12 DEC 2017 by ideonexus

 Wheat Domesticated Homo Sapiens

Think for a moment about the Agricultural Revolution from the viewpoint of wheat. Ten thousand years ago wheat was just a wild grass, one of many, con
Folksonomies: artificial selection
Folksonomies: artificial selection
  1  notes
 
09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus

 War with a Race Billion-Year Lifespans

Dwellers were almost everywhere and had been there practically for ever. They had learned a few things about making war over that time, and while their war machines were believed to be as customarily unreliable - and eccentrically designed, built and maintained - as every other piece of technology they deigned to involve themselves with, that didn’t mean they weren’t deadly; usually for all concerned, and within a disconcertingly large volume. Other species had prevailed against Dwellers...
Folksonomies: speculation astrobiology
Folksonomies: speculation astrobiology
  1  notes
 
31 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Science Demands Reliable Instruments

Men can construct a science with very few instruments, or with very plain instruments; but no one on earth could construct a science with unreliable instruments. A man might work out the whole of mathematics with a handful of pebbles, but not with a handful of clay which was always falling apart into new fragments, and falling together into new combinations. A man might measure heaven and earth with a reed, but not with a growing reed.
Folksonomies: measurement
Folksonomies: measurement
  1  notes

One can measure with a stick, but not with a growing reed.