Today is Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday.  The theory of evolution by natural selection might be the single most fertile and elegant scientific hypothesis of all time.  To celebrate the bicentennial, I’ve been reading the two volume biography by Janet Browne, Voyaging and The Power of Place.  Though I’m not through both of them, I can already recommend the books as among the best intellectual biographies I’ve ever read.  One of the encouraging things about Darwin is that he doesn’t appear to have been one of those almost magical minds ala Newton, inventing calculus on the way to greater things.  Darwin, it seems, was driven by a relentless intellectual curiousity and a keen eye for good explanations: characteristics that are a little easier to emulate than pure mathmatical aptitude.  He was also, it must be said, in the right place at the right time–which is a little harder to emulate.

A new study finds that certain brain functions of some low-income 9- and 10-year-olds pale in comparison with those of wealthy children and that the difference is almost equivalent to the damage from a stroke.

This from a study to be published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience this year.  This raises some important questions in political philosophy, and should cause us to seriously question certain free market conceptions of justice that presume a level playing field.  It’s too early to know what these results really mean, but this is an area that certainly deserves some attention.

When we feel like we don’t have command of our own fate, our brains often invent patterns that offer a sense of self-control. Some folks knock on wood or step over cracks in the sidewalk. Scientists call this illusory pattern perception. Work published in the October 3rd issue of the journal Science offers a look inside our heads as they try to make us feel less helpless.

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin devised six experiments to test students’ reactions to different situations of uncertainty. One experiment mimicked the stock market, while another asked students to search for images in television static. Time and again, students saw images where there were none and found stock patterns that didn’t exist. The authors then asked students to perform self-affirmation exercises instead of looking for external design. These exercises calmed them and increased their capacity to see, well, reality. But if you’re not changing your socks or shaving because it clearly helps your favorite team, go right ahead. Some unkempt fan in Tampa Bay has to be the reason behind the Rays winning the American League East.
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This seems like it deserves a song…
Patterns by Simon and Garfunkel
Patterns.mp3

An interesting article in the new Scientific American discusses the possible implications of quantum gravity theory for Cosmology.   In my limited understanding, quantum gravity theory was developed as an alternative to string theory in an attempt to reconcile Einsteins theory of general relativity with quantum theory–both of which are well confirmed but seem to conflict.  One of the surprising predictions of quantum gravity theory is that space-time is atomistic–not continuous, as one would intuitively expect.  In this recent article by Martin  Bojwald, another consequence is explained:  the universe did not begin with the Big Bang, but with a quantum driven contraction that resulted in an explosion–a big bounce.  I can’t say I really completeluy understand it, of course, but the article proves interesting reading nonetheless.  Check it out here.