Quantum Entanglement - Towards A Theory Of Everything

I was always interested in science as a young man, and until I had to choose my A-levels, the sciences were the subjects in which I excelled.

I even confided to my mother that I wished to study to become a Doctor, something which she would never let me forget.

Especially after I chose to study arts subjects at A-level, and then went on to study Philosophy at University.

Now Philosophy is a respectable subject for study, especially when the University were I went to study it was University College London. One of the Russell group of universities, and certainly one of the best in that country.

However, there is no doubt that Philosophy is not a vocational subject, and from my mother's perspective, I believe she was always left with a sense of disappointment that I had not achieved the promise that I had shown as a young man.

The truth is simply that I wished to stop learning more and more about less and less, and to be able to study a subject in which I might genuinely contribute something that would benefit humanity.

The jury is out, as they say, and as I approach the point in my life where I am likely closer to my death than my Youth, perhaps I am better able to judge for my self whether I have succeeded at all.

Anyone looking closely at the list of my blog entries will become quickly aware of the scope of my interests. Which is very broad.

As to whether I have contributed anything unique to the world, that is for those that come after me to judge.

Perhaps my proudest achievements are my three self published volumes, two of poetry, and one of short stories.

In so much as I have little faith, these are perhaps more art a guarantee to me of immortality than anything else.

The simple fact of having to lodge copies of these books at the National Copyright Library, guarantees me that. Irrespective of any sales that may be achieved.

And the fact that the hardback copy of my first collection of poems has been placed in the local history collection of the county council gives me further cause for pride, where my book is rubbing shoulders with works from Shelley, Kipling, and Balzac.

I am under no illusions concerning the reasons for its inclusion in this collection, since it incorporates an essay about my meeting Dame Vera Lynn at the Queen Alexandra Hospital Home for soldiers, both of which are of sufficient historical importance to have guaranteed my volume of poetry inclusion within this collection.

The poems in this special edition are dedicated to Constance Gladys, Marchioness of Ripon, someone that in spite of her death in 1917, is still fondly remembered over at the Hospital across the road from me in Worthing.

It is a simple fact that towards the end of her prematurely ended life, she was one of the principal forces behind the way in which a century on, the Hospital still functions.

However, in despite of my disablement by multiple sclerosis, I have not given up by any means.

And through my blog in particular, I still strive to write thought provoking short pieces that may well continue to receive page views long after my death.

And indeed my next blog will take as its subject something that may well contribute in its controversial way to a subject that could well find its full flowering centuries after my death.

Which will be quantum entanglement. A subject that I have only recently begun to study as an amateur, but which I believe is a subject on which I could postulate theories as adept as someone studying physics might.

My reasoning for this is somewhat connected to my study of philosophy at University College, since my interests let me to take a particular interest in the European moderns.

An examination of the philosophy of the European moderns can just as easily be pursued by an examination of literature, such as the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre.

Since the theories concerning quantum mechanics are very much theoretical constructs, I would argue that an interested amateur might develop substantive theories as much as might be developed by someone engaged in practical experimentation.

And so, I shall be developing my thinking, and submitting it in this blog for others to comment upon, should they wish.

The Strange Truth About Dinosaurs

The Horizon documentary series on BBC Television continues to be informative and thought provoking.

This week, an extraordinary program threw new light upon every schoolboys fascination, Dinosaurs.

A woman that has been researching dinosaurs, in particular tyrannosaurus rex, for many years has shed new light on this most iconic of all Dinosaurs.

Based in Montana, which is apparently the most likely place in the United States for T Rex to be found, she has been the first person ever to be able to determine the gender of a dinosaur.

And by so doing, also beginning to change everything we thought we knew about these antediluvian creatures.

Since they did not survive beyond a cataclysmic asteroid impact 65 million years ago, it has been impossible to determine much about the structure of these creatures, and in particular because of the lack of any soft tissue surviving in the fossil record, it has been impossible to say how they have been connected if at all connected in evolutionary terms to other creatures.

Certainly the accepted wisdom has been that it was the death of the dinosaurs that enabled mammals to evolve into the most successful creatures that led ultimately to Mankind.

Strangely, however, this Dinosaur specialist has transformed our taxonomic appreciation of the dinosaur. Incredibly, she has been able to retrieve soft tissue from inside the mineralised fossil bones of a T Rex by dissolving the mineralisation content of a small piece of bone in acid.

Inside one particular kind of bone she then discovered a kind of material that can only be found in birds.

Given the fact that we already know that dinosaurs laid eggs in nests, this confirms that they are indeed the oldest ancestor of birds.

It seems that they did also possess hollow bones, just as we are used to conceiving of in birds, and with the potential to analyse soft tissue, although extremely degraded, it has been possible to observe with microscopic assistance, something of the cellular structure of dinosaur blood for the first time, confirming it seems that they were just like birds red blooded.

Analysis of the DNA may be partially possible, from an examination of material that has been preserved within the long bones of these creatures.

But before we get excited about the prospect of eventually making truth of the Hollywood romance, determining the entire dinosaur genome may have been made virtually impossible thanks to the contamination of the best likely specimens by treasure hunters.

It seems that the best specimens might have come from Mongolia, and specifically the Gobi desert.

This has been a desert since the time of the dinosaurs, but since the most complete skeleton of a T Rex was sold at auction some years ago for $7.6 million at Sotheby’s, treasure hunters have been pursuing this best lucrative possible treasure. And thereby making it almost impossible for an undisturbed and uncontaminated discovery to be made.

I was stunned at the implications of this documentary.

As a child, I was as fascinated by dinosaurs as children today, and this confirmation that they seem unlikely to have been birds of a most extraordinary scale is quite remarkable.

Although there has been over the years theories that modern birds are the remaining descendants of dinosaurs, this is the first time that I can recall ever having to consider that they were all birds.

Perhaps unlike what we see today, but it is startlingly terrifying to consider that dinosaur behaviour might have been bird like in terms of flock and group behaviour.

The Bird Man On My Doorstep

I have been fortunate to have lived in some of the worlds most visited cities.

For three years, I lived in Edinburgh, and before that, for a year in Glasgow.

And then, for 10 years I lived in Leeds in Yorkshire, perhaps not on the itinerary of every international tourist. But at least the home of one of the U.K.’s great opera companies, Opera North. For whom I had the privilege of working, not as a singer, but in its education department.

And so you can imagine my delight to have discovered that yesterday I was simply a stones throw from a truly international event.

Perhaps not up to the standards of some of the events I have been accustomed to, but certainly international.

And so I trundled in my electric wheelchair the several hundred yards to get a view of the pier in Worthing, which is the focus of this particular event.

Which it would be possible to say has its origins back in the 15th century, when a man first dared to contemplate that he might strap on wings and fly like a bird.

That man of course was Leonardo da Vinci, and there were not too many in his mould at this particular event.

It has of course become almost a grand joke, or perhaps an excuse to jump legally off the pier into the sea. In the height of summer.

And we are after all having a summer in Britain this year. This is almost enough to make anyone jump off a promontory into the sea.

But it is here on my doorstep. And it may be an unlikely international event, but it is here. And like the proverbial mountain, since it is here, I may as well climb it.

Fortunately for me, in these days of political correctness, space is set aside for people in wheelchairs to view the grand spectacle from the Lido, not perhaps as spectacular as the one in Venice Italy. But nevertheless, an outdoor bathing spot on the coast, with a balcony that is reserved for us wheelchair users on this occasion.

It’s quite a while since I felt as special as this.

And quite a while since I have simply relaxed by the sea, listening to the relaxing sound of waves slapping the beach below. Quite spectacular.

There is a £30,000 prize, should a flight actually succeed. And the festival is divided into a section open to all, and a section for the more serious competitors for the prize.

In truth, it really is simply a spectacle of eccentricity.

And perhaps the prize money would be easily paid should some form of actual flight take place, simply for the publicity it would generate.

Oh, to be in England, in the Summer!

Restoring Humanity

I had an unusual conversation today. With my carer.

It was only unusual to the extent that, perhaps sensibly, not every conversation that we have feels with hindsight as if it might change your whole life.

In some respects, everything we do or say should have the capacity to represent who and• what we began and are as people. As human beings.

But of course, in the modern world, it is not typical that we reveal ourselves always honestly and with clarity.

The conversation was at one level simply concerning an advertisement for promoting the numerous ways in which it is possible these days to watch television. Using portable devices that have in the last couple of years changed mobile telephones into multi media devices connected by the Internet so that they can receive television, and to be connected to social networking sites, from virtually anywhere that we find ourselves.

This is all in simple terms a natural progression from the simple technology of mobile telephones.

 But as the conversation developed, we began to talk about the way in which it is on most impossible to engage in a one-to-one conversation without the other person responding to the insistent demands of their communication device.

If for example they receive a text message, or some notification of something trivial from their social networking friends.

A little later in the afternoon, I have had in effect a continuation of this conversation, in the context of a discussion about the way in which people are losing their basic human communication skills, as they become more and more dependent upon these communication devices.

Devices which are often a consistent and continuous means of connection to our network of friends, but at the same time as they provide a continuous connection, to that network of social contacts, they have begun to trivialise the way in which we communicate and remain in contact with our friends.

There is a very real sense in which there is a danger that these devices become a substitute for the face-to-face communication and contact with which we are all very familiar.

 But with which perhaps inevitably we will begin to lose our competence with. It is not difficult to perceive the rapid development of these communication devices as something that is getting in the way of what has for decades been the normative behaviour of most people. To talk and to listen to others and by so doing to share ideas with other people.

Perhaps it is simply that human behaviour is evolving as rapidly as this technology is developing.

This week, a good friend of mine experienced the loss of his handheld communication device, quite simply it got fried, so that its overnight charging submit deprived him of his only means of communicating with the world, because he had one of these devices that connect to the Internet, and enable all of his social interaction.

And the management of his diary, via the Internet.

Sudden loss of this device becomes a disabling event. As he had become totally accustomed to make most of his social contacts through this single means.

And so, suddenly, in my afternoon conversation about just this subject, the idea came to me that perhaps there is a need to rescue humanity from itself.

To restore those more basic means of human interaction, which are already suffering as a consequence of these technological devices.

I learned a new word this afternoon, which describes this process of somebody not paying full attention to a conversation, because they are trying to answer a text message at the same time as they are participating in a human conversation.

When I heard this word, it struck me immediately that it was in reality simply a euphemism for what otherwise we might think of as somebody simply being downright rude.

And my first thought was, that we should call this thing what it really is.

Rudeness. Because that is what it is. Not slubbing.

How Important The Bees Are

I have written on many occasions inspired by viewing Horizon documentaries on the BBC.

I have seen another one recently, that has given me much pause for thought.

Quite simply, it was about a phenomenon which is virtually global, and which may affect almost every human community.

Although for most people, this will come as some surprise. It is a problem that has been almost invisible, and although scientists are working hard to discover more about its causes, it is a difficult problem, and one for which a solution is not immediately obvious.

Perhaps by September of this year, 2013, a little more may be understood about what exactly is causing this problem.

There is research underway for which the results may become clear as soon as September.

The problem is Bees. They are just about the only insect species that provides an important source of nutrition for people, by way of honey.

But this insect is suffering numerous problems.

I had not quite appreciated the scale of the problem, nor indeed the significance of this tiny creature, so often perceived as a pest when we encounter it in our homes, or at a picnic.

But the truth was underlined in this documentary, when the staff at a television company were given for breakfast one morning what they would be able to eat if there were no bees to pollinate crops. Food items that we simply take for granted.

Such as milk, any kind of fruit, virtually the only staple that we would be able to grow in any quantity would be wheat.

Almost everything else is pollinated through the intervention of the bee.

Perhaps the most significant obvious problem is the virus that is affecting hives throughout the Western world, thanks to a small mite that spreads the virus.

Once it affects a hive, it can often spell disaster, with complete colony collapse.

The cause of the problem that infection with this virus causes is not obvious, and there may be other issues that are causing difficulties for the humble bee.

Changes in agriculture seem to be the most likely culprit, so that it is far more difficult for bees to find sources of pollen from which the bees manufacture honey, that supports their colony, as well as providing this most nutritious food.

One study of pollination using students armed with paintbrushes indicated that the financial cost of what bees undertake as part of their life cycle free of charge indicated a potential cost of almost £2 billion for the UK economy alone.

And the practicalities of this are not without significant problems in themselves.

It may be that the virus interferes with the sensitive means by which the bee navigates across large distances to find its source of food.

Or the complex ways in which the bee communicates with other members of its colony.

Studies of the way in which these tiny insects travel large distances to gather pollen have involved actually replacing tiny antenna unto them, so that they can be tracked by radar systems.

Some of the weedkillers regularly used in modern agriculture, particularly the neo- nicotinoids, may disrupt the capacity for bees to be able to return to their hives.

The only encouraging sign within the program was the fact that hives placed in urban centres seem to be flourishing, only adding to the mystery as to why these insects are suffering such problems.

And indeed many of the wild species of bee, as distinct from the cultivated honey bee, seem to be suffering less of a systematic virus problem.

But this is a serious problem.

And yet another occasion when the lifestyle that we take for granted in the modern world must be questioned as to whether it is sustainable, on a planet where it seems every life form has some interdependency with every other, and human communities are beginning to grow unsustainably, dependent upon a lifestyle which seems to create as many problems as it solves.

It is ultimately humbling to think that something as small as a bee could be such an important factor in the creation of food in nature.

I look forward with some trepidation at hearing the results of study is underway, which may perhaps/some greater light on the causes of this particular problem.