The famed physicist Richard Feynman once said, “If we were to name the most powerful assumption of all, which leads one on and on to an attempt to understand life, it is that all things are made of atoms, and that everything that living things do can be understood in terms of the jiggling and wiggling of atoms.” Molecular dynamics (MD) is a computer simulation method that analyzes how atoms and molecules move and interact during a fixed period of time. MD simulations allow scientists to gain a better sense of how a system (which could include anything from a single cell to a cloud of gas) progresses over time. Practical applications of molecular dynamics include studying large molecules such as proteins for drug development.
SCIENCE & MEDICINE
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Which Coronavirus Policies Succeed, And Which Fail: N.Y. Times Analysis Confirms Historian Eric Zuesse Projections
17 minutes readERIC ZUESSE—At Strategic Culture, on May 21, I had published my own analysis, which was based upon tracking the data globally and within countries, and within the various states of the United States, which analysis concluded that countries (and states) which apply the least-stringent regulations in order to keep as low as possible the spread of the virus are failing the most to contain or limit that spread. I labelled those the “libertarian” countries, and I noted that what I called the “socialist” countries — the nations which were the most strictly imposing scientifically confirmed regulations in order to keep those numbers down — were having the best success at limiting the spread of this virus.
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JOHN SCALES AVERY—Today, human greed and folly are destroying the global environment. As if this were not enough, there is a great threat to civilization and the biosphere from an all-destroying thermonuclear war. Both of these severe existential threats are due to faults our inherited emotional nature.
Our emotions have an extremely long evolutionary history. Both lust and rage are emotions that we share with many animals. However, with the rapid advance of human cultural evolution, our ancestors began to live together in progressively larger groups, and in these new societies, our inherited emotional nature was often inappropriate. What once was a survival trait became a sin which needed to be suppressed by morality and law.
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‘On the way to Mars’: Boom Bust observes China’s space race as it launches world’s 1st 6G satellite into orbit
14 minutes readChina has successfully sent 13 satellites into orbit this month with a single rocket, including the world’s first 6G experimental satellite. RT correspondent John Huddy looks at Beijing’s space ambitions. China led the world in the number of launches per year in 2018 and 2019. It is upping the stakes in the space race by launching 32 rockets so far this year, and could hit 40 by the end of 2020, Huddy says. “China’s Tianwen-1 probe is currently on the way to Mars” and the country is expected to launch another rocket, the Chang’e-5 with a lunar sample return mission, later this month.
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WAITING TO INHALE: WHY IT HURTS TO HOLD YOUR BREATH
11 minutes readWhen you hold your breath the ongoing accumulation of carbon dioxide in your cells, in your blood and lungs will eventually irritate and trigger impulses from the respiratory center part of your brain. Rising levels of carbon dioxide signal the body to breathe and ensure our unconscious and autonomous respiration. The body has the ability to detect these C02 levels with great accuracy and relies on them to regulate our respiration, so that we don’t have to.