BI CHEN: March 2008 Archives

Summary on: What if string theory is WRONG?

This article introduces the string theory, which is based on three key ideas that remain experimentally unproven after 30 years of research: the principle of supersymmetry; additional spatial dimensions; and gravity as a force defined by the exchange of quantum particles. If it is true, the string theory will bring us the birth of the first unified description of the physical world, and there are trillions of other universes exist paralleled with ours. However, if it is wrong, string theory would be the most spectacular wrong-turn science has ever taken. Even it is wrong, the string theory bing us the intriguing philosophical prospects for the multiverse, with its infinite and eternal creativity in spawning new universes.

Summary on: String Theory and the Unification of Forces

This article introduces that string theory will help us to reach unified theories, which was a dream of Einstein. Einstein was among the earliest to propose that such a unified field theory must exist. However, even if that beautiful theory exists, we are not yet sure that it correctly describes nature. However, if it exists, it broadly describes a world similar to ours, and is endowed with beauty and consistency to an astonishing degree.

Comparison:

These two articles introduce the most front theory in physical science. If the string theory is correct, we would have ``explained'' one of the most deep and abiding mysteries since the dawn of civilization: why does our world have the dimensionality that it has? If string theory would be the wrong theory of nature, we may still learn something about the right theory.

Reference:
1. Sten Odenwald, What if string theory is WRONG?"
2. Sunil Mukhi, String Theory and the Unification of Forces" by Sunil Mukhi,  http://theory.tifr.res.in/~mukhi/Physics/string.html

Summary on "Chaos Theory --- butterfly effect":

This article introduces the theory of chaos. The theory of chaos comes from the facts that are disordered, but chaos theory is to find the underlying order from apparently random data. Chaos was first discovered by a meteorologist named Edward Lorenz in 1960 when he was try to predict what the weather might be by using computing twelve equations. He found that even very little difference in the initial value would result in a very different pattern after a certain period of time. Such phenomenon, common to chaos theory, is called "Bufferfly Effect", which means that the flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. This idea is also explained as sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Aspects of chaos show up everywhere around the world, from the currents of the ocean and the flow of blood to the branches of trees and the effects of turbulence. Chaos theory has become a part of modern science.


Summary on "Has Chaos theory found any useful application in the social sciences?":

This article introduces the chaos theory has not had an impact in the social sciences as it has in the physical sciences. The author introduces the problems of applying chaos theory into social sciences. The first problem is that determining is not easy if a time series is generated by deterministic. The second problem is that the theoretical structure in chaos is based on purely deterministic that have no or a very small amount of noise. Such models works well in physical situations but does not in most social situations. Currently, Chaos theory has been introduced to the finance area because of the abundance of data and the obvious interest in detecting unknown predictable patterns. However, in practice, fitting chaotic processes to financial data has proved problematic because definitive statements about chaos lie well beyond what the data are able to tell us.

Comparison:

These two articles introduces the basic idea of chaos theory and the possibility of applying chaos theory into social sciences. Chaos has already had a lasting effect on science, yet there is much still left to be discovered. Many scientist believe that twentieth century science will be known for only three theories: relativity, quantum mechanics, and chaos. Currently, chaos theory has received widespread publicity that physics is a science of chaotic system and how they work form the view of the general public.

Reference:
1. James Gleick, Chaos Theory --- butterfly effect
2. Allison Brown, "Has Chaos theory found any useful application in the social sciences?", http://people.brandeis.edu/~blebaron/ge/chaos.html

Summary on "A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons In History by Michael H.Hart" and ``The Renaissance by Will Durant"

These two article introduce two of the most influential persons in history, Ts'ai Lun and Leonardo da vinci. Ts'ai Lun is the man who invented paper. Ts'ai Lun is among the ten most influential people who ever lived by the author, since the author thinks the invent of paper makes the progress of civilization quicker. However, unlike the technique for the mass production of books was invented by Johann Gutenberg in the West, China stayed with block printing and the culture progressed relatively slowly. This view is one of explanations for why did China eventually fall behind the West. Another person is Leonardo da Vinci, the most fascinating figure of the Renaissance. He had so many titles, such as an Italian polymath; a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. He greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.

Summary on "Zu Chongzhi and the Chinese Calendar Reform of 462 AD by Yang Shaoyun"

Zu Chongzhi is one of the most famous ancient Chinese mathematicians in both China and the Western world, but his contributions in the field of astronomy are largely ignored outside Asia. This article introduces the life and work of Zu because the author thinks the life background will influence the achievements of a person. Zu was born in Jiankang. His family had historically been involved in astronomy research, and from childhood Zu was exposed to both astronomy and mathematics. When he was only a youth his talent earned him much repute. Zu Chongzhi won himself credit for three approximations of p: 22/7, 355/113, and the interval 3.1415926 < p < 3.1415927; the third result remained the best in the world until improved by the Arab mathematician al-Kashi.

Comparison

These three articles are all about the most influential people for the progress of the civilization in history. The research and investigation on them will give us a sense for how human's civilization progress in history.

References}
1.Michael H.Hart, ``A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons In History".
2.Will Durant, ``The Renaissance".
3.Yang Shaoyun, ``Chinese Calendar Reform of 462 AD".

Summary on "An Incomplete Education - Science "

 

This article describes the natural science from modern physics on cosmology, life sciences,
math theory and to the law of natural evolution. In modern physical science,
the author introduces the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe. In
addition, the author also introduces four kinds of forces: the gravity, the force
associated with electricity and magnetism, the strong force which holds all
the elementary particles and the weak force which makes some unstable nuclei
and particles decay. On these four forces, the author introduces the efforts by
researchers who hope to make these four di erent kinds of forces identical. In
addition, the author also introduces two important theories in modern phys-
ical science: Chaos theory and Superstring theory. Besides physical science,
the author also introduces the achievements in life sciences, from modern
genetic engineering, the state of siege, and the human genome project. Last,
the author also introduces the interesting phenomena in number theory, like
bonacci series, topology theory, like Mobius strip, and Godel's incomplete
theorem.
In this article, the author introduces the main achievements in modern
natural science, and gives readers a big picture of the development of modern
natural science. Before the birth of color science, people commonly thought
that white light represented light in its pure forms and that color

 

Summary on "The Origins of Modern Color Science"

This article describes the development of modern color science from its birth in the
seventeenth century to current achievements. At the early days, people com-
monly thought that white light is of pure form and colors were modi cations
of white light. After the Newton's Experimentum crucis, people became to
realize that the white color is consisted of colored lights. Besides the intro-
duction of color theories, the author also introduces the relationship between
color and evolution. Donders explicitly suggested that human trichromacy
evolved from an earlier dichromatic state and had appeared rst in females.
From the history of science, the author states that confusion arose when
information from one domain was used to constrain models in a di erent
domain.

Comparison

The above two articles are all about the development of nat-
ural science. The di erent is the rst is about the big picture for all branches
in natural science, but the latter is a speci c branch in natural science. From
the development of science, we can see science achieves its development by a
self-denial and self-negative process.

References

1.Judy Jones & William Wilson, \An Incomplete Education -
Science".
2. J.D.Mollon, \The Origins of Modern Color Science".

Summary on "the outline of history by Wells"

The reason of writing
"the outline of history" is that Wells was very dissatis ed with the quality
of history textbooks at the end of World War I. All of these include: from
Christianity eduction to popular education; Europe begins to think for itself;
the dawn of communism; paper liberates the human mind; protestantism of
the peoples; the reawakening of science; the new growth of europe towns;
the literary and artistic renaissance; american come into history; and the
intellectual undertow. All of these are the rst comprehensive history of the
world, from the formation of the earth to Wellss day, a vibrant synthesis of
history.

Summary on "history of physics from Wikipedia"

This article describes the history of physics, where human beings try to understand the
roles of nature. It describes the development of physics from early cultures,
physics in the middle ages, early modern physics, to modern physics. West-
ern physics began with eminent Greek pre-Socratic philosophers, which leads
to the tendency of acceptance of the ideas of eminent philosophers. Scienti c
Revolution during Medieval Europe leaded to a resumption of the process
of scienti c change halted around the middle of the 14th century. From 15
century to 20 century, physics has been developed a lot. A number of new
efforts to understand the physical world arose in the last half of the twentieth
century, which generated widespread interest.

Comparison

The history of physics is a component of the outline of his-
tory. The outline of history descripts the history of science from a macro-
scopic view. However, the history of physics descripts the development of
a concrete discipline. The development of both science, from a macroscopic
view and physics, from a microscopic view is a kind of spiral type instead of
straight forward.

 

References

1.H. G. Wells, \The outline of history by Wells", Garden City
books.
2. \History of physics",
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History of physics

 

 

Summary on "what is science by Asimov"

The paper "what is science" by Asimov does not give a concrete de nition for science, but treating
science in the context of history. Although no one can really feel what is
science, the initiation into the magni cent world of science brings great es-
thetic satisfaction, inspiration to youth, ful llment of the desire to know, and
a deeper appreciation of the wonderful potentialities and achievements of the
human mind.

The author introduced "what is science" from the concept of curiosity,
the desire to know. The desire to know, that is philosophia, seems to lead
into successive realms of greater etherealization and more ecient occupa-
tion of the mind. The author descripted it from the Greek myths, which is
seemed to be the prettiest and the most sophisticated in our literary and cul-
tural heritage. After solved the problems of mathematics and astronomy, the
Greeks turned to more subtle and challenging elds of knowledge, and seeked
the virtual of nature. But currently, the publication by scientists becomes
so unreadable for anyone but their fellow specialists. Much work should be
accomplished toward bridging the gap of communication between scientists
and the public.

Summary on "what is religion by Richard Sneed"

This article describes the real polarity between religion and science, and why they need to keep talking to one another. The author suggests that religion is an ancient and respectable explanation for the world and our place in it, which is not the only one explanation. The religion does not have all the answers because it is by no means clear that it has asked all the questions. The dispute between religion and science is very much like a sibling rivalry, and that the two are very similar in many ways. It is worth that It is a mistake for religion to score science; it is equally a mistake for science to score religion.

Comparison

Science has had a complex relationship with religion; reli-
gious doctrines and motivations have sometimes in
uenced scienti c devel-
opment, while scienti c knowledge has had e ects on religious beliefs. Just
as the suggestion of Richard Sneed, science and religion should listen and
learn from each other.

References

1.Isaac Asimov, \Asimov's Guide to Science", Basic books,
Inc. Publishers.
2.Richard Sneed, \What is religion",
http://www.theharbinger.org/articles/rel sci/sneed.html