From quantum computers to medical marijuana
You can’t get a grasp on quantum theory without mastering advanced mathematics. Lacking the maths, I have only the flimsiest grasp on this spooky stuff but I understand that quantum mechanics helps the universe go round.
The cognoscenti say that quantum mechanics explains why the sun shines, how photosynthesis works, how every one of the thousand enzymes in our bodies functions, how we and fruit flies smell odours, and explains the sixth sense that helps migratory animals such as whales, robins, butterflies, sharks, and turtles find their way round the globe.
This year we may see a gamechanger in the quantum world – the appearance of a quantum computer. A vast amount of theoretical and academic research has gone into quantum computing over the past 20 years but building a working machine has until now been tantalisingly out of reach.
Scientists are excited to learn that a quantum computer will probably move from the lab to the engineering workshop this year with computing giants Google, Microsoft and many gee-whiz startup companies competing for ‘‘quantum supremacy’’ this year.
They hope to produce a machine that works far beyond the capacity of the most powerful classical computers.
Cannabis effective medicine
Experts say most of the discussion about the value of cannabis is driven by rhetoric and emotion and not by science. Earlier this month, a team at the United States National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine tried to reverse the situation by evaluating more than 10,000 recent scientific studies on cannabis.
The team confirmed that cannabis is an effective medicine against chronic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea and muscle spasms related to multiple sclerosis, and that, unlike tobacco, marijuana does not increase the risk of lung or neck cancer.
On the other hand, cannabis poses health risks.
Heavy users run the risk of mental health and social disorders, poor academic achievement, more car crashes, and having more thoughts of suicide. Marijuanasmoking pregnant women are more likely to produce underweight babies.
In American law, cannabis is ranked as being as dangerous as heroin and of no medical benefit.
The scientific team shoots down these claims.
BS meter
Bulls..t is a newly invented scientific term meaning ‘‘communicative expressions that lack plausibility, logic, or truth’’. BS statements are syntactically accurate and seemingly sound and meaningful on first reading but are actually vacuous.
As an example, the statement, ‘‘Hidden meaning transforms abstract beauty’’ is structurally and syntactically correct, but has no logic, truth or plausibility. It is a meaningless string of buzzwords.
People differ in their sensitivity to BS, some thinking it is profoundly significant, others dismissing it as nonsense. The German Stefan Pfattheicher has just reported on tests he made to measure how individuals differ in their sensitivity to BS by asking 196 Americans what they thought of statements made by three leading Republican and three Democratic candidates during the recent presidential election.
He also measured where his subjects stood on the political spectrum.
Most Republican supporters and conservatives saw Donald Trump’s insincere nonsense, exaggerated statements or blatant lies as profoundly meaningful. Liberal Democrats saw only pseudo-profound BS.