Sure, “recovered” beats “dead,” but both are a far cry from “never got sick in the first place.” It’s like what happened 65 million years ago. Life “recovered” from the KT impact that killed the dinosaurs, but that doesn’t mean it had an easy time of it.
Whether talking about the expansion of the Universe or the spread of a disease, the rules that describe how the world works are all about change. It’s one thing to write those rules down. It’s another thing entirely to go from there to a description of what actually happens. In between lies the science and the art of numerical modeling.
Live, 5:30 EDT, 2:30 PDT, Monday, May the Fourth Be With You
This afternoon we will be talking about chaos. For those not up on the term, chaos occurs in complex systems where different elements of the system in other than simple ways. The result is a situation where a tiny difference today can result in huge, unpredictable differences tomorrow. Weather is one example of a complex system. The spread of disease is another.
We are now watching comments on the YouTube feed, so you are welcome to join in, offer comments and ask questions live!
It turns out that visitors from other planetary systems might be kind of common…
And speaking of things that are more common than we thought they were, what to make of all of those extra COVID-19 related deaths? What’s the difference between saying a death “wouldn’t have happened were it not for COVID,” and saying that death “was caused by COVID?” The answer is probably “not much” from the perspective of the hapless victim.
Enjoy a conversation about Jeff Hester’s famous Hubble Space Telescope image, “The Pillars of Creation.” And then there are those wacky protesters out there, intent on liberating the world from… science?
Enjoy our April 16 conversation about the futility of wishful thinking and why it’s usually a bad idea to move back in before the fire’s actually out. This may be a lesson we’re all about to learn the hard way.
In this opening episode we take the proverbial bull by the horns. “They say that after the current outbreak of COVID-19 passes, things will just get back to normal. That’s right, isn’t it? Please tell me that’s right!”
Well, we hate to be the ones to break it to you, but not so much…
