Scientists Close to Reconstructing First Living Cell
June 12, 2008 by andreaskemBacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab
June 10, 2008 by andreaskemHints of structure beyond the visible universe
June 10, 2008 by andreaskemQuantum mechanics might be wrong
May 26, 2008 by andreaskemRichardDawkins.net
May 21, 2008 by andreaskemNuclear power (part 3)
April 15, 2008 by andreaskemAs I said before, twice, Germany needs to revert its stance on nuclear power. A lot of progress has been made and nuclear fission is getting more and more viable as an energy source.
We cannot presently rely on wind turbines or solar plants since the sun doesn’t shine at night and there’s often not enough or too much wind to use wind turbines.
The only solution we have right now is nuclear power. It is the only cheap, reliable and efficient source of electricity that does not fuel the green house effect almost everybody is concerned about. It is probably the only power source that can sustain the world’s energy needs until we finally figure out how to make an economic fusion power plant. German funds are needed to allow researchers to study new power plant designs that would iron out some of the issues nuclear power presents. Germany should also allow reprocessing plants to be built.
10 emerging technologies of 2008
March 13, 2008 by andreaskemInteresting read.
Free Will
January 5, 2008 by andreaskemI do not believe in free will. I think about where free will should come from if it existed and always come to the conclusion that without a supernatural device like the soul there is no way free will would emerge out of a brain that is governed by the laws of physics.
Free will would require that we can control every aspect of our brain that makes up our consciousness. That would specifically require that we are able to control how the neurons and molecules in our brain behave which should, based on my understanding of physics, not be possible. Even if it were possible, there would have to be something that tells us, how exactly we must control those neurons in order to think freely which would in turn require some sort of consciousness itself.
In other words, if we had a free will, we would need control of our consciousness and in turn of the mechanisms underlying our brain. Furthermore, we would need to know how they have to be manipulated to remove the randomness of molecular motion and to generate our free thoughts which would require (free) thinking itself. Therefore, at some point we would have to introduce something which cannot be explained by physics resulting in something called a soul for example.
edit:
This Wikipedia article nicely illustrates a neuroscientific argument against free will. There is obviously subconscious brain activity prior to the conscious decision to move one’s hand. That means the decision is made even before we think we decided freely to move our hand. Moreover, one can influence somebody’s decision making process by stimulating the brain and the test subject still reports that he has freely decided what to do.
The problem of Germany’s TV programs
January 4, 2008 by andreaskemhttp://www.netzeitung.de/medien/868150.html
This German article does reflect my thoughts on German TV. Instead of just broadcasting the original American or British TV shows, they just license the content of those shows and produce crappy copies with crappy German actors and crappy German humor. This is one reason why I haven’t been watching TV for the last two months (in fact, I don’t even have a TV in my dorm). I have, however, bought House M.D. season 1 on DVD and watched it in English (how it is supposed to be watched).
SoF3 not that good
December 23, 2007 by andreaskemIt’s quite sad, according to several reviews Soldier of Fortune: Payback isn’t very good at all. Since it was created by a different developer than its predecessors, it was to be expected, though. At least the dismemberment seems to up the ante in terms of gore, for all it’s worth. 
