Thursday, March 28, 2024

Q&A With Mathematician Claire Voisin

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Maths, Mathematics Education, History of Science, Miscellaneous

Ed Hessler

In this interview with Quanta Magazine's Jordana Cepelewicz, the 2024 Crafoord Prize in Mathematics recipient Claire Voisin discusses maths as art, as language, and as abstract thought. She is the first woman to receive the Crafoord Prize in Mathematics. Link to the Wiki entry on Claire Voisin.

After introductory comments Cepelewicz and Voisin discussed these topics.

--You enjoyed math as a child, but didn’t see yourself pursuing it. Why not?

--Before you found that in math, where did you look for it?

--What made you decide to devote most of your creative energy to math in the end?

--You’ve written before about how math is a creative endeavor.

--It sounds like math is deeply personal for you. Have you discovered anything about yourself in the process?

--You work with very abstract objects — with high-dimensional spaces, with structures that satisfy complicated equations. How do you think about such an abstract world?

--And this also requires seeing them from different viewpoints?

--It’s interesting that you think of these as different mathematical languages.

--You were drawn to math because of Grothendieck’s revolution in algebraic geometry. He essentially created a new language for doing this kind of mathematics.

--Are there ways in which the mathematical language you’re using now might still need to change?

--Have you had to introduce new definitions in your work?

--Definitions and language aren’t the only guiding forces in mathematics. So are conjectures, which might or might not be true. For instance, you’ve done a lot of work on the Hodge conjecture, a Clay millennium problem whose solution comes with a $1 million reward.

--So mathematicians aren’t sure if the Hodge conjecture will end up being true or false?

--After decades working as a mathematician, do you feel like you’re doing math even more deeply now?

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Lake Superor's Lake Trout

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Behavior, Biodiversity, Biological Evolution, Global Change, Climate Change

Ed Hessler

I point you to an article in the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer (March - April) and borrow from the story along the way. 

Mysterious Whoppers is by Chris Pascone and if you get the Volunteer you can read it there; otherwise it is on the Web site for the Volunteer although not laid out as well or the the photographs inserted in the text. 
 
The whoppers in question are all lake trout, a single species (Salvelinus mamaycush) but one which Pascone refers to as "shape-shifting." Currently there are four known morphotypes, also referred to as "morphs"- shape shifters. 

First a few comments about the climatology of Lake Superior Many factors are at work as you will learn in this release from the University of Michigan (n.d..). I chose it for its comprehensiveness. But when we focus on lake trout, I found Pascone's blunt statement on one climatic feature edifying: "How is global warming affecting cold-water lake trout" Under study."

First to the lake trout (Salvelinus mamaycush). These fish "fill" the lake from top (about 300' below the surface) to bottom although little is known about their distribution and abundance.

--Humpers. These are the least common. The name is "for a physical feature...--the tops of large seamounts, or humps, that rise from the depths of Lake Superior to heights that approach the surface, the habitat it prefers.


--Redfins. Photo showing fin color, "The colorful fins...give it its moniker." There are three great photographs in the Volunteer article.

--Siscowet. This link includes photos, side by side of Siscowet, Humpers and Leans.

Gary Goldsworthy, the Minnesota DNR Lake Superior fisheries supervisor notes that "the morphotypes are a product of their habitat features such as depth and locations (population isolation).

You may also be interested in a section of the DNR Fisheries Management Plan For Lake Superior on tributary habitat which influences the lake variously.

Pascone summarizes the history of Lake Superior trout in a section titled "Back From The Brink." I was struck by an observation made by Shawn Sitar, a Michigan DNR research biologist who compared lake trout and Chinook salmon.

From an evolutionary point of view Lousie Chavarie of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, provides some perspective. Pascone quotes a statement she made on the role such diversity plays on ecosystem resilience (''e.g., climate change"). One to add to your daybook.

The uniqueness of Lake Superior and their trout is pointed out by DNR's Gary Goldsworth. Grant Sorenson, the host of Superior Angling who also comments on some remaining mysteries. Pick any Sorenson video and you will be captured by his passion for fish. He puts it into words in the section About Us (from the Superior Angling Co.).  He loves fish and their habitat.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

A Day of Science

Playing With Time *

Monday, March 25, 2024

Athena: Great Horned Owl Bird Cam - Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

Sunday, March 24, 2024

World Meteorological Day + Weather Forecasting

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Earth & Space Science, Earth Systems, Models, Science & Society, Children

Ed Hessler

Coincidentally, as we head into a complex weather pattern which includes snow, rain, even some thunder and lightening depending on where you live in Minnesota, it is one day past World Meteorological Day which is acknowledged every March 23.

The material is engaging and multifaceted. This year's theme is "At The Frontline of Climate Action."  
 
The opening page includes a listing of past themes to 1961. This is below the link to the World Meteorological Day website. If you take the climate pledge link you can hear a young child playing the role of a TV reporter with a forecast for 2050. It is one of several forecasts that were made.
 
Too much to view at one sitting but scan it to see what you might be interested in. 
 
And speaking about meteorology, over at "Our World in Data" there is an interesting article on weather forecasting by Hannah Ritchie.  Here are a few items to get you started.

--There is a capsule history of improvements since 650 BCE. Here are two recent examples. The UK's Meteorological Office (Met Office) "says its four-day forecasts are now as accurate as its one-day forecasts were 30 years ago And in the U.S. "predictions have gotten much better. We can see this in some of the most important forecasts: the prediction of hurricanes."

A chart on the "track error" or the accuracy on where it hits, "especially for longer-term forecasts has decreased a lot over time. In the 1970s, a 48-hour forecast had an error between 200 and 400 nautical miles (~ 230 and 460 miles or ~ 370 and 790 kilometers; today this is around 50 nautical miles (~57 miles or ~97 kilometers)."

Another chart based on numerical weather models for both the southern and northern hemispheres from "the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)". Since the 1980s "three-day forecasts have been pretty accurate. Today the accuracy is around 97%.

Three-day forecasts have been pretty accurate since the 1980s, and have still gotten a lot better over time. Today the accuracy is around 97%. The biggest improvements...are for longer time frames. By the early 2000s, 5-day forecasts were “highly accurate” and 7-day forecasts are reaching that threshold today. 10-day forecasts aren’t quite there yet."

The improvements have happened because "the data has improved, computers have gotten much faster, and improvements made in how these data are communicated." 

It should not be surprising that "low income countries have much worse forecasts, and often no early warning system. In a world where climate change is having impacts "making (improvements) available to everyone (will be even more important as climate change increases the risks of weather-related disasters. It is ultimately the poorest, who are the more vulnerable, who will suffer the worst consequences. Better forecasts are key to good climate change adaptation. 

Ritchie closes with comments on emerging technologies that may accelerate this noting that closing the gaps will require "proper investment and financial will be essential." Unfortunately, she says nothing about what she means by "proper investment."

These items are discussed in the essay, providing necessary details and information I've not included. The essay is also well-linked to further your digging in. and there are many useful links.  Read the essay.


 

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Another Week Highlighting Science From the UK's Journal Nature

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Science & Society, Nature of Science, History of Science, Miscellaneous

Ed Hessler

This Nature Podcast (29m 24s) from the British science journal Nature by Nick Petric-Howe & Benjamin Thompson for March 20, 2024 includes the following. Beginning times are noted on the left. The descriptions include relevant research which may or may not be accessible.

Two listening options. The first from the journal Nature and the second from YouTube.

00:48 How mysterious skyrmions could power next-generation computers

Skyrmions are tiny whirlpools of magnetic spin that some researchers believe have useful properties that could unlock new kinds of computing. However getting skyrmions to perform useful computational tasks has been tricky. Now researchers have developed a method to create and manipulate skyrmions in a way that is compatible with existing computing technology, allowing them to read and write data at a fraction of the energy cost of conventional systems. The team think this shows that skyrmions could be a viable part of the next generation of computers.

07:51 Research Highlights

How robotically-enhanced, live jellyfish could make ocean monitoring cheap and easy, and how collective saliva tests could be a cost-effective way of testing for a serious infant infection.

10:01 AI identifies X factor hidden within zebra finch songs

Male songbirds often develop elaborate songs to demonstrate their fitness, but many birds only learn a single song and stick with it their entire lives. How female birds judge the fitness between these males has been a long-standing puzzle. Now, using an AI-based system a team has analysed the songs of male zebra finches and shown that some songs have a hidden factor that is imperceptible to humans. Although it’s not clear exactly what this factor is, songs containing it were shown to be harder to learn and more attractive to females. The researchers hope that this AI-based method will allow them to better understand what makes some birdsong more attractive than others.

20:04 Briefing Chat

How H5N1 avian influenza is threatening penguins on Antarctica, and why farmed snake-meat could be a more environmentally-friendly way to produce protein for food.

Friday, March 22, 2024

Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education, Poetry, Art & Environment, Society, Culture

Ed Hessler

 
References

The Wiki entry on Harappa.

The Wiki entry on asafoetida.

For contemporary cooking comments on asafoetida, a discussion by Priya Krishna, Bon Appetit.

Comments on where Ali might have seen it, the sculpture and an image.

The Wiki entry on the National Museum, India.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

A Science Podcast with Bob MacDonald, CBC

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Biodiversity, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Extinction, Behavior

A diverse offering from the science podcast Quirks & Quarks with Bob MacDonald, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The complete segment is 54:00 minutes long.

Here is what's in store (segment length in parentheses). Written comments and images are found at the link under the following headings.

--Nature's nurturing side — disabled primates thrive in the wild with community support (7m 56s)

--Beetle larvae feeding on dino feathers left signs of that relationship trapped in amber (7m 52s)

--Jellyfish demonstrate how it's possible to learn and remember even without a brain (7m 52s)

--Bottlenose dolphins sense their prey's electrical fields through their whisker dimples (6m 29s)
 
--How documenting the disappearance of the great auk led to the discovery of extinction (17m 24s)

--Listener Question. Chris Corbett from North Sydney asks: If we see the star, Betelgeuse, that's 642 light years from Earth, going supernova, does that mean it might have already gone supernova? (2m 36s)
 

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Bumblebees and Complex Tasks

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Behavior, Nature, Wildlife, Nature of Science, Culture

Ed Hessler

Of course, some non-human animals have a culture, e.g., tool use has been observed and documented.

Now we learn, i.e., there is some evidence that one non-human animal also shares one of our cultural achievements: the "ability to do things too complex to work out alone." 

A recent paper from the British journal Nature is summarized in this film (7m 38s) which describes the experimental evidence for "this phenomenon outside humans - in bumblebees." 

Alice Bridges , the lead author, is a PhD candidate and takes us through the study and findings.

One limitation is discussed and it is important: the bees live for only one generation so this learning dies with them. Still it serves as a stimulus to look for this behavior in other animals but the design of the experiments, as you will learn, is daunting. Scientists like these kinds of problems.

You can read the paper and also have access to the transcript by using that link. In addition, the film uses subtitles so you can read and hear the interview at the same time.
 
I thought it was a cleverly designed study.