Remembering Bernie Widrow, a Great Engineer and a Wise Scientist

ADALINE, Adolf Hitler, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Bell Labs, Bernard Widrow, Boeing, Claude Shannon, Computational Sciences, copper, copper plating, Earl Sannard Herald, electrical engineering, electroplating, Engineering, English, Frank Rosenblatt, French, IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Medal, Japanese, Least Mean Squares, MADALINE, Marcian Hoff, National Academy of Engineering, Neural Networks, neurons, pennies, Science in Action, Seattle, silver nitrate, speech recognition, Stanford University
Widrow called his learning machine a neural network because it was loosely based on the 1943 McCulloch-Pitts model of the biological neuron. Source
Read More

Illuminating the Power of Life

animate realm, biosphere, conditional entailment, copper, Evolution, functional logic, inorganic realm, insulin, Intelligent Design, intentionality, intrinsic properties, Irreducible Complexity, Isaac Newton, life, Newtonian mechanics, oxygen, powers ontology, purpose, redox chain, science of purpose, serum glucose, thermodynamics
That which is unique to life alone, which offers the only valid explanation of irreducible complexity, is the manifestation of goal-directed functional logic. Source
Read More

Copper Reveals Its Role in Exploding Plants — and in the Miracle of Man

Angela Hay, awn, biology, Cardamine hirsuta, chaperones, copper, cytochrome C oxidase, enzymes, Ergonium cicutarium, erosion, filaree, fire-making, Geology, hairy bittercress, herbs, homeostatic mechanisms, Illustra Media, Intelligent Design, laccase, Life Sciences, lignin, lignocellulose, Max Planck Institute, metallurgy, metals, Michael Denton, minerals, plants, PNAS, popping cress, prior fitness, seed pods, soil, storksbill, The Miracle of Man, The Miracle of the Cell, zinc
The exploding pods of the popping cress send the plant’s seeds flying in all directions, as far as a meter from the parent. Source
Read More

In Praise of Copper, a Gift from Nature

Alfred Russell Wallace, aluminum, ambient temperatures, conductors, copper, corrosion, crustal rocks, ductility, Earth’s crust, electrical devices, fire, Fire-Maker series, fitness, fortuity, gold, Intelligent Design, iron, lead, machinery, mantle, metallurgy, metals, rocks, silver, steam engine, Stone Age
If the conductivity of copper were ten times less, wires would have to be ten times the cross-sectional area to provide the same conductivity. Source
Read More

For a Technological Civilization, We Must Have Metals

ambient temperatures, atmosphere, beams, copper, ductility, earth, electric age, electric generators, electric motors, electrical conductivity, electrical power, electricity, fire, Fire-Maker series, girders, industrial society, Intelligent Design, Maya, metals, respiration, steel, Technology, tensile strength
It is very doubtful that any beings in the universe could develop a civilization remotely comparable with our own without the use of metals. Source
Read More