The gman belongs, or is working for, an organization that is not of the rebels or the combine. Halflife story explanation and analysis part 1 youtube. This is evident by the fact that they unleashed gordon freeman on the combine in half life 2. The origin of life is a scientific problem which is not yet solved. But how did the first organisms on the only known home to life in the universe develop from the primordial soup. The term is also used more generally to characterize any type of exponential or nonexponential decay. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the half life of facts. Do you think it has a message for people beyond the narrow, carcash one. Samuel arbesman shares his extensive knowledge with infectious enthusiasm and entertaining prose. Samuel arbesman, a mathematician at harvard, calls this the halflife of facts, the title of his new book. The halflife of caffeine is around 6 hours, but as with most biological halflives. The halflife of facts is an engaging, popular introduction to several topics within information science. According to arbesman, information has a predictable half life. An isotope disintegrates at a constant rate called the half life, or the time it takes for half the atoms of a sample to decay.
The wall street journal absorbing and approachable treatise on the nature of facts. Find books like half life from the worlds largest community of readers. The halflife of facts and millions of other books are available for instant. The half life of knowledge or half life of facts is the amount of time that has to elapse before half of the knowledge or facts in a particular area is superseded or shown to be untrue.
We used to think the earth was the center of the universe and that pluto was a planet. But there is a general theory of evolution, too, and it applies to society, money, technology. As he tells us at the start of this book, darwinism is the special theory of evolution. Jul 02, 20 complement the halflife of facts with galileo on critical thinking, michael faraday on how to cure our propensity for selfdeception, and carl sagans timeless baloney detection kit. Its an irony of modern life that the exponential spread of information has. Radioactive elements have different isotopes that decay at different rates.
May 21, 2018 special thanks to kayteegee and raymilz for watching this video before hand and critiquing it. With the frequency of meteor strikes all over the planet, not only could this hypothesis explain where life came from, but it could also explain how life spread out over various geographic areas. The halflife of knowledge or halflife of facts is the amount of time that has to elapse before half of the knowledge or facts in a particular area is superseded or shown to be untrue. Hum, i would have thought that the half life of math was much longer than physics. When unstable nuclei decay, they do so with a probability described by a half life. Overall, the half life of facts is an engaging book. Life span theory in developmental psychology handbook of.
Willie somerset chandran is the son of a brahmin father and a dalit mother. He helped to initiate and sustain what came to be known as the cognitive revolution. The challenge for evolutionary biology is to explain how such diversity arises. The title comes from the notion that one can measure the rate at which papers within a discipline become obsolete, assigning a half life to each field. There are many different types of organisms in the world. The harvard network scientist and pop theorist samuel arbesman stokes our fears of information on the cover of his recent book, the half life of facts.
It is unclear that there is any way to establish what constitutes knowledge in a particular area, as opposed to mere opinion or theory. With this, he introduces scientometrics, the science of science. Winner of the 20 thorpe menn literary excellence award and a scientific american recommended book. Half a life was long listed for the man booker prize 2001. In it he explains that this churn of knowledge is like radioactive decay.
According to this theory, what is the halflife of this fact. This is a quote from samuel arbesman, author of the halflife of facts. Because of how ambiguous and implied most of the games story is, pretty much all of them are valid given the evidence we have. Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. For example, when medicine transitioned from an art to a science, its halflife was much more rapid than it is now. Follow your curiosity and read my interview with the author. Other examples in arbesmans book will be unfamiliar. Oct 10, 2012 overall, the halflife of facts is an engaging book. Strausss parents are quite present in the early part of the book. Tyler cowen, professor of economics, george mason university, and author of an economist gets lunch. The halflife of facts npr coverage of the halflife of facts. The washington post a book that inspires admiration, sentence by sentence. New insights from the science of science facts change all. The novel is set in india, africa and europe london, berlin and portugal.
Education is about giving the tools to think and understand the world. Access a free summary of the halflife of facts, by samuel arbesman and 20000 other business, leadership and nonfiction books on getabstract. Halflife as defined by geophysicists, the halflife or half value period of a substance is the time required for one half of the atoms in any size sample to radioactively decay. The halflife of facts is a rollicking intellectual journey. The halflife of facts is easily one of the best books of the year on science. Half a life is an unusually honest, thoughtful and unsettling memoir, which readers and critics are destined to call bravefor it is brave. Knowing that knowledge has a half life isnt enough, we can use this to help us determine what to read. The evolution of life histories does this by showing that natural selection is the principal underlying force molding life history variation. Some readers may lose interest as arbesman discusses such esoteric topics as logistic curves, linked scurve theory, semantic and associative data processing and actuarial escape velocity. Samuel arbesman, a mathematician at harvard, calls this the half life of facts, the title of his new book. Since it is often surprisingly predictable, we can get a handle on change. Well it depends, because these rates tend to change over time.
Reading guide for half a life by darin strauss discussion guide for book clubs. We can measure the amount of time for half of a subjects knowledge to be overturned. Public domain photograph via state library of new south wales. But the book is more than simply brave, it is a searingly selfdisciplined work of literature, and of selfexamination.
They want you to know that, buried beneath centuries of misinformation and conspiracy, jesus had a secret wife, named mary magdalene, and he. Half life, in radioactivity, the interval of time required for one half of the atomic nuclei of a radioactive sample to decay change spontaneously into other nuclear species by emitting particles and energy, or, equivalently, the time interval required for the number of disintegrations per second of a radioactive material to decrease by one half. Panspermia theory does not try to explain how life began in outer space. Half of whats there decays, then half of whats left decays, then half of. In biology, a halflife is the time taken for a substance to lose half its effects. The halflife of facts is easily the premise of his talk and his book is that facts are not really information set in stone, the way we usually think about them. Life history theory seeks to explain the evolution of the major features of life cycles by analyzing the ecological factors that shape agespecific schedules of growth, reproduction, and survival and by investigating the tradeoffs that constrain the evolution of these traits. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Noam chomsky, american theoretical linguist whose work from the 1950s revolutionized the field of linguistics by treating language as a uniquely human, biologically based cognitive capacity. This lesson introduced you to two important life science theories. Friendlys attacks included knocking gordons weapons out of his hand, knocking off gordons glasses making the screen go blurry and even raping the player. This is the first part of a twopart series where i address the half life franchises biggest mysteries. Why everything we know has an expiration date reprint by samuel arbesman isbn.
Much of what we believe to be factual has an expiration date, but the good news is that we can see it coming. The deepsea vent theory suggests that life may have begun at submarine hydrothermal vents spewing key. The theory states that all living things are made of cells. What is on the borealis a short while ago, i wrote a theory on who i thought chell was. Even if the facts around us are ever changing, the lessons and fun in this book will have a very long halflife. Through multiplication upon multiplication of facts, information, theories and. The book describes in particular the ways in which.
Mechanisms of life history evolution hardcover thomas. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo, or how long stable atoms survive, radioactive decay. Only the half life is measured because the decay is never considered to be total. Darin strauss, half a life darin strauss half a life is an incredible book.
As such, over the years, quite a few theories about the truth behind the half life universe have been posed to the internet the best repository for them is probably the wild mass guess page, from the good folks at tvtropes. Half a life is a starkly honest account of that fateful moment and his life thereafter. Now, im back with another one of my theories well, technically they arent mine. Although life history theory has made enormous progress in explaining the diversity of life history strategies among. The phrase halflife of facts increased in popularity after the 2012 book the halflife of. The halflife of facts free summary by samuel arbesman. One theoretical fact phase transition that you describe is actuarial. It seems the most likely to be halflifeesque, the time traveling and such. The half life of facts is an engaging, popular introduction to several topics within information science. The book of life pastor dougs weekly message amazing facts. Why everything we know has an expiration date, samuel arbesman see our knowledge project interview posits that facts decay over time until they are no longer facts or perhaps no longer complete.
John mightons half life, about memory, identity and love. Overall, the halflife of facts is an engaging book. Half lives remain constant under any temperature or pressure, but there is a great variety among different isotopes. Why everything we know has an expiration date by samuel arbesman. This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference.
The halflife of facts is a good read that help puts what we think we understand about the world into perspective. This number 704 million years is a measurable amount of time, and it is known as the halflife of uranium. It turns out that facts, when viewed as a large body of knowledge, are just as predictable. If your name is in the book of life, you do not have the mark of the beast. The impact of the halflife of facts on education wired. Ptolomeic epicycles lasted from the 3rd century bc until 1618 and beyond for some. Feb 22, 2005 john mightons half life, a new play about seniors meeting in a home for veterans, gets its world premiere in toronto beginning feb. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the village pump. Knowing that knowledge has a halflife isnt enough, we can use this to help us determine what to read. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Consider the halflife of facts the new goto book on the evolution of science and technology. John mightons half life, a new play about seniors meeting in a home for veterans, gets its world premiere in toronto beginning feb. Half price books has new and used books, textbooks, music, movies and more both online and in stores.
This is a memoir in its finest form, a fully imagined and bittersweet book that transcends a single misstep. The gman, or his employers anyway, seem to definitely oppose the combine. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the halflife of facts. Samuel arbesmans thoroughly enjoyable book, the halflife of facts introduces a jarring but obvious in hindsight featureor bugof human knowledge. Sep, 2010 a tragedys first act is crowded with supporting players. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. The halflife of knowledge or halflife of facts is the amount of time that has to elapse before half. There are plenty of ideas, but few clear facts it is generally agreed that all life today evolved by common descent from a single primitive lifeform. That said, medicine still has a very short halflife. The washington post wrote that half a life has a universal appeal, calling it a penetrating, thoughtprovoking examination of the human mind. Naipaul, the new nobel laureate, is one of those rare books that stands as both a small masterpiece in its own right and as a.
The impact of the halflife of facts on education image by samuel arbesman this is a quote from samuel arbesman, author of the half life of facts. By the way, i just read to you about the mark of the beast, and notice it contrasted one group having the mark of the beast and another group, their names are in the book of life. Dec 27, 2012 he uses mathematical and statistical tools to explore patterns, suggesting common or universal mechanisms. In addition, the pitfalls and biases of dissemination of knowledge, the persistence of misinformation and the inertia for changing our minds, when the facts change are also explored. These coined terms belong to the field of quantitative analysis of science known as scientometrics. Facts, in the aggregate, he writes, have halflives. Halflife, in radioactivity, the interval of time required for one half of the atomic nuclei of a radioactive sample to decay change spontaneously into other nuclear species by emitting particles and energy, or, equivalently, the time interval required for the number of disintegrations per second of a radioactive material to decrease by one half.
1227 682 956 80 554 182 98 1495 823 1153 822 67 1353 904 593 607 636 811 1377 147 1025 636 1088 694 514 773 1221 419 1513 1406 488 1255 806 456 1474 565 1374 1370 401 564 1465 966 243 308 1143