Maria Popova
Posts inspired by one of my favorite essayists
Posts inspired by one of my favorite essayists
POSTED APRIL 4, 2019
Einstein remarked that when he got stuck while working on a theory, he would take a "violin break." Interdisciplinary thinking is a component in the work of many creative geniuses, including Leonardo Da Vinci and is a widely-touted tool in education. As neuroscientists have found, different brain regions, working as a "team", are involved in the creative process.
All the fundamental forces of the universe are known to follow the laws of quantum mechanics, save one: gravity. Quantum gravity is an attempt at a Theory of Everything. It seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics and thereby unify (a) general relativity with quantum mechanics and (b) gravity with the three other fundamental forces in nature (electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force). A crucial first step to know whether gravity is quantum is to detect the long-postulated elementary particle of gravity, the graviton. Gravitons bear the same relationship to gravitational waves that the photon bears to electromagentic waves. While the graviton itself has not yet been discovered, gravitational waves were detected in February 2016 by scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo).
Another attempt at a Theory of Everything is string theory. It too tries to unify general relativity with quantum mechanics. String theory posits that all matter, forces, and physical constants (including the 20 fine-tuned constants that make the universe possible) can be explained by one-dimensional strings vibrating in ten dimensions of space and one of time. At its core, string theory uses a model of one-dimensional strings in place of the particles of quantum physics.
Since both proposed TOE's deal with the infinitesimally small, scientists are trying to devise experiments that would prove or disprove the theories.
Below: Link to Brian Greene's TED talk on string theory.
Below right: Link to Michio Kaku's explanation of some of the stranger consequences of string theory: the multiverse and wormholes.
"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies...The man who never reads lives but one." - George R.R. Martin
Books have served us well over the centuries. The pleasures of reading have been celebrated by writers and readers - which is to say, everyone. One of my favorite (and most relaxing) activities is reading on the beach with the waves rolling in and the sun beating down.
It is not surprise that the scientific revolution that ushered us into the modern world began in the century after the invention of the printing press. "With the printing press, knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, suddenly could be much more easily spread. When documents had to be copied one at a time by human hand they were rare and expensive. The printing press made books relatively inexpensive."
More recently, science has pointed to several other benefits of reading.
Researchers at The New School in New York City have found evidence that literary fiction improves a reader’s capacity to understand what others are thinking and feeling. Literary fiction focuses on the psychology of characters and their relationships, often in a vague manner forcing us to "fill in the gaps to understand their intentions and motivations...This psychological awareness carries over into the real world, which is full of complicated individuals whose inner lives are usually difficult to fathom." A related benefit is that "the characters disrupt reader expectations, undermining prejudices and stereotypes. They support and teach us values about social behavior, such as the importance of understanding those who are different from ourselves. " (Scientific American, Oct 2013)
From Neuroscience News, Apr 2018: Summarizing findings of several studies, the Max Planck Institute notes that learning to read and write modifies the structure and function of the brain in beneficial ways:
"According to a study by French and Spanish researchers, people who are unable or barely able to read not only find analysing sequences of letters more difficult – they have similar difficulty processing sequences of images. A further study in Portugal found that illiterate persons also find it harder to distinguish how an object is oriented in space."
"Literacy has profound and lasting effects on cognition and knowledge. The ability to read and write is essential to the ability to analyse complex problems and for the flow of ideas and critical thinking. It facilitates informed public debate and sensible collective decision-making. The more literate people are, the better they are able to exercise control over public affairs and contribute to genuinely democratic government."
POSTED DECEMBER 13, 2019
"Thoreau reminds us of how that primal act of mobility connects us with our essential wildness, that spring of spiritual vitality methodically dried up by our sedentary civilization... the passage that I keep coming back to as I face the modern strain for presence in the age of productivity, 150 years later, is this: "I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to Society. But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village..."
"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it."
"After spending many hours meditating and practicing, I gave up and went sailing alone in a junk. On the sea I thought of all my past training and got mad at myself and punched the water! Right then — at that moment — a thought suddenly struck me; was not this water the very essence of gung fu? Hadn’t this water just now illustrated to me the principle of gung fu? I struck it but it did not suffer hurt. Again I struck it with all of my might — yet it was not wounded! I then tried to grasp a handful of it but this proved impossible. This water, the softest substance in the world, which could be contained in the smallest jar, only seemed weak. In reality, it could penetrate the hardest substance in the world. That was it! I wanted to be like the nature of water."
1. THOREAU: WALK AND BE MORE PRESENT
2. VIRGINIA WOOLF: KEEP A DIARY
3. SENECA: MAKE YOUR LIFE WIDE RATHER THAN LONG
4. ANNA DEAVERE SMITH: DEFINE YOURSELF
5. ALAN WATTS: BREAK FREE FROM YOUR EGO
6. CAROL DWECK: CULTIVATE A GROWTH MINDSET
7. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: TURN HATERS INTO FANS
8. HANNAH ARENDT: THINK RATHER THAN KNOW
9. ANNE LAMOTT: LET GO OF PERFECTIONISM
10. CARL SAGAN: MASTER CRITICAL THINKING
11. REBECCA SOLNIT: GET LOST TO FIND YOURSELF
12. BRUCE LEE: BE LIKE WATER
13: MAYA ANGELOU: CHOOSE COURAGE OVER CYNICISM
14. EMERSON: CULTIVATE TRUE FRIENDSHIP
15. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: LIVE BY YOUR OWN STANDARDS