Mensagens

A mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta there are no limits to science

Inovações Pré-Históricas Que Mudaram o Mundo, da nossa arqueóloga de eleição, Sara Cura

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Dia Mundial das Abelhas / World Bee Day / Journée mondiale des abeilles

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Agradeço à Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Centro, I. P. por este belo cartaz, à FAO pela página de recursos. Consultem a maravilhosa infografia da Fugas /  Público .    

Crystal Systems

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  "Crystals are living beings at the beginning of creation. All things have a frequency and a vibration." – Nikola Tesla  

The influence of Studio Ghibli in zoological nomenclature

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At the Journal for Geek Studies , Karla J. Humara-Gil tell us all .  What's more, they are so generous as to have the article downloadable in PDF. Characterized by its complex stories, stunning visual art, and strong female protagonists, Studio Ghibli is one of the most renowned studios in the animation industry. The Tokyo-based Japanese studio was founded by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki in 1985. Since then, it has been involved in different projects: short films, commercials, video games, and most notably, more than 20 feature films such as the classic Grave of the Fireflies (1988) or the Academy Award winner Spirited Away (2001) (Studio Ghibli, 2023). It is undeniable that over the years, Ghibli has become a worldwide phenomenon. But its influence has not been limited to entertainment. We can also find traces of it in science, particularly in the one in charge of identifying, classifying, and naming species: taxonomy. In this co...

Hanlon's Razor

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  Hanlon's Razor is the adage: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Or sometimes, "Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence." It appears in a similar form by the inimitable Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as, "And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence," in The Sorrows of Young Werther. The same sentiments are also shared by William James, Churchill, and H.G. Wells. More recently, Douglas Hubbard gave a more modern version in his book The Failure of Risk Management: Why It's Broken and How to Fix It: "Never attribute to malice or stupidity that which can be explained by moderately rational individuals following incentives in a complex system." I've seen people get mad at others pushing in ...

Happy Hallowe'en!

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 With Tom Gauld

Universo Humano, para começar bem 2020 :)

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On the fifth day - Jane Hirshfield

On the fifth day the scientists who studied the rivers were forbidden to speak or to study the rivers. The scientists who studied the air were told not to speak of the air, and the ones who worked for the farmers were silenced, and the ones who worked for the bees. Someone, from deep in the Badlands, began posting facts. The facts were told not to speak and were taken away. The facts, surprised to be taken, were silent. Now it was only the rivers that spoke of the rivers, and only the wind that spoke of its bees, while the unpausing factual buds of the fruit trees continued to move toward their fruit. The silence spoke loudly of silence, and the rivers kept speaking, of rivers, of boulders and air. In gravity, earless and tongueless, the untested rivers kept speaking. Bus drivers, shelf stockers, code writers, machinists, accountants, lab techs, cellists kept speaking. They spoke, the fifth day, of silence.

Science Fiction terms and their origins

From i09 Science Fiction:  The origin of the actual term "science fiction" is a bit mysterious. The first use cited by the OED is in William Wilson's 1851  A Little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject . In it, Wilson looks at how a single object might be perceived through the eyes of six different animals: a bee, an ant, a spider, a perch, a robin, and a cat. Wilson terms this work "Science-Fiction": We hope it will not be long before we may have other works of Science-Fiction, as we believe such books likely to fulfil a good purpose, and create an interest, where, unhappily, science alone might fail. [Thomas] Campbell says that "Fiction in Poetry is not the reverse of truth, but her soft and enchanting resemblance". Now this applies especially to Science-Fiction, in which the revealed truths of Science may be given, interwoven with a pleasing story which may itself be poetical and true – thus circulating a knowledge of the Poetry of Science, ...

Freddie, always

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The Remarkable Influence of "A Wrinkle in Time"

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(My translation for Oficina do Livro ) When Léna Roy was 7 years old, her teacher read the first chapter of A Wrinkle in Time aloud to her second-grade class. After school, Léna ran to her grandmother’s house, which was around the corner from her school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, to finish the book on her own. She curled up in bed and devoured it. She felt just like the hotheaded, stubborn heroine Meg Murry, and took comfort in the fact that a flawed adolescent girl could save the world. “It was almost like your permission to be a real person,” Roy says. “You don’t have to be perfect.” Millions of other adolescent girls (and boys) have made the same liberating discovery while reading A Wrinkle in Time . What’s different about Roy is that her grandmother happened to be Madeleine L’Engle, the book’s author, who revolutionized serious young adult fiction with her clever mash-up of big ideas, science fantasy and adventure—and a geeky girl action hero way a...