Monday, April 27, 2009
Corn Starch Holes by Merkt, Deegan et. al. , kast55555,
from the description of this youtube entry:
I found this clip on the net some time ago and did a voice over to it...I also put Booker T. and the MG's as the soundtrack...
the video comes from the research here
F. Merkt, R.D. Deegan, D. Goldman, E. Rericha, and H.L. Swinney, �Persistent holes in a fluid�, Phys. Rev. Letters. 92 184501 (2004)
what is it? the fingers are self organizing structures feeding off of the vibrational energy supplied to the goop.
you can youtube corn starch and water and find all sorts of fun stuff.
you can make it yourself. easy.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
My Responses to A Survey of Public Understanding of Evolution
A Survey of Public Understanding of Evolution
>To the best of your understanding, and in your own words,
please explain what “evolution” means.
the word means to volute out of, that is for something to come (fly?) out of something. in our context it means where do the multitudinous forms of all of us critters come from? It looks like some kind of artwork after all. In Humanity's youth, the experience of our own minds was the most powerful presence around, the most surprising one at any rate. By Shakespeare's time certainly his mind was an example of the most detailed creative process we'd ever observed, or bothered to observe.
so the most logical answer to the question "were did all the forms we find on earth come from?" is: "something like a human mind"
Starting in the time of Galileo, we finally began looking, paying attention to, respecting, even, what was outside our minds. So that in the late 18th and early 19th centuries observations seemed to suggest that there was a deep geological history going on and that projecting current environmental processes backwards in time for 100s of millions of years could begin to explain the geological forms we found.
In this geological record we find different forms of critters (fossils). we find that over time, forms become extinct and new ones arise. we also find that some classes of forms transform from one to another as we go up in time. We also find that we don't find forms in earlier layers than the forms they depended on. I.e. we don't find fossil horses in layers before the earliest fossil fishes. We don't find honeybees in layers before there were flowers. Ecosystems change with the layers. ..till we get to the current age with... well, by darwin's time we had found maybe 100,000 different kinds of plants and animals and fungi and other oddities.
All this geology and biology stretches the imagination for what it means for something like a human mind, some being, to create all that, and in a small cozy amount of historical time.
Other clues were:
the odd placement of related or different species on islands. Marsupials in australia and south america. All those crazy finches on the galapagos islands...
the fact that organisms AREN'T so well designed after all. whales have miniscule hip bones in them, some snakes have leg bones in them, we've got an appendix that gives us trouble, giraffes have this crazy recurrent laryngeal nerve that starts out in the neck right below the head at the larynx and loops all the way down to pass under the aorta in the chest and comes all the way back up to enter the larynx..
The fact that under domestication organisms can be caused to vary quite a bit, like dogs, pigeons..
A clue from Adam Smith. Smith suggests that if every one pursued his own selfish economic means, the interactions in aggregate would even out, would buffet out to a stable economic system. (doesn't work for humans, who happen to be too intelligently, craetively INSANE for such a simple system to work)
And from John Malthus: populations increase exponentially and quickly outstrip the carrying capacity of the environment for them. this means that in every generation not all critters of any kind get to grow up and have offspring.
In fact there's gonna be competition between critters for having kids.
Do Darwin put this all together and came up with:
Offspring are mostly like their parents, but a little different too. And there's too many of these different offspring. Those that inherited differences that allow them to outcompete their cohorts and have more kids in a particular environment, will more likely pass on those differences to the next generation of offspring in that environment. various conditions will constrain this process to either weed out extraneous differences, or encourage the spread of these differences if the environment changes or subpopulations emigrate to new environments. extinctions happen, especially to critters of intermediate character that arent as able to compete as are the extremes, which are often more efficient at living in their particular environments.
Over time this will give the results we see in the fossil record. Sports which are seen in domestic breeding can continue to accumulate (look at the diversity of dogs or pigeons!) and ultimately result in new features.
Since Darwin we've learned a lot more. Founder effects excacerbate differences when small subpopulations leave large ones and immigrate to new environments, resulting in punctuation events in the fossil record.
mutations can occur which are neutral and accumulate that way. extinctions can be arbitrary bad luck of the draw, and large extinction events will wipe out MANY intermediate species, leaving fewer scattered species surviving that are more different than each other.
We've also realized that one of the most effective ways to have more kids is to COOPERATE with your neighbors and brothers and sisters instead of competing and thus we have wildly successful social species like wolves, ravens, penguins, honeybees and of course... ants. Oh yeah, maybe humans? well, we haven't even been around as long as wolves and how are we doing? time will tell.
And finally we learn that not all form comes from evolution, but the very clay that evolution gets to work with: molecular biology is fecund indeed and can produce much form by itself, from which natural selection can select. Finally this is all possible because of mathematics...
So Evolution means: The interactions between simple agents who can accumulate mutations, in large populations, over time, in complex changing environments, leads to the unpredictable extravagant creation of form that we see in the world today. And that form is so extravagant because the clay that evolution gets to sculpt with - molecular biology played on two dozen different peculiar elements - is fecund indeed thanks to geometry and mathematics.
see "complexity lab manual" for a discussion of the extravagance of this 'chemical clay' we got and how interactions between simple agents under flow of energy can lead to complex surprising subtle organization.
>If you accept the theory of evolution, please explain in your own words why; or if you do not accept the theory of evolution, please explain in your own words why not.
Ah... lets go over each of the hints:
Geology. how much have i observed? Actually i've never travelled enough to get a good sense of how rock strata patterns match up over large areas and allow you to build up a deep stratigraphical collumn of time. I've certainly seen some strata and fossils. Not MANY. Mostly i trust what i read in books, why? Hold on a few paragraphs.
I've certainly found fossils of critters no longer alive today, and certainly have found fossil beds of sea critters up on dry land.
I do have experience with the disparity and diversity of life out there. I've learned 500 different kinds of plants belonging to over a hundred different families in new york state. I've learned a dozen different Asters, 30 different kinds of grasses. once i took a walk and found 40 different kinds of mosses. I know of 22 different kinds of lichens and 22 different kinds of ants. I've met over 200 disparate forms of life like red algae, plasmodial slime molds, mushrooms, crustose lichens, waterbears, millipedes, honeybee colonies, deer, stentor, pine trees... I've found many kinds of rocks and minerals, and at museums... and books, yes i see that there are over 2000 different kinds of minerals that grow in maybe over 10,000 different forms and that there are easily over 10million different kinds of critters (mostly insects). and I've seen enough geological structures.
So where did it come from? no one i've ever experienced could sculpt all that. Makes no sense.
I do know what it is like to craft mechanisms, to come up with creative solutions to problems, to edit one's work and redesign it over and over again to optimise it. I've written complex computer programs, repaired automobiles, drawn pictures...
I've seen plenty of examples that organisms are NOT optimally designed (for what, anyway?) For instance infants at about 6mos are mentally ready to start learning to communicate with grammar. however their larynxes (dammed larynx stuff again!) are not yet ready for speach untill about 1 and a half years old. thus they remain frustrated for a year and cry a lot. That's poor design, or design ON THE MOVE, depending on how you look at it. I mean two different features are evolving at different paces!
Now recently in history, humans have developed a rather well publicized and world wide sign language for the deaf, and some mothers have started to sign with their infants. The infants love this and starting at 6 months they are less frustrated, cry less, and begin signing/talking earlier and better. this is biological and cultural evolution happening right befor our eyes.
I have bred kittens and guppies and have experience of the kind of variation that's possible in litters.
The point is that the diversity and disparity of life on Earth IS extravagant but not INFINITELY so. There appear to be constraints. Why are there no insects the size of wolves? why no mammals as small as insects? Why are the marsupials in australia and south america? why are there birds some of which are almost reminiscent of lions, some of which are reminiscent of honeybees, but not COMPLETLY so? They still seem to be stuck being birds. Hummingbirds seem to WANT to become honeybees, or at least the environment would select them to be.. yet none have transparent wings, etc...
If a creative mind crafted critters i would expect MORE inbetweens! and more disparity. 1.5million animal species found so far but .7million of them are beetles and they all fall into ONLY 30 basic groups. why not insects with 10 legs? why not crabs with 6 legs? why NO marine insects? Why only insects, mammals, reptiles learned to fly? Why do almost all land vertebrates have always 5 fingers or less? In fact just look at the panda! His ecological environment put selection pressure for an extra finger and look at the peculiar design it took to give him one. had to coopt some bones from other parts of the wrist to make one. Why is the creative process so constrained if not by descent with modification?
So do i really think that such simple interactions over long periods of time can result in such stark creations as all these different plants and animals? YES. I've studied much computer science, mathematics, something called cellular automata, even chemistry, and have the experience that simple systems can indeed give rise to surprising complexity. It takes a lot of study. I've begun summarizing that study in my "Complexity Lab Manual". You can find it by googling complexity lab, no quotes.
But what's the REAL explanation of why i accept evolutionary biology? Accept it AS WHAT?
For starters, I grew up with it. I grew up in the tradition of natural science. I grew up learning, experiencing concretely more details than are to be found in all of Shakespeare and the Bible put together. I grew up in a culture in the lower east side of manhattan that was multicultural, that was mostly a result of enlightenment Europe with a little rabbinic judaism thrown in. But i did not grow up in an isolated shtettle.
But it can't be only that. I certainly was exposed to religious culture, read tora, but... nah.. none of those adults made a big effort to come out and say what they thought god was, or really, why should i pray and be jewish.
Over the years I've met many such people both jewish, christian, buddhist, new age.. I have to admit that few if any of them have any real INTEREST in the details of critters and rocks and chemistry and mechanisms that i grew up with. See my review of Francis Collins biographical book. Sure, he can manage a molecular biology lab and talk the evolutionary biology lingo, even use the scientific method in limited domains of his work, maybe. But he came from a vastly different culture than i did, and seems to still belong to that CULTURE.
I mean i can easily slip into a religious culture and do fascinating theological exegesis and enter a poetic trance and pray with people... But it is not my home.
I've had my share of ecstatic experiences, but they were out in the fields and swamps and woods either being directly in contact with nature or meditating on its complex, subtle, richly textured details. I did not have them in church or synagogue.
The third thing about this scientific culture... sure, when i read books by scientists i feel at home with them... but it's more than just a heimishe feeling. The point is that anything these books report about the natural history that i HAVE had the opportunity to observe first hand, jives with my observations. The point is that these guys can also shoot the breeze about how to troubleshoot cars, design computers, algorithms... things that i have done. I have created computer systems and programs and fixed cars and other mechanisms. I have done chemistry and pottery and grown plants... and i do it by way of attitudes akin to the scientific method, not at all by way of prayer...
I fully admit that i do not react strongly to father figures, policemen, politicians, celebrities. Perhaps it is simply comes down to a quirk of personality. the complex interactions between bugs and plants, between mechanical parts, rocks and chemicals is to me MORE interesting than celebrity father figures.
On the other hand, my study of biology, ecology and human history suggest to me that our propensity to follow such celebrities has not led to our most endearing behaviors. Far from it: world wars, inquisitions, crusades... So in the balance i think that evolving ecosystems are much more creative, stable, harmonious, encouraging of human dignity than are systems created, ruled and judged by fatherkingpolicemancraftsmen
>How confident are you that you understand the scientific theory of evolution?
That i understand how life on earth evolves, or that i understand the current scientific understanding of it? oops that just changed as i typed this...
To the first question, i KNOW that there are things that i still don't understand at all, and that none of us do. That's all right in the scientific culture i live in. To the second question? I've studied it for 30 years or more, I suppose i understand it as well as any graduate student with a firm grasp of his studies. though because i've not had the oppurtunity to work out some details, i know i've got definite gaps.
And like i said there are major issues that i believe are unresolved.
>On the question of the origin and development of life and humans,
what do you believe?
that's four questions.
On the development of life, we've just been discussing that.
On the origins of humans... well, mostly the same as the origins of any other species. oh, by the way, can you define human? if not you can't discuss it's exact origins can you? The whole issue of species and origins is very subtle and messy. We don't have good answers right now. Did humanity result from a final mutation that caused a bifurcation in the dynamical system that was the behavior of the individual in which it happened in and thus in all her descendants?
Or did it result from bifurcation in properties of a whole population, which then went on to grow?
Or was there NO distinct origin of humanity in time on this Earth? most likely answer. I don't beleive you can define humanity, the only reason we are so distinct from every other critter we can see, is that the apes have always been rather flimsy low population critters frought with much extinction. The fossil record shows many variations over the last 5million years and at some times in the past there were as many as FIVE different kinds of 'apey human critters'. For that matter is a poor sot with the IQ of 40 a human? Is an idiot savant mathematical genius who can't even tie his own shoes or say hello, a human? how about a Homo or a Nigger? (I use these terms to point out that the definition of what is human is not so objective but influenced by strong emotions, especially when religion is involved)
Species are not fixed, they are moving targets. Thats one of the points of evolutionary biology.
Are humans different from other living critters in ways that no other critter is different than other critters? I've tried to argue this, but in the end i can come up with nothing that stands:
"what's so special about humans.txt"
On the development of humans, you mean that culture changes everything? but plenty of critters have culture... don't worry, humans are still evolving genetically.
The origin of life? Ah, my FAVORITE topic. What do i BELIEVE? Better, what am i excited about to explore for the rest of my life and vicariously for the rest of human history! It is true that currently we do NOT have a clue whether life as we know it is a reasonable extrapolation of what we know of geochemistry today. BUT:
Some of us have a very strong HUNCH and not because we've been told it is so, but becuase we've put in decades of study of the topics in complexity lab:
1) we are actively exploring all sorts of new chemistry experiments and finding more and more complex chemical reactions, more complex molecular structures that can form from scratch in the laboratory
2) we are exploring the very molecular structure of life, and taking apart some of the molecular systems that makes life go and seeing which subsystems can work alone, and how they work together, slowly finding the simplest systems that still have interesting complex properties of life.
3) we are exploring all kinds of mathematics and computer science that shows us that when you simple mechanisms interacting repeatedly with simple rules of interaction between their neighbors, complex patterns eventually come out, sometimes even in a process similar to the one darwin proposed for evolution of forms out of simple iinteractions between creatures.
4) It's not, dammit, so much as what i believe, it's that this is such exciting stuff, that i want to take part in this exploration and see what is possible. This exploration is only SIXTY years old or so, In the history of human civilization, it is brand new. Imagine what we will learn in the next 60 years? Aren't you excited.
Yes, my hunch is that within the next 60 years we will find out that life is a natural consequence of chemistry.
>rate myself on these scales:
>a fiscal/economic conservative -----a fiscal/economic liberal
don't know what it means, you need both conservative and experimental elements to run a stable creative society
>a social conservative ------a social liberal
still don't know what you mean, same answer.
>not very interested in science ------very interested in science
very interested in science
>not at all religious-------very religious
sometimes religious, mystical-poetic anyway
>Do you believe there is a God?
(a purposeful higher intelligence that created the universe)
"purposeful higher intelligence" higher than what? chihuahua? wait, is there even a single linear scale to intelligence? now what do we mean? I mean what do you, some catholics, some fundamentalist protestants, some new age hipsters, some hindus.... mean the same thing by this? The best i can do with your question is pick as concrete examples as i can:
did something like human intelligence create the universe? ummm... guess what? we don't even know what human intelligence is, how it works, and how it is a product of it's neuronal substrate. So can there be some kind of weird computer at the origin of the universe that's something like human intelligence that creaeted the laws of physics and flicked a switch...
you ask too silly, too general a question. why you switch from evolution of life to the whole universe? now you have broadened dangerously your question and open up a whole new can of worms.
i can certainly say that it does not seem to me that a human like intelligence created and maintains life on this earth. Also i don't see how such an entity could have sculpted this earth out of what universe stuff there was before.
now you want me to go back and discuss physics? I'm not very well versed in it.
i see no evidence of purpose in this universe though. you can see my discussion: How to Explore Whether the Universe Is a Loving God (Cosmological Anthropic Principle) on blackskimmerblog.blogspot.com
Or another example: can the whole universe be a purposeful humanelike intelligence? We've hardly explored it have we? like i said we don't know how human intelligence works. Is it digital? is it a wave phenomenon? does it have quantum phenomena that are important? we simply do not know.
My suspicion is that the universe is not now interconnected enough to be thinking very fast. But way way back? since we see stars and galaxies are receeding from each other, maybe 10billion years ago or even very close to the big bang (whatever that is) the universe WAS interconnected enough to be intelligent?
You ask BIG questions.
>On average, when you were growing up, how often did you attend religious services?
pre-K to 3rd day, Hebrew day school. I hated school i don't recall religious services. afterwards, sometimes we did shabat services once a week. untill my bar mitzva at age 13. Then i was allowed to quit. STUPID strand of religion, eh?
>How often do you presently attend religious services?
now? rarely. every know and then i do weekly. for instance even zen practice twice a week or more. and there have been times when practiced religous ritual much more often, meditation, acts of appreciating this glorious life, standing with sunset, eating a meal... These days i am not very religious. but that's a rather personal question.
>Current religious organization membership:
Membership? funny word! Judaism, 'am yisro'el is my family. a particular local unit community that i attend functions at regularly? no.
>What is your highest level of education?
1 semester of graduate biology. But of course i am always studying new things outside of school, very high level.
>Gender M
>Age 46
>Ethnicity
African Jewish Eastern European European Enlightenment Brittish Naturalist Scientist Native American Lower East Side New Yorker.
You didn't want to define what you meant by ethnicity did you? i mean, "white" is a stupid term. i don't think "caucasian" is much more accurate either! Neither would solely jewish be accurate.
>What is your country of residence?
gave it. New York City. currently in exile upstate. New York City is NOT American.
>To the best of your understanding, and in your own words,
please explain what “evolution” means.
the word means to volute out of, that is for something to come (fly?) out of something. in our context it means where do the multitudinous forms of all of us critters come from? It looks like some kind of artwork after all. In Humanity's youth, the experience of our own minds was the most powerful presence around, the most surprising one at any rate. By Shakespeare's time certainly his mind was an example of the most detailed creative process we'd ever observed, or bothered to observe.
so the most logical answer to the question "were did all the forms we find on earth come from?" is: "something like a human mind"
Starting in the time of Galileo, we finally began looking, paying attention to, respecting, even, what was outside our minds. So that in the late 18th and early 19th centuries observations seemed to suggest that there was a deep geological history going on and that projecting current environmental processes backwards in time for 100s of millions of years could begin to explain the geological forms we found.
In this geological record we find different forms of critters (fossils). we find that over time, forms become extinct and new ones arise. we also find that some classes of forms transform from one to another as we go up in time. We also find that we don't find forms in earlier layers than the forms they depended on. I.e. we don't find fossil horses in layers before the earliest fossil fishes. We don't find honeybees in layers before there were flowers. Ecosystems change with the layers. ..till we get to the current age with... well, by darwin's time we had found maybe 100,000 different kinds of plants and animals and fungi and other oddities.
All this geology and biology stretches the imagination for what it means for something like a human mind, some being, to create all that, and in a small cozy amount of historical time.
Other clues were:
the odd placement of related or different species on islands. Marsupials in australia and south america. All those crazy finches on the galapagos islands...
the fact that organisms AREN'T so well designed after all. whales have miniscule hip bones in them, some snakes have leg bones in them, we've got an appendix that gives us trouble, giraffes have this crazy recurrent laryngeal nerve that starts out in the neck right below the head at the larynx and loops all the way down to pass under the aorta in the chest and comes all the way back up to enter the larynx..
The fact that under domestication organisms can be caused to vary quite a bit, like dogs, pigeons..
A clue from Adam Smith. Smith suggests that if every one pursued his own selfish economic means, the interactions in aggregate would even out, would buffet out to a stable economic system. (doesn't work for humans, who happen to be too intelligently, craetively INSANE for such a simple system to work)
And from John Malthus: populations increase exponentially and quickly outstrip the carrying capacity of the environment for them. this means that in every generation not all critters of any kind get to grow up and have offspring.
In fact there's gonna be competition between critters for having kids.
Do Darwin put this all together and came up with:
Offspring are mostly like their parents, but a little different too. And there's too many of these different offspring. Those that inherited differences that allow them to outcompete their cohorts and have more kids in a particular environment, will more likely pass on those differences to the next generation of offspring in that environment. various conditions will constrain this process to either weed out extraneous differences, or encourage the spread of these differences if the environment changes or subpopulations emigrate to new environments. extinctions happen, especially to critters of intermediate character that arent as able to compete as are the extremes, which are often more efficient at living in their particular environments.
Over time this will give the results we see in the fossil record. Sports which are seen in domestic breeding can continue to accumulate (look at the diversity of dogs or pigeons!) and ultimately result in new features.
Since Darwin we've learned a lot more. Founder effects excacerbate differences when small subpopulations leave large ones and immigrate to new environments, resulting in punctuation events in the fossil record.
mutations can occur which are neutral and accumulate that way. extinctions can be arbitrary bad luck of the draw, and large extinction events will wipe out MANY intermediate species, leaving fewer scattered species surviving that are more different than each other.
We've also realized that one of the most effective ways to have more kids is to COOPERATE with your neighbors and brothers and sisters instead of competing and thus we have wildly successful social species like wolves, ravens, penguins, honeybees and of course... ants. Oh yeah, maybe humans? well, we haven't even been around as long as wolves and how are we doing? time will tell.
And finally we learn that not all form comes from evolution, but the very clay that evolution gets to work with: molecular biology is fecund indeed and can produce much form by itself, from which natural selection can select. Finally this is all possible because of mathematics...
So Evolution means: The interactions between simple agents who can accumulate mutations, in large populations, over time, in complex changing environments, leads to the unpredictable extravagant creation of form that we see in the world today. And that form is so extravagant because the clay that evolution gets to sculpt with - molecular biology played on two dozen different peculiar elements - is fecund indeed thanks to geometry and mathematics.
see "complexity lab manual" for a discussion of the extravagance of this 'chemical clay' we got and how interactions between simple agents under flow of energy can lead to complex surprising subtle organization.
>If you accept the theory of evolution, please explain in your own words why; or if you do not accept the theory of evolution, please explain in your own words why not.
Ah... lets go over each of the hints:
Geology. how much have i observed? Actually i've never travelled enough to get a good sense of how rock strata patterns match up over large areas and allow you to build up a deep stratigraphical collumn of time. I've certainly seen some strata and fossils. Not MANY. Mostly i trust what i read in books, why? Hold on a few paragraphs.
I've certainly found fossils of critters no longer alive today, and certainly have found fossil beds of sea critters up on dry land.
I do have experience with the disparity and diversity of life out there. I've learned 500 different kinds of plants belonging to over a hundred different families in new york state. I've learned a dozen different Asters, 30 different kinds of grasses. once i took a walk and found 40 different kinds of mosses. I know of 22 different kinds of lichens and 22 different kinds of ants. I've met over 200 disparate forms of life like red algae, plasmodial slime molds, mushrooms, crustose lichens, waterbears, millipedes, honeybee colonies, deer, stentor, pine trees... I've found many kinds of rocks and minerals, and at museums... and books, yes i see that there are over 2000 different kinds of minerals that grow in maybe over 10,000 different forms and that there are easily over 10million different kinds of critters (mostly insects). and I've seen enough geological structures.
So where did it come from? no one i've ever experienced could sculpt all that. Makes no sense.
I do know what it is like to craft mechanisms, to come up with creative solutions to problems, to edit one's work and redesign it over and over again to optimise it. I've written complex computer programs, repaired automobiles, drawn pictures...
I've seen plenty of examples that organisms are NOT optimally designed (for what, anyway?) For instance infants at about 6mos are mentally ready to start learning to communicate with grammar. however their larynxes (dammed larynx stuff again!) are not yet ready for speach untill about 1 and a half years old. thus they remain frustrated for a year and cry a lot. That's poor design, or design ON THE MOVE, depending on how you look at it. I mean two different features are evolving at different paces!
Now recently in history, humans have developed a rather well publicized and world wide sign language for the deaf, and some mothers have started to sign with their infants. The infants love this and starting at 6 months they are less frustrated, cry less, and begin signing/talking earlier and better. this is biological and cultural evolution happening right befor our eyes.
I have bred kittens and guppies and have experience of the kind of variation that's possible in litters.
The point is that the diversity and disparity of life on Earth IS extravagant but not INFINITELY so. There appear to be constraints. Why are there no insects the size of wolves? why no mammals as small as insects? Why are the marsupials in australia and south america? why are there birds some of which are almost reminiscent of lions, some of which are reminiscent of honeybees, but not COMPLETLY so? They still seem to be stuck being birds. Hummingbirds seem to WANT to become honeybees, or at least the environment would select them to be.. yet none have transparent wings, etc...
If a creative mind crafted critters i would expect MORE inbetweens! and more disparity. 1.5million animal species found so far but .7million of them are beetles and they all fall into ONLY 30 basic groups. why not insects with 10 legs? why not crabs with 6 legs? why NO marine insects? Why only insects, mammals, reptiles learned to fly? Why do almost all land vertebrates have always 5 fingers or less? In fact just look at the panda! His ecological environment put selection pressure for an extra finger and look at the peculiar design it took to give him one. had to coopt some bones from other parts of the wrist to make one. Why is the creative process so constrained if not by descent with modification?
So do i really think that such simple interactions over long periods of time can result in such stark creations as all these different plants and animals? YES. I've studied much computer science, mathematics, something called cellular automata, even chemistry, and have the experience that simple systems can indeed give rise to surprising complexity. It takes a lot of study. I've begun summarizing that study in my "Complexity Lab Manual". You can find it by googling complexity lab, no quotes.
But what's the REAL explanation of why i accept evolutionary biology? Accept it AS WHAT?
For starters, I grew up with it. I grew up in the tradition of natural science. I grew up learning, experiencing concretely more details than are to be found in all of Shakespeare and the Bible put together. I grew up in a culture in the lower east side of manhattan that was multicultural, that was mostly a result of enlightenment Europe with a little rabbinic judaism thrown in. But i did not grow up in an isolated shtettle.
But it can't be only that. I certainly was exposed to religious culture, read tora, but... nah.. none of those adults made a big effort to come out and say what they thought god was, or really, why should i pray and be jewish.
Over the years I've met many such people both jewish, christian, buddhist, new age.. I have to admit that few if any of them have any real INTEREST in the details of critters and rocks and chemistry and mechanisms that i grew up with. See my review of Francis Collins biographical book. Sure, he can manage a molecular biology lab and talk the evolutionary biology lingo, even use the scientific method in limited domains of his work, maybe. But he came from a vastly different culture than i did, and seems to still belong to that CULTURE.
I mean i can easily slip into a religious culture and do fascinating theological exegesis and enter a poetic trance and pray with people... But it is not my home.
I've had my share of ecstatic experiences, but they were out in the fields and swamps and woods either being directly in contact with nature or meditating on its complex, subtle, richly textured details. I did not have them in church or synagogue.
The third thing about this scientific culture... sure, when i read books by scientists i feel at home with them... but it's more than just a heimishe feeling. The point is that anything these books report about the natural history that i HAVE had the opportunity to observe first hand, jives with my observations. The point is that these guys can also shoot the breeze about how to troubleshoot cars, design computers, algorithms... things that i have done. I have created computer systems and programs and fixed cars and other mechanisms. I have done chemistry and pottery and grown plants... and i do it by way of attitudes akin to the scientific method, not at all by way of prayer...
I fully admit that i do not react strongly to father figures, policemen, politicians, celebrities. Perhaps it is simply comes down to a quirk of personality. the complex interactions between bugs and plants, between mechanical parts, rocks and chemicals is to me MORE interesting than celebrity father figures.
On the other hand, my study of biology, ecology and human history suggest to me that our propensity to follow such celebrities has not led to our most endearing behaviors. Far from it: world wars, inquisitions, crusades... So in the balance i think that evolving ecosystems are much more creative, stable, harmonious, encouraging of human dignity than are systems created, ruled and judged by fatherkingpolicemancraftsmen
>How confident are you that you understand the scientific theory of evolution?
That i understand how life on earth evolves, or that i understand the current scientific understanding of it? oops that just changed as i typed this...
To the first question, i KNOW that there are things that i still don't understand at all, and that none of us do. That's all right in the scientific culture i live in. To the second question? I've studied it for 30 years or more, I suppose i understand it as well as any graduate student with a firm grasp of his studies. though because i've not had the oppurtunity to work out some details, i know i've got definite gaps.
And like i said there are major issues that i believe are unresolved.
>On the question of the origin and development of life and humans,
what do you believe?
that's four questions.
On the development of life, we've just been discussing that.
On the origins of humans... well, mostly the same as the origins of any other species. oh, by the way, can you define human? if not you can't discuss it's exact origins can you? The whole issue of species and origins is very subtle and messy. We don't have good answers right now. Did humanity result from a final mutation that caused a bifurcation in the dynamical system that was the behavior of the individual in which it happened in and thus in all her descendants?
Or did it result from bifurcation in properties of a whole population, which then went on to grow?
Or was there NO distinct origin of humanity in time on this Earth? most likely answer. I don't beleive you can define humanity, the only reason we are so distinct from every other critter we can see, is that the apes have always been rather flimsy low population critters frought with much extinction. The fossil record shows many variations over the last 5million years and at some times in the past there were as many as FIVE different kinds of 'apey human critters'. For that matter is a poor sot with the IQ of 40 a human? Is an idiot savant mathematical genius who can't even tie his own shoes or say hello, a human? how about a Homo or a Nigger? (I use these terms to point out that the definition of what is human is not so objective but influenced by strong emotions, especially when religion is involved)
Species are not fixed, they are moving targets. Thats one of the points of evolutionary biology.
Are humans different from other living critters in ways that no other critter is different than other critters? I've tried to argue this, but in the end i can come up with nothing that stands:
"what's so special about humans.txt"
On the development of humans, you mean that culture changes everything? but plenty of critters have culture... don't worry, humans are still evolving genetically.
The origin of life? Ah, my FAVORITE topic. What do i BELIEVE? Better, what am i excited about to explore for the rest of my life and vicariously for the rest of human history! It is true that currently we do NOT have a clue whether life as we know it is a reasonable extrapolation of what we know of geochemistry today. BUT:
Some of us have a very strong HUNCH and not because we've been told it is so, but becuase we've put in decades of study of the topics in complexity lab:
1) we are actively exploring all sorts of new chemistry experiments and finding more and more complex chemical reactions, more complex molecular structures that can form from scratch in the laboratory
2) we are exploring the very molecular structure of life, and taking apart some of the molecular systems that makes life go and seeing which subsystems can work alone, and how they work together, slowly finding the simplest systems that still have interesting complex properties of life.
3) we are exploring all kinds of mathematics and computer science that shows us that when you simple mechanisms interacting repeatedly with simple rules of interaction between their neighbors, complex patterns eventually come out, sometimes even in a process similar to the one darwin proposed for evolution of forms out of simple iinteractions between creatures.
4) It's not, dammit, so much as what i believe, it's that this is such exciting stuff, that i want to take part in this exploration and see what is possible. This exploration is only SIXTY years old or so, In the history of human civilization, it is brand new. Imagine what we will learn in the next 60 years? Aren't you excited.
Yes, my hunch is that within the next 60 years we will find out that life is a natural consequence of chemistry.
>rate myself on these scales:
>a fiscal/economic conservative -----a fiscal/economic liberal
don't know what it means, you need both conservative and experimental elements to run a stable creative society
>a social conservative ------a social liberal
still don't know what you mean, same answer.
>not very interested in science ------very interested in science
very interested in science
>not at all religious-------very religious
sometimes religious, mystical-poetic anyway
>Do you believe there is a God?
(a purposeful higher intelligence that created the universe)
"purposeful higher intelligence" higher than what? chihuahua? wait, is there even a single linear scale to intelligence? now what do we mean? I mean what do you, some catholics, some fundamentalist protestants, some new age hipsters, some hindus.... mean the same thing by this? The best i can do with your question is pick as concrete examples as i can:
did something like human intelligence create the universe? ummm... guess what? we don't even know what human intelligence is, how it works, and how it is a product of it's neuronal substrate. So can there be some kind of weird computer at the origin of the universe that's something like human intelligence that creaeted the laws of physics and flicked a switch...
you ask too silly, too general a question. why you switch from evolution of life to the whole universe? now you have broadened dangerously your question and open up a whole new can of worms.
i can certainly say that it does not seem to me that a human like intelligence created and maintains life on this earth. Also i don't see how such an entity could have sculpted this earth out of what universe stuff there was before.
now you want me to go back and discuss physics? I'm not very well versed in it.
i see no evidence of purpose in this universe though. you can see my discussion: How to Explore Whether the Universe Is a Loving God (Cosmological Anthropic Principle) on blackskimmerblog.blogspot.com
Or another example: can the whole universe be a purposeful humanelike intelligence? We've hardly explored it have we? like i said we don't know how human intelligence works. Is it digital? is it a wave phenomenon? does it have quantum phenomena that are important? we simply do not know.
My suspicion is that the universe is not now interconnected enough to be thinking very fast. But way way back? since we see stars and galaxies are receeding from each other, maybe 10billion years ago or even very close to the big bang (whatever that is) the universe WAS interconnected enough to be intelligent?
You ask BIG questions.
>On average, when you were growing up, how often did you attend religious services?
pre-K to 3rd day, Hebrew day school. I hated school i don't recall religious services. afterwards, sometimes we did shabat services once a week. untill my bar mitzva at age 13. Then i was allowed to quit. STUPID strand of religion, eh?
>How often do you presently attend religious services?
now? rarely. every know and then i do weekly. for instance even zen practice twice a week or more. and there have been times when practiced religous ritual much more often, meditation, acts of appreciating this glorious life, standing with sunset, eating a meal... These days i am not very religious. but that's a rather personal question.
>Current religious organization membership:
Membership? funny word! Judaism, 'am yisro'el is my family. a particular local unit community that i attend functions at regularly? no.
>What is your highest level of education?
1 semester of graduate biology. But of course i am always studying new things outside of school, very high level.
>Gender M
>Age 46
>Ethnicity
African Jewish Eastern European European Enlightenment Brittish Naturalist Scientist Native American Lower East Side New Yorker.
You didn't want to define what you meant by ethnicity did you? i mean, "white" is a stupid term. i don't think "caucasian" is much more accurate either! Neither would solely jewish be accurate.
>What is your country of residence?
gave it. New York City. currently in exile upstate. New York City is NOT American.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
An Example of How Science Works From George W. Corner
I got this story first from Garett Hardin's 2nd ed biology textbook. In it George W. Corner tells about his and W. M. Allen's research on progesterone in rabbits to illustrate how science works. Note how the scientists treat their observations, their techniques, how they critique themselves and each other but how they don't give up.
A failure and what it taught.
Willard Allen and I had a
queer experience with our first extracts, from which we learned
something important, so that the story is not only amusing
but useful. The beginning of this tale is that when we started
we followed (as I said before) a hint from the work of Ed-
mund Herrmann, who had obviously produced progestational
proliferation in a few of his experiments without knowing it.
He had used very young rabbits, roughly 8 weeks old. They
react more readily than adults to the estrogen which was the
chief ingredient of his extracts. Since we wanted to follow his
methods closely at first, we used infant rabbits too, and with
them our first successes were obtained. In the spring of 1929
we were all ready to report the first steps in print. The paper
was being written, when it occurred to me that our directions
for extracting the hormone ought to be tried out by a none-
too-good chemist, just to make sure they were foolproof. We
did not want others to think our work could not be repeated,
just because our directions were not clear. It was agreed that
I was a bad enough chemist for the test : if I could make the
extract all by myself, then anybody could. So Allen went on
his vacation and I went back to our extractors and vacuum
stills. In a week I had a batch ready; to my horror it was
ineffectual. I made another batch; it, too, was worthless. I
suppressed the paper and telegraphed for Allen. We decided
that I needed a vacation and that we would look for the
trouble in the fall. In September I made another batch with
Allen watching every step, but not touching the apparatus.
It was no good. What could be wrong.'' Since my laboratory
was sunnier than his, perhaps my hormone was being spoiled
by sunlight. I had a room blacked out and made a batch in
the dark. That failed. Then we remembered that Allen, being
a better chemist than I, usually got his extracts freer of su-
perfluous grease and therefore had to mix them with corn oil
(Mazola) so that he could inject them. Mine were greasy
enough to inject without added oil. Perhaps the corn oil pro-
tected his hormones somehow while mine spoiled. We checked
that idea — another two weeks gone — and that was not the
answer. Then in desperation we made a batch together, side
by side and almost hand in hand, each watching the other. We
divided it into two lots and tested it separately — Allen's
worked ; mine did not ! Eureka, my trouble was in the testing,
not in the cookery.
The explanation will seem so silly that I almost hesitate
to admit what it was. The fact is that rabbits do not respond
well to progesterone until they are about 8 weeks old and
weigh about 800 grams. We did not know this, and our rab-
bits ranged from 600 to 1,200 grams. When we went to the
cages to inject them, Willard Allen's idea of what constitutes
a nice rabbit led him to choose the larger ones, while I must
have had a subconscious preference for the infants. My ex-
tracts had been as good as his all the while, but my rabbits
were insensitive. It is staggering to think how often the success
or failure of research may hang upon such an unimaginable
contingency.
from
THE HORMONES IN HUMAN REPRODUCTION
by George W. Corner
pg 118 to 119
the whole book looks rather fun.
read the whole book online here:
A failure and what it taught.
Willard Allen and I had a
queer experience with our first extracts, from which we learned
something important, so that the story is not only amusing
but useful. The beginning of this tale is that when we started
we followed (as I said before) a hint from the work of Ed-
mund Herrmann, who had obviously produced progestational
proliferation in a few of his experiments without knowing it.
He had used very young rabbits, roughly 8 weeks old. They
react more readily than adults to the estrogen which was the
chief ingredient of his extracts. Since we wanted to follow his
methods closely at first, we used infant rabbits too, and with
them our first successes were obtained. In the spring of 1929
we were all ready to report the first steps in print. The paper
was being written, when it occurred to me that our directions
for extracting the hormone ought to be tried out by a none-
too-good chemist, just to make sure they were foolproof. We
did not want others to think our work could not be repeated,
just because our directions were not clear. It was agreed that
I was a bad enough chemist for the test : if I could make the
extract all by myself, then anybody could. So Allen went on
his vacation and I went back to our extractors and vacuum
stills. In a week I had a batch ready; to my horror it was
ineffectual. I made another batch; it, too, was worthless. I
suppressed the paper and telegraphed for Allen. We decided
that I needed a vacation and that we would look for the
trouble in the fall. In September I made another batch with
Allen watching every step, but not touching the apparatus.
It was no good. What could be wrong.'' Since my laboratory
was sunnier than his, perhaps my hormone was being spoiled
by sunlight. I had a room blacked out and made a batch in
the dark. That failed. Then we remembered that Allen, being
a better chemist than I, usually got his extracts freer of su-
perfluous grease and therefore had to mix them with corn oil
(Mazola) so that he could inject them. Mine were greasy
enough to inject without added oil. Perhaps the corn oil pro-
tected his hormones somehow while mine spoiled. We checked
that idea — another two weeks gone — and that was not the
answer. Then in desperation we made a batch together, side
by side and almost hand in hand, each watching the other. We
divided it into two lots and tested it separately — Allen's
worked ; mine did not ! Eureka, my trouble was in the testing,
not in the cookery.
The explanation will seem so silly that I almost hesitate
to admit what it was. The fact is that rabbits do not respond
well to progesterone until they are about 8 weeks old and
weigh about 800 grams. We did not know this, and our rab-
bits ranged from 600 to 1,200 grams. When we went to the
cages to inject them, Willard Allen's idea of what constitutes
a nice rabbit led him to choose the larger ones, while I must
have had a subconscious preference for the infants. My ex-
tracts had been as good as his all the while, but my rabbits
were insensitive. It is staggering to think how often the success
or failure of research may hang upon such an unimaginable
contingency.
from
THE HORMONES IN HUMAN REPRODUCTION
by George W. Corner
pg 118 to 119
the whole book looks rather fun.
read the whole book online here:
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
It Snowed Last Night. Snow! What Crazy Stuff That Is!
Why does this aspect of the universe amaze me so much? That water comes in three funky phases and how they intertransform is interesting. That Earth is a dynamic place. The sun is warmer than outerspace and warmer than Earth so light flows from the sun to earth and warms the seas and the water in the seas is not just a continuous featureless goopy liquid it's frenetic dance of things called molecules. anyway these 'things' are actually rather clever, they can respond to energy and their neighbors. give 'em energy and they can dance away from their neighbors, let 'em lose energy at night and they bump into their neighbors and stick. water molecules are actually quite sophisticated little machines and can do some simple computations and can make interesting shapes.
anyway sunlight is enough energy to launch a water molecule if it absorbs some light, then emits some light back, it will spring, and if it bounces against a neigbor fast enough it will be going fast enough to launch itself into space. until it bounces into another air molecule also launching into space and you get a chaotic pinball game of molecules bouncing into each other that we call our atmosphere. something we can breath.
of course by the time they get pretty high, it gets colder up there and colder means they start loosing energy to the cold outerspace and if they start crashing into each other they start holding on. if enough of them do this it's a water droplet. water droplets though even are complex, they have distinct outsides and insides. they float around up there, having all those faster molecules bouncing into them imparting motion to them in all different directions. eventually though they grow big enough and gravity pulls 'em down. that's called rain. and of course that does all the building of streams and ponds and washing away of soil, Grand Canyons etc...
but what if they get higher and get REALLY cold? then they really get a chance to slow down and 'feel' each other out. even in water droplets they are actually bouncing around each other momentarily holding on and letting go. ( what's the dividing line microscopically between being water and being ice? not sure really. i think it's a matter of what percentage of them are holding on at any given time! there's a branch of mathematics called zero one laws on random graphs that gives some results on sudden bifurcations in behavior of masses of interacting thingies given the slow increase in percentage of connections...) so it turns out that at a certain temperature, water freezes. but not microscopically! at the surface of the growing crystal there is no such thing as temperature! and many curious things can happen, many dynamic things can happen. and they do! and the water molecules dance delicately back and forth together back into the air and sculpt themselves into... snowflakes! so curious that each one is a unique sculpture.
it is a tribute to the dynamic sensitive nature of these molecule thingies that ice does not ONLY come down in tiny featureless blobs, but often comes down as snow. and funny stuff snow is. it's feathery but eventually it does succumb to gravity's pull and eventually falls and piles up on Earth. because it is so feathery it reflects white, and because snowflakes are feathery they catch on each other higgledy piggledy and snow is fluffy. it's also a good insulator, catching air pockets...
it is a tribute to the 'intelligence' of these little molecules that at different temperatures and climatic conditions they can make moisture in the air, that's pleasant, or they can condense and make a dynamic fluid we can swim in! and they can tell they are at the edge of their fluid and they hold on REALLY tight there and little bugs can walk around on that! if they slowly freeze at the top of the pond then you can go iceskating on it! because the pressure of your iceskate blades makes it melt again momentarily and the water makes a good lubricant! if the moisture in the air freezes more delicately it comes down as snow and kids can jump into it and roll down the hills in it, it's soft enough to break their fall due to a complicated interaction between millions of quickly snapping snowflake arms... the simplest physical system, only water cooling - already makes complex structures with fascinating functionality.
snow molecules are things? if the things can respond to each other and make connections and separate etc... do you call 'em things? if they can sense whether they are at the edge or the middle of a pile of themselves because of their connections do we call them things or machines or what's the dividing line between a thing and an animate being. forget about reproduction most animate beings right now ain't reproducing. I want to explore the fundamental nature of animate beings, break the concept down into its components. What are the multiple properties that make beings animate? I think the properties are well distributed into all the parts, and then built up from interactions between parts, between parts that are capable of interacting.
see, many people are fond of pointing out that a pile of boeing 747 parts in a heap would never come together to make an aeroplane. they are "dead inert matter". And by anology a pile of chemicals could never spontaneously come together and become a living being. But this is a faulty analogy due to our perception of size scale and time. of course as time goes on they WILL interact (NOT inert at all) with the rain and the oxygen and begin to rust. sand will blow against them and the rust will eventuall break off, they will eventually crumble and the rust will eventually wash away into the soil where it will dissolve into individual ions and the ions at the level of ions are certainly NOT inert dead parts, but active sensitive little critters that will get into all sorts of dynamic combinations and can even catalyze other dynamic combinations, similar to the ones that power US.
But at our scale of time and space, Boeing parts do not interact. But ont he scale of molecules, molecules CERTAINLY are capable of interacting, getting cought up in networks of interactions that are creative... I want to show that the ground of being of the universe, is not lumpish, inert, like clay, but dynamic, responsive, containing the 'microscopic components' so to speak, of creativity.
anyway sunlight is enough energy to launch a water molecule if it absorbs some light, then emits some light back, it will spring, and if it bounces against a neigbor fast enough it will be going fast enough to launch itself into space. until it bounces into another air molecule also launching into space and you get a chaotic pinball game of molecules bouncing into each other that we call our atmosphere. something we can breath.
of course by the time they get pretty high, it gets colder up there and colder means they start loosing energy to the cold outerspace and if they start crashing into each other they start holding on. if enough of them do this it's a water droplet. water droplets though even are complex, they have distinct outsides and insides. they float around up there, having all those faster molecules bouncing into them imparting motion to them in all different directions. eventually though they grow big enough and gravity pulls 'em down. that's called rain. and of course that does all the building of streams and ponds and washing away of soil, Grand Canyons etc...
but what if they get higher and get REALLY cold? then they really get a chance to slow down and 'feel' each other out. even in water droplets they are actually bouncing around each other momentarily holding on and letting go. ( what's the dividing line microscopically between being water and being ice? not sure really. i think it's a matter of what percentage of them are holding on at any given time! there's a branch of mathematics called zero one laws on random graphs that gives some results on sudden bifurcations in behavior of masses of interacting thingies given the slow increase in percentage of connections...) so it turns out that at a certain temperature, water freezes. but not microscopically! at the surface of the growing crystal there is no such thing as temperature! and many curious things can happen, many dynamic things can happen. and they do! and the water molecules dance delicately back and forth together back into the air and sculpt themselves into... snowflakes! so curious that each one is a unique sculpture.
it is a tribute to the dynamic sensitive nature of these molecule thingies that ice does not ONLY come down in tiny featureless blobs, but often comes down as snow. and funny stuff snow is. it's feathery but eventually it does succumb to gravity's pull and eventually falls and piles up on Earth. because it is so feathery it reflects white, and because snowflakes are feathery they catch on each other higgledy piggledy and snow is fluffy. it's also a good insulator, catching air pockets...
it is a tribute to the 'intelligence' of these little molecules that at different temperatures and climatic conditions they can make moisture in the air, that's pleasant, or they can condense and make a dynamic fluid we can swim in! and they can tell they are at the edge of their fluid and they hold on REALLY tight there and little bugs can walk around on that! if they slowly freeze at the top of the pond then you can go iceskating on it! because the pressure of your iceskate blades makes it melt again momentarily and the water makes a good lubricant! if the moisture in the air freezes more delicately it comes down as snow and kids can jump into it and roll down the hills in it, it's soft enough to break their fall due to a complicated interaction between millions of quickly snapping snowflake arms... the simplest physical system, only water cooling - already makes complex structures with fascinating functionality.
snow molecules are things? if the things can respond to each other and make connections and separate etc... do you call 'em things? if they can sense whether they are at the edge or the middle of a pile of themselves because of their connections do we call them things or machines or what's the dividing line between a thing and an animate being. forget about reproduction most animate beings right now ain't reproducing. I want to explore the fundamental nature of animate beings, break the concept down into its components. What are the multiple properties that make beings animate? I think the properties are well distributed into all the parts, and then built up from interactions between parts, between parts that are capable of interacting.
see, many people are fond of pointing out that a pile of boeing 747 parts in a heap would never come together to make an aeroplane. they are "dead inert matter". And by anology a pile of chemicals could never spontaneously come together and become a living being. But this is a faulty analogy due to our perception of size scale and time. of course as time goes on they WILL interact (NOT inert at all) with the rain and the oxygen and begin to rust. sand will blow against them and the rust will eventuall break off, they will eventually crumble and the rust will eventually wash away into the soil where it will dissolve into individual ions and the ions at the level of ions are certainly NOT inert dead parts, but active sensitive little critters that will get into all sorts of dynamic combinations and can even catalyze other dynamic combinations, similar to the ones that power US.
But at our scale of time and space, Boeing parts do not interact. But ont he scale of molecules, molecules CERTAINLY are capable of interacting, getting cought up in networks of interactions that are creative... I want to show that the ground of being of the universe, is not lumpish, inert, like clay, but dynamic, responsive, containing the 'microscopic components' so to speak, of creativity.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
What Is Science, And Why Is It An Important Part Of My Outlook On Life?
i'd like to point some things about science as a way of knowing, loving forming a mature relationship with reality.
1) it is a way for a community of men, women, other animals and mechanical instruments who want to join in to learn to discuss civilly with each other, to learn to give and take constructive criticism, to take the responsibility to catch themselves and each other when the mind is tricking us, or we mess up on an observation or someting both trivial and profound. read a story about this here
2) it is grown out of a love the details we find ourselves surrounded by: rocks, bugs, worms, clouds, mud, light, planets, bubbles.. and out of this love scientists have explored EVERY nook and cranny, no matter how small, inconsequential, smelly, unpleasant... they are to most people. The incredible advances we have in genetics and development came about because some scientists decided to look at WORMS and GRUBS. (Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster)
2) it is a way to LOVE reality. in a mature fashion, not just romantic falling in love, but doing the hard work to get to know reality on it's own terms even if those contradict our preconceptions, our fears, our desires. Requires getting outside of our heads, outside of our preconceptions of what we'd like the universe to be like. requires hard work of really listening to what our lover is saying to us.
4) we've explored a LOT. Scientists over the past 400 years, by way of egging each other on and record keeping andwondering and imagining and crafting instruments has explored more than anyone could have imagined. Just peruse this summary of 1600 topics for high school science and see how much science has spread out across the world of phenomena. Notice the depth and breadth of that exploration. Notice these are topics for high school or freshman science in college. This list can easily be expanded in depth a hundred fold, and in breadth to many more realms of basic physics, cosmology, and biochemistry...
5) those hundreds of thousands of facts and formulas and theories in hundreds of disparate realms of experience are not just ISOLATED facts. They JIVE WITH EACH OTHER. they reinforce each other, the body of knowlege that science has gained is a cohesive whole.
I'll post some more about this remarkable cohesivity soon.
1) it is a way for a community of men, women, other animals and mechanical instruments who want to join in to learn to discuss civilly with each other, to learn to give and take constructive criticism, to take the responsibility to catch themselves and each other when the mind is tricking us, or we mess up on an observation or someting both trivial and profound. read a story about this here
2) it is grown out of a love the details we find ourselves surrounded by: rocks, bugs, worms, clouds, mud, light, planets, bubbles.. and out of this love scientists have explored EVERY nook and cranny, no matter how small, inconsequential, smelly, unpleasant... they are to most people. The incredible advances we have in genetics and development came about because some scientists decided to look at WORMS and GRUBS. (Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster)
2) it is a way to LOVE reality. in a mature fashion, not just romantic falling in love, but doing the hard work to get to know reality on it's own terms even if those contradict our preconceptions, our fears, our desires. Requires getting outside of our heads, outside of our preconceptions of what we'd like the universe to be like. requires hard work of really listening to what our lover is saying to us.
4) we've explored a LOT. Scientists over the past 400 years, by way of egging each other on and record keeping andwondering and imagining and crafting instruments has explored more than anyone could have imagined. Just peruse this summary of 1600 topics for high school science and see how much science has spread out across the world of phenomena. Notice the depth and breadth of that exploration. Notice these are topics for high school or freshman science in college. This list can easily be expanded in depth a hundred fold, and in breadth to many more realms of basic physics, cosmology, and biochemistry...
5) those hundreds of thousands of facts and formulas and theories in hundreds of disparate realms of experience are not just ISOLATED facts. They JIVE WITH EACH OTHER. they reinforce each other, the body of knowlege that science has gained is a cohesive whole.
I'll post some more about this remarkable cohesivity soon.
TOPICS FOR HIGHSCHOOL SCIENCE (about 1570 terms)
BIOLOGY ~660wds
ECOLOGY
ecosystems, organisms, environment biotic abiotic, food chain/ web
autotroph, primary producers, heterotrophs, primary consumers
herbivore, secondary consumers, tertiary consumer, predator, prey
carnivore insectivore omnivore, decomposers saprophytes
symbiosis, parasite, host, pathogen, vector
antibiotic, vaccine, malaria protoctist plasmodium anopheles mosquito
small egg gambit,large egg gambit, perennial, annual
herbaceous plants, woody plants, trees, shrubs
biomes
ocean, phytoplankton, plankton, benthos, upwelling
desert, temperate forest, tropical forest, grasslands
community, habitat, population, niche
agriculture, monocrops, erosin, deforestation, carbon fixation
renewable resources, non-renewable resources, extinction, habitat destruction
pesticides
classification, taxonomy
kingdom
monera, prokaryotes, bacteria, 20 metabolisms maintain biogeochem cycles
eukayotes, unicellular, multicellular
protista, protoctista, 30 non related groups 30,000 spp
amoeba, paramecium, euglena, algae, pond scum
fungi mushrooms, molds, yeasts, lichen, saprophytes, spores
microorganisms microbes
plantae 280,000 spp?
bryophytes, mosses, ferns,
conifers, seeds
angiosperms, flowers, fruit
monocotyledons grasses, wheat, lilies
dicotyledons
animalia heterotrophs, nervous system, blastula
30 phyla
mollusca 100,000 spp, snails, clams, octopi
annelids, segmented worms, earthworms
arthropoda 1-10million? crustacean, crabs, shrimps, arachnids, spiders
insects, exoskeleton, metamorphosis egg, larva, pupa, adult
flies, wasps, bees, ants, lepidoptera, beetles
echinoderms, starfish, sea urchins
chordata, ectotherms coldblooded, endotherms warm blooded
5 classes? aves / birds amphibia reptilia? pisces / fish
mammalia 4,629spp placental, marsupial
26 orders: rodentia 2024spp chiroptera 928spp insectivora 429sp shrews
carnivora 271spp artiodactyla 220spp antelopes deer cattle
primates 236 spp
12 families
cebidae new world monkeys
cercopithecidae old world monkeys hominidae apes
genus and species gorilla gorilla pan troglodytes homo sapiens
hybrid
dichotomous key
EVOLUTION
fossils, evolution, homologous structures, vestigial structures
island biogeography, thry of ev by natural selection, charles darwin
overpopulation, variation mutation,
differential survival (survival of the fittest)
inheritance, adaption, speciation, extinction, genetics
CELLS
microscope, robert hooke 1665 cells, size of cells, num of cells
nutrients, 100 basic small molecules,
minerals Na, Ca, Mg, K, transition metals
vitamins, fat soluble A, D, E?
water soluble B1 thiamine, B2 riboflavin, B12, C, K
coenzymes
carbohydrates, glucose etc, polymer, macromolecule
polysaccharides starch glycogen cellulose
22 amino acids
1000+ proteins enzymes structural proteins
nucleic acids ATP RNA DNA
lipids cell membranes fats oils cholesterol
diffusion brownian motion, molecule, concentration gradient, active transport
osmosis, cell membrane, exchange of food waste
protoplasm, cytoplasm, nucleus, nuclear membrane, chromatin, viruses
AIDS/HIV, endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, golgi ap,
chromosome, genome, gene, replication, nucleotide, genetic code, mRNA
tRNA, ribosomes, proteins
vacoule, chloroplast, mitochondria, cell wall
LIFE
energy flow, entropy, maintenance of pattern, incorporation of food, growth
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
chloroplasts, chlorophyll, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon fixation
CELLULAR RESPIRATION
sugars, glucose, anerobic respiration, fermentation, aerobic respiration
NITROGEN FIXATION
amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, dinitrogen, nitrogen fixing bacteria
nitrogen cycle, legumes
GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEM CYCLES
water cycle, vegetation protects soil, transpiration in plants
carbon cycle, redox, carbonates
oxygen, sulfates, carbonates
nitrogen cycle, bacteria
GROWTH
s.a to vol ratio, protists, animals, growth, tissues
REPRODUCTION
asexual reproduction, mitosis, chromosomes, prophase, metaphase, anaphase
telophase
SEX
sexual reproduction, diploid, haploid, chromosome #, heredity, genetics
gene, dominant, recessive ,homozygous, heterozygous, sickle celled anemia
genetic diseases, genetic engineering, genetically modified food
genetic fingerprintng
fertilization, gamete production, gametes, sperm, egg ovum, crossing over,
recombination, meiosis, extra stages, law of independant assortment,
sex chromos (det), x chromo, y chromo
mutations, cloning
ORGANISMS
animal, plant, organism, embryo, development, cell specialization,
organ systems
nervous system, circ sys, resp sys, dig sys, excr sys, endocr sys, imm sys
repro sys, musc skell sys
RESPIRATORY SYS
lungs, diaphragm, breathing, alveoli, gas exchange, bronchioles, trachea
DIGESTV SYS
degestion, mechanical digestion, esophagus, saliva, extracellular digestion
enzymes, stomach, gastric acids, fats - lipase, carbohydrates - amylase
proteins - pepsin, roughage ,small intestines, villi
pancreas pancreatic juice=enzymes, liver
gall bladder bile from liver = neutralize acid and emulsify fat
absorbtion
large intestine (colon), rectum feces anus, ulcer, acid reflux
EXCRETORY SYSTEM
excretion, urinary system, kidney, urine, urea, urinary bladder
CIRC SYSTEM
transport, arteries, veins, capillaries,
to lungs, liver, stomach/intestines, kidneys, other tissues
pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, lungs, carbon dioxide, oxygen,
heart, atria, ventricals, valves, pulse rate, coronary arteries, plaque
heart attack, cholesterol, exersize
blood, plasma, blood clotting, red blood cels, hemoglobin, diffusion
white blood cells, lymphocytes produce antibodies, antibodies, phagocytes
immunity, blood groups, rhesus factor Rh, organ transplants
MUSC SKELET SYS
bones 206, calcium phosphate, marrow, cartilage, joints, ball and socket
ligaments tie bones together, osteoporosis, vertibrae, teeth, tooth decay
muscles about 600, skeletal voluntary striated, smooth involuntary, cardiac
tendon
SKIN
protection sensory water temperature regulation fat storage
vitamin D production, hair sebaceous gland erector muscle
epidermis with dead cell layer, dermis fibrous proteins
subcutaneous layer fats, sweat gland
REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM
gonads, testes, prostate, semen, ovaries, estrogen, uterus womb,
menstrual cycle, ovulation, menstruation, menopause
conception, zygote, embryo, pregnancy, implantation, fetus, amniotic fluid
placenta, umbilical cord, miscarriage
identical nonidentical twins, in vitro fertilization, breech birth
cesaerean birth/section,, puberty adolescence, testosterone, estrogen
NERVOUS SYSTEM
neurons, nerve impulse, synapse,
sensory visual auditory taste olfactory touch others
animal senses lateral line, palps, antennae, whiskers, electrical
motor, connecting,
eye, iris, pupil, lens, retina, rods cones, optic nerve, occipital region
ear hearing balance, middle ear eardrum malleus incus stapes
inner ear cochlea, semicircular canals
stroke, voluntary fcts, cerbrum, cerebellum
involuntary fcts, medula oblongata,
inv muscles smooth and cardiac, diaphragm peristalsis
hypothalamus, autonomic nervous system, pituitary gland
homeostasis water and heat regulation
spine cord, reflexes, paralysis, vertibrae
HOMEOSTASIS
information between systems hormones, nervous system, endocrine glands
negative feedback
metabolic rate thyroid gland thyroxine
thermoregulation metabolic rate, skin, breathing behavior shivering
readyness for action adrenal gland adrenaline
osmoregulation kedneys, behavior drinking hypothalamus, pituitary
glucose level pancreas insulin glucagon liver glycogen
liver glucose levels, deamination of aminos, makes bile, stores vit A, D
makes cholesterol, breaks down red cells, modifies harmful substances
for removal by kidneys
PLANTS
chloroplasts, vacuole 2dim fluid creature with turgor skeleton, meristem
apical tissue buds, bud
cambium, phloem, xylem
leaf, palisade layer, stomate, transpiration
stem, underground corm bulb rhizome stolon tuber
root, root hairs, absorbs water and minerals, active transport, osmosis
vegetative reproduction, clone
flowers, sepal petal, stamen anther pollen, pistil stigma ovary fruit
ovule seed, seed dispersal, germination, pollination
wind pollination, insect pollination, nectar, seeds
TROPISMS
stomates, heliotropism,, geotropism gravity, hydrotropism, touch tropism
plants explore their environment
homo sapiens, chimpanzee, gorilla, primates
little brown bat
beaver, field mouse, rat, grey squirrel, hamster, porcupine
blue whale, porpoise
asian elephant
raccoon
possum, kangaroo
seals
ferret, skunk, river otter, sea otter
dog, wolf, red fox, coyote
cat, lion, tiger
rhino, horse, zebra,
cow, buffalo, sheep, goat, deer, girrafe, hippopotomus
brown bear
american eagle, red tailed hawk, mallard, canada goose, seagull, barn owl
penguins, pigeon, mourning dove, ruby throat hummingbird, chicken
parrots, downy woodpecker, crow, robbin, weaver finch, bluejay,
black capped chickadee, ostrich
alligator, gekko gekko, green anole, chameleons
garter snake, anaconda, boa constrictor
snapping turtle, box turtle, sea turtles
american toad, bullfrog, spring peeper, red eft
sunfish, armored catfish, goldfish, guppy, rainbow trout, moray eel, sharks
chiclids, salmon, sea horses
sea squirts
starfish
lobsters, fiddler crabs, beach fleas, barnacles, ostracods, cyclops
sow bugs, small millipedes, stout centipede,
dog tick, red water mites, red soil mites, oribitid mites
argiope garden spider, phidipus
apis mellifera, halictus, vespula, fig wasp
atta, pheidole, formica, camponotus herculeanus
house fly, mosquitoes, monarch, fall army worm
june bug, coccinelidae, black carabids, weevils
periplaneta, field cricket, migratory locust, aphids, fleas, Ajax
round colembolans
jelly fish, corals
nematodes
earthworm
octopi, moon snails, cone snails, scallops, mussels
yellow garden slug, long fresh water snails,
stentor, euglena, phacus, volvox, chlamydomonas, fucus, diatoms
GEOLOGY 180wds
MINERALS
minerals 2,500 kinds, crystalline structure ,rocks, compounds, elements
oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium,
carbon, sulfur
cleavage, hardness, color, lustre, density, color, crystal structure
feldspar, olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, mica, quartz
oxides sulfides ores, halides salt, carbonates seashells limetone
ROCKS
volcanism, magma, igneous, intrusive, granite, pegmatites,
extrusive, basalt, obsidian
metamorphic, mountain building, contact metamorphism
slate, gneiss, schist, marble, quartzite,
weathering erosion, sedimentary, conglomerate, sandstone, shale, limestone
EROSION
weathering, mechanical, freezing water, temperature change,biotic movement
chemical, water, carbonic acid, clays, limestone caves, oxidation
biotic production of soil
erosion, mass wasting landslides, glaciers, u shaped valleys, glacial till
wind, running water, rain, floods, rivers, deltas, grand canyon
soil, regolith results of weathering, plants, burrowing, worms, ants, humus
soil, climate, nitrates, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium,sulfates
pedalfer northern forests humus sand clay iron aluminum
pedocal midwest west grasslands calcite less rain
laterites tropics less humus more iron aluminum less silica
agriculture, soil waste, soil conservation
TECTONICS MOUNTAIN BUILDING
plaate tectonics, continental drift, pangea, crust,
mantle, outer core, inner core
magnetic field, north magnetic pole (maps) (geography?)
angle of declination changes many degrees per cent
density, seismic waves, earthquakes, richter scale
mantle convection, upper mantle, asthenosphere, lithosphere, plates,
continental crust, ocean crust
mid ocean ridges, divergent boundaries, sea floor spreading
convergent boundaries, subduction zone, mountain building, volcanoes
ocean trenches, island arcs, continental convergent boundaries
himalayas appalachians
transform fault, earthquakes
GEOLOGICAL TIME
stratigraphy, paleontology, geochronology, relative age ,radiometric dating
radioactive decay, age of earliest rocks, fossils, mass extinctions
precambrian, paleozoic era, trilobites
permian extinction 70 90% spp lost
mesozoic era triassic jurassic cretaceous, dinosaurs, ammonites
mammals angiosperms insects birds, cretaceous extinction
cenezoic era
quaternary period past 2million years, pleistocene epoch, ice ages
holocene recent since last ice age/agriculture
archaeology
OCEANOGRAPHY 25wds
sea level, changes in sea level, glaciation, tides, spring tide, neap tide,
ocean, ice, ground water, rivers and lakes, water vapor, estuaries,
ocean currents, surface currents, convection currents, coriolis effect
gulf stream, north atlantic gyre, deep currents,
salinity, temperature, density
continental shelf, avg depth
ATMOSPHERE 143wds
weather, meteorology, temperature, humidity, pressure, cloudiness, wind
precipitation
climate, climatology, latitude, altitude, topography of landforms
land and water distribution, ocean currents, prevailing winds
belts of high low atmospheric pressure, cloud cover, axis tilt,
uneven insolation, uneven heating, solar constant, seasons, climates
climate change, ice ages, global warming
weather is the mechanism by which heat reradiated from the surface to
the atmosphere is moved around from one place to another
radiation, conduction, convection ,advection (wind), coriolis effect
circular cells, high pressure anticyclone clockwise in n. hem
low pressure cyclone, equator calmer coriolios effect
tropics overhead sun more heat in than out
north and south poles more heat out than in
ice caps, belts of high low pressure, prevailing winds, land
sea breeze land breeze ?? which dir?
ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION
troposphere, cloud formation, tropopause, ozone layer, ultraviolet radiation
chlorofluorohydrocarbons cfcs, stratosphere, ionosphere, exosphere
nitrogen, oxygen, water vapour, argon helium neon and nitrogen, carbon dioxide
WATER CYCLE
evaporation, convection, humidity, relative humidity, saturation, condensation
dew, frost, fog, clouds, condensation nuclei, precipitation
FRESHWATER BODIES
ponds, lakes, rivers, swamps, estuaries
anomolous expansion of water
CLOUDS
stability /altitude, unstable low, cumulus clouds, cumulonimbus / thunderhead
stable, cirrus high wispy cirrocumulus mackeral sky
stratus clouds low, nimbostratus low rain bearing
rain, drizzle, sleet, snow
air masses, source regions, stability
tropical polar air masses diverge from source
middle latitues exhibit convergence called fronts
cold front, warm front, stationary front
occluded front warm air mass entirely lifted over cold
coriolis effect, cyclone counterclockwise in north hem., low pressure
cumulonimbus thunderstorm, hail, turbulence, friction, static charges
lightning, current 10,000 amps, temperature 30,000 deg, lightning rod
conduction, thunder,
hurricanes, tornadoes, wind speed
weather forcasting, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
weather stations, weather satellites, radar
temperature - thermometer - deg cels fahr
humidity - psychrometer - %hum
pressure - mercurial barometer aneroid barometer - millibars inches mercury
precipitation - rain gauge - centimeters/inches rainfall
wind - anemometer - compass direction, miles per hour
weather map
long range forcasting 6,7 days
longer not poss because the atmosphere is a chaotic system
CHEMISTRY 330wds
matter, solid, liquid, gas, plasma
elements, atoms, mixture, chemical symbol, compounds, molecules
chemical formula, structural formula,
reactivity, electrical conductivity, heat conductivity, luster,
metal, alkali and alkaline earths gr 1, 2, nonmetal, metalloids
density, boiling point, solubility
hydrogen helium
carbon nitrogen oxygen phosphorus sulfer chlorine
iron silicon aluminum
gallium germanium arsenic tin antimony
nickel copper zinc silver gold lead mercury
vanadium chromium manganese cobolt molybdenum, Zinc
sodium magnesium potassium calcium
noble gases He, Ne etc
rare earth elements
gasses, law of definite proportions, Lavoisier and the discovery of oxygen
Mendeleyev, periodic law, periodic chart of elements, group, period
atomic number, electron shells, valence, electron, atomic weight, isotopes
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
chemical change, physical change, reactants, products
forward reaction, backward reaction, irrersible reaction, reversible reaction
equilibrium, chemical equation, coefficients, subscripts,
conservation of matter, balancing equations,
synthesis, decomposition, combustion, redox, neutralization, precipitate
MIXTURES, COMPOUNDS
mixtures, solution, solute, solvent, polar solvent, water, alcohol
non-polar solvent, detergents
homogeneous, aqueous solution, distillation,
solid solution, alloy, distinct proportions, brass, bronz, steel
amalgam mercury
BONDING
electrons, ionic bond, electromagnetic attraction, valence shell
covalent bond, octet rule, metalic bond, hydrogen bonding,
van der Waal's forces
small covalent molecules diatomic triatomic, covalent networks
ionic compounds, cations metals, anions nonmetals, metals
CHEMICAL CALCULATIONS
atomic mass unit, gram, atomic mass, molecular mass, mole, molar mass
molar volume of a gas, (calcs on pg 155 science dict)
concentration, liter, mliter, density, volume, molar solution, titration
chemical energy, electricity, heat, light, potential energy,
exothermic reaction, combustion, heat of reaction?
jouls, kjouls, calories, Calories
temperature, specific heat capacity, heat energy, thermal energy
change of state
thermometer, fahrenheit, celsius, freezing point, boiling point
kelvin or absolute scale, absolute zero, gas laws
KINETIC THEORY pg 178-181
fluid is gas or liquid, melting melting point freezin point
boiling point, evaporation, vapor pressure, condesnsation, sublimation
brownian motion, diffusion, kinetic theory of gases
boyle law: pv=k, charles : v=kt, pv=nRt,
absolute zero, kelvin scale
STP 0celsius and 1 atm 22.4liters /mole
pascal= newton per sqare meter 101,325/atm/760mm Hg
mercury barometer
THE ELEMENTS
hydrogen gas helium gas
coal, graphite, diamond, bucky balls
carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbonic acid, carbonate, methane ...
carbohydrates, organic molecules, hydrocarbons, ethane, propane
petroleum, lipids,
ammonia, amino acids,
oxygen gas, water, ozone, phosphate phosphoric acid, sulfate sulfuric acid
nitrate nitric acid, metal ores
chlorine gas, chlorinated hydrocarbons, CFCs
ATP, nucleic acids,
hydrogen sulfide, metal ores, protein cross bonding
iron oxides rust, magnetite etc steel,
silicon (electronics), along with the other semiconductors Ga, Ge, As, Sb, Sn
silicon dioxide (quartz) glass, (Fe, Na, Mg, K, Ca)aluminosilicate minerals
aluminum, aluminum oxide (rubies, abrasive)
bronze Cu+Sn, arsenic, brass Cu+Zn
transition metal ions for enzymes, magnesium in chloroplast, etc
table salt, metal ions in biol solution, calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate
calcium phosphate,
ACIDS BASES SALTS
ion, hydrogen ion, bydroxide ion, acid
organic acids: acetic acid citric ascid
mineral acids: hydrochloric acid, sulfuric, nitric, carbonic
base, alkaline, ammonia borax lye detergents,
neutralization reaction, salt, electrolytes, neutral, litmus test,
pH, logarithmic scale, concentration, solubility
oxidation, reduction, oxidizing gent, reducing agent
rusting
corrosion when metals and minerals come in contact with acids
electroplating
sulfer dioxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide pollution->acids
acid rain
electric cell, battery, rechargeable battery
dry cell alkline cell car battery
voltage, direct current
pH balance, buffers, balance in blood
reaction rate, affected by temp, increased by catalysts, catalysts
chemical equilibrium, static equilibrium, dynamic equilibrium
what is a steady concentration of moites due to balancing cyclic reactions
of a system not in thermodynamic equilibrium?
non equilibrium cycles ie atmos gases under sunlight
enzymes
EVERYDAY CHEM
Haber process to fix N2 into ammonia for fertilizers etc
petroleum, gasoline, natural gas, heating oil, coal
ores, electrolytic reduction of aluminum ore bauxite
smelting of iron ores
sodium hydrogen carbonate bicarb of soda NaHCO3 baking soda?
sodium carbonate Na2CO3 baking soda
calcium oxide lime treat acid soils refine iron
calcium hydroxide slaked lime
chlorination of water to kill bacts
hard water calcium and magnesium ions bind soap into scum, lv deposits
charcoal
NO and NO2 are emitted from car exhaust and facts: pollute
alcohols, fermentation: sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide
organic acids, esters acid and alcohol to make fragrances and flavoring
polymers, synthetic, nylon, rubber, polyester, acrylic
flammability, warning labels, plastics
chlorine bleach
biodegradable, non-biodegradable
air pollution, greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, CFSs,
catalytic converter
ATOMS
atomic theory, dalton, avogadro, brownian motion, crystal structure
x-ray diffraction, avogadro's number, mole, molar mass, atomic weights
mass spectrometer, atomic mass, isotopes, nucleus, subatomic particles
protons, neutrons, fusion, mass defect, mass energy eq E=Mc2
electrons, charge, orbit, nuclear force, potential energy
radioactivity
radiation emwaves, xrays gamma rays and alpha beta particles
background radioation
radon gas
alpha particle helium nuc pos chg doesnt pentrate far but highly ionizing
beta particle electrons more penetrating but less ionizing
gamma rad most penetrating but least ionizing, dict says most dangerous
uranium, plutonium, thorium, carbon 14, radioactive decay, half life
geiger counter, dosimeter, radioactive tracers in research
radioisotope dating
x-rays in research and medicine, CAT scans, MRI
nuclear fission chain reaction, nuclear reactor
radioactive effect on living organisms, nuclear medicine
radioactive waste disposal
fission bomb (A-bomb), fusion bomb (H-bomb), fallout
PHYSICS ~200wds
mechanics, gravity
law of universal gravitation f=Gmm/r2
law of inirtia body in motion or at rest remains (constant veloc) until acted
on by a force resisted by inirtia= mass
law of applied force change in vel and dir = acceleration in proportion to
mass times force f=ma
weight, magnitude, direction, vector, f=mg, mass kg, newtons
law of action and opposite reaction
(fuzzy on diff betwe action reaction pairs and equilibrium pairs)
compression, tension
equilibrium, stable unstable equilib
spring force elastic potential energy hookes law f=kd
friction force, tension
momentum
CALCS
significant figures, accuracy, precision, rounding
length meter, mass kilogram, time second, temp kelvin, charge coulomb
energy joule, force newton, pressure pascal, power watt
conversions, scientific notation, ruler, caliper, balance, spring balance
microscope, magnification, electron microscope, resolving power
v=u+at, s=ut+.5at2, v2-u2=2as, f=ma
periodic motion of spring, oscillation, circular motion
centripetal force=product of mass and squre vel div by radius
satellite orbits, escape velocity
WORK
work=force times distance in line of force
newtons meter=joule, energy
kinetic energy is one half product of mass and sqare of the veloc
potential energy, grav pot energy = mgh
power
law of conservation of energy, electrical energy, chemical energy
friction, heat, nuclear energy, light
transducers: battery, light bulb, loudspeaker, solar cell, microphone, motor
machines, lever, pulley, gear,
pressure, hydraulic lift, bouyant force, archimedes principle
STATES OF MATTER
temperature, solid, liquid, gas, specific heat, heat of state change
coefficient of expansion,
gas law pv=nRT, fahrenheit, celsius, joul, cal
mechanical energy to heat equivalent
conduction, convection, radiation
KINETIC THEORY OF MATTER
temp = avg kinetic energy of molecules in gas
WAVES=periodic disturbance against a force(=work) through a vacuum or a
medium which transmits energy.
sound, light, vibratio, water waves, longitudinal waves: sound
transverse waves: water waves, waves on a string, light
crest, wavelength, frequency
speed is product of wavelength times frequency
doppler effect, speed of sound, ultrasound, sonar, pitch, loudness
beats, harmonics, resonance
opaque, translucent, transparent
reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, polarization
refraction, lenses, magnification, telescope, microscope
prism, spectrum
subtractive mixing things look green cause they absorb all other colors
ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
gamma xray ultraviolet visible IR microwaves radio
red orange yellow green blue indigo violet
speed of light, inverse square law
radio transmitter, radio waves, receiver
transducer sound/light to electricity and back
digital signal, analog signal, communication satellits
photoelectric effect, electrons, energy is proportional to wavelength
intensity, quantization of energy, photons, wave particle duality
ELECTRICITY
magnetism, lodestone, compass, Earth'spoles, magnetic field
likes repell unlikes attract
STATIC ELECTRICITY
frictional static buildup, charge
law of electrostatics like charges repell, unlikes attract
force is product of the charges div by sqare of dist
coulomb, insulator, conductor
magnetic force due to electric dipole moments of atoms aligned in solid
electroscope, lightning
ELECTRIC CURRENT
current is charge per second, amps, electromagnet, electric buzzer very clever
electric potential volt, capacitor, direct current, amps, circuit, battery
ammeter, voltmeter, resistance ohms, resistor, superconductor
faradays law of induction of emf, generator, alternator, alternating current
transformer, elec eneryg joul kwatt hour, power watts, fuse, electromagnet
loudspeaker
atomic energy coal solar energy wind hydroelectric tidal geothermal
electronics, transister, light emitting diode, silicon integrated cuircuits
SCIENTISTS 29wds
250 bce Aristarchos of Samos how to find dist to moon by earths shadow
and tried to get distance to sun, at least showed it was bigger than
earth and guessed that earth revolved around it!
240 bce Eratosthenes diameter of Earth
200 bce Archimedes
150 bce Hipparchus of Nicaea calculated distance to moon
1600 Galileo Galilei
1615 William Harvey
1662 Robert Boyle
1665 Robert Hooke
1665 Isaac Newton
1750 Carl Linnaeus
1765 James Watt
1796 Edward Jenner
1800 Alessandro Volta
1803 John Dalton
1808 Humphrey Davy
1811 Amadeo Avogadro
1831 Michael Faraday
1827 Robert Brown
1850 Jean Louis Rodolph Agassiz
1859 Charles Darwin
1869 Dimitri Mendeleev
1875 Louis Pasteur
1876 AlexanderGraham Bell
1879 Thomas Alva Edison
1894 Pierre Curie curie pt.
1895 Gugliemo Marconi
1897 Joseph Thomson
1898 Mare Curie
1905 Albert Einstein
1919 Ernest Rutherford
1928 Alexander Fleming
1955 Isaac Asimov suggests C14 decay in DNA can cause mutations
1961 Francis Crick
1961 James Watson
1961 Rosalind Franklin
1979 Walter Alvarez end cretaceous iridium band
ECOLOGY
ecosystems, organisms, environment biotic abiotic, food chain/ web
autotroph, primary producers, heterotrophs, primary consumers
herbivore, secondary consumers, tertiary consumer, predator, prey
carnivore insectivore omnivore, decomposers saprophytes
symbiosis, parasite, host, pathogen, vector
antibiotic, vaccine, malaria protoctist plasmodium anopheles mosquito
small egg gambit,large egg gambit, perennial, annual
herbaceous plants, woody plants, trees, shrubs
biomes
ocean, phytoplankton, plankton, benthos, upwelling
desert, temperate forest, tropical forest, grasslands
community, habitat, population, niche
agriculture, monocrops, erosin, deforestation, carbon fixation
renewable resources, non-renewable resources, extinction, habitat destruction
pesticides
classification, taxonomy
kingdom
monera, prokaryotes, bacteria, 20 metabolisms maintain biogeochem cycles
eukayotes, unicellular, multicellular
protista, protoctista, 30 non related groups 30,000 spp
amoeba, paramecium, euglena, algae, pond scum
fungi mushrooms, molds, yeasts, lichen, saprophytes, spores
microorganisms microbes
plantae 280,000 spp?
bryophytes, mosses, ferns,
conifers, seeds
angiosperms, flowers, fruit
monocotyledons grasses, wheat, lilies
dicotyledons
animalia heterotrophs, nervous system, blastula
30 phyla
mollusca 100,000 spp, snails, clams, octopi
annelids, segmented worms, earthworms
arthropoda 1-10million? crustacean, crabs, shrimps, arachnids, spiders
insects, exoskeleton, metamorphosis egg, larva, pupa, adult
flies, wasps, bees, ants, lepidoptera, beetles
echinoderms, starfish, sea urchins
chordata, ectotherms coldblooded, endotherms warm blooded
5 classes? aves / birds amphibia reptilia? pisces / fish
mammalia 4,629spp placental, marsupial
26 orders: rodentia 2024spp chiroptera 928spp insectivora 429sp shrews
carnivora 271spp artiodactyla 220spp antelopes deer cattle
primates 236 spp
12 families
cebidae new world monkeys
cercopithecidae old world monkeys hominidae apes
genus and species gorilla gorilla pan troglodytes homo sapiens
hybrid
dichotomous key
EVOLUTION
fossils, evolution, homologous structures, vestigial structures
island biogeography, thry of ev by natural selection, charles darwin
overpopulation, variation mutation,
differential survival (survival of the fittest)
inheritance, adaption, speciation, extinction, genetics
CELLS
microscope, robert hooke 1665 cells, size of cells, num of cells
nutrients, 100 basic small molecules,
minerals Na, Ca, Mg, K, transition metals
vitamins, fat soluble A, D, E?
water soluble B1 thiamine, B2 riboflavin, B12, C, K
coenzymes
carbohydrates, glucose etc, polymer, macromolecule
polysaccharides starch glycogen cellulose
22 amino acids
1000+ proteins enzymes structural proteins
nucleic acids ATP RNA DNA
lipids cell membranes fats oils cholesterol
diffusion brownian motion, molecule, concentration gradient, active transport
osmosis, cell membrane, exchange of food waste
protoplasm, cytoplasm, nucleus, nuclear membrane, chromatin, viruses
AIDS/HIV, endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, golgi ap,
chromosome, genome, gene, replication, nucleotide, genetic code, mRNA
tRNA, ribosomes, proteins
vacoule, chloroplast, mitochondria, cell wall
LIFE
energy flow, entropy, maintenance of pattern, incorporation of food, growth
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
chloroplasts, chlorophyll, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon fixation
CELLULAR RESPIRATION
sugars, glucose, anerobic respiration, fermentation, aerobic respiration
NITROGEN FIXATION
amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, dinitrogen, nitrogen fixing bacteria
nitrogen cycle, legumes
GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEM CYCLES
water cycle, vegetation protects soil, transpiration in plants
carbon cycle, redox, carbonates
oxygen, sulfates, carbonates
nitrogen cycle, bacteria
GROWTH
s.a to vol ratio, protists, animals, growth, tissues
REPRODUCTION
asexual reproduction, mitosis, chromosomes, prophase, metaphase, anaphase
telophase
SEX
sexual reproduction, diploid, haploid, chromosome #, heredity, genetics
gene, dominant, recessive ,homozygous, heterozygous, sickle celled anemia
genetic diseases, genetic engineering, genetically modified food
genetic fingerprintng
fertilization, gamete production, gametes, sperm, egg ovum, crossing over,
recombination, meiosis, extra stages, law of independant assortment,
sex chromos (det), x chromo, y chromo
mutations, cloning
ORGANISMS
animal, plant, organism, embryo, development, cell specialization,
organ systems
nervous system, circ sys, resp sys, dig sys, excr sys, endocr sys, imm sys
repro sys, musc skell sys
RESPIRATORY SYS
lungs, diaphragm, breathing, alveoli, gas exchange, bronchioles, trachea
DIGESTV SYS
degestion, mechanical digestion, esophagus, saliva, extracellular digestion
enzymes, stomach, gastric acids, fats - lipase, carbohydrates - amylase
proteins - pepsin, roughage ,small intestines, villi
pancreas pancreatic juice=enzymes, liver
gall bladder bile from liver = neutralize acid and emulsify fat
absorbtion
large intestine (colon), rectum feces anus, ulcer, acid reflux
EXCRETORY SYSTEM
excretion, urinary system, kidney, urine, urea, urinary bladder
CIRC SYSTEM
transport, arteries, veins, capillaries,
to lungs, liver, stomach/intestines, kidneys, other tissues
pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, lungs, carbon dioxide, oxygen,
heart, atria, ventricals, valves, pulse rate, coronary arteries, plaque
heart attack, cholesterol, exersize
blood, plasma, blood clotting, red blood cels, hemoglobin, diffusion
white blood cells, lymphocytes produce antibodies, antibodies, phagocytes
immunity, blood groups, rhesus factor Rh, organ transplants
MUSC SKELET SYS
bones 206, calcium phosphate, marrow, cartilage, joints, ball and socket
ligaments tie bones together, osteoporosis, vertibrae, teeth, tooth decay
muscles about 600, skeletal voluntary striated, smooth involuntary, cardiac
tendon
SKIN
protection sensory water temperature regulation fat storage
vitamin D production, hair sebaceous gland erector muscle
epidermis with dead cell layer, dermis fibrous proteins
subcutaneous layer fats, sweat gland
REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM
gonads, testes, prostate, semen, ovaries, estrogen, uterus womb,
menstrual cycle, ovulation, menstruation, menopause
conception, zygote, embryo, pregnancy, implantation, fetus, amniotic fluid
placenta, umbilical cord, miscarriage
identical nonidentical twins, in vitro fertilization, breech birth
cesaerean birth/section,, puberty adolescence, testosterone, estrogen
NERVOUS SYSTEM
neurons, nerve impulse, synapse,
sensory visual auditory taste olfactory touch others
animal senses lateral line, palps, antennae, whiskers, electrical
motor, connecting,
eye, iris, pupil, lens, retina, rods cones, optic nerve, occipital region
ear hearing balance, middle ear eardrum malleus incus stapes
inner ear cochlea, semicircular canals
stroke, voluntary fcts, cerbrum, cerebellum
involuntary fcts, medula oblongata,
inv muscles smooth and cardiac, diaphragm peristalsis
hypothalamus, autonomic nervous system, pituitary gland
homeostasis water and heat regulation
spine cord, reflexes, paralysis, vertibrae
HOMEOSTASIS
information between systems hormones, nervous system, endocrine glands
negative feedback
metabolic rate thyroid gland thyroxine
thermoregulation metabolic rate, skin, breathing behavior shivering
readyness for action adrenal gland adrenaline
osmoregulation kedneys, behavior drinking hypothalamus, pituitary
glucose level pancreas insulin glucagon liver glycogen
liver glucose levels, deamination of aminos, makes bile, stores vit A, D
makes cholesterol, breaks down red cells, modifies harmful substances
for removal by kidneys
PLANTS
chloroplasts, vacuole 2dim fluid creature with turgor skeleton, meristem
apical tissue buds, bud
cambium, phloem, xylem
leaf, palisade layer, stomate, transpiration
stem, underground corm bulb rhizome stolon tuber
root, root hairs, absorbs water and minerals, active transport, osmosis
vegetative reproduction, clone
flowers, sepal petal, stamen anther pollen, pistil stigma ovary fruit
ovule seed, seed dispersal, germination, pollination
wind pollination, insect pollination, nectar, seeds
TROPISMS
stomates, heliotropism,, geotropism gravity, hydrotropism, touch tropism
plants explore their environment
homo sapiens, chimpanzee, gorilla, primates
little brown bat
beaver, field mouse, rat, grey squirrel, hamster, porcupine
blue whale, porpoise
asian elephant
raccoon
possum, kangaroo
seals
ferret, skunk, river otter, sea otter
dog, wolf, red fox, coyote
cat, lion, tiger
rhino, horse, zebra,
cow, buffalo, sheep, goat, deer, girrafe, hippopotomus
brown bear
american eagle, red tailed hawk, mallard, canada goose, seagull, barn owl
penguins, pigeon, mourning dove, ruby throat hummingbird, chicken
parrots, downy woodpecker, crow, robbin, weaver finch, bluejay,
black capped chickadee, ostrich
alligator, gekko gekko, green anole, chameleons
garter snake, anaconda, boa constrictor
snapping turtle, box turtle, sea turtles
american toad, bullfrog, spring peeper, red eft
sunfish, armored catfish, goldfish, guppy, rainbow trout, moray eel, sharks
chiclids, salmon, sea horses
sea squirts
starfish
lobsters, fiddler crabs, beach fleas, barnacles, ostracods, cyclops
sow bugs, small millipedes, stout centipede,
dog tick, red water mites, red soil mites, oribitid mites
argiope garden spider, phidipus
apis mellifera, halictus, vespula, fig wasp
atta, pheidole, formica, camponotus herculeanus
house fly, mosquitoes, monarch, fall army worm
june bug, coccinelidae, black carabids, weevils
periplaneta, field cricket, migratory locust, aphids, fleas, Ajax
round colembolans
jelly fish, corals
nematodes
earthworm
octopi, moon snails, cone snails, scallops, mussels
yellow garden slug, long fresh water snails,
stentor, euglena, phacus, volvox, chlamydomonas, fucus, diatoms
GEOLOGY 180wds
MINERALS
minerals 2,500 kinds, crystalline structure ,rocks, compounds, elements
oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium,
carbon, sulfur
cleavage, hardness, color, lustre, density, color, crystal structure
feldspar, olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, mica, quartz
oxides sulfides ores, halides salt, carbonates seashells limetone
ROCKS
volcanism, magma, igneous, intrusive, granite, pegmatites,
extrusive, basalt, obsidian
metamorphic, mountain building, contact metamorphism
slate, gneiss, schist, marble, quartzite,
weathering erosion, sedimentary, conglomerate, sandstone, shale, limestone
EROSION
weathering, mechanical, freezing water, temperature change,biotic movement
chemical, water, carbonic acid, clays, limestone caves, oxidation
biotic production of soil
erosion, mass wasting landslides, glaciers, u shaped valleys, glacial till
wind, running water, rain, floods, rivers, deltas, grand canyon
soil, regolith results of weathering, plants, burrowing, worms, ants, humus
soil, climate, nitrates, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium,sulfates
pedalfer northern forests humus sand clay iron aluminum
pedocal midwest west grasslands calcite less rain
laterites tropics less humus more iron aluminum less silica
agriculture, soil waste, soil conservation
TECTONICS MOUNTAIN BUILDING
plaate tectonics, continental drift, pangea, crust,
mantle, outer core, inner core
magnetic field, north magnetic pole (maps) (geography?)
angle of declination changes many degrees per cent
density, seismic waves, earthquakes, richter scale
mantle convection, upper mantle, asthenosphere, lithosphere, plates,
continental crust, ocean crust
mid ocean ridges, divergent boundaries, sea floor spreading
convergent boundaries, subduction zone, mountain building, volcanoes
ocean trenches, island arcs, continental convergent boundaries
himalayas appalachians
transform fault, earthquakes
GEOLOGICAL TIME
stratigraphy, paleontology, geochronology, relative age ,radiometric dating
radioactive decay, age of earliest rocks, fossils, mass extinctions
precambrian, paleozoic era, trilobites
permian extinction 70 90% spp lost
mesozoic era triassic jurassic cretaceous, dinosaurs, ammonites
mammals angiosperms insects birds, cretaceous extinction
cenezoic era
quaternary period past 2million years, pleistocene epoch, ice ages
holocene recent since last ice age/agriculture
archaeology
OCEANOGRAPHY 25wds
sea level, changes in sea level, glaciation, tides, spring tide, neap tide,
ocean, ice, ground water, rivers and lakes, water vapor, estuaries,
ocean currents, surface currents, convection currents, coriolis effect
gulf stream, north atlantic gyre, deep currents,
salinity, temperature, density
continental shelf, avg depth
ATMOSPHERE 143wds
weather, meteorology, temperature, humidity, pressure, cloudiness, wind
precipitation
climate, climatology, latitude, altitude, topography of landforms
land and water distribution, ocean currents, prevailing winds
belts of high low atmospheric pressure, cloud cover, axis tilt,
uneven insolation, uneven heating, solar constant, seasons, climates
climate change, ice ages, global warming
weather is the mechanism by which heat reradiated from the surface to
the atmosphere is moved around from one place to another
radiation, conduction, convection ,advection (wind), coriolis effect
circular cells, high pressure anticyclone clockwise in n. hem
low pressure cyclone, equator calmer coriolios effect
tropics overhead sun more heat in than out
north and south poles more heat out than in
ice caps, belts of high low pressure, prevailing winds, land
sea breeze land breeze ?? which dir?
ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION
troposphere, cloud formation, tropopause, ozone layer, ultraviolet radiation
chlorofluorohydrocarbons cfcs, stratosphere, ionosphere, exosphere
nitrogen, oxygen, water vapour, argon helium neon and nitrogen, carbon dioxide
WATER CYCLE
evaporation, convection, humidity, relative humidity, saturation, condensation
dew, frost, fog, clouds, condensation nuclei, precipitation
FRESHWATER BODIES
ponds, lakes, rivers, swamps, estuaries
anomolous expansion of water
CLOUDS
stability /altitude, unstable low, cumulus clouds, cumulonimbus / thunderhead
stable, cirrus high wispy cirrocumulus mackeral sky
stratus clouds low, nimbostratus low rain bearing
rain, drizzle, sleet, snow
air masses, source regions, stability
tropical polar air masses diverge from source
middle latitues exhibit convergence called fronts
cold front, warm front, stationary front
occluded front warm air mass entirely lifted over cold
coriolis effect, cyclone counterclockwise in north hem., low pressure
cumulonimbus thunderstorm, hail, turbulence, friction, static charges
lightning, current 10,000 amps, temperature 30,000 deg, lightning rod
conduction, thunder,
hurricanes, tornadoes, wind speed
weather forcasting, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
weather stations, weather satellites, radar
temperature - thermometer - deg cels fahr
humidity - psychrometer - %hum
pressure - mercurial barometer aneroid barometer - millibars inches mercury
precipitation - rain gauge - centimeters/inches rainfall
wind - anemometer - compass direction, miles per hour
weather map
long range forcasting 6,7 days
longer not poss because the atmosphere is a chaotic system
CHEMISTRY 330wds
matter, solid, liquid, gas, plasma
elements, atoms, mixture, chemical symbol, compounds, molecules
chemical formula, structural formula,
reactivity, electrical conductivity, heat conductivity, luster,
metal, alkali and alkaline earths gr 1, 2, nonmetal, metalloids
density, boiling point, solubility
hydrogen helium
carbon nitrogen oxygen phosphorus sulfer chlorine
iron silicon aluminum
gallium germanium arsenic tin antimony
nickel copper zinc silver gold lead mercury
vanadium chromium manganese cobolt molybdenum, Zinc
sodium magnesium potassium calcium
noble gases He, Ne etc
rare earth elements
gasses, law of definite proportions, Lavoisier and the discovery of oxygen
Mendeleyev, periodic law, periodic chart of elements, group, period
atomic number, electron shells, valence, electron, atomic weight, isotopes
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
chemical change, physical change, reactants, products
forward reaction, backward reaction, irrersible reaction, reversible reaction
equilibrium, chemical equation, coefficients, subscripts,
conservation of matter, balancing equations,
synthesis, decomposition, combustion, redox, neutralization, precipitate
MIXTURES, COMPOUNDS
mixtures, solution, solute, solvent, polar solvent, water, alcohol
non-polar solvent, detergents
homogeneous, aqueous solution, distillation,
solid solution, alloy, distinct proportions, brass, bronz, steel
amalgam mercury
BONDING
electrons, ionic bond, electromagnetic attraction, valence shell
covalent bond, octet rule, metalic bond, hydrogen bonding,
van der Waal's forces
small covalent molecules diatomic triatomic, covalent networks
ionic compounds, cations metals, anions nonmetals, metals
CHEMICAL CALCULATIONS
atomic mass unit, gram, atomic mass, molecular mass, mole, molar mass
molar volume of a gas, (calcs on pg 155 science dict)
concentration, liter, mliter, density, volume, molar solution, titration
chemical energy, electricity, heat, light, potential energy,
exothermic reaction, combustion, heat of reaction?
jouls, kjouls, calories, Calories
temperature, specific heat capacity, heat energy, thermal energy
change of state
thermometer, fahrenheit, celsius, freezing point, boiling point
kelvin or absolute scale, absolute zero, gas laws
KINETIC THEORY pg 178-181
fluid is gas or liquid, melting melting point freezin point
boiling point, evaporation, vapor pressure, condesnsation, sublimation
brownian motion, diffusion, kinetic theory of gases
boyle law: pv=k, charles : v=kt, pv=nRt,
absolute zero, kelvin scale
STP 0celsius and 1 atm 22.4liters /mole
pascal= newton per sqare meter 101,325/atm/760mm Hg
mercury barometer
THE ELEMENTS
hydrogen gas helium gas
coal, graphite, diamond, bucky balls
carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbonic acid, carbonate, methane ...
carbohydrates, organic molecules, hydrocarbons, ethane, propane
petroleum, lipids,
ammonia, amino acids,
oxygen gas, water, ozone, phosphate phosphoric acid, sulfate sulfuric acid
nitrate nitric acid, metal ores
chlorine gas, chlorinated hydrocarbons, CFCs
ATP, nucleic acids,
hydrogen sulfide, metal ores, protein cross bonding
iron oxides rust, magnetite etc steel,
silicon (electronics), along with the other semiconductors Ga, Ge, As, Sb, Sn
silicon dioxide (quartz) glass, (Fe, Na, Mg, K, Ca)aluminosilicate minerals
aluminum, aluminum oxide (rubies, abrasive)
bronze Cu+Sn, arsenic, brass Cu+Zn
transition metal ions for enzymes, magnesium in chloroplast, etc
table salt, metal ions in biol solution, calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate
calcium phosphate,
ACIDS BASES SALTS
ion, hydrogen ion, bydroxide ion, acid
organic acids: acetic acid citric ascid
mineral acids: hydrochloric acid, sulfuric, nitric, carbonic
base, alkaline, ammonia borax lye detergents,
neutralization reaction, salt, electrolytes, neutral, litmus test,
pH, logarithmic scale, concentration, solubility
oxidation, reduction, oxidizing gent, reducing agent
rusting
corrosion when metals and minerals come in contact with acids
electroplating
sulfer dioxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide pollution->acids
acid rain
electric cell, battery, rechargeable battery
dry cell alkline cell car battery
voltage, direct current
pH balance, buffers, balance in blood
reaction rate, affected by temp, increased by catalysts, catalysts
chemical equilibrium, static equilibrium, dynamic equilibrium
what is a steady concentration of moites due to balancing cyclic reactions
of a system not in thermodynamic equilibrium?
non equilibrium cycles ie atmos gases under sunlight
enzymes
EVERYDAY CHEM
Haber process to fix N2 into ammonia for fertilizers etc
petroleum, gasoline, natural gas, heating oil, coal
ores, electrolytic reduction of aluminum ore bauxite
smelting of iron ores
sodium hydrogen carbonate bicarb of soda NaHCO3 baking soda?
sodium carbonate Na2CO3 baking soda
calcium oxide lime treat acid soils refine iron
calcium hydroxide slaked lime
chlorination of water to kill bacts
hard water calcium and magnesium ions bind soap into scum, lv deposits
charcoal
NO and NO2 are emitted from car exhaust and facts: pollute
alcohols, fermentation: sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide
organic acids, esters acid and alcohol to make fragrances and flavoring
polymers, synthetic, nylon, rubber, polyester, acrylic
flammability, warning labels, plastics
chlorine bleach
biodegradable, non-biodegradable
air pollution, greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, CFSs,
catalytic converter
ATOMS
atomic theory, dalton, avogadro, brownian motion, crystal structure
x-ray diffraction, avogadro's number, mole, molar mass, atomic weights
mass spectrometer, atomic mass, isotopes, nucleus, subatomic particles
protons, neutrons, fusion, mass defect, mass energy eq E=Mc2
electrons, charge, orbit, nuclear force, potential energy
radioactivity
radiation emwaves, xrays gamma rays and alpha beta particles
background radioation
radon gas
alpha particle helium nuc pos chg doesnt pentrate far but highly ionizing
beta particle electrons more penetrating but less ionizing
gamma rad most penetrating but least ionizing, dict says most dangerous
uranium, plutonium, thorium, carbon 14, radioactive decay, half life
geiger counter, dosimeter, radioactive tracers in research
radioisotope dating
x-rays in research and medicine, CAT scans, MRI
nuclear fission chain reaction, nuclear reactor
radioactive effect on living organisms, nuclear medicine
radioactive waste disposal
fission bomb (A-bomb), fusion bomb (H-bomb), fallout
PHYSICS ~200wds
mechanics, gravity
law of universal gravitation f=Gmm/r2
law of inirtia body in motion or at rest remains (constant veloc) until acted
on by a force resisted by inirtia= mass
law of applied force change in vel and dir = acceleration in proportion to
mass times force f=ma
weight, magnitude, direction, vector, f=mg, mass kg, newtons
law of action and opposite reaction
(fuzzy on diff betwe action reaction pairs and equilibrium pairs)
compression, tension
equilibrium, stable unstable equilib
spring force elastic potential energy hookes law f=kd
friction force, tension
momentum
CALCS
significant figures, accuracy, precision, rounding
length meter, mass kilogram, time second, temp kelvin, charge coulomb
energy joule, force newton, pressure pascal, power watt
conversions, scientific notation, ruler, caliper, balance, spring balance
microscope, magnification, electron microscope, resolving power
v=u+at, s=ut+.5at2, v2-u2=2as, f=ma
periodic motion of spring, oscillation, circular motion
centripetal force=product of mass and squre vel div by radius
satellite orbits, escape velocity
WORK
work=force times distance in line of force
newtons meter=joule, energy
kinetic energy is one half product of mass and sqare of the veloc
potential energy, grav pot energy = mgh
power
law of conservation of energy, electrical energy, chemical energy
friction, heat, nuclear energy, light
transducers: battery, light bulb, loudspeaker, solar cell, microphone, motor
machines, lever, pulley, gear,
pressure, hydraulic lift, bouyant force, archimedes principle
STATES OF MATTER
temperature, solid, liquid, gas, specific heat, heat of state change
coefficient of expansion,
gas law pv=nRT, fahrenheit, celsius, joul, cal
mechanical energy to heat equivalent
conduction, convection, radiation
KINETIC THEORY OF MATTER
temp = avg kinetic energy of molecules in gas
WAVES=periodic disturbance against a force(=work) through a vacuum or a
medium which transmits energy.
sound, light, vibratio, water waves, longitudinal waves: sound
transverse waves: water waves, waves on a string, light
crest, wavelength, frequency
speed is product of wavelength times frequency
doppler effect, speed of sound, ultrasound, sonar, pitch, loudness
beats, harmonics, resonance
opaque, translucent, transparent
reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, polarization
refraction, lenses, magnification, telescope, microscope
prism, spectrum
subtractive mixing things look green cause they absorb all other colors
ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
gamma xray ultraviolet visible IR microwaves radio
red orange yellow green blue indigo violet
speed of light, inverse square law
radio transmitter, radio waves, receiver
transducer sound/light to electricity and back
digital signal, analog signal, communication satellits
photoelectric effect, electrons, energy is proportional to wavelength
intensity, quantization of energy, photons, wave particle duality
ELECTRICITY
magnetism, lodestone, compass, Earth'spoles, magnetic field
likes repell unlikes attract
STATIC ELECTRICITY
frictional static buildup, charge
law of electrostatics like charges repell, unlikes attract
force is product of the charges div by sqare of dist
coulomb, insulator, conductor
magnetic force due to electric dipole moments of atoms aligned in solid
electroscope, lightning
ELECTRIC CURRENT
current is charge per second, amps, electromagnet, electric buzzer very clever
electric potential volt, capacitor, direct current, amps, circuit, battery
ammeter, voltmeter, resistance ohms, resistor, superconductor
faradays law of induction of emf, generator, alternator, alternating current
transformer, elec eneryg joul kwatt hour, power watts, fuse, electromagnet
loudspeaker
atomic energy coal solar energy wind hydroelectric tidal geothermal
electronics, transister, light emitting diode, silicon integrated cuircuits
SCIENTISTS 29wds
250 bce Aristarchos of Samos how to find dist to moon by earths shadow
and tried to get distance to sun, at least showed it was bigger than
earth and guessed that earth revolved around it!
240 bce Eratosthenes diameter of Earth
200 bce Archimedes
150 bce Hipparchus of Nicaea calculated distance to moon
1600 Galileo Galilei
1615 William Harvey
1662 Robert Boyle
1665 Robert Hooke
1665 Isaac Newton
1750 Carl Linnaeus
1765 James Watt
1796 Edward Jenner
1800 Alessandro Volta
1803 John Dalton
1808 Humphrey Davy
1811 Amadeo Avogadro
1831 Michael Faraday
1827 Robert Brown
1850 Jean Louis Rodolph Agassiz
1859 Charles Darwin
1869 Dimitri Mendeleev
1875 Louis Pasteur
1876 AlexanderGraham Bell
1879 Thomas Alva Edison
1894 Pierre Curie curie pt.
1895 Gugliemo Marconi
1897 Joseph Thomson
1898 Mare Curie
1905 Albert Einstein
1919 Ernest Rutherford
1928 Alexander Fleming
1955 Isaac Asimov suggests C14 decay in DNA can cause mutations
1961 Francis Crick
1961 James Watson
1961 Rosalind Franklin
1979 Walter Alvarez end cretaceous iridium band
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