Thomas C. Grubb, Jr. : The Mind of the Trout.
A Cognitive Ecology for Biologists and Anglers. (Univ of Wisconsin Pr, June 2003)

How and why do trout think? How do they decide where to eat and which food to eat? Why do they refuse to behave as predicted, stumping anglers by rejecting a larger fly for a smaller one or not responding at all to anything in an angler's box?


(Mind the dogs.)

E-Text: The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil from the Earliest Times to the Present Day von Paul Carus, 1900 erschienen. (via das kollektiv)

Mit einem Kapitel über die noreuropäische Dämonologie von Johannes Gehrts sowie einem über die Inqisition.

Das Virtuelle Labor hat ein neues, lesenswertes Essay von Henning Schmidgen über Helmholtz ‘psychologische’ Zeit-Experimente. Es basiert auf einem früherem Beitrag in Endeavour (2002, 26:142). Ein großer Teil der Primärliteratur ist gleich im virtuellen Labor verfügbar. Schade nur, dass die Essays in zerstückelten HTML-Seiten daher kommen.

Unter dem Titel Form annehmen: prähistorische Kunst und wir (Taking shape: Prehistoric art and us) versucht Victoria James in The Japan Times dahinter zu kommen, was
prähistorische Kunst uns über die Entstehung des modernen Menschen sagen kann. Dabei kommt allerdings nicht viel bei herum. Sie erwähnt jedoch ein neues Buch von Randall White (Prehistoric Art: the Symbolic Journey of Humankind, Harry N. Abrams, July 2003): “‘Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind’ by Randall White of New York University, published last month, is a visually stunning account of the art and artifacts of early humans around the globe.”



p. s. Paul Bahn in The new scientist: “White himself considers this book's title "pretentious". I consider it misleading, since the vast majority of this work deals with the Palaeolithic art of Eurasia - a tiny, if important, fraction of world prehistoric art.”

An Essay by George Johnson.

“The primary reason [Galileo] was hauled before the Inquisition, [Arthur] Koestler argued [The Sleepwalkers, 1959], was not for teaching Copernicus's view that Earth and the planets revolved around the Sun, but for offending so many of his sympathizers […]

Pushing this idea furthe two new books, ‘Galileo's Mistake,’ by Wade Rowland (Arcade Publishing [July 2003]), and ‘Galileo in Rome’ by William R. Shea and Mariano Artigas (Oxford University Press [September 2003]), almost seem to sympathize with the inquisitors, making Galileo look like the dogmatist.”

Also interisting: ”Centuries after Galileo's book was banned, the physicist J. M. Jauch resurrected Salviati, Sagredo and Simplicio to discuss whether a new theory called quantum mechanics provided a true picture of an underlying reality or was just a convenient mathematical tool. He called his book "Are Quanta Real? A Galilean Dialogue" (Indiana University Press, 1973).”

Elizabeth Svoboda reports reasearch from neurochemist Gavin Lambert. He proposes that people may actually be driven to suicide by anxiety-causing serotonin spikes in spring and summer, which follow long winter periods of low serotonin activity. The story is based on a brief report by Lambert et al. in the American Journal of Psychiatry (2003; 160, 793).

There's a new book “A Concise History of Ornithology” by Michael Walters and Christopher Helm (june 2003), reviewed by fatbirder, a site about bird watching.

In eine Suchmaschine getippt: “proboscis snail”. Und dabei über folgenden Artikel von Richard Howey in der britischen Mikroskopie-Zeitschrift Micscape gestolpert: Snail's Teeth, Spicules, and Other Bizarre Delights: Or Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder (“Zähne, Stacheln und andere bizarre Erfreulichkeiten: Oder die Schönheit ist im Auge des Betrachters”).

Dies ist aber keine Proboscis, sondern eine Radula:

Ich bin umgezogen und habe in der neuen Wohnung noch kein Telefon- geschweige denn einen Internetanschluss, da die Telekom nicht in Quark kommt. Zumindest an meinem Arbeitsplatz kann ich jetzt wieder an's Netz, so dass es hoffentlich hier jetzt weitergeht.

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.