The Newton Project erschließt nicht-wissenschaftliche (theologische und alchemistische) Manuskripte Newtons in elektronischer Form: “There are excellent editions of his mathematical and scientific papers, as well as of his correspondence, but very few of his non-scientific writings have ever appeared in print. The Newton Project will place these writings in their relevant contexts, which will be made accessible by means of hyperlinks.”

Timothy Ferris reviews a new biography of Isaac Newton: Isaac Newton by James Gleick (Pantheon). “… an elegantly written, insightful work that brings Newton to life and does him justice.” (via Arts & Letters Daily)

p. s. Patricia Fara in Science: “In describing how Newton pursued the active agent lying at the heart of Dame Nature, Gleick seems to be searching for the secret source of Newton's own mind through exposing not only his mathematical quandaries but also his sexual fantasies as he spiraled downward into melancholic solitude.”

p. s. From a review by John Banville in the Guardian: “Yet throughout his long life Newton continued to experiment in alchemy; indeed, he was, as Gleick writes, ‘the peerless alchemist of Europe’. These studies in the dark art were conducted in deepest secrecy, and did not come to light until centuries after his death, when a large portion of his papers were reassembled. The economist John Maynard Keynes, the saviour of much of this documentation, was astonished by what he read. ‘Newton,’ Keynes told his students at Trinity, ‘was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians.’

p. s. Another review by Robin McKie in Guardian Unlimited.

Daniel Dennett in The New York Times:

A bright is a person with a naturalist as opposed to a supernaturalist world view. We brights don't believe in ghosts or elves or the Easter Bunny — or God. We disagree about many things, and hold a variety of views about morality, politics and the meaning of life, but we share a disbelief in black magic — and life after death.
I am certainly a bright.

The time has come for us brights to come out of the closet.
See also The brights' Network. (via Arts & Letters Daily)

p. s. Das ist mir zu viel Trara. Ich nehme das Coming-out zurück und verziehe mich wieder auf's Örtchen: Mit diesen Brights stecke ich nicht unter einer Decke. Da bin ich lieber wieder ganz bescheiden ein Nihilist für mich allein.

From a review of Rémi Brague's book The Wisdom of the World: The Human Experience Of the Universe In Western Thought (University of Chicago Press):

A world is something that suits human beings, that is ordered to meet our perspective; that is why the Greek word for world, kosmos, means “order.” What we have today is something else, “the universe” — a cautious and hypothetical word, which simply designates everything that is or may be, whether we can know it or not.
(via Arts & Letters Daily)

Telepolis berichtet von Plänen der U. S. - amerikanischen Regierung, mehr Hochsicherheitslabore zu bauen und titelt: Schritt zum biologischen Wettrüsten. Sicherheitsstufe 4 bedeutet für ein Labor, dass man dort mit hochinfektiösen durch Aerosol übertragbaren Viren umgeht, die Krankheiten verursachen, zu denen es keine gut entwickelten Behandlungsmöglichkeiten gibt. S4 bedeutet aber nicht automatisch Biowaffen. Wer gefährliche Viren erforschen will, um Impfstoffe oder Therapien zu entwickeln, braucht auch ein S4-Labor.

Eine neues Buch von Giuliano Pancaldi über Alessandro Volta und die Wissenschaft und Kultur zur Zeit der Aufklärung: Volta: Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment.





p. s.: A review by Fabio Bevilacqua in American Scientist online.

So, ich bin durch und habe hoffentlich jetzt wieder mehr Zeit für Lotbuch-Schreibereien.

FitzRoy war der Kapitän der Beagle. Es gibt zwei neue Biographien. John Gribbin und Mary Gribbin: FitzRoy : The Remarkable Story of Darwin's Captain and the Invention of the Weather Forecast (Juli 2003) und Peter Nichols: Evolution's Captain (Juni 2003). Anthony Daniels im Telegraph:

His end was tragic: he cut his throat after the inaccuracy of his weather forecasts was cruelly mocked in public. His one-time protégé, Charles Darwin, had outstripped him in fame and public esteem, by propounding a theory that undermined his very deepest beliefs. His despair is painful to imagine.
p. s.: There's a review of both books in Nature.

“ … US workers with depression employed in the previous week cost employers an estimated 44 billion dollars per year in LPT [lost productive time], an excess of 31 billion dollars per year compared with peers without depression.” (JAMA 289, 3135)

Five facts. (via Arts & Letters Daily)

Jennifer Michael Hecht: The End of the Soul, kritisiert im New Scientist von Mike Holderness.

Die Société d'autopsie mutuelle war (Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts) eine Gesellschaft, deren Mitglieder sich verpflichteten ihre Körper und insbesondere ihre Gehirne nach ihrem Tode für eine Autopsie zur Verfügung zu stellen. Hecht schreibt, so Holderness, dass hier ein Ritual eingeführt wird, das die durch eine freidenkerische, antiklerikale Haltung erzeugte Leere füllen soll.

The End of the Soul seems motivated merely by annoyance at anticlericalism - and 400 pages is a lot of irritation. For fans of late 19th-century French thought, there are gems interred herein: for everyone else, it's a curiosity of pathological publishing. …

Mike Holderness is a card-carrying Quaker, therefore anticlerical, and since last month definitely an atheist

David Premack and Ann Premack: Original Intelligence. McGrawHill, 2003. Reviewed in science:

Written for a broad audience, Original Intelligence is certain to become a landmark in any journey aimed toward understanding the human mind from an evolutionary perspective. … Premacks' discussions in Original Intelligence highlight three key themes: behavioral and experimental approaches, chimpanzee cognition, and cognitive development in human infants. The contributions and themes both demonstrate David's position as an intellectual descendant of Skinner, Koehler, and Piaget. But his novel ideas--which, on the surface level, bear little resemblance to those of these predecessors--have carried him far beyond this trio.

Das könnte ein interessantes Buch sein. Auf deutsch: Jurij Dombrowskij, Suhrkamp, 1990.

Landschaft, Natur, Pflanzenwelt

“Die Dokumentation stellt Natur, speziell die Pflanzenwelt vor. 33
Bildserien mit rund 250 kommentierten Fotografien zeigen überwiegend
naturnahe Biotope. Bezugsraum: Nördliches Harzvorland (Niedersachsen,
Sachsen-Anhalt). Gliederung: Pflanzen in Auswahl, Biotope, Ortsstationen
mit Besuchshinweisen.

Die Site ist von Fachleuten erarbeitet, bemüht sich jedoch stets um
einfache und plausible Darstellung. Übrigens auch in den entsprechenden
Problem-Bereichen.”
Empfehlenswert.

Trotz Timeout: Steve Brooks vom Naturhistorischen Museum in London hat ein Buch über Libellen geschrieben und fotografiert (Dragonflies, April 2003). Ich habe es mal bestellt.