By tjnelson

T. J. Nelson is a research associate professor studying the biochemistry of memory and Alzheimer's disease at the
Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute in Rockville, Maryland.

INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM THERMO-EPISTEMOLOGY

– FROM THE ARCHIVE – This manuscript describes some of our recent findings in the exciting new field of quantum thermo-epistemology, a branch of implausibility theory dealing with fundamental questions such as: * Why does toast always land butter-side down? * Why do cars break down only when you need to go somewhere in an emergency? * Why do banks only lend money to people who don’t need it? We have found, surprisingly enough, that these vexing questions do in fact have a scientific answer, and have developed the beginnings of a theory, which is briefly described here. – –…

THE THAMNOPHOBIA CRISIS

– FROM THE ARCHIVE – Because the deadly scourge of thamnophobia moves slowly, many of its social, political, and economic effects have yet to be understood. The impact is hard to overstate. But we must be up to the task. The other day, I was talking to a colleague, a highly educated and intelligent person who is usually capable of insightful logic, understatement, and restraint. When the topic turned to President G.W. Bush. Suddenly, the conversation began to sound like this: “That g@#$#$%&#$%^m@$n Bush #&$#&$%^ !!!! 2#$^@ damn 3 f$%^@k$%^@$%g neocons s#o$n%@of# b$%t@#c%h hitler!!!!! @#$%@$%^#$ Karl Rove a@s#$s%h@ #ol$%e hell…

PHYSICS ENVY AMONG BIOLOGISTS: FACT OR FICTION?

– FROM THE ARCHIVE – Physicists often state their belief that all biologists would rather be physicists, but became biologists only because they were not very good at math. As evidence for this, they point to such findings as the fact that the vast majority of published studies in virology, cell biology, endocrinology, and even microbiology, use few if any partial differential equations or elements of number theory, and only one paper written by a biologist in the past 25 years (in the field of neurophysiology) has ever used tensor calculus. On the surface, this would seem to be a…

INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM THERMO-EPISTEMOLOGY

This manuscript describes some of our recent findings in the exciting new field of quantum thermo-epistemology, a branch of implausibility theory dealing with fundamental questions such as: * Why does toast always land butter-side down? * Why do cars break down only when you need to go somewhere in an emergency? * Why do banks only lend money to people who don’t need it? We have found, surprisingly enough, that these vexing questions do in fact have a scientific answer, and have developed the beginnings of a theory, which is briefly described here. – – – Theorem (1). Believing something…

THE THAMNOPHOBIA CRISIS

Because the deadly scourge of thamnophobia moves slowly, many of its social, political, and economic effects have yet to be understood. The impact is hard to overstate. But we must be up to the task. The other day, I was talking to a colleague, a highly educated and intelligent person who is usually capable of insightful logic, understatement, and restraint. When the topic turned to President G.W. Bush. Suddenly, the conversation began to sound like this: “That g@#$#$%&#$%^m@$n Bush #&$#&$%^ !!!! 2#$^@ damn 3 f$%^@k$%^@$%g neocons s#o$n%@of# b$%t@#c%h hitler!!!!! @#$%@$%^#$ Karl Rove a@s#$s%h@ #ol$%e hell in a handbasket !!!!!” What…

PHYSICS ENVY AMONG BIOLOGISTS: FACT OR FICTION?

Physicists often state their belief that all biologists would rather be physicists, but became biologists only because they were not very good at math. As evidence for this, they point to such findings as the fact that the vast majority of published studies in virology, cell biology, endocrinology, and even microbiology, use few if any partial differential equations or elements of number theory, and only one paper written by a biologist in the past 25 years (in the field of neurophysiology) has ever used tensor calculus. On the surface, this would seem to be a damning indictment of biology. Why,…