Innehållsförteckning för Issue 32 - May/July 2021 från New Philosopher

Our relationship with energy began with fire. In the mythology of the Wurundjeri people, the Crow stole the secret of fire from the Karatgurk women. The Vainakh people gave the credit to the hero Pkharmat, while in Ojibwa myth, the hare stole fire and gave it to humans. In Greek mythology, it was Prometheus who embodied both the creation of humanity (from clay) and the arrival of fire. This was just the beginning for this God of Fire.The infamous larcenist went on to represent so much more: human striving, the quest for knowledge, and the risk of overextension. Following the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – which had the subtitle “The Modern Prometheus” – creation, change, and progress came with a warning label: remember Prometheus. Prometheus undoubtedly had ‘forethought’ –…

1882 was a big year for Thomas Edison. On January 12, he opened the world’s first coal-fired power station generating electricity for public use. The station burnt coal that powered 968 16-candle incandescent streetlamps, lighting the way from Holborn Circus to St Martin’s Le Grand, a one kilometre stretch ending just near the London Stock Exchange. Eight months later, Edison opened his second coal-fired power station, on Pearl Street in Manhattan’s Financial District, with the capacity to light 7,200 lamps. Like its sister station in London, Pearl Street served a wealthy area – including the financial titans of Wall Street. The history of power production is very often the history of wealth – and every else that wealth brings. If we go back to an early power source – preceded…

In 2019, around 11% of global primary energy came from renewable technologies. The first four common domestic items to be powered by electricity were the sewing machine, fan, kettle, and toaster. The rate of living theory: in 1908, Max Rubner observed that larger animals lived longer than smaller ones. While the total metabolic rate of these animals increases with mass, it does so at a slower rate than mass – so a 5,000 kg elephant will use less energy than 5,000 kg of mice. The brain makes up just 2% of the body’s weight, but it uses around 20% of its energy. The materials of a typical house embody about 850 million Btu, which is equivalent to the energy that would be generated by 573 people pedalling bicycles non-stop for…

When I first got together with my husband, we were gifted a joint astrological chart by a mystically-inclined friend who’d studied deeply in the field of astrology. A beautiful thing to behold, it was circular, artful, and symbol-laden, with constellations representing the twelve zodiacal ‘houses’ segmenting the round, and a crisscross of straight-shooting lines linking one area to another. It looked a little bit like a schematic diagram of a dream catcher, which, depending on your view of astrology’s epistemological status, may seem apt. I have no more idea how to read the chart now than I did then, but I remember our friend sitting down with us all those years ago and explaining it. Most of all, I recall her sage prediction: “You will achieve far more together than…

Jim Al-Khalili OBE FRS is an academic, author, and broadcaster. Since 2005, he has held a joint chair in physics and in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey, where he teaches and conducts research in theoretical physics. He received his PhD in nuclear reaction theory. Jim is the author of 12 books. His book, Pathfinders: the golden age of Arabic science, was shortlisted for the Warwick Prize in 2013, while Life on the Edge: the coming of age of quantum biology was shortlisted for the 2015 Royal Society Winton Prize. Jim is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries, on subjects such as chemistry, electricity, and artificial intelligence. For almost a decade he has presented the award-winning weekly BBC Radio 4 program, The Life Scientific. Zan…

Richard Rhodes is the author of twenty-six books including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which won a Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award; Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, which was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize in History; and two further volumes of nuclear history. His latest book is Energy: A Human History. Zan Boag: Energy is a topic you’ve researched extensively over the years. In your recent book, you delve deeply into our transition from one source of energy to another. Is there a particular period that you can pinpoint as the most important transition for humans when it comes to energy? Richard Rhodes: It depends on what you’re thinking about.The transition that was probably most important…

How energy is hidden in colours Exactly which colours an object absorbs depends on all the complex molecules that make up its surface – in particular on the electrons and atomic bonds within those molecules. To understand that, you need to know what colour really is. Light is a wave and ‘colour’ is merely the frequency of that wave. Each light frequency (that is, each colour) carries a particular energy, and if that energy is precisely the right amount to knock an electron from one state to another within a molecule, that frequency will be absorbed. pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/ how-energy-is-hidden-in-colours Devil’s dictionary MONAD, n. The ultimate, indivisible unit of matter. According to Leibniz, as nearly as he seems willing to be understood, the monad has body without bulk, and mind without manifestation…

newphilosopher.com is an online portal for exploring philosophical ideas on ways to live a more fulfilling life. Read the articles, join in discussions, and watch free online documentaries. The vastness of space When it comes to measuring the vastness of outer space, you need to talk about time in order to talk about distance. Where did we come from? I believe getting into this remote perspective and looking at us from a distance is something that... people could learn from. New Philosopher online store Visit the online store for previous issues of New Philosopher magazine, subscriptions as well as gift ideas. Invest in your masterpiece A few decades ago, psychologists began documenting the appearance of a new personality that was showing up for therapy.…

Vitalism – the idea of a ‘life force’ that separates living from non-living matter – is an ancient and persistent belief. Chinese philosophers called it qi; millions of people still do today. Louis Pasteur, who made seismic advances in microbiology, argued that the need for living yeast for fermentation meant it must be a “vital process”. In 1907, the French philosopher Henri Bergson spoke of an élan vital that causes living things to spontaneously generate and develop. “It is important to realise that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is.” — Richard Feynman, 1960 The thought of life as a sort of energy seems intuitively obvious. Living bodies seem to be animated by some sort of impetus or force that goes beyond the mere arrangement of…

There were many visions of utopia on display at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.The official theme of the fair was Peace Through Understanding but it might as well have been called Peak Capitalism. The 50 million-odd attendees were shown a better world brought to them by faster computers care of IBM, more luxurious cars riding a web of intercity expressways thanks to General Motors, seamless video communications from Bell Systems, advanced materials like Mylar, Orlon and Lycra by DuPont, and they even witnessed the fully-automated manufacture of countless chocolate bars by the Chunky Corporation. But there was one vision among the hundreds of consumer utopias that was at odds with the others. It is a vision that is yet to transform society, but could one day bring about a…

noun: 1. The strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity; 2. A person’s physical and mental powers; 3. Power derived from the utilisation of physical or chemical resources, especially to provide light and heat or to work machines; 4. The property of matter and radiation which is manifest as a capacity to perform work (such as causing motion or the interaction of molecules). Origin:  Mid-16th century (denoting force or vigour of expression): from Frenchénergie, or via late Latin from Greekenergeia, fromen- ‘in, within’ +ergon‘work’.…

Modern science says: The Sun is the past, the Earth is the present, the moon is the future. From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom. Lord Kelvin, in his profound meditations, allows us only a short span of life, something like six million years, after which time the Sun’s bright light will have ceased to shine, and its life-giving heat will have ebbed away, and our own Earth will be a lump of ice, hurrying on through the eternal night. But do not let us despair. There will still be left on it a glimmering spark of life, and there will be a chance to kindle…

The Biophysicist Maria Telkes 1900 – 1995 Why wait? With the exception of the polar regions, solar energy is available everywhere; it does not need transportation facilities and cannot be cut off by sudden emergencies created by man. Solar energy cannot produce soot, fire hazards, and mining accidents. It is the cleanest and healthiest fuel. ...The total research and development expenditures made thus far in solar energy utilisation are infinitesimal when compared with the expenditures made in the development of other natural resources. Sunlight will be used as a source of energy sooner or later anyway. Why wait? The Inventor Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943 Three solutions So we find that the three possible solutions of the great problem of increasing human energy are answered by the three…

They that have power to hurt, and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow: They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces, And husband nature’s riches from expense; They are the lords and owners of their faces, Others but stewards of their excellence. The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet Though to itself it only live and die, But if that flower with base infection meet, The basest weed outbraves his dignity: For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester, smell far worse than weeds. Sonnet 94…

Energy and Civilization: A History Vaclav Smil Solar radiation Despite many differences in agronomic practices and in cultivated crops, all traditional agricultures shared the same energetic foundation. They were powered by the photosynthetic conversion of solar radiation, producing food for people, feed for animals, recycled wastes for the replenishment of soil fertility, and fuels for smelting the metals needed to make simple farm tools. Consequently, traditional farming was, in principle, fully renewable. The Life of the Mind Hannah Arendt Great difficulties Since it is always the same person whose mind thinks, wills, and judges, the autonomous nature of these activities has created great difficulties. Reason’s inability to move the will, plus the fact that thinking can only “understand” what is past but neither remove it nor “rejuvenate” it … have…

Extraordinary quality in all respects. New Philosopher is one of the best things happening. I love how the writing reminds me that the types of issues we are grappling with today are similar to those grappled with by philosophers for centuries. I love this magazine. I no longer like reading or listening to mainstream news as it is not good for my health. Your magazine is good for me. It has real discussions that relate to life rather than reporting sensational ‘news’. Thank you. Your magazine is so helpful and is churning up the little grey cells, as Hercule Poirot says. Thank you, this world is brighter, more aware, and more meaningful with your publication in it. Great magazine. Finally one worth reading. Will recommend it to all friends. This…

In March this year, weeks before expecting my first baby, my husband and I moved to a larger apartment in Brooklyn. With no time to stock up, we arrived at our new home with the bare minimum: two plates; a handful of mismatched cutlery; a small bag of clothes that still fitted my expanding belly. Within days of moving, however, I found myself with more energy than I had ever had in our old, cluttered, stuffed-to-the brim flat. In my skeletal cupboards was a newfound freedom – the freedom to relieve my brain of unnecessary, small decisions: what to wear, which glass to use, which pan to cook in. Ultimately, I was diminishing the tyranny of too much choice, and competing distractions, so I could make mental space for the…

Perhaps it was the shock of being returned to a state we thought we’d escaped forever, or just that no amount of experience can truly prepare you for the next bout of sleeplessness. Either way, we took our second child’s 18-month sleep regression hard. Getting up two or three times a night to settle a wide-awake toddler was bad enough, but it was the next day at my desk that I really suffered. The sleep regression happened to coincide with my attempt to read Jacques Derrida’s Archive Fever, a typically dense and digressive reading of Freud’s theories about memory. Not the easiest writer to follow at the best of times, Derrida’s words swam before my tired eyes. Worse yet was trying to write: I simply couldn’t string together my thoughts…

Caspar Henderson is an author and journalist who has written about energy and climate change for many years. He received the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors in 2009 and the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award in 2010. He is the author of two acclaimed books: The Book of Barely Imagined Beings and A New Map of Wonders. At present he is writing A Book of Noises, a book about sound, and researching transition to zero carbon in the UK. Nigel Warburton: What is energy? Caspar Henderson: Energy is eternal delight, according to William Blake! Or to take another view, as a living system we are obviously subject to the second law of thermodynamics, among other things. According to the biochemist Albert Szent-Györgyi, life is an electron…

I’m the one in our house who turns off the lights. It bothers me that they’re on when no one is in the room, and that the heating is turned up when no one is in the house. Each time I see the light left on in the bathroom I turn it off. (I’m also the one who puts the lid back on the washing up liquid, the toothpaste, and the shampoo.) But is this all just a waste of time and energy? If you ask me why I do this, I’ll tell you that it’s about saving energy. But I waste energy all over the place, just not in those ways. I have a car, when I strictly don’t need one, and sometimes I use it to go to…

The results of the previous investigation lead to a very interesting conclusion, which is here to be deduced. I based that investigation on the Maxwell-Hertz equations for empty space, together with the Maxwellian expression for the electromagnetic energy of space, and in addition the principle that:— The laws by which the states of physical systems alter are independent of the alternative, to which of two systems of coordinates, in uniform motion of parallel translation relatively to each other, these alterations of state are referred (principle of relativity). With these principles* as my basis I deduced inter alia the following result (§ 8):— Let a system of plane waves of light, referred to the system of coordinates (x,y,z), possess the energy l; let the direction of the ray (the wave-normal) make…