A Non-Sokratic Monologue on D. Carleton Gajdusek and Some Conclusions on the Incommensurability of Moral Aggregation

 

Originally from a Twitter thread with Mike Bevel, most of which was captured by Threadreaderapp here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1396104609891028996.html.

Carleton Gajdusek bio here and on the Nobel Prize site. NYTimes Obit.

I met Gajdusek when the graduate student group at OSU invited him to give a keynote address. Because it was a big university, we had a good record of getting Nobel and pre-Nobel scientists to come and speak. 

@mentionsThe head of the group was a good friend of mine, and so I got pulled into doing shepherding duty for the 48 hours Gajdusek was in town. Which was absolutely great. 

@mentionsOliver Sacks, who was a friend of G's for many years said it was like meeting Goethe. Everything about him was heroic in the ancient Greek sense: his talents, personality, virtues, sins. Absolutely nothing small. 

@mentionsThere's a point beyond which IQ tests are meaningless, and extremely intelligent people can only compare others with themselves and say, "He or she is more of a genius than I am." Other than possibly Francis Crick, he was the most intelligent person I've ever met. @mentions

Spoke 14 languages and was well-read in most of them. Encyclopedic knowledge of biology, chemistry, physics. Saved a lot of lives, both as a physician and a researcher. 

@mentionsI learned more about being a great scientist from a few hours of conversation with him than in five years of grad school. Very funny. Very fat at that point. 

@mentionsAnd of course, it turns out that he was a pedophile who had been sexually assaulting dozens of foster and adopted kids from Micronesia, Melanesia, and elsewhere who had been sent in his care to get an education in America. Like I said, everything in epic scale, even wickedness. 

@mentionsAt first, the allegations were so shocking that I thought it had something to do with the Mad Cow Disease scare--one of the other scientists who was working on it in California was murdered in a break-in, another in Britain was run off the road. 

@mentionsWhich, together with sex crimes, seemed like ways that intelligence services got rid of inconvenient people. 

@mentionsBut of course, that doesn't rule out the fact that he was, in fact, sex criming. 

@mentionsThe second lesson you can pull from this example is that nothing is an absolute protection against doing great evil--not intelligence, learning, humor, bravery, artistry, any other talent--other than simply being kind to all human beings at all times. 

@mentionsOr, as Terry Pratchett put it:
Granny Weatherwax: "There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That's what sin is." 

@mentionsMightily Oats: "It's a lot more complicated than that--"

GW: "No. It ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts." 

@mentionsMO: "Oh, I'm sure there are worse crimes--"

GW: "But they starts with thinking about people as things..." 

The Face of a Comet

https://twitter.com/landru79/status/988490703075463168

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— landru79 (@landru79) April 23, 2018

Links for Later 9-9-17

1. A collection of reviews/recaps of the new season of Twin Peaks.
2. Bruce Chatwin profile.
3. Comparing algorithms for decision statistics and machine learning.
4. Narwhals beating the hell out of cod with their tusks.
5. Searching for silphium, the prized, probably extinct Roman herb.
6. The impending death of football, as parents stop signing their kids up to play due to brain injury fears. Could not come too soon.

EP 038 Lynne Kelly on The Memory Code

Lynne Kelly is a teacher, science writer and anthropologist of oral and pre-literate cultures. Her most recent book is The Memory Code, which deals with the use of memory techniques including rituals, songs, dances, portable devices, and large-scale geographic features and built structures as memory aids.

She has conducted a series of experiments to replicate memory techniques from the classical memory palace to handheld memory devices such as the Lukasa to rituals and storytelling. Today, we talk about how several early and modern cultures have used these memory techniques, why Stonehenge and Chaco Canyon may have been used as memory palaces, and why they were almost certainly centers for an oral culture's knowledge economy.

As with our other conversations with anthropologists, it's helpful to remember the following guidelines:

1. Do not confuse industrial technological advancement with intelligence. "Primitive" people, whether distant from you in space or time, were and are at least as smart as you. The less technology they had at hand, the more this is true. Fools die when times are hard, or as Lynne Kelly's colleague Nungarrayi said to her, "The elders are pragmatic old buggers. If they weren't, we wouldn't have survived."
2. Most often, they are observationally correct even when they are theoretically wrong. We can identify the exact species of animals in cave paintings despite the fact that the artist didn't have a grip on modern biology. Just as any sufficiently advanced technology looks like magic, so does any technology sufficiently different from our own.
3. People of almost all cultures have been given to humor, hoaxes, tall tales, and flimflammery. Sometimes, when they tell you (or each other) something, they're just having a laugh. Sometimes, they're both having a laugh and expressing something serious.

Photo credit: Abigail Heitbaum

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Want to hear more like this?
More on memory palace techniques with Ed Cooke or Anthony Metivier. More on pre-literate cultures and magical technologies with Gordon White.

Show Notes and Links

Lynne Kelly's website

Songlines

Luba people, Lukasa

Alexander Arguelles, Shadowing language learning technique.

Grid Cells, Hippocampal & Cortical Spatial Maps

Aphonso Ortiz

Richard I. Ford Color of Survival

Nungarrayi- "The elders are pragmatic old buggers. If they weren't, we wouldn't have survived."

Stonehenge, Durrington Walls

Roz Cleal

Chaco Canyon

Poverty Point Culture

Links for Later 8-21-17

1. It's eclipse day.
2. When your son becomes a Buddhist monk in Thailand.
3. Get yourself a pair of elf ears. Maybe a whole-elf makeover. Why not?
4. The joys of Classics with the Perseus site.

EP 035 Stephen Buranyi on Scientific Journalism and the Structure of Scientific Publishing

Stephen Buranyi writes about science and the socioeconomic structure of the scientific research system in place today. We talk about the joys and sorrows of being a scientist who has escaped the academy, how to pitch ideas for articles for general audience news publications, intentional and unintentional bad data, and the incentive structures surrounding scientific publication.

My apologies for the delay effect on Stephen's end of the conversation. I like to think that it's because we were using Mr. Bell's original transatlantic cable.

Download directly
Enjoy this episode, and want me to keep making more?
Download, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes

Want to hear more like this?
Pair with Alice Dreger on scientific & political heretics and the boundaries of gender.

Show Notes and Links

Stephen on Twitter

Stephen at The Guardian

• "The High Tech War on Science Fraud"
• "Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science?"
• Podcasts associated with both of these articles are available through The Guardian site.

The Metaresearch Center at Tillburg University 

EP 019 Luca Turin on the Secrets of Scent and the Scientific Method

Luca Turin is a biophysicist and expert in the sense of smell. He is best known to the scientific community as the proponent of the vibrational theory of olfaction: that smell receptors detect the vibrational frequencies of the molecular bonds of parts of the scent molecule. This theory represents an alternative to the older shape-based theory of smell: that scent molecules bind to specific receptors that conform to the shape of the scent molecule. The debate on this topic is detailed in Turin's The Secret of Scent, and Chandler Burr's The Emperor of Scent.

He is also the author, with his partner Tania Sanchez, of Perfumes: The A-Z Guide, which provides a sensual and witty look at over 1,000 commercially available perfumes. He also writes perfume criticism in several locations online, including at perfumesilove.com, and is a scent molecule designer and consultant to the industry.
  

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Links and bonus materials

Startup Geometry Podcast EP 014 Renaissance Mathematicus Thony Christie

Thony Christie, historian of science and proprietor of the Renaissance Mathematicus and Whewell's Ghost stops by to talk about Galileo, Newton, the Copernican controversy, and why it was smart to believe that the Earth didn't move.

Listen on iTunes

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The story of how we came to understand that the Earth was not the center of the Universe is one of the most fascinating stories in the whole of the history of science. The debate over Copernicus' heliocentric model lasted for centuries, and was carried out by mathematicians, theologians, philosophers and scientists. Observational evidence initially favored a geocentric model, and definitive proof did not appear until long after the first precise data (captured by Tycho Brahe and compiled by Kepler) had persuaded most scientists of their truth.

Independent scholar Thony Christie takes us through the debate on this episode of Startup Geometry.

Show Notes, Links and Outline:


[0.0.16] How did you get into the study of the History of Science? Eric Temple Bell Men of Mathematics. History of Mathematics and Logic: Church’s list of formal logicians, Boole, Jevons, and others.

[0.3.50] Renaissance Mathematicus and Whewell’s Gazette/Whewell’s Ghost (Whewell pronounced “Hewell”). John Wilkins, historian of biology.

[0.6.30] What was a “mathematicus”? Fields of study: astrology, astronomy, mathematics, cartography, design of engines of war, (sun)dialing, volumetrics.

"DaVinci's Resume": Leonardo DaVinci once sent a letter describing his skills in some of these areas.

[0.14.46] Christoff Clavius. The Galileo Affair. Heliocentricity. Cardinal Barberini. Who can interpret the Bible? Cardinal Bellarmine. The difference between proof and speculation.

[0.27.00] Giordano Bruno. Miguel Serveto (Servetus).

[0.28.14] Newton. Newton & alchemy. Newton & religion. Kepler. Prisca Theologia.

[0.35.44] Interpreting Early Modern systems of thought. Lawrence Principe and William R Newman’s modern alchemical experiments. Phlogiston. Problems with turning lead into gold. (Not a problem for us, but requires a huge particle accelerator.) Roger Bacon.

[0.44.23] Newton predicted the end of the world (not before 2060). Other predictions of the end of the world. Jehovah’s Witnesses. Millerites.

[0.47.47] Discussion of the various Renaissance world systems or models of the universe. Why it’s obvious that the Earth doesn’t move. Tycho Brahe. Johannes Kepler. Gilbert, On the Magnet. How it was finally proved that the Earth does move. Chris Graney on star sizes, Setting Aside All Authority. Torricelli.

[1.00.00] The Rudolphine Tables. Not proof, but Kepler’s system fits the data, so Kepler’s model is probably right. Heliometers and elliptical orbits. Bradley, 1725, finds elliptical movement of stars due to Earth’s movement. Christiaan Huygens. The Earth bulges at the Equator and is flattened at the poles. Later confirmed by stellar parallax, Bessel, 1838.

[1.08.18] Book recommendations. Richard Westfall, Life of Isaac Newton. John Heilbron, Galileo. Chris Graney, Setting Aside All Authority. Eric Scerri, The Periodic Table. My recs: Deborah Harkness, The Jewel House. (she also rediscovered The Book of Soyga, which was part of John Dee’s library, and is a really good fiction writer.) Lost Enlightenment S. Frederick Starr.

Startup Geometry Podcast EP 009: Alice Dreger

In this episode, I talk with Alice Dreger, author of Galileo's Middle Finger and former Professor of Clinical Medical Humanities and Bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University in Chicago. She resigned from the position following a dispute over censorship of an issue of the medical humanities journal Atrium.

I first heard about Alice when she livetweeted her son's sex ed class, and in this episode we talk about the state of sex ed today, her work as an advocate for intersex individuals and conjoined twins, how she became interested in studying scientific controversies and contrarians, and answer some questions from listeners.

Listeners who have what used to be called a "sensitive constitution" may wish to avoid this episode, as we speak frankly about several adult topics, including genital anatomy, sexual behavior, and academic funding. Due to a higher than normal amount of email this month, any complaints about this episode must be hand-delivered to our Complaints Department, located in the secret caverns underneath Ulaan Bator, Mongolia.

If you enjoy these podcasts, please use iTunes to download, subscribe, rate and review each podcast, as this helps introduce us to new listeners.

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Show Links and Notes:

Hello, Pluto

NASA's New Horizons mission passed within a few thousand miles of Pluto this morning.

Family portrait
(via @missambear)

Links for Later 6-11-15

1. Electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve may help migraine, tinnitus, epilepsy, stroke...
2. The role of the default mode network in creativity. Effect of training on the DMN.
3. Did Nancy Pelosi "misread" the Democratic Caucus on trade and the TPP?
4. Brad DeLong misjudged Niall Ferguson, Paul Krugman didn't.
5. On the trail of the Last Universal Cellular Ancestor, before the kingdoms of life were separate.
6. Proportional map of the world's languages.
7. The stoners who became the US government's source for guns & ammo.

The Future Is Now, Vol. LXXXVIII: Researchers Grow Rat Limb In A Jar

A team from Massachusetts General Hospital under Harald Ott regrew rat and primate forelimbs ex vivo, and then transplanted it back into a host animal. They did it by removing all of the cells from an amputated arm, reseeding it with appropriate cell types for the various tissues in a bioreactor atop the existing extracellular scaffolding, and then reattaching it.

This is not quite as impressive as growing it up from nothing, but it represents a substantial step forward from existing technology which is capable of doing single or dual cell type tissue growth. This is multiple tissue, structured repopulation and regrowth of tissue. That's huge.

Links for Later 5-4-15

1. How has Investor-State Dispute Resolution been used after other trade deals?
2. xkcd: Physics vs. Biology
3. The joy of collecting books. Real, paper books.
4. Bruce Hornsby on his many piano-playing incarnations. He's most impressed by Keith Jarrett's improv capabilities, and rightly so.
5. Steve Rogers, Captain America, is almost certainly a liberal Democrat.
6. "Puddleglum in heaven."
7. Twelve hours as a conscript in Greece.
8. Joss Whedon has left Twitter after a number of abusive messages were sent to him to spend more time with his writing.
9. Tesla released a $3,500 battery for houses
10. Ta-Nehisi Coates: Nonviolence as Compliance

The Science of Us

This series from New York Magazine takes a first-person view of several remarkable people--people like a tetrachromat, a woman with four receptors for color who sees millions of colors more than the average person,  and who has an opinion on that dress; a polyamorous genius; someone with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory; and others.

Here Comes the Sun

Five years of video from NASA's Goddard Solar Observatory. Glorious.
(via boingboing)

Links for Later 7-13-14

1. The Baroque theater designs of C. Howard Crane.
2. Documentary budgets
3. Terraforming the moon. The surprising thing is that the Moon is not terribly reflective right now, with an albedo of something like 0.1 or less. With terraforming, it would be substantially (>5x) brighter due to the reflectivity of water and clouds, just like the Earth.

Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus

Early alchemical manuscript, part of the Corpus Hermeticum

Isaac Newton's translation, per Wikipedia:

1. Tis true without lying, certain & most true.
2. That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing
3. And as all things have been & arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
4. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse.
5. The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.
6. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
7. Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry.
8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven & again it descends to the earth & receives the force of things superior & inferior.
9. By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world
10. & thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
11. Its force is above all force. For it vanquishes every subtle thing & penetrates every solid thing.
12. So was the world created.
13. From this are & do come admirable adaptations whereof the means (or process) is here in this. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world
14. That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished & ended.

Links for Later 3-20-14

1. Strategist Lawrence Freedman on the Ukraine crisis, and why making friends is often the best strategy. Exaggerates neither the dangers nor the ease of the current situation.
2. Strategist Edward Luttwak is less sanguine.
3. Hugh Howey on why every writer should self-publish.
4. The greatest juggler alive leaves to run a concrete business.
5. Cyberpunk tumblrs.
6. PTSD and moral injury.
7. Visiting Andre Linde, who proposed the inflationary model, on the occasion of the observation of gravity waves, supporting his theory.

Bigger After the Bang

Scientists using data from the BICEP2 telescope array uncovered the signature of inflation in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang (10 ^-25 seconds after the beginning of the universe) by looking at polarization of light caused by gravity waves. More here. BICEP data releases available here.

Links for Later 2-27-14

1. Sexy diagrams of glutamate receptors in the central nervous system, featuring stepwise activation by multiple subunits.
2. Hot, hot, hot! Article on ITAR fusion reactor project.
3. Dreamy description of government debt and government assets spooning.
4. Not sexy: GHCQ spied on your Yahoo! video chats, 3-11% of which involved nekkid people of one sort or another.