Free Will

PZ Myers of the Pharyngula blog pointed out this story of a 19-year old preacher-to-be microwaving his 2-month old daughter. The mother of the child claims Satan compelled her husband to microwave the child. Looks like this case is too extreme for anyone to take her claim seriously (unless taken as pleading insanity), but still illustrates the issue of avoiding responsibility by appealing to religious concepts.

The claim of being under the influence of Satan or God when committing certain acts is puzzling to me and perhaps readers can help clear this up a bit: as I've come to understand, most Christians believe God gave them free will so they could choose to live out their lives whichever way they saw best. If this were to really work "objectively" from God's point of view, neither God or Satan could interfere by definition with the decisions of men. If Satan had such unrestrained power to make people cause harm to other people, where would that leave free will? Does it have an "on/off" button?

The concept of free will itself is also certainly open for discussion. I don't think we understand the Universe, especially the part between our ears, sufficiently yet to say what's going on with free will, but it seems very likely it will at some point be explained as part of the way the brain represents its actions to itself - at least that's the way it seems to an astrophysics student trying to keep up to date with neuroscience news. Incidentally, Science Magazine recently reviewed "I am a Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter - a new book exploring the nature of consciousness, a phenomenon fundamentally related to free will. It seems a promising read.

The Silicon Soldiers

The Bronze Soldier in Tallinn, Estonia is a Soviet memorial for those who perished in the Second World War. For most Russians, it is a symbol of victory over Nazi Germany. Soviet-era history associated this victory with the "liberation" of many areas that were, in fact, occupied - Estonian officials facing an attack by a Red Army force 100000 strong in 1940 had no choice but to accept a Soviet ultimatum. After a sneak-attack on the Soviet Union, Germany took Estonia in 1941 and it was re-occupied by the Soviets in 1944. This last event was taught in the USSR as "liberation", but carries a negative meaning for Estonians who perceive it as going from the jaws of one wolf to another.

In 1941 and 1949 tens of thousands of Estonians were deported overnight to Siberia, where many of them perished, and 75000 were repressed in the Red Terror campaign from 1945 to 1959. During the same period, nearly two hundred thousand mostly Russian-speaking immigrants changed the demographics of a 800000-member nation that in 1945 had still consisted of 97% Estonians. The Soviet occupation, with widespread censorship and propaganda, lasted until 1991 when Estonia regained independence. However, a dichotomy remained between the Estonian and Russian communities in the country. Many Russians apparently still believe Estonia voluntarily joined the Soviet Union and thus do not understand why war veterans waving Soviet flags in the center of our capital could be taken as a disrespectful and offensive sign.

The Bronze Soldier, incidentally, was the site of such flag-wavings. It was and is also the site of many a decent show of respect, to be sure. Tensions around the statue, featuring mostly Estonian and Russian radicals, had escalated considerably in the past two years and the vast majority of Estonians were of the opinion that the statue should be removed, which is exactly what the government recently did in response to a mass looting of the city center by hundreds of Russian vandals protesting archaeological digs at the memorial site. Originally, plans called for moving the statue only after the thorough archaeological studies. The Soldier was taken to a military cemetery (see photo at top by Rasmus Puksmann) with honorable reburial of the twelve people found under it expected to follow. Russians who wish to honor the Soviet victory in World War II can still do so with full respect and Soviet Union symbols are seen in the center of our capital no more.

This however, is not the end of the story. Among other things, a six-day blockade of our embassy in Moscow ensued, carried out by pro-Kremlin youth activists who claim Estonians are fascists. A Russian delegation to Estonia recommended our government step down and export of many of our goods to Russia was boycotted. Perhaps the most significant response has been a three-week long cyber war waged against Estonian government, news agency and bank servers. As a result, many of the mentioned online services have been inaccessible from abroad in recent days. The Bronze Soldier is now giving center stage to the Silicon Soldiers, whose on-line attacks have attracted considerable attention from NATO.

Endnote: Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, please be advised the current post is a minimal outline. With help from friends, I've been working on a post on the Bronze Soldier issue that will give a fuller overview of all the relevant details and viewpoints. Comments are welcome.

Addendum: while writing the above, I was not aware that the term Silicon Soldiers had already been used in various contexts, e.g. in an article entitled "Bush and the Silicon Soldiers" at the New America Foundation. Original memes are impossible to coin these days...

References:
The Bronze Soldier of Tallinn - Wikipedia, a rather detailed description of the monument and recent controversy
"Russia accused of unleashing cyberwar to disable Estonia", The Guardian, 2007.05.17

Unsung Heroes of Scientific Progress

Science - the uncannily successful process of constructing a working model of the Universe. It takes comparatively little food and money to sustain a working scientist, however these alone will not guarantee success - which brings us to the unsung heroic liquids of scientific progress:

Liquid nitrogen and coffee.

Most scientists never consider the extent to which modern science relies on the above duo. Enter any modern laboratory, no matter what field, and in the far corner you will spot the familiar silvery cylinder, inconspicuously puffing out vapor. Liquid nitrogen cools telescope cameras, freezes cells and samples, keeps your superconductor superconductive and helps in countless other ways. Coffee containers are also easy to spot, being stored on every floor of an institute, often even in hallways for easy access. This is crucial, as a scientist past the 4-hour half-life of consumed caffeine in the body will be utterly incapable of systematic work, even as crucial as handling liquid nitrogen dewars.

As a side note, the illustration[1] at left clearly shows that caffeine-drugged spiders, as opposed to their "clean" friends, are quite horrible at making neatly organized webs. One is left to wonder why it works the other way with scientists...

oh, wait... perhaps it doesn...

But let's not go there. I'm sure depriving the world's scientists of coffee with the excuse of finding out if a completely harmonious new global scientific paradigm will emerge would lead to disaster anyhow: simply delay the pizzas for an institute lunch by ten minutes to see why.


A few fundamentals:

• Storage: dewars for liquid nitrogen; jugs for coffee
• Optimal temperature: 77 kelvin for nitrogen going into equipment; 330 kelvin for coffee going into a scientist (theoreticians often accept 300 kelvin coffee and record-holding theoreticians can even survive coffee at room temperature)
• Swirls of steam emanating from the liquid are a healthy sign for both substances
  
• Prices: starting at €10 per liter of liquid nitrogen or kilogram of decent coffee, cheaper in bulk

Behind every great man, there is a woman. And behind every great scientist, there is a dewar.

References:
[1] Image from Wikipedia entry on caffeine. (c) NASA