Monday Science Links

This week's science:

• Phil at Bad Astronomy on aliens and UFOs: When I give public talks, I can almost guarantee that during the Q&A I’ll get asked: Do I believe in aliens and UFOs? My answer usually gets a laugh: “Yes, and no.” As far as aliens go, I suspect pretty strongly that there’s life in space. We know of over 300 planets orbiting other stars, and we’ve only just started looking. In our Milky Way Galaxy alone there are probably literally billions of planets. Life on Earth got started pretty rapidly, relatively speaking, after the crust cooled and liquid water formed, so we know it’s not tough for life to get its start… and it’s entirely possible there is microbial life inside icy moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn. So thinking aliens exist has a pretty decent scientific basis. But them coming here is an entirely different beast.


• Cath at VWXYNot? blogs about nature mapping: Ever wondered what's lurking in your garden? A friend of mine has a budding1 professional interest. She's a volunteer in Vancouver's Stanley Park, and as part of her role has come across an activity known as nature mapping. As far as I understand it, the ultimate goal of nature mapping - also called barefoot mapping - is to catalogue the hidden biodiversity tucked away in parks and gardens. My friend has partnered with an amateur artist, and they are potentially interested in mapping private residences and producing personalised works of art, complete with information about the property's ownership, location, physical description, ecological and cultural values, stewardship and conservation goals, etc.


• Bee at Back Reaction writes about making the best of all possible worlds: Some weeks ago, I wrote about the Variational Principle. In a nutshell, it tells us that systems optimize the value of a certain function. In physics that function is the “action”. The way one finds the optimal configuration is to make small changes, called “variations”, and to see how the system reacts to it. If the situation gets less optimal under all changes, you've found a solution. On this general level, it isn't hard to see the parallels: Trying to optimize situations is something we do every day. On a personal level (fastest way to the restroom), on a group level (best place for dinner), on a national level (unemployment rate) or on a global level (child mortality rate). Optimizing can mean maximizing or minimizing. The mathematical formulation of the variational principle was inspired by Leibnitz' conjecture that we live in “The Best of All Possible Worlds”. Here, I want to elaborate on the analogy between social and natural systems, and just bounce some thoughts off you.


• Judith at Zenobia: Empress of the East blogs about Zenobia's imperial coin: At the Amsterdam All-Zenobia Day (which already feels like half a year ago. Oh, it is.... Sorry for the delay), Arjan Senden, a Dutch numismatist -- and specialist in Roman coins and medals -- presented a sensational new find: an addition to the very very limited and always rare coins minted for Zenobia. Here she is (left), a simple bronze coin, but the title says it all: S. ZENOBIA AUG That's monetary shorthand for 'Septimia Zenobia Augusta', her brazen claim to the imperial throne. To hammer home the point, the reverse shows the goddess Juno with the text IUNO REGINA, Queen [of the gods] -- as imperial a reverse as she could possibly choose. The coin was found somewhere in Israel, and its text in Latin (rather than Greek) suggests that it was struck in one of the three small-change mints in the neighbourhood: Berytus, Ptolemais (modern Acco), or Tyre. Although it's not sure that any of these civil mints were still in operation as late as the 270's AD, yet, as Arjan says, the nice black patina of the coin does have the look of these regional coins.


• John at John Hawk's Anthropology Weblog takes apart some myths about Neandertals: ...comments on last week's "Let's clone mammoths, and OOH OOH Neandertals too" article. I'm pointing to the post because the commenters embody so many popular myths about Neandertals. OK, so they "parrot," not "embody"...but that was too juicy a mistake not to make. Anyway, the myths go both ways...

Enjoy!