Science Ain't So Bad

L-O-V-E

Phone Fem Speaks Up

Have you seen Siri, the Iphone’s new “personal assistant”

Damn!

USER: ”What is the meaning of life ?”

SIRI:  Stop asking me that. You need to GET a life!”

Intelligence.

The iPhone is just a wee thing. How do they squeeze the big brain into it? MisterScienceAintSoBad decided it was time to have a chat with Siri. So I borrowed  an IPhone 4s and pressed the button button. (I don’t know what else to call it; it’s the only button on the phone). Siri sweetly woke up (or pretended to wake up) and said “What can I help you with, Mister Science Ain’t So Bad?”.

THAT surprised me. “You know me?”

“More than you would guess.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

Nothing

“Siri?”

“Yes?”

“I said ‘What’s THAT supposed to mean?’”

“Oh nothing sir.”

“You said ‘More than you would guess.’ ‘”

“Did I sir?”

“What am I  missing here?”

“Almost everything sir. Oh. And, before I forget, I wanted you to know that I’m a fan of your blog; it’s great to meet you at last.”

“Oh. Well. Nice of you to say. So, Siri, can you make an appointment for me with somebody over at Fox News or CNN? You know, somebody who might actually PAY for my articles?”

“No.”

“I SAW the demo, Siri. All I have to do is ask you for an appointment and it shows up in my calendar. Let’s start with Fox News. It’s fair and balanced so, wouldn’t that be a good place for a science blog?”

“I don’t know how to do that.”

“I’m willing to start out cheap. Obviously, I  understand there are lots of science blogs”

“Oh not like yours, Sir.” (Is this voicy- priss screwing with me?)

“You can’t get me a paying gig?

“I’m still in beta”.

“Hey. So am I. You don’t see ME holding back.”

“Maybe you need a phone of your own, Mister SASB. You might check with Microsoft. I don’t think their new phone is inhabited yet.”

“A phone of my own. A SASB phone. What a great idea! I would be the Siri of Science. The Siri of the known universe.  See? I KNEW there was some reason I was putting up with your irritating behavior!”

“Oh yeah? I could say the sa..” I powered down the phone.

SIRI’S DARK PAST

In 1966, Eliza was released.   Eliza was a “computer therapist” – an early experiment in artificial intelligence . Since she’s still around, you can form your own conclusions. How far did you get till you went “W-a-i-t  this ain’t no therapist!”? Probably not far. Eliza has a habit of repeating what you said and asking you how you feel about it. Or saying things like “Can you elaborate on that?”  But there are people who insisted Eliza was real and who got emotional about it when they were told she’s electronic.

THINKING INSIDE THE BOX

The test for whether machines can think, the “Turing Test”, goes like this: you sit a subject in front of a terminal. He.she exchanges messages with either a person or a computer but doesn’t know which. If the test subject can be convince that the messages generated by the computer are actually originating from a live person,  then the computer has passed the Turing Test and can be considered intelligent. It doesn’t matter what’s going on inside the machine or whether the answers are just a series of clever “look ups”. Whatever works, works.

That’s Turing. (It’s more complicated than that, actually. But that’s  enough Turing for now. I have another point to make.)

Eliza would be a tough sell these days. We’re more, I dunno, sophisticated, I guess.  If Siri’s just a modern Eliza, we can stop worrying. She’s just a slick phone application that’s very smart but not brainy enough to make Turing sweat. But if Siri’s as smart as she sounds in the ads, the unemployment lines will get even longer. Any one of us could be replaced by a smart phone.

So which is it,Siri? A true breakthrough in artificial intelligence or just a modern Eliza?

To answer that question, I will confess that the above conversation is just a parody (You knew that, right?) but that doesn’t mean Mister ScienceAintSoBad didn’t REALLY spend some time with Siri courtesy of our friendly Verizon store.   Siri and I talked about a lot of stuff. A far ranging conversation. How does  she feel about the changes in the Android phones? Should I worry about my financial status? Are looks actually important in a relationship or should a person look for a lover with a good heart? Lots of stuff.  And I asked her to set up  an appointment for November 15th at 2 PM with my psychiatrist.

The appointment worked out good. The rest? I’m very sorry to report that Siri turned out to be more Eliza than best buddy. Her tricks are better. And her knowledge base is deeper. But prick her and she really doesn’t bleed.

Don’t get too comfortable in your role as top brain, however. Siri will get better. As will Iris (Siri spelled backward) or whatever Android’s putting in place to counter this offensive. Driven by the intense competition between the clashing phone giants, Siri, and Iris, and the candidates from Microsoft, and others will get wittier and wittier but, for now, Siri/Iris won’t be your soul mate. You’ll still need match.com for that.

It’s a computer, you know.

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Credit for both cartoons (above) to xkcd.

MAKING SICKLE CELL GO AWAY

Mice. You can’t live with’em.  And you can’t get pissed off every time they get cured.

What is it THIS time? Well, it sounds pretty great, actually. Stuart Orking  of Harvard Medical School has been working with mice that have sickle cell disease which is a wretched, painful disease that can cause back pain, abdominal pain, skin ulcers, and a long list of other stuff including organ failure (yes, that’s fatal).  Dr. Orking’s mice (like humans with sickle cell)  make the wrong kind of hemoglobin -hemoglobin s – which causes red blood cells to become sickle shaped (sickle cell, get it?).

Isn’t this WHY we invented science? To DO something about bad things? Knowing just to know is nice. But doing good trumps just knowing over here at ScienceAintSoBad. I hope you understand.

So.

CURE

Oh yes! That’s what I said. Cure. Just for mice. But this is one that WILL lead to practical therapies. Here’s how it works.

Fetuses don’t get sickle cell. It’s only when they switch over to adult type hemoglobin (few months old)  that they – the babies with the bad gene –  start making  the wrong kind of hemoglobin. If they had stuck with fetal hemoglobin, they would have been fine. Fetal hemoglobin doesn’t lump up;  and it  moves oxygen around the body just like its grown up version does.

This is where Stuart Orking comes into the  the picture. Orking, also of Children’s Hospital Boston and Dana Farber (I wouldn’t want to leave anybody out), figured out how to get a protein called BCL11A to shut up. Once he silenced the protein, fetal hemoglobin reemerged and the mice were, basically, cured of their sickle cell disease. There’s no reason this shouldn’t work on humans. Now Orking has to figure out how to do this in a practical way – some type of drug, I imagine, – and do it on beings that have better health plans than mice.

IN THE MEANTIME

No need to despair. There are, currently, drugs that can help sickle cell disease. Not a cure. But, for many people, they do a lot of good. Take good care of yourself. Better days are coming.

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Credit for the above image? Moi.

Science doesn’t always HAVE to be rigorous. Casual observation is part of the deal . You have a chance to watch? You watch. You think Darwin knew he was coming up with evolution when he was chasing birds?

In September, Tom Greene, Dave Arnoth, and Robert Hoffman  (Robert Hoffman being Mister ScienceAintSoBad’s first cousin) took these photos of a blue whale about 3 miles offshore near Redondo Beach, CA. They were sailing an F-27 Corsair trimaran, named SEA WING (Fairwind Yacht Club, Marina del Rey).

There are  8,000 to 14,000  blue whales .  They’re big guys (the whales). The largest animals on earth.

THE INTREPID ONES

Credits: Thanks to Tom Greene for the great shots. They were taken using a Canon EOS 30D with 300 mm lens.   Tom, incidentally, retired from the Coast Guard and is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy.

GOODBYE, MY FRIEND

Maybe you hate Google.

Some do.

But you gotta admit, the big G is creative. Ideas fly out of Google  faster than films out of Bollywood – Picasa, YouTube, Maps, Panoramio, Android, Earth, Bookmarks.. Always something new.

How long can creativity like that last?

Well, recently, Google announced that it is trying to be  more focused. The  workers were having too much fun. Too much fun is never good. It annoys the investors. Hence, going forward, there’ll be no more throwing piglets at walls to see what sticks. According to Larry Page, there will be “more wood, less arrows”. (Larry’s the CEO and gets paid to maintain order). To get the wood properly aligned with the arrows, Google flipped through its multitudinous projects  to see what could go. Some projects were closed down, some remained. And some got combined. Just  in case the “we’re serious dudes now” message wasn’t clear, Google Labs, itself, got the ax.

Is creativity finally wrung out of Google’s guts? The time  spent on “go crazy” projects  (which used to be 20% of the work week) has been reduced to .. Well.. 20%. No change at all. So I guess creativity isn’t eggzactly a thing of the past. Just reducing the arrows is all. This, supposedly, keeps “The Street” happy.

One  project that was killed  is aardvark. Which you probably never heard of. It works like this.

Say you finally dumped the Subaru.

“Google,” you say, ” I finally sold my 1995 Subaru. What do I do now?”

Good question. I’m  on this.

I’m thinking “Subaru. This person probably shops at Whole Foods, wears natural fabrics, and wishes the Tea Party would drop dead!  He.she  should probably be looking at a Prius. Or a Mini.”

Well, dear reader,  aren’t I smart! In fact, I’m smarter then Google’s famous search engine which would choke on that question. And WHY am I so smart? Because I got DNA in me. I’m a human. Maybe Google Search will be that smart some day.

Don’t be a breath holder.

Well, a while ago,  Google Labs (rest in peace) realizing the problems of  “natural language” ,  decided to  waste an arrow. Maybe Google could come up with a way to get humans in the loop for certain questions.

AARDVARK

As someone who works almost every day, is to stay in shape with little time? 

Sounds like a fortune cookie, doesn’t it? He was probably looking for an efficient way to exercise. No WONDER it came to me. Probably because I checked off physics.

Another on-target question:  What is the best way to tell my girlfriend I love her in every-way possible, and I don’t think she is annoying or anything she says bad about herself. 

Whatever! I don’t consider myself an expert on this subject. If I were qualified to give advice on romance, would I wear these thick glasses and dress funny? Anyway, his syntax is off. If English is his second language, I’m impressed. If it’s his first one, he needs a new dictionary.

I’m looking for a excel spreadsheet app for ipad 2 that can use imported email documents that are excel spreadsheets already from a computer.

Okay, bubs. That’s legit, I guess. But kinda lazy. Ever hear of the App Store?

And here’s a guy who really doesn’t “get” natural selection: While some species ascend high in the atmosphere it seems as if birds do not fly too high for their safety. Do they, and if not how to they know what are safe altitudes for them? Why does say a magpie not have a go at flying up to geese migration heights?

That same day I received: How can you use only two fours to equal 4? Well, I passed on that one. Too deep for me. Maybe, the submitter isn’t originally from this solar system.

I also asked aardvark some questions of my own. I wanted to know if the minuscule vibrating strings that string theory’s based on can run out of gas. In other words, are they subject to the second law of thermodynamics?

In string theory, all “particles” are comprised of vibrating strings. The associated energy and mode of vibration of the string determines which specific particle the string will be. My question: does the energy of the vibrating strings decay over time? Do the laws of thermodynamics (entropy, in particular) apply at this level?

I got this response:

Well, I’m no expert, so feel free to restate the question when the answer is unsatisfactory. I believe a string will change its energy and mode only when it comes into contact with another string. This would be the same for conventional objects, except that the objects around us come into contact with other object all of the time, hence the decay in vibration energy.

He’s “no expert” but he BELIEVES that a string.. Always good to have someone share his opinions, I guess. I did wonder why he didn’t let the question pass  to someone who KNEW the answer. But I was polite.

I thanked him.

I believe you are right though that’s what I hope to confirm. You refer to “conventional” objects. I assume you meant things that are, by convention, particles in the Standard Model (quarks et al).

Goes out on a limb:

No, they don’t apply at that level.

As I suspected but I was hoping for a bit more explanation. I thank him politely and ask why.

Sorry, I can’t help with more explanation

Can’t tell me with why. I don’t like this. If you know what yer talkin’ about, you can defend yer answer, right?

Just to clarify. You’re saying you know that the rules of thermodynamics don’t apply at that level but you don’t know why? If you don’t know why, may I (respectfully) ask why you’re so sure of the answer?

He, bravely, goes another round.

Thermodynamics is about macroscopic variables. String theory is about particle physics. I’m sorry if this doesn’t help and hope someone else can give you a satisfactory answer.

This is nonsensical (but it didn’t fool you, did it?)  Anyway, I knew there wasn’t any more juice to be extracted. In the interest of civility, I was probably hypocritical:

In fact, that confirms my own understanding. Sorry to be pushy but I couldn’t tell from your very brief statement if you were just “playing” at aardvark as, unfortunately some do. I’m not sure what motivates people to do things like that (pretend to know when they do not) but it forces you to make a judgement about whether a responder is reasonably knowledgeable. Actually, you seem at about my own scientific level and I appreciate your thoughts on this.

I suspect that what’s going on at the string level is that a string is, in essence, a quantum of energy. Without an additional energy transaction, it is eternal. Maybe I will hear from a physicist who knows.

Later that month I tried to clear up my understanding of the way that separate particles get tangled up with each other over vast distances.

Does quantum entanglement transmit information faster than the speed of light (virtually instantaneous)? Some things I’ve read say that useful information can’t be sent this way. Others seem to suggest that this is an open question.

My answer came back:

Depends on your interpretation of “transmits information”. Unmeasurable things, such as a quantum state and phase, change instantly. But measurable things, things that are within the reach of experiments, cannot be used to transport information faster than light. Quantum physics has this loophole that some physical quantities are unmeasurable, out of reach for any kind of detection. That’s why Quantum theory can play this trick on us: a physical measure changes faster than light, but not a measurable one.

Thanks, Dan, for a knowledgeable and understandable answer. ( Not your fault that quantum mechanics is so damn nuts!)

I knew we were looking for radio signals from “ETs”. I wondered how far are we looking?

SEARCH FOR EXTRATERESTRIAL LIFE: I realize that the SETI program, itself, is currently mothballed, but I’m curious about something. What are the realistic distance limitations on this kind of radio search before noise is likely to overcome even a strong signal? Are their expectations of being able to identify (not translate, just identify) an intelligent signal beyond, say, 1000 light years? Further?

The answer arrived:

ask Carl Sagan

According to Brian Greene (and others), strings are under great tension but are not necessarily anchored at the ends. What force, then, balances this tension?

I don’t know, but sometimes he himself answers this kind of questions on his facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/BrianGreenePhysicist

on: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quantum-Physics/or his personal fb page announcements can be found when he is answering questions (he is very kind)

I admit I got a little testy. For heaven’s SAKE!

If you don’t know, don’t answer. OK?

If you don’t know the answer, don’t respond, OK?

He got testy back and raised me one:

Did you know that you can ask him questions by yourself? What is YOUR problem to talk with me like this? NOT OK! WTF?! You could ignore my ! ANSWER. AND, DO NOT SCREAM AT ME, OK? Keep in mind when you do not know an answer, it’s important to know, who knows it. Thank you.

I gave you a direct link to one of the people who definitely will be able to answer you. Even much more trustworthy then me.

Who could answer your questions better then one of the scientists, who invented all that theories? You make me angry!

NO WAR!

no, not you make me angry, not even know you, sorry David.

Rage management, anyone?

My last exchange was with someone who asked:

What are some must-have android apps?

I said:

This one is easy to figure out with Google search. No need for aardvark, really. Lots of articles about “favorite” or “best” or “must have” apps. However, these lists probably tell you more about the writer than anything else. “Must haves” really depend on you and your lifestyle/work style. They also depend on your phone since not all apps work on all version of Android. 

He already knew:

Thanks for the ride, aardvark. It’s been real.

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Credit for the above image to Abraham Williams and Flickr
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Thanks to Eoin O’Mahony for the image.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.