Should We Be Handwriting More?

"Do you still write by hand? Anything besides shopping lists? A new study looked at what happens in our brain when we write by hand or type on the keyboard, and it makes a really strong case for handwriting. I personally quite like handwriting and I am totally convinced it’s good for, well, something, so I should be extra sceptical of this finding. But let’s have a look."

Click on the link below for a 7-min video looking at this claim:

Handwriting Improves Brain Conductivity?

The Big Bang Debunked?: A Clarification

"I was rather surprised when I recently learned that the British science communicator and ex-particle physicist Brian Cox supposedly debunked the Big Bang with a creation story, no less than in a BBC documentary. I had a look at the clip and I think I know what happened."

Click on the link below for an example of how even science media can have communication issues:

Brian Cox debunked the Big Bang! Wait, what? 

Reality Can Be Counter-Intuitive

"What is better, planting trees or covering the same area of land with solar panels? A group of geoscientists from Israel just looked at this, and they say that solar panels come out way ahead. Let's have a look at what the paper says."

Click on the link below for the details:

Solar arrays better than trees for climate, study says

Another Biogenesis Hypothesis

"Scientists have long speculated that life didn’t begin on Earth but in space. According to a new preprint, life could have come from intergalactic gas clouds, so-called molecular clouds."

Click on the link below for a 6-minute video presenting the idea:

Life Could Have Begun in an Interstellar Dust Cloud

Long COVID: What You Need To Know

"Estimates say that as many as 1 in 10 people who had COVID were still affected more than 3 months later. This health condition has become known as long COVID. In this video, we will discuss COVID, how long it lasts, how common it is, what you should do if you think you’re affected, and more."

Click on the link below for a video with the details:

Long COVID: All you need to know

The Purpose Of The Universe

Purpose: the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists

- - - - - - -

"If people knew one thing about Steven Weinberg, it’d be a quote from one of his books: 'The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.' In this video, I want to speculate about what he might have meant. Is the universe pointless?"

Click on the link below for details:

Does the universe have a purpose?

A Look At Capitalism

"Is capitalism the reason the world is going to hell in a handbasket? Or is it going to save us? What is capitalism anyway? How does money work and when do free markets fail? This video briefly summarizes a dip I did into microeconomics literature in a dark hour of my life."

Click on the link below for a video from a physicist looking open-mindedly at capitalism. I take the view that REGULATED CAPITALISM is the way to go, which the USA presently is far from :

Capitalism is good. Let me explain

Population: Too Many Or Not Enough

"Should we worry about overpopulation or, as Elon Musk has argued, should we worry more about underpopulation? How many people could live on our planet and how close are we to reaching the 'Limits to Growth'? In this video, we look at how much we know and what we can conclude from this."

Click on the link below for a science-based look at this controversial issue:

Is Overpopulation Still a Problem?

"I Did My Own Research"

This is what one can hear or read from the anti-science folks. However, if one is a science-based thinker, one does need the proper methods and tools to find out what is the scientific consensus on any topic. Click on the link below for a video by Sabine Hossenfelder outlining a step-by-step process for the non-scientist/researcher:

Do your own research, but do it right

For starters: 

• Be knowledgeable about the elements of scientific research
• Don't cherry-pick
• Never trust 2nd-hand sources - - - but look at them anyway
• If there is data, look at it and don't trust the text

Physics And Self-Reflection

"Some physicists are claiming that there is something 'wrong' with our understanding of the universe. Oftentimes, it's just to justify asking for funding for new experiments, a better detector, a new telescope, or a bigger collider, but what if there's something more than that? Do we have evidence of new physics? Or not? In this video, we will look at dark matter and dark energy, quantum gravity, the mass of the Higgs-boson, neutrino masses, and the matter-antimatter asymmetry."

Click on the link below for a critique of the present state of physics from a physicist:

Do we have evidence for new physics?

A Look At Moore's Law

"In the past 10 years or so, tech specialists have repeatedly voiced concerns that the progress of computing power will soon hit the wall. Miniaturization has physical limits, and then what? Have we reached these limits? Is Moore’s law dead? That’s what we’ll talk about today."

Click on the link below for more (no pun intended 😄):

How Dead is Moore's Law?

Personality Tests: Are They Worthwhile?

"Have you ever taken a personality test? I certainly did. Recently I began wondering what the Myers Briggs and Big Five tests actually tell me. Is there science behind those tests? Or are they just better horoscopes? In this video, I'll tell you what I've learned."

Click on the link below for science-based answers to this question:

I took all these personality tests. What does that tell me?

Greenwashing

"Many companies try to appear environmentally friendly without making a real difference, a strategy that’s been dubbed 'greenwashing'. So, is calling a product or service 'eco-friendly' just a ploy of companies to get more money out of us? What are the consequences for climate change? And how can we spot those fake claims? That’s what we’ll talk about today."

Click on the link below for another excellent video by Sabine Hossenfelder, this time presenting the pros and cons of corporate efforts to address environmental problems:

Greenwashing: How common is it, and how can you avoid it?

Transitioning To Electric Vehicles

In the last few years, the media promotion of electric vehicles has seen a noticeable increase. However, what are the facts and realistic expectations regarding such? Click on the link below for a concise evidence-based analysis of the issue by Sabine Hossenfelder:

How realistic is the transition to electric vehicles?

AI, Consciousness, And Intelligence

"Artificial Intelligence continues to be the talk of the town, but how intelligent are they really? Come to think of it, what do we mean by "intelligence" anyway? In this video, we'll look at IQ tests for humans and for computers and see how current AIs have scored."

Click on the link below for an interesting video analyzing the concepts of intelligence and consciousness:

It's not AI consciousness that worries me, but their intelligence

Transhumanism And Other Manipulations Of Human Biology

"Technological enhancements and implants are becoming more popular amongst a group of transhumanists who call themselves 'grinders'. Are we coming closer to an age of cyborgs? Is genetic screening and editing ethical? Has biohacking lost all meaning? What are nootropics? That's what we'll talk about today."

Click on the link below for an interesting look at some of the more eccentric attempts to improve human function:

These Guys Believe They're The Future of Humanity

Mental Ilness Labels

"Many highly successful people, including the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates, have been included on lists of famous people with autism (though they were never diagnosed). What exactly is autism? How is it different than Asperger's syndrome? What is internalized ableism and what is neurodiversity? This is what we'll talk about today."

Click on the link below for another video from Sabine Hossenfelder clarifying the diagnostic criteria for mental illness:

Why is everyone suddenly neurodivergent?

A Look At The Future Of Artificial Intelligence

"For this video, we have looked at what AI applications are currently under development and added some wild speculation about where things will be going in the near future."

Click on the link below for some interesting speculations on this subject from Sabine Hossenfelder:

Artificial Intelligence: What's Next?

Knowledge Of The Origin Of Life On Earth Continues To Expand

"What do we know about the origins of life? From the formation of the solar system to microbes evolving into bipedal mammals with opposable thumbs, today we will look over the four major theories about how life began."

Click on the link below for a video by Sabine Hossenfelder presenting the current state of our knowledge about the origins of life on Earth. Take that, "God of the Gaps" apologists:

Life might be more common in the universe than we thought

Research Update: Transgender Teen Transitioning

I have posted many times on the subject of non-binary sex and gender. Sabine Hossenfeder is a well-known physicist and educator in such. She is also famous for her YouTube series called, "Science, without the gobbledygook." Click on the link below for her heavily-researched opinion on gender-affirming healthcare, which I think clarifies what we now know in this important area of healthcare:

Is being trans a social fad among teenagers?