QQC Part Five

The quote I have chosen starts from "I keep the subject..." to the end of the paragraph shown. I chose this quote because I find the brain interesting and after reading this I feel that Newton in a way was showing savant tendencies. Which would explain his ability to be able to "hold a problem continuously in mind for more than a few seconds or a few minutes." A savant use's most of their active brain to master or show mastery of one task, such as painting or playing the piano. In Newton's case he demonstrated it through his 'bursts' of mathematical genius. The question that is drawn to my mind after I read this though was why and how was this man able to demonstrate this ability only sometime? Why was he now a 'typical' savant and demonstrated that high level of concentration continuously?

QQC Part Four

This quote, I find is pretty funny. To think that the reason the study of geology became a well known and popular science because some of the elite class had a hobby. I also am left wondering if these men were hobby enthusiast and nothing more, how the heck did they conduct their fieldwork during the summer months? How did they know what to look for, how to record data correctly, or even what type of experiments to conduct. Mentioned before this was that the entrance fee so to speak was a hefty 15 shillings, so as to weed out the "who qualifications were merely cerebral." I find this very offensive. Many of science's advancements were made by people who did not necessarily have to means but instead the passion and intelligence to create the advancement. The fact that this pompous group would want to not have the chance with these intelligent people to help them with their 'hobby' astounds me.

QQC Part Three

"Once he inserted a bodkin-a long needle of the sort used for sewing leather-into his eye socket and rubbed it around "betwixt my eye and the bone as near to [the] backside of my eye as I could" just to see what would happen. What happened, miraculously, was nothing-at least nothing lasting."

I find this quote hilarious, amazing, and completely mad. Starting with 'mad' in the sense that Newton did this just to see what would happen, but it is also completely human because if no one did something "just to see what would happen" our race would not advance. Amazing because this man took the chance to go blind! To literally take the chance to never be able to write a formula straight again is aw inspiring. I do think it is a little hilarious because the notion that a man with Newton's reputation seemed to do this type of thing a lot, and as it is I see myself doing some of the same things. I have stared into the sun to see what happens, touched a flame, eaten things I probably should not have, but all for that very odd reason "to see what would happen". This quote does raise a question for me though, how far will someone go to "just see what would happen", and if someone does not go that far what will not be discovered because of it?

QQC Part Two

"Under Drake's equation you divide the number of stars in a selected portion of the universe by the number of stars that are likely to have planetary systems; divide that by the number of planetary systems that could theoretically support life; divide that by the number on which life, having arisen, advances to a state of intelligence; and so on."

This quote to me is quite strange. It is describing a theoretical formula to calculate the chances of life in the cosmos. This equation boggles me for many reasons; the main point that I have trouble with is how to you find out any one of the variables. How do find the number of systems that could theoretically support life if we can't visit them or even get close to them to see? How do we know how many planets have life and if they have arisen to a 'state of intelligence,'? If we have no answers for any of these probabilities then what good does this formula do for science?

Atoms

QQC

"Atoms are so numerous and necessary that we easily overlook that they needn't actually exist at all."

This quote raises so many question's for me; why aren't they needed, why do we have so many, how is there enough atoms to fill this universe, and why is there no law that governs why atoms are here? Yes we need atoms to create everything in our physical world, but why are they made the way they are? Why are atoms structured in such a way as to be able to create physical masses? Something that I find interesting is that even though they fill our universe, you can't see every single one. One question that just popped into my mind was, does anyone actually know how many atoms there are in the known universe?