Just a short link to the „Reptilienfonds“-Blog at the German TAZ-newspaper.

Climategate und die Achse des Blöden

Rejecta Geophysica oder Climate Rejected, das wären doch mal nette Publikationen. Auf, auf, gründen.

Unbemerkt meinerseits wurde von ScienceBlogs New York (aka scienceblogs.com) in Partnerschaft mit Hubert Burda Media und Focus-Online (mich schaudert es) scienceblogs.de aus der Wiege gehoben. Ich bin mir noch nicht ganz schlüssig, wie gut die Blogs sind, aber zumindest wohlwollend darauf hingewiesen sei.

Man kann als Wissenschaftler nur durch den endlosen finsteren, die meiste Zeit fast zur Gänze luftleeren Gang seiner Wissenschaft durch das Leben gehen.

Thomas Bernhard, 1967, Verstörung, in der Ausgabe des Suhrkamp Verlags von 1988.

Viele Republikaner in den USA haben in den letzten Wochen einige unglaubliche Aussagen über wissenschaftliche Themen losgelassen. Die New York Times verbreitete heute morgen noch einmal eine Warnung, dass Bush ja auch noch ein wenig Zeit habe, etwas „unwissenschaftliches“ zu tun.

Bei Science Progress blickt Chris Mooney dagegen hoffnungsvoll in die Zukunft, nicht zuletzt aufgrund Obamas wissenschaftlicher Berater.

Einmal mehr, natürlich sollte mich das nicht groß beschäftigen, aber es tut es. Punkt.

Es hat nichts mit Wissenschaft zu tun, eigentlich, aber da ich auf den Kommentar bei Scienceblogs gestoßen bin (ohne Link (http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts/2008/11/now_for_the_downside_of_the_el.php)), kommt es hierhinein

I cannot see how anyone can justify refusing a large minority the rights afforded the majority. There’s a name for that.

Es geht dabei um die Ablehnung der „Homo“-Ehe in einigen US-Staaten heute. Und auch Wissenschaftler finden das inakzeptabel. Punkt.

Bereits am 16. April 2008 verstarb Edward Lorenz. So wenig, wie die deutschen Medien, das groß aufgegriffen haben, so wenig dürfte er den meisten Lesern bekannt sein. Zu nennende Schlagworte wären Chaostheorie, Vorhersagbarkeit des Wetters und ihre Grenzen, Schmetterlingseffekt. Zumindest letzterer dürfte spätestens seit Spielbergs Jurassic Park jedem bekannt sein, und jeden nerven.

Bis 1987 arbeitete er als ordentlicher Professor am renommierten amerikanischen MIT.

Im folgenden die Pressemitteilung des MIT.

Edward Lorenz, father of chaos theory and butterfly effect, dies at 90

Edward Lorenz, an MIT meteorologist who tried to explain why it is so hard to make good weather forecasts and wound up unleashing a scientific revolution called chaos theory, died April 16 of cancer at his home in Cambridge. He was 90.

A professor at MIT, Lorenz was the first to recognize what is now called chaotic behavior in the mathematical modeling of weather systems. In the early 1960s, Lorenz realized that small differences in a dynamic system such as the atmosphere–or a model of the atmosphere–could trigger vast and often unsuspected results.

These observations ultimately led him to formulate what became known as the butterfly effect–a term that grew out of an academic paper he presented in 1972 entitled: „Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?“

Lorenz’s early insights marked the beginning of a new field of study that impacted not just the field of mathematics but virtually every branch of science–biological, physical and social. In meteorology, it led to the conclusion that it may be fundamentally impossible to predict weather beyond two or three weeks with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Some scientists have since asserted that the 20th century will be remembered for three scientific revolutions–relativity, quantum mechanics and chaos.

„By showing that certain deterministic systems have formal predictability limits, Ed put the last nail in the coffin of the Cartesian universe and fomented what some have called the third scientific revolution of the 20th century, following on the heels of relativity and quantum physics,“ said Kerry Emanuel professor of atmospheric science at MIT. „He was also a perfect gentleman, and through his intelligence, integrity and humility set a very high standard for his and succeeding generations.“

Born in 1917 in West Hartford, Conn., Lorenz received an AB in mathematics from Dartmouth College in 1938, an AM in mathematics from Harvard University in 1940, an SM in meteorology from MIT in 1943 and an ScD in meteorology from MIT in 1948. It was while serving as a weather forecaster for the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II that he decided to do graduate work in meteorology at MIT.

„As a boy I was always interested in doing things with numbers, and was also fascinated by changes in the weather,“ Lorenz wrote in an autobiographical sketch.

Lorenz was a member of the staff of what was then MIT’s Department of Meteorology from 1948 to 1955, when he was appointed to the faculty as an assistant professor. He was promoted to professor in 1962 and was head of the department from 1977 to 1981. He became an emeritus professor in 1987.

Lorenz, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975, won numerous awards, honors and honorary degrees. In 1983, he and former MIT Professor Henry M. Stommel were jointly awarded the $50,000 Crafoord Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, a prize established to recognize fields not eligible for Nobel Prizes.

In 1991, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize for basic sciences in the field of earth and planetary sciences. Lorenz was cited by the Kyoto Prize committee for establishing „the theoretical basis of weather and climate predictability, as well as the basis for computer-aided atmospheric physics and meteorology.“ The committee added that Lorenz „made his boldest scientific achievement in discovering ‘deterministic chaos,’ a principle which has profoundly influenced a wide range of basic sciences and brought about one of the most dramatic changes in mankind’s view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton.“

During leaves of absence from MIT, he held research or teaching positions at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.; the Department of Meteorology at the University of California at Los Angeles; the Det Norske Meteorologiske Insitutt in Oslo, Norway; and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

An avid hiker and cross-country skier, Lorenz was active up until about two weeks before his death, his family said.

Lorenz is survived by three children, Nancy, Edward and Cheryl, and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 20, at the Swedenborg Chapel, 50 Quincy St., Cambridge. The MIT News Office will update this announcement as more details become available.

Hier werden frühe Ideen der Chaostheorie zusammengefasst. Hier führt der Weg zu Lorenz’ Veröffentlichung über „Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow“, oder zumindest zum Abstract. Der Wikipedia-Eintrag zum Lorenz-Attraktor könnte nicht vollständig korrekt sein, verdeutlich aber zumindest sicher einiges bezüglich der Brillianz des Wissenschaftlers.

Nachrufe: Die Zeit, Washington Post

…demnächst hier mehr hoffentlich… siehe im musikmeteoblog

The second meteo-blog, basically science and politics, hopefully. In addition there might be some pictures, maybe.