Darwin (1859), Charles, The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, Cambridge University Press 1859, 2009 ' It's hard to talk about The Origin of Species without making statements that seem overwrought and fulsome. But it's true: this is indeed one of the most important and influential books ever written, and it is one of the very few groundbreaking works of science that is truly readable. . . . Darwin's friend and "bulldog" T.H. Huxley said upon reading the Origin, "How extremely stupid of me not to have thought of that." Alfred Russel Wallace had thought of the same theory of evolution Darwin did, but it was Darwin who gathered the mass of supporting evidence—on domestic animals and plants, on variability, on sexual selection, on dispersal—that swept most scientists before it. It's hardly necessary to mention that the book is still controversial: Darwin's remark in his conclusion that "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history" is surely the pinnacle of British understatement. Mary Ellen Curtin 
Amazon   back

Jammer (1957, 1999), Max, Concepts of Force: A Study in the Foundations of Dynamics, Dover 2011 'Both historical treatment and critical analysis, this work by a noted physicist takes a fascinating look at a fundamental of physics, tracing its development from ancient to modern times. Kepler's initiation of scientific conceptualization, Newton's definition, post-Newtonian reinterpretation — contrasting concepts of Leibniz, Boscovich, Kant with those of Mach, Kirchhoff, Hertz. In-depth analysis of contemporary trend toward eliminating force from conceptual scheme of physics. "An excellent presentation." — Science. 1962 edition.' 
Amazon   back

Albert Einstein (1905b), Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy-content?, ' If a body gives off the energy L in the form of radiation, its mass diminishes by L/c2. The fact that the energy withdrawn from the body becomes energy of radiation evidently makes no difference, so that we are led to the more general conclusion that The mass of a body is a measure of its energy-content; if the energy changes by L, the mass changes in the same sense by L/9 × 10^20, the energy being measured in ergs, and the mass in grammes. It is not impossible that with bodies whose energy-content is variable to a high degree (e.g. with radium salts) the theory may be successfully put to the test. If the theory corresponds to the facts, radiation conveys inertia between the emitting and absorbing bodies. ' back

Bartosz Brzezinski, Global hunger figures rose to 828M in 2021, UN says , ' One in 10 people around the world faced hunger in 2021, according to a U.N. report released on Wednesday. The report, produced jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme, UNICEF, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Health Organization, found that between 702 million and 828 million people suffered from hunger last year. That's at least 50 million more than the year before it, indicating that efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition are sliding. The number of people who were food insecure, meaning they lacked regular access to nutritious food needed to live a healthy life, rose to around 2.3 billion in 2021 — 350 million more than before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.' back

Casimir effect - Wikipedia, Casimir effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, the Casimir effect or Casimir-Polder force is a physical force arising from a quantized field. The typical example is of two uncharged metallic plates in a vacuum, placed a few micrometers apart, without any external electromagnetic field. In a classical description, the lack of an external field also means that there is no field between the plates, and no force would be measured between them. When this field is instead studied using quantum mechanics, it is seen that the plates do affect the virtual photons which constitute the field, and generate a net force—either an attraction or a repulsion depending on the specific arrangement of the two plates. This force has been measured, and is a striking example of an effect purely due to second quantization.' back

Christopher Pollard, Karl Marx: his philosophy explained, ' Marx’s concept of ideology introduced an innovative way to critique how dominant beliefs and practices – commonly taken to be for the good of all – actually reflect the interests and reinforce the power of the “ruling” class. For Marx, beliefs in philosophy, culture and economics often function to rationalise unfair advantages and privileges as “natural” when, in fact, the amount of change we see in history shows they are not. He was not saying this is a conspiracy of the ruling class, where those in the dominant class believe things simply because they reinforce the present power structure. Rather, it is because people are raised and learn how to think within a given social order. Through this, the views that seem eminently rational rather conveniently tend to uphold the distribution of power and wealth as they are.' back

David Hume - Wikipedia, David Hume - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' David Hume (7 May 1711 – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, scepticism, and naturalism. Hume's empiricist approach to philosophy places him with John Locke, George Berkeley, Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes as a British Empiricist. ' back

Electric Field, Lice st Womsdelaide in March 2022, ' Vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and keyboardist and producer Michael Ross are a powerful duo whose soulful, moving electronic music and life-affirming live shows have earned Electric Fields a huge following. One of the must-see acts on this year’s WOMADelaide lineup, they took to the stage on Sunday night after massive weekend of music and festivities. They were joined by special guests Antara Choir and the Tjarutja First Nations Dance Collective for a show that brought the house down and had the whole crowd dancing with songs like ‘Shade Away’, ‘Catastrophe’, ‘Don’t You Worry’ and a cover of Kev Carmody’s classic ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’. back

Elodie Camprasse, Thousands of giant crabs amass off Australia’s coast. Scientists need your help to understand it, ' Every winter in shallow waters off Australia’s southern coast, armies of native spider crabs appear in their thousands. They form huge underwater piles, some as tall as a person. These fascinating crustaceans are on a risky mission – to get bigger. Crabs cannot simply grow like humans and other soft-bodied creatures. They must break free from their shells, expand their soft flesh and harden a new shell – all while dodging hungry predators on the hunt for a soft, easy meal. This moulting process leaves crabs clumsy and uncoordinated, making any escape tricky. That’s thought to be one reason they clump together in such big numbers – to keep each other safe.' back

Ernst Mach - Wikipedia, Ernst Mach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach (18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a Moravian-born Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the physics of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach number in his honour. As a philosopher of science, he was a major influence on logical positivism and American pragmatism. Through his criticism of Newton's theories of space and time, he foreshadowed Einstein's theory of relativity.' back

Four-momentum - Wikipedia, Four-momentum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In special relativity, four-momentum (also called momentum-energy or momenergy[1] ) is the generalization of the classical three-dimensional momentum to four-dimensional spacetime. Momentum is a vector in three dimensions; similarly four-momentum is a four-vector in spacetime. . . . The four-momentum is useful in relativistic calculations because it is a Lorentz covariant vector. This means that it is easy to keep track of how it transforms under Lorentz transformations.' back

Lamb shift - Wikipedia, Lamb shift - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, the Lamb shift, named after Willis Lamb (1913–2008), is a difference in energy between two energy levels ²S_½ and ²P_½ (in term symbol notation) of the hydrogen atom which was not predicted by the Dirac equation, according to which these states should have the same energy. Interaction between vacuum energy fluctuations and the hydrogen electron in these different orbitals is the cause of the Lamb Shift, as was shown subsequent to its discovery.' back

Lorentz factor - Wikipedia, Lorentz factor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Lorentz factor or Lorentz term is a quantity expressing how much the measurements of time, length, and other physical properties change for an object while that object is moving. The expression appears in several equations in special relativity, and it arises in derivations of the Lorentz transformations. The name originates from its earlier appearance in Lorentzian electrodynamics – named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz. It is generally denoted γ (the Greek lowercase letter gamma).' back

Matthew Sussex, Russia’s Ukraine invasion is slowly approaching an inflection point. Is the West prepared to step up?, ' Thus far, NATO unity remains remarkable. It has certainly rendered false Putin’s assumption the West would fold quickly. But as his war in Ukraine drags on, Putin will be increasingly banking on the West’s famously limited attention span to reassert itself, and that it will eventually lose interest in assisting Kyiv. For the sake of NATO’s credibility, Europe’s security and Ukraine’s future, it’s vital Putin is proven wrong once again.' back

Paul Rae, An ever innovative director, Peter Brook reminded us how high the stakes of theatre can be, ' Brook raised the bar on what audiences should expect of theatre, but also what creators could demand of their audiences. He advocated a theatre in which a rigorous creative process underpinned an absolute commitment by actors to the present moment of performance. In response, audiences would feel compelled to bring their own investments, attention and desires. Brook’s work was not without controversy, but it rarely strayed far from the centre of debates over the human stakes in the creation of theatre.' back

Quantum superposition - Wikipedia, Quantum superposition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Quantum superposition is the application of the superposition principle to quantum mechanics. The superposition principle is the addition of the amplitudes of waves from interference. In quantum mechanics it is the sum of wavefunction amplitudes, or state vectors. It occurs when an object simultaneously "possesses" two or more possible values for an observable quantity (e.g. the position or energy of a particle)' back

Robert Reich, The Crypto Crash: all Ponzi schemes topple eventually , ' Before the crypto crash, the value of cryptocurrencies had kept rising by attracting an ever-growing number of investors and some big Wall Street money, along with celebrity endorsements. But, again, all Ponzi schemes topple eventually. And it looks like crypto is now toppling. Why isn’t this market regulated? Mainly because of intensive lobbying by the crypto industry, whose kingpins want the Ponzi scheme to continue. . . . The industry is pouring huge money into political campaigns. And it has hired scores of former government officials and regulators to lobby on its behalf – including three former chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission, three former chairs of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, three former US senators, one former White House chief of staff, and the former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. . . . If we should have learned anything from the crashes of 1929 and 2008, it’s that regulation of financial markets is essential. Otherwise, they turn into Ponzi schemes that eventually leave small investors with nothing and destabilize the entire economy. It’s time for the Biden administration and Congress to regulate crypto.' back

Steve Taylor, The darkness of Boris Johnson: a psychologist on the prime minister’s unpalatable personality traits, ' When a “dark” leader attains power, conscientious, moral people rapidly fall away. A government operating under these conditions soon becomes what the Polish psychologist Andrzej Lobaczewski called a “pathocracy” – an administration made up of ruthless individuals devoid of integrity and morality. This happened with Donald Trump’s presidency, as the “adults in the room” gradually headed for the exit, leaving no one but staffers defined by their personal allegiance to Trump. A similar decay in standards has occurred in the UK. In an ideal society, there would be measures to restrict such people’s access to power, and we would be more likely to have the kind of leaders that we deserve.' back

Weak interaction - Wikipedia, Weak interaction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In particle physics, the weak interaction (the weak force or weak nuclear force) is one of the four known fundamental interactions of nature, alongside the strong interaction, electromagnetism, and gravitation. The weak interaction is responsible for radioactive decay, which plays an essential role in nuclear fission.' back