial to discovering DNA’s double helix structure. But she never received proper acknowledgement for her contribution.
Wow this is bad. Some Italian researchers decided there wasn't enough anti-right-to-repair hardware #DRM in the world already, and developed a way to physically profile and recognize individual battery cells that can be combined with classic DRM technologies to prevent non-OEM battery cells from working inside a device, even if the classic DRM portion is circumvented. Whyyyyyy?!
To your eye, Betelgeuse is the bright "shoulder" star in Orion. A new simulation shows what it would look like if you could get up close: an enormous, boiling cauldron of gas.
If Betelgeuse were placed where the Sun is, Earth's orbit (blue circle) would be deep inside. That's how big it is!
Es ist Mittwoch 📚meine Wissenschaftler! Mein Comic hat gestern die 60.Seite erreicht! Mein Magnus Opus, das Rezeptebuch „Magische Tierwesen und wie man sie kocht“ wird bald zur Realität!
Physicist John Tyndall is often credited w discovering the greenhouse effect, which he wrote about in 1859.
But Eunice Foote published a paper - 3yrs earlier - demonstrating how atmospheric water vapor & CO2 affected solar heating. She theorized that heat trapping gases in Earth’s atmosphere warm its climate.
A team led by famed Harvard Medical School anti-aging researcher David Sinclair has just published a paper that shows a mix of chemicals are capable of reversing cellular aging...
Reviewing scientific papers would be much more fun if the actual science wasn't so often obscured by so many basic errors of grammar, communication and logic. It's often like marking 1st year UG projects.
No-one should be talking about scientists learning the skills to communicate with the public, policymakers etc until those scientists can actually communicate to start with.
And sloppy writing betrays sloppy thinking, so it matters.
I look forward to the day when we have to explain the oil industry to the next generation in the same way that our history teachers explain that yes, it used to be common to use lead in makeup, to smoke on planes, and to teach workers using radioactive paint to lick their brushes.
Just found a new (to me) psychology phrase: "pluralistic ignorance". It refers to people holding one view but mistakenly assuming that the majority of others hold a different view, so they keep quiet. Very relevant for climate change action, where lots want action but think they're in the minority.
Humans pump so much groundwater that Earth’s axis has shifted, study finds (edition.cnn.com)
New research shows that persistent groundwater extraction over more than a decade has shifted the axis on which our planet rotates.
NASA propulsion technology brings 'flying cars' closer to reality (www.space.com)
Will the Epiphany Transporter finally bring us the flying taxis of the future?
Harvard Scientist Says He's Found a Cocktail That Can Reverse Aging in Human Cells (www.sciencealert.com)
A team led by famed Harvard Medical School anti-aging researcher David Sinclair has just published a paper that shows a mix of chemicals are capable of reversing cellular aging...