Abnihilization of the Etym: Joyce, Rutherford, and Particle Physics

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-286
Author(s):  
Andrzej Duszenko

This essay examines one of Joyce's references to new physics in Finnegans Wake: the allusion to Ernest Rutherford in the opening section of the third chapter of Book II. The composition of Finnegans Wake coincided with the development of the theory of relativity and quantum physics, which resulted in a variety of references to these new scientific developments in the book. The essay argues that among the many Wakean passages referring to new physics, the allusion to Rutherford stands out by virtue of being personal in nature and broad in references. The analysis of the linguistic transformations in the text of the passage suggests that Joyce saw a parallel between the work of the man who ‘split the atom’ and two aspects of his own work: the constant pattern of death and rebirth which is fundamental to the world described in Finnegans Wake, and his own lexical practice in creating a new kind of language to describe that world. References to quantum mechanics in the Rutherford passage are blended with allusions to relativity, the second component of new physics, and the text is placed in a cluster of other references to various elements of the subatomic world.

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Pearce

Ignotofsky, Rachel. Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World. 10 Speed Press, 2016.“It’s a Scientific Fact: Women rock!” This is the statement on the back cover of Rachel Ignotofsky’s fabulous book about women in science. This illustrated hardcover book surveys 50 women scientists’ achievements and biographies in bold style. The book includes women scientists ranging from agriculture, mathematics, chemistry, geology all the way to particle physics and astronomy. Each scientist has been allotted a two-page spread with a full-page biography, that is illustrated with bright and colourful drawings relevant to their discoveries and areas of research. Dispersed between the biographies are info-graphic sections that showcase scientific implements, a glossary, and even statistics about women in STEM.I was immediately drawn to this book by the colourful illustrations (also drawn by Ignotofsky) on both the cover and interlaced throughout the glossy pages of this book. The biographies strike an excellent balance between detail and brevity. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the many women scientists I had never learned about before, like Hypatia, a mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt in 350 CE, Emmy Noether who worked for Einstein’s team on the theory of relativity, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin who discovered the sun was comprised of Hydrogen and Helium and Rosalind Franklin who discovered the DNA double helix. This book left me with an overwhelming sense of the remarkable discoveries by women in science.Women in Science can be enjoyed all ages of readers, including adults. Older readers will enjoy the facts and information within the biographies, while younger readers can read the many illustrations. This book would be especially great to share with young girls, to inspire curiosity and interest in the sciences, and to show that they can follow in the footsteps of many great women scientists. Highly recommended.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Hanne PearceHanne Pearce has worked at the University of Alberta Libraries since 2004. She holds a BA and MLIS and is currently working towards her Master of Arts in Communications and Technology. Her research interests include: visual communication, digital literacy, information literacy and the intersections between communication work and information work. She is also a freelance photographer and graphic designer.


2014 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 23-24
Author(s):  

A team of physicists from Hong Kong has now formally joined one of the most prestigious physics experiments in the world. Following a unanimous vote of approval today by its Collaboration Board, ATLAS has admitted the Hong Kong team as a member. The ATLAS Collaboration operates one of the largest particle detectors in the world, located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's highest energy particle accelerator at CERN, Switzerland. In 2012, the ATLAS team — along with the CMS Collaboration — co-discovered the Higgs boson, or so-called 'God Particle'. The gigantic but sensitive and precise ATLAS detector, together with the unprecedentedly high collision energy and luminosity of the LHC, make it possible to search for fundamentally new physics, such as dark matter, hidden extra dimensions, and supersymmetry — a proposed symmetry among elementary particles. The LHC is currently undergoing an upgrade, targeting a substantial increase in beam energy and intensity in a year's time. It is widely expected that the discovery of the Higgs boson is only the beginning of an era of new breakthroughs in fundamental physics. All these exciting opportunities are now opened up to scientists and students from Hong Kong.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhonda Sader

Beaty, Andrea. Ada Twist Scientist. Illustrated by David Roberts. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2016.With a whimsical prose and an empowering message, it’s hard to resist Ava Twist Scientist! This is the third book written by Andrea Beaty, and true to the form of Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer, she celebrates the creativity, imagination, curiosity, and perseverance of every day children.  Ava Twist has a question for everything as she explores the world around her: “Why are there pointy things stuck to a rose?  Why are there hairs up inside of your nose?”   Her parents are puzzled and exhausted by their curious child, while at the same time supportive of her scientific endeavours. Although Ada experiences frustration in her experiments, as they don’t quite always go as planned, she perseveres and shows continued determination in finding answers to the many questions that perplex her. There are parallels in this story to Albert Einstein’s childhood, with Ada being delayed in speech, being extremely curious about the world around her, and getting into trouble at school because of it.  Einstein was puzzled by a compass, and Ava a grandfather clock.  Similarly, both made sense of their world through pictures and constant questioning.  Interestingly, in the end pages, Andrea Beaty notes she named Ada Marie Twist after two great women scientists: Marie Curie and Ada Lovelace.Focused colourful illustrations placed on a white background complement this rhyming text giving us a glimpse into Ada’s mind and her never-ending curiosity.  One of the most endearing qualities of this book is how the illustrator David Roberts includes the teacher, Iggy Peck, and Rosie Revere, characters of Beaty’s other books, as Ada’s diverse classmates, converging the stories together. This book is notable as it focuses on a young girl’s passion for science, providing a role model and empowering other girls to follow their dreams. It should be noted however, that the story is inspirational for all. And with that I must insist: Ada Twist should not be missed!   Recommended: 4 out of 4 StarsReviewer: Rhonda SaderRhonda Sader started enjoying picture books as a young girl and has never looked back.  Some of her most treasured time is spent reading books nightly with her own two children. 


Author(s):  
Nancy Shoemaker

This epilogue addresses how David Whippy, Mary D. Wallis, and John B. Williams—as they pursued respect in different ways—became party to the many changes taking place in Fiji due to foreign influence. Whippy, Wallis, and Williams were all involved, in one way or another, in the U.S.–Fiji trade. In the twentieth century, new incentives enticed Americans to Fiji. American global activism and private development schemes involved Fiji as much as other places around the world, and medical aid and research sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and a Carnegie Library at Suva introduced new forms of American influence in the islands. World War II, of course, brought Americans to the islands in droves. However, the main avenue by which Americans would come to Fiji was through the third wave of economic development that succeeded the sugar plantations of colonial Fiji: tourism. Now that the face of Fiji presented to the rest of the world evokes pleasure instead of fear, references to the cannibal isles have become nothing more than a nostalgic nod to Fiji's past. Previously considered a site of American wealth production, the islands have now become a site of American consumption.


PMLA ◽  
1949 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 708-723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Samuel

The longer I live, the more I am satisfied of two things: first, that the truest lives are those that are cut rose-diamond fashion, with many facets answering to the many-planed aspects to the world about them; secondly, that society is always trying in some way or other to grind us down to a single flat surface. … People who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more rarely than those who try to be “consistent.” But a great many things we say can be made to appear contradictory, simply because they are partial views of a truth, and many often look unlike at first, as a front view of a face and its profile often do.—Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast-TableThe rose-diamond cut of Milton's thought often disconcerts his reader, but perhaps nowhere so completely as in his views on learning. After the high enthusiasm for unrestricted inquiry, after all the “intent study” which he took as his own “portion in life”, in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, the ripe products of his learning, he gives to Raphael, Michael, and Jesus speeches that seem a wholesale repudiation of studies of all sorts. The three passages are too well known to quote. In the first (P.L., viii, 66–178)1 Raphael disparages Adam's inquiries about astronomy, but answers them, and then comments, “Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid.” In the second (P.L., XII, 575–587) Michael commends Adam for the inference he has drawn from his preview of universal history (that “to obey is best, / And love with fear the only God”), and admonishes him, “This having learnt, thou hast attain'd the sum / Of wisdom; hope no higher.” In the third (P.R., iv, 286–364) Jesus spurns Satan's offer of Greek learning, with an analysis of the defects of Greek philosophy and literature and a thrust at learning in general: “Many books / Wise men have said are wearisome.”


1979 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Voll

The Sudanese Mahdī has been pictured as a villain, as a hero, as a reactionary, as an anti-imperialist revolutionary, and in many other ways. The romance and excitement of the nineteenth-century Mahdiyya has inspired novels and movies, while the many faceted reality of the movement has caught the attention of a wide range of scholars in search of case studies of specific phenomena. In recent years the Mahdī has been used as an example of a ‘charismatic’ leader,1 the founder of a religionpolitical party in the ‘third world,’2 the leader of a millenarian revolt,3 an African rebel against alien rule,4 and a Semitic messiah in an African context. Many of these analyses are the constructive products of the changing situation in the world of contemporary historical studies. Each tends to reflect a broader analytical concern aroused by modern developments.


1966 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip E. Mosely

THE “third world” of the developing and, for the most part, newly independent nations is, for Communists of all brands and allegiances, both a crucial arena of political competition against the “imperialists” and the center of their hopes for new victories. Yet there are important differences in the way Moscow and Peking view these opportunities. The Soviet leadership believes that the many poor and ambitious countries will, later if not sooner, decide that Communism offers them the best prospects for raising their status in the world. Chinese Communist propaganda, on the other hand, calls for an ever more militant struggle of “national liberation” to expel the “imperialists” from Asia, Africa, and Latin America and to unite the developing countries under Peking's leadership. Thus, in addition to being a principal focus of Communist hopes and efforts, the question of the “correct” policy toward the third world has unleashed deep-set rivalries and antagonisms between and within ruling and nonruling Communist parties alike.


KronoScope ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-34
Author(s):  
Frederick Turner

Abstract This summary of the fundamental insights of J.T. Fraser dwells on four main themes. The first is the way that Fraser disposes of the ancient struggle between monism and dualism, with its related problem of ontology versus epistemology. His tree-like vision of the evolution of the many out of the one is both ordered and open-ended. The second is his critique of philosophy’s (and science’s) tendency to reify simple, defined, pure, and exclusive abstractions. Subjectivity, intentionality, consciousness, freedom, mind, cause, and the experience of time are shown by him to be composite, present in different degrees and kinds in different organisms and different times, constructed and complex. The third theme is Fraser’s decisive refutation of the metaphor of time as a line, as in clocks, calendars, and the t-axis in science. We must explore other geometries. The fourth theme is Fraser’s rehabilitations of the arts, including literature, as potentially legitimate ways of understanding the world and exploring the nature of time.


2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-415
Author(s):  
Reinhard Markner

AbstractAmong the many publishing ventures of the “Reichsinstitut für die Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands,” the journal Forschungen zur Judenfrage (1936–1944) has gained most notoriety. In its nine volumes, various aspects of the “Jewish question,” ranging from the Jews in antiquity to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, were dealt with from a strictly National Socialist point of view. The ambitious project proved to be a failure even before the Third Reich collapsed. While some of the journal's contributors managed to pursue their academic careers in post-war West Germany, its founder, Walter Frank, committed suicide in 1945.


2019 ◽  
pp. 96-119
Author(s):  
Neil E. Williams

Chapter 5 argues for a monistic account of power properties that sees them as at once powerful and qualitative. The chapter is divided into three sections: the first two are negative, arguing against the two main competitor fundamental power ontologies—power monism (pandispositionalism) and dualism, respectively—and the third is positive, describing the version of mixed dualism on offer. In the first section it is argued that power monism fails to generate the sort of quality or character the world requires. This is tied to the many regresses that power monism has been charged with generating. The second section deals with power dualism, and raises a difficulty regarding the ability of non-power properties to be causally relevant without also being causally operative. The third section locates the form of mixed monism on offer among the space of extant mixed monisms.


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