March 6, 2009

References for the essays in The Hair of the Dog

These references are not exhaustive.  Some are the exact sources of the material in a particular essay; others relate to certain facts or findings in the essay; and a few merely direct the reader to further reading on the topic.  Many of them refer to internet sites, which I see as a perfectly valid source of accurate technical information.  Even Wikipedia no longer suffers, in my view, from being written by thousands of unvetted contributors.  The most valuable part of any Wikipedia entry, on a scientific or technical topic, is the supporting references which are now required before an article can be published.

Heaven and earth

Is this a record…?

An Exploded View

Cosmic coincidence

  • Australian Sky and Telescope, November 2005, Ask AS&T: Solar Eclipses on Other Planets
  • http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/48953/sun-and-moon-sizes-coincidence
  • http://arn.org/docs/gonzalez/gg_arewealone.htm

Dropping in on the Big Bang

Henrietta’s milestone

  • http://www.ias.ac.in/womeninscience/Leavitt.pdf

All in a spin

  • http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/crabfact.html

“We are stardust…”

  • http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/1999/06/990625080416.htm

Combing the universe

  • Science 5 September 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5894, pp. 1335 – 1337

Looking for a black swan in space

  • Piet Hut & Martin J. Rees, Nature, 302 ,p. 508

Does intelligent life cause the universe?

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle
  • Martin Gardner, WAP, SAP, PAP, & FAP, New York Review of Books,  Volume 33, Number 8 ·    May 8, 1986

Why is the sky dark at night?

How long does a light year last?

  • www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=198213

The world’s oldest nuclear reactor

Killer lakes

  • http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gwk/research/NMDP_Report_Jan2006.pdf

On the rocks

  • http://nicholasacademy.com/scienceexperiment215meltingicebergs.html

Up from the ashes

Mr Global Catastrophe

Plus and minus
The most important machine that doesn’t exist

  • Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing, The Enigma, Vintage Books, 1992

Pi = 3

Stuffed in Hastings

  • British Birds, Vol. 55 (1962),  No. 8, pp 281-384

Rope around the earth

  • http://web.gnowledge.org/wiki/index.php/A_rope_around_Earth

Mozart’s Dice Waltz

  • Science, 17 December 1976, Volume 194, Number 4271, p. 1235

The ultimate ‘aide memoire’

  • Science 26 September 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5897, pp. 1787 – 1788
  • Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL ’02), Portland, OR, pp. 277-278, July 13-17, 2002

Does 1+1 really equal 2?

  • Whitehead, A.N. and Russell, B., Principia Mathematica, Cambridge University Press, 1910-1913

It all began with a dinner party…

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham’s_number
  • http://www.fairpoint.net/~jpierce/staring_into_the_singularity.htm

“Knicknack Googlewhack” or how Google works

  • http://www.google.com/librariancenter/articles/0512_01.html

My infinity is bigger than your infinity

Surf and serve

  • Science 12 September 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5895, pp. 1465 – 1468
  • http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/

(W)rapping with Mozart

  • Science 5 September 2008, Vol. 321. no. 5894, pp. 1282 – 1283

The Fireman Hypothesis

  • http://www.newyorker.com/images/pdf/2007/11/12/071112ta_ciprafirefighterstheorem.pdf

What a coincidence

  • John Edensor Littlewood, Béla Bollobás, Littlewood’s Miscellany, Cambridge University Press,  1986, p. 105
  • Martin Gardner, The Wreck of the “Titanic” Foretold?, Prometheus Books, 1998
  • http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/odds21.html
  • http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,848363,00.html

Names that count

  • J. N. Crossley, The Emergence of Number, World Scientific, 1987, pp 26-7
  • Companion Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences, Vol. 1, pp. 150-59, Routledge, 1994

Flora and fauna
One leaf or two?

  • http://www.botanicgardens.ie/educ/monodic.pdf

Flower power

  • Science 29 August 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5893, pp. 1163 – 1164

The oldest living organism on earth

  • http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080416104320.htm

Half animal half plant, and good on toast

  • http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/biodiversity/crypfungi.html

Who invented the wheel?

  • Science 20 June 2008:
 Vol. 320. no. 5883, pp. 1599 – 1600

Flipping crayfish

  • Science 10 October 2008, Vol. 322. no. 5899, p. 167
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caridoid_escape_reaction

My neighbour, the sticky hairy plate

  • Science 22 August 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5892, pp. 1028 – 1029
  • Science 27 June 2008: Vol. 320. no. 5884, pp. 1716 – 1717

Animal magnetism

The bird that knows physics

  • Science, Vol 320, May 16, 2008, pp 931-934, Manu Prakash, David Quéré, and John W.M. Bush, Surface Tension Transport of Prey by Feeding Shorebirds: The Capillary Ratchet,

How eyes evolved

Them dry bones

  • Science 10 October 2008: Vol. 322. no. 5899, pp. 200 – 201

Curiosity killed the elephant

  • Science, Vol 138, p. 1100
  • Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, How Animals Work, Cambridge University Press, 1972

“Caw, I never forget a face”

  • http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html

Paper tiger, hidden faker

  • http://zonaeuropa.com/20071019_1.htm
  • http://www.china.org.cn/english/news/228744.htm

Dogged by unfairness

  • http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/citation/2008/1208/1

The multiplication of species

  • Colin Tudge, The Variety of Life, Oxford University Press, 2000
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Erwin

Brain and mind
Can money bring happiness…?

  • Science 21 March 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5870, pp. 1687 – 1688

Who moved my finger?

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Libet
  • Lorentz quote: Science 23 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5879, p. 1025

Now you don’t see it, now you do

  • http://improbable.com/ig/
  • http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html

Facing up to bad choices

  • Science 7 October 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5745, pp. 116 – 119

You do what I do

Can the blind see?

  • Petra Stoerig and Alan Cowey, Blindsight in Man and Monkey, Brain (1997), 120, 535-559
  • Lawrence Weiskrantz, Consciousness Lost and Found, Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 16-35

Is your brain really necessary?

  • The Lancet, Volume 370, Issue 9583, Page 262, 21 July 2007
  • http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/brain-not-neces.html

Are we really as clever as we think?

  • John Brockman, ed., What Is Your Dangerous Idea?, Harper Perennial, 2007, pp. 102-4

The fifth taste

Cave artist or cave autist?

  • Humphrey, N., 1998, Cave art, autism, and the evolution of the human mind. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 8 (2), 165-91

Why doesn’t the earth move when we move our eyes?

  • David A. Rosenbaum, Human Motor Control, Gulf Professional Publishing, 1991, p. 187

Blinding with scientism

  • McCabe, D. P., & Castel, A. D., Seeing is believing: The effect of brain images …, Cognition (2007), doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.07.017

Gilbert was right

  • Science 19 September 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5896, pp. 1667 – 1670

Atoms and molecules
The world’s smallest musical trio

  • http://www.forbes.com/asap/2002/1007/016.html

Unfair to Buijs-Ballot?

  • http://science.jrank.org/pages/2147/Doppler-Effect-Doppler-effect-in-sound-waves.html

Positive fallout from the Bomb

  • American Journal of Physics, Volume 35, Issue 2, pp. 102-103 (1967)
  • David Grimm, The Mushroom Cloud’s Silver Lining, Science, 12 September 2008 Vol 321, p. 1434-14

An uncertain future

  • D.J. Raymond, How Determinate is the “Billiard Ball Universe”?, American Journal of Physics, February 1967, pp. 102-103,

Why should we fall through the floor?

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom

Critical mass for Louis Slotin

  • http://www.mphpa.org/classic/FH/LA/Louis_Slotin_1.htm

Tall story

  • http://www.allaboutskyscrapers.com/skyscraper_construction.htm

The riches of Ytterby

What is smashed in an atom-smasher?

  • http://science.howstuffworks.com/atom-smasher.htm

Seeing neutrinos

  • http://www.phys.lsu.edu/faculty/cjohnson/sn.html

Clock inside the rock

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-lead_dating

Sickness and health
Ticking boxes saves lives

  • http://www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com/issue/2008/02/5_patients_practice_2.html

“I love you – share my MHC”

  • Bateson, P.  (1983)  Optimal outbreeding. In: P. Bateson (ed.) Mate Choice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 257-277.
  • Science 30 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5880, pp. 1160 – 1161
DOI: 10.1126/science.320.5880.1160
  • http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/sep/03/psychology.humanbehaviour

Tribes of the Inner Elbow

  • http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/23/healthscience/23gene.php, Nicholas Wade, New York Herald Tribune, May 23, 2008
  • Science 23 May 2008:
 Vol. 320. no. 5879, p. 1001

Why is DNA like a knitting pattern?

  • Science 8 August 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5890, pp. 784 – 786
  • http://kimberlychapman.com/crafts/knit-gallery.html#dna

Some unhealthy words

  • http://www.flashcardexchange.com/flashcards/view/532187

The eyes don’t have it

  • Simon A Worthen D Mitas J An evaluation of iridology JAMA Vol. 242 No. 13, September 28, 1979, pp. 1385-1389

How to live to 110 (100 is passé)

  • Science 26 September 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5897, pp. 1764 – 1765

Premature peepshow

  • http://www.neonatology.org/classics/silverman/silverman1.html

Many coagulations

  • http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/blood-coagulation.html
  • http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/Clotting.html

‘Radiation is good for you’.

  • http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14018993.500

The hair of the dog

Eureka on Highway 128

  • http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1993/mullis-lecture.html

A La Recherche du Pong Perdu

  • Marcel Proust, A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, Gallimard, 1954, p. 120-121
  • M Lison, S H Blondheim, and R N Melmed, A polymorphism of the ability to smell urinary metabolites of asparagus, British Medical Journal, 1980 December 20; 281(6256): 1676–1678.

Sex and science

  • Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture, by Alan Sokal, Oxford University Press, 2008

Which woman has made the greatest contribution to medical research?

One blind baby or sixteen dead ones? – The choice is yours

  • TIME Magazine, Apr. 14, 1952; Sep. 28, 1953
  • http://www.neonatology.org/classics/parable/

A ‘sugar scalpel’

  • http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org/tcj/advertising.htm
  • Weijer C: “I need a placebo like I need a hole in the head.” J Law Med Ethics 2002;30(1):69.
  • Cobb LA, Thomas GI, Dillard DH, et al: “An evaluation of internal mammary artery ligation by a double-blind technic.” N Engl J Med 1959;260:1115
  • http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C04E0DC113AF936A15757C0A96F958260

Baring your soles to x-rays

  • http://nottotallyrad.blogspot.com/2008/02/using-x-rays-to-sell-shoes.html
  • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10967875

Stemming disease

  • http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar/01/stem-cells-breakthrough

Resistance is futile

  • http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/resantimicrobial.html

Odds and sods
The ship that repaired itself

  • http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/7/floatingisland.php

Whips, thongs and cracks

What’s the difference between a hypothesis and a theory?

  • http://www.thechembook.com/wiki/images/5/59/Lecture_2_Scientific_Method.pdf

Wagon wheels

  • http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Reverse:rotation:effect.html

“Some mute, inglorious Disney…”

  • http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/March2008/04-03.htm

Before Babel

  • John Noble Wilford, Linguists Dig Deeper Into Origins of Language, New York Times, November 24th, 1987
  • John D. Bengtson and Merritt Ruhlen, Global Etymologies, http://www.merrittruhlen.com/files/Global.pdf

ESP nuclear blast predictor

  • Price, G.R. (1955). Science and the supernatural. Science 122:359-367
  • Price, G.R. (1956). Where is the definitive experiment? Science 123:17-18

The Hawthorne Effect

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

Sod’s Chain

  • William St. Clair Symmers Snr, Curiosa, Baillière Tindall, 1974

Answer that phone!

  • “Hello, Central?”, Michele Martin, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal, pp. 19-20

How many piano tuners in Chicago?

  • Science, August 29th, 2008, p. 1160

Arab science under the telescope

  • Mohammed A. Manna’, The Medium English, Al-Kharraz Library, Benghazi, Libya 1967

Why does a mirror reverse left and right but not top and bottom?

  • Richard Gregory, Mirrors in Mind, W.H. Freeman, 1997

Communicating at an unknown rate

  • Encyclopedie Méthodique, Arts et Métiers Mécaniques
  • Getting the Message, Laszlo Solymar, OUP, 1999

Swinging the lead

  • http://www.magician.org/portal/ja/node/769

Europe to America in an hour, by train

  • A train ticket to America, please, Guardian, September 18, 2006, p. 3

Fundamental chemistry

  • G. Märkl and H. Hauptmann (1983-06-14). “Untersuchungen zur Chemie der Arsole 1,1-dichlor-1-R-λ5-arsole-1-chlorarsole 2,2′,5,5′-tetraphenyldiarsolyl (Studies on the chemistry of arsoles)”.

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