Author: curioustealover

Book Review

Posted on by curioustealover

Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist by Thomas Levenson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


We all know who Newton is. He is one of the greatest scientist who has ever lived. Most of us get taught his three laws of motions from his most famous work—The Principia. But do we truly know who the man was?

Newton and the Counterfeiter is a beautifully crafted novel by Thomas Levenson, a professor of science writing at MIT. Levenson masters the art of storytelling to bring us back to the era of Newton. In particular, Levenson focuses on the time when Newton served as the Warden of the Mint in England. When Newton was first appointed, England was on the verge of collapse. The currency of England was no longer reliable due to a major counterfeiting issue. It was the job of one of the smartest men in the world to fix the currency issue and save England. Part of this new job required Newton to investigate and try counterfeiters. These poor counterfeiters were no match for the greatest mind in England—none of them except for one, William Chaloner.

While reading this novel I was stricken with a sense of awe. The man who invented calculus and revolutionized science also did so much more. “It is important to remember, however, that while many of his biographers have drawn portraits of a swarm of different Newtons—the magician, the mathematician, the experimental genius, the young Newton as a cloistered professor, the older man in charge of the Royal Society, conducting the running war with intellectual enemies on the Continent—the real Isaac Newton was one man living one life, whose parts as he lived them were thoroughly conformable to the whole.” In the end Newton was a man. He was a genius, but just another man.

I recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in science or just curious about people. This book has changed my perspective on these past figures of science and has inspired me to live my life to the fullest.



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Support your local bookstore! Don’t have time to visit in person? Purchase the book here at bookshop.org. Or save some cash and visit a library. Does anyone else feel like a kid entering a theme park each time they visit the library?

My Side Quest to the Dark Side

Posted on by curioustealover

A long time ago in a galaxy far away… 

Well, maybe it was not that long ago and maybe it was not that far away. There lived three sisters in a country home far from the hustle and chaos of the city. There were wide open fields all around and quiet except for the occasional cluck from a chicken or breeze through the grass. Suddenly this peace is interrupted by a loud argument coming from within the house. The three sisters are quarreling about the chores that must be done before their parents return home from work. The eldest sister is frustrated with the youngest sister’s refusal to help and turns towards the middle sister for support. The middle sister is annoyed with both her sisters and does not wish to fight. However, knowing the buttons of both her sisters, she strategically pushes a few on each of her sisters and turns them at each other so they will continue the quarrel and leave her out of it. In fact, this was a common practice by the middle sister. She would often get back at one of her sisters by turning the other onto her. The middle sister was often believed to be the innocent one when all along there was this dark thread to be traced through her past.

Scott Barry Kaufman, a Columbia University phycologist, has been fascinated by the light and dark sides of people. Being a bit of a Star Wars geek (which who isn’t?), he likes to relate some of his research to the Dark Side and Light Side of the force. The Jedi of course are the ultimate representation of the Light Side of the Force. The Jedi believe in knowledge and peace, they value all life, and they are known for their compassion. The Sith, on the other hand, are the epidemy of the Dark Side. The Sith are driven by power and conflict, they value only their self-interest, and tend to display aggression. While Kaufman notes that Star Wars is just a fictional story, he believes that humans have a lot to learn from the fiction we tell ourselves. Often this fiction will reflect some truth we find within.   

The Light Triad vs. The Dark Triad

There is a large body of research that currently exists on the Dark Triad: Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Psychologists have been fascinated with the dark side of human nature for years. However, Kaufman and a few of his colleagues noticed that the study of the light side of human nature was lacking. So, they sat down and searched for a Light Triad that was more than just the opposite of Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. They came up with the following Light Triad: Faith in Humanity, Humanism, and Kantianism.

Kaufman designed a quiz online that you can take to show you which side of the Force you channel. I am a sucker for quizzes so of course I immediately went to his website and found the quiz. At the end of the questionnaire a picture of Yoda popped up with the following message, “You are moderately tipped toward the light side of the force!” Moderately? Well at least I am not tipped toward the Dark side. I scrolled down for my results. I ended up being 12.4% below average in Kantianism and 7.75% above average in Machiavellianism.

As you might have guessed I am the middle sister in the story from earlier. I feel ashamed of my past and how I treated my sisters. However, Kaufman argues that too often we shame our dark sides and oppress them rather than trying to understand them and accept them. All of us have a dark side and it is important we learn to embrace it and understand it. Perhaps the more we try to fight it the more likely we will end up like Anakin. Haha, just kidding… hopefully. But seriously, maybe we should be more observant of ourselves and our motivations. I personally will be embracing my Lavender Lightsaber and investigating both my light and dark tendencies.

Take the quiz HERE and find out where you fall on the Dark and Light spectrum. Comment below with your experience if you would like to share.

Resources

Are You Yoda or Darth Vader?: How to recognize your light and dark sides by Brian Gallagher from Nautilus Magazine

Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization by Scott Barry Kaufman

The Heavens In Motion

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Stand up. Take a few paces around your home, the tea house, the park, wherever you happen to be. Sip on your tea. Do you feel the Earth moving? Is the Earth moving? All of us today will scoff and say of course the Earth moves. In fact, we know it moves quite fast: it orbits the sun at 67,000 mph and rotates on its axis 1,037 mph at the equator (space.com How Fast the Earth is Moving). However, put yourself in the shoes of someone just 400 years ago when this information was not common knowledge. What would you think? Does your day-to-day experience support these facts?

Geocentric Model

Over 400 years ago, when a person looked up at the stars, they believed they were glimpsing at the heavens. Every day they would see the sun rise in the East and set in the West. Every night they observe the moon rise and bright stars move across the dark sky. These observations gave birth to the geocentric model of the solar system with the Earth resting at the center and all other celestial bodies rotating about in perfect circles.

“In the heavens, it was believed there must be eternal perfection, and what more natural and beautiful a representation of eternity could one have than ceaseless motion in the most perfect of figures, the circle?”

Relativity and Its Roots by Banesh Hoffmann

It is sometimes strange to think that this geocentric model has dominated the beliefs of humans much longer than the heliocentric model. To this day we still use geocentric language when we talk about “sunrise” and “sunset” which implies the Sun revolves around the Earth. 

Heliocentric Model

The Heliocentric Model gained popularity during the “Copernican Revolution”. Despite what is implied by the revolution’s title, there were several key players over a long time period that eventually turned mankind’s beliefs closer to the truth of the universe.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

While Copernicus was not the first person known to suggest the Heliocentric Model, he expressed his beliefs with the backing of mathematical rigor that eventually led to the model’s acceptance. He would pass before the heliocentric model dominated.

Johanes Keppler (1571-1630)

Keppler used the meticulous astronomical observations of Tycho Brahe to discover three laws of planetary motion:

  1. The planets orbit in an elliptical path with the sun as a focus point of the ellipse.
  2. The closer a planet gets to the sun the faster it moves.
  3. The time a planet takes to orbit the sun is related to the distance the planet is away from the Sun.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Galileo did not discover the telescope. However, when he heard of the invention, he built his own and was the first to turn it towards the heavens for the purpose of study. Galileo looked through the lens of his DIY telescope and discovered hills and valleys on the moon, sunspots on the sun (he eventually went blind probably partly due to this discovery—don’t stare at the sun!), Jovian moons around Jupiter, and the phases of Venus. All of these observations attested to the imperfections of the heavens and supported Copernicus’s Heliocentric Model. Eventually, Galileo published these finding in a book written for the public to enjoy. When the Church heard of Galileo’s book, they put him on trial in front of the Inquisition. Unwilling to yield on his beliefs, Galileo was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.

In short, the universe does not revolve around you. The abolishment of the geocentric model has perhaps humbled the human race a bit. Today, we know that the mysteries of our world will eventually be explained by science and that our planet is special but is not located at the center of the universe.   

Sources

Relativity and Its Roots by Banesh Hoffmann

Inside Relativity by Thomas Vargish & Delo E. Mook

How Fast the Earth is Moving by Elizabeth Howell from Space.com

The Start of a Long Journey to Modern Physics

Posted on by curioustealover

I began my quest to understand Relativity by downloading an Audible Great Course titled Einstein’s Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists. This seemed like an unintimidating place to start. Plus, Lecture 1 is titled Time Travel, Tunneling, Tennis, and Tea. So naturally with tea in the title this was the course for me.

Professor Richard Wolfson begins by describing a few bazar situations that are consequences of Einstein’s theories. One of the more popular consequences is the time traveling twins. I must confess, I find this idea quite preposterous, however he assures us that later in the course we will understand why this must be true.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

So, let us take a step back. What is physics? According to Wolfson, physics is not some specialty field that only extremely smart people study and has nothing to do with the regular Joe’s day to day. Physics is the study of the entire physical universe to include everything between the subatomic particles and the scale of our entire universe. Physics is involved in all of our day to day lives—driving to work, playing fetch with your dog, brewing a cup of tea, and so much more. Physics is a field of study we all engage with every single day. Physics is for all of us.

Perhaps one of the most thought-provoking ideas is that physics is a human activity. All of the theories and experiments have influence from human nature. Our culture is largely what decides what we find important and hypothesize to be correct. We, as humans, look to those who came before us and build on top of their foundational knowledge. Step by step we have found ourselves in the modern era of physics. In the words of Sir Isaac Newton, “If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

There is no need to be intimidated. Part of understanding our physical world is making a guess and carefully observing the physical reality. Many times, these guesses end up being wrong, but sometimes we stumble upon a miraculous discovery. We are all capable of guessing and it turns out we are all capable of being wrong. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, put on your pot of tea and start observing the physical reality around you. Who knows, you might just stumble across something incredible?

If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.

Sir Isaac Newton

Ask Smart People Stupid Questions: My Top 3 Favorite Episodes of Ologies

Posted on by curioustealover

My first review ever will be of a podcast that has inspired me to get back into my passion for learning. The Ologies podcast with Alie Ward is a superb science podcast that brings to light different studies that most of us did not really know was a thing. Alie is witty and strangely eager to present her audience with interviews each week of various “ologists” she has hunted down. She asks these experts what might be thought of as stupid questions but really, we are all wondering the same thing. She is quirky and up lifting. She expresses herself in her work and does not hold back. A word to the wise, if you have kiddos in the car you might want to look for her bleeped podcasts.

Hagfishology with Tim Winegard

Hagfishology is the study of (you guessed it) Hagfish. These fish have got to be one of the most fascinating creatures on this planet. What really amazed me were the images I looked up after hearing this episode of the accident that occurred near where I lived. A truck full of these beauties ended up rolling over and spilling out the Hagfish all over the roadway. Alie described the scene as a tsunami of slime and she was right!

Listen Here

Acarology with Dr. Neeta Pardanani Connally

Cute mug my husband got me from Ologies Merch.

Boy does this episode make your skin crawl. Acarology is the study of ticks. Alie has a talent for describing science in such a way that you want to laugh and hide in a corner at the same time. This episode made he appreciate just how interesting ticks really are while also realizing that I need to do tick checks more often after my hikes. Trust me, listen to this episode and you will never forget to “check your crevices” again after a hike.

Listen Here

Chronobiology with Katherine Hatcher

Chronobiology is the study of circadian rhythms. This episode really made me question the way I currently treat my sleep cycle. I have been in the Navy for 7 years now and those of you in the service will probably have a pretty good idea how I treated my sleep underway—especially if you have had the great privilege of working in the reactor department aboard a Navy vessel. Katherine Hatcher lays out the facts and discusses what the science actually says about shift work and much more.

Listen Here

Checkout her website at alieward.com/ologies. Listen through some episodes that strike your fancy and leave a comment to let others know which Ologies episodes are your favorite. Enjoy sipping your tea and fueling your curiosity!

Why this Blog?

Posted on by curioustealover

Why the Theory of Relativitea? What a great question. A few months ago, I found myself craving a creative outlet. I was not sure what that would look like. After several months of brainstorming ideas, I narrowed down two things I am passionate about: tea and learning. One of the major goals I have in life is to be a life long learner. Just because someone is no longer attending school does not mean they no longer have the opportunity to discover new things about the crazy universe we live in. I want this blog to help all of us get excited about the world around us. I want to bring back the passion and curiosity that so many of us might have lost as we got older.

The tea really just comes in because some might say I have an addiction, and they would be right. Every morning, I brew myself a hot cup of tea in one of my 23 mugs I own. I enjoy the process of brewing my cup and the inner peace it brings me each morning.

Through my studies of science and mathematics, I came across the idea of blending my two passions in life into a blog. One of the greatest minds of the modern era, Albert Einstein, discovered his ground breaking theories while he was out of school just doing his day to day work at a patent office. While Einstein was a genius, I truly believe so many of us would be shocked at what sort of discoveries we could make by just exploring our passions and ideas. So, I took Einstein’s famous theory and shamelessly created a pun. Born was the idea of the Theory of Relativitea.

So, take a few minutes to steep yourself a cup of tea (or coffee, if you are a trader) and rediscover your curiosity of this amazing world around us through mathematics, science, and of course tea.

Leave a comment below of something you have discovered while enjoying a lovely cup of tea.

Slow down and enjoy your cup of tea.