![]() The ideas and suggestions that excite us today will soon be forgotten if they are invalidated by more persuasive or comprehensive experimental work tomorrow. The sound core of knowledge that has been tested and relied on is always surrounded by an amorphous boundary of uncertainties that are the domain of current research. The paradox scientists have to contend with is that, while aiming for permanence, we often investigate ideas that experimental data or better understanding will force us to modify or discard. Scientific descriptions certainly change as we cross the boundaries that circumscribe what we know and venture into more remote territory where we can glimpse hints of the deeper truths beyond. Many of the ideas we are currently investigating will prove to be wrong or incomplete. Science is an evolving body of knowledge. Science certainly is not the static statement of universal laws we all hear about in elementary school. We might neglect the books themselves, but we are careful to preserve the important ideas they may contain. We nonetheless apply the knowledge that has been acquired over time, whether from Newton in the 17th century or Copernicus more than 100 years earlier still. ![]() We usually leave that to historians and literary critics. Scientists rarely read such old-let alone ancient-scientific texts. ![]() Notwithstanding its very different age and context, we continue to relish the tale of Odysseus’s journey and its timeless descriptions of human nature. Homer created the Odyssey roughly 2,000 years earlier than Genji. During my first visit to Japan, I read the far older Tale of Genji and marveled at its characters’ immediacy, too, despite the thousand years that have elapsed since Murasaki Shikibu wrote about them. Tom Jones was originally published 250 years ago, yet its themes and wit resonate to this day. When discussing Henry Fielding’s novel Tom Jones with her many years later, I learned that the edition I had read and thoroughly enjoyed was the one she helped annotate when she was in graduate school. She loved the way an insightful story lasts for centuries. ![]() Ironically, she studied literature for the same reason that drew me to math and science. My friend Anna Christina Büchmann studied English in college whereas I majored in physics. Like most people, I thought of scientific advances as ideas that stand the test of time. If I was going to invest so much time, energy and commitment, I wanted it to be for something with a claim to longevity and truth. So either we're just seeing things or this wall of rock is seriously haunted.Among the many reasons I chose to pursue physics was the desire to do something that would have a permanent impact. In fact, look closely at all of the rock in this picture and you'll see several faces. Although the rock formation is completely random in nature, gosh darn it that looks like a face! It must be a spirit! It's especially disconcerting to some people when the face, again like this one, resembles the traditional depiction of the Devil. That's why it's so startling to sometimes see them in pictures like this. The human brain seems to be wired to recognize faces. It's very common to see what looks like a face in jagged rocks (like this photo), grass, dirt, water, clouds, flames, clouds of dust, visible gas-even a pile of crumpled clothing on the couch. ![]() The phenomenon of seeing a familiar shape or form in random combinations of shadows and light is known as pareidolia or matrixing, and the thing itself is called a simulacrum. What is the motive of the photographer's response when it is quite obvious that the photo has captured the camera's strap? There's some psychology here, I think, that demonstrates how much people want to possess a photo that shows something paranormal-even to the extent of denying the obvious cause. When it's pointed out that the anomaly is likely a camera strap, some people will outright deny their camera doesn't have a strap. You can plainly see the loop of the strap and its braided texture. This often happens when the camera is titled to the side to take a portrait-oriented picture, like this one. Many people see this strange formation in their photos and wonder if it's some kind of energy vortex or long-dead great-grandma materializing to say "happy birthday." A close look at this "vortex" will make it quite evident that this anomaly is merely the strap that is attached to the camera which has fallen in front of the lens. ![]()
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