SCIENCE – Page 6 – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

HOPE VS. ACTION

Hannah Ritchie advises that a Sixth Extinction event, unlike former extinction events, can be stopped because it is manmade.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“Not the End of the World” (How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet)

By: Hannah Ritchie

Narrated by: Hannah Ritchie

Hannah Ritchie (Author, Scottish data scientist, senior researcher at the University of Oxford, undergraduate degree in environmental geoscience and master’s in carbon management, working on a Ph D.)

Hannah Richie is vilified by some environmentalist who suggest she looks at global warming as a problem on its way to resolution. They argue Richie offers an unreasonably optimistic view of global warming. She obviously believes global warming is real, but argues history shows humanity is dealing with the crises and is working on what must be done to survive the future.

A little history: Since 1850, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated the world temperature would increase by 2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. However, in 2023 NOAA shows the actual average has been 2.43 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since the 1850s. The 10 warmest years have been in the last decade.

Though the exact temperature increase is disputed by other scientific studies, there is no rational disagreement on evidence of warming. Global warming is having an effect on world’ biodiversity.

Richie notes loss of forest lands from farming and timber production adds to global warming because trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air.

Atmospheric carbon-load increases global warming. Counter intuitively, Richie argues the building of cities and concentration of populations improves the world’s environment by moving people into the city which aids biodiversity in the country. She argues population services in a city reduces inefficient travel, conserves energy, encourages mechanized farming, reduces the environmental load of human’ waste disposal, and promotes community-wide water conservation.

As noted by many historians, sources of energy that are polluting the atmosphere have changed over the centuries. With few exceptions, these energy sources required burning. The world has moved from wood burning to coal to oil to non-burning energy sources like nuclear and alternative energy sources that have reduced carbon in the atmosphere. Richie notes each stage of energy development has incrementally reduced pollution, but global warming continues because of population increase and the continued use of fossil fuels in industrial production.

Richie notes the rate of world population increase has incrementally decreased and continues to decline with fewer babies being born per family.

Richie believes earth’s human population will plateau at around 10 billion people. At the same time the machine age and technology will improve efficiency of fossil fuel use to reduce the rate of environmental pollution. Richie infers the hope of limiting earth’s warming to 1.5 degree centigrade in this century (3 degrees Fahrenheit) is unlikely to be achieved. Still, she remains optimistic based on human history’s technological improvements since the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Richie is a proponent of nuclear energy because of its efficiency and clean energy potential. She discounts nuclear accidents by noting even with the worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl, deaths were minimal. (Less than 40 people were killed in the disaster with some disagreement about the number of deaths from indirect exposure.)

What is off-putting to many people is Richie’s argument for societal change. She argues the world population must become more vegan because of the negative environmental consequence of raising beef and sheep for food. Richie argues food shortages are the greater risk to human survival. To sustain the lives of ten billion people in the world, Richie believes there is not enough arable land to raise livestock and feed the hungry. She implies only with the advance of agricultural research and produce, including the creation of nutritious meat substitutes, can the world’s future population be sustained.

The threat Richie gives at the end of her book is that that speed of today’s individual extinction of species is a clear warning of what may be the sixth mass extinction, the Anthropocene Extinction, the death of humankind. She advises that a Sixth Extinction event, unlike former extinction events, can be stopped because it is manmade. Richie explains how a Sixth Extinction can be un-manmade by human beings’ actions. Richie argues humans are responsible for despoiling earth and it is up to humans to change nature’s degradation and its potential for a Sixth Extinction.

Richie offers solutions for global warming that are in the hands of humanity. She may be overly optimistic but hope changes to reality with action.

GODLESS

Sartre seemed right when he wrote “hell is other people” in “No Exit”. Neither belief in humanism nor God seem to hold an answer for humanity’s future.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“Humanly Possible” (Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Optimism)

By: Sarah Bakewell

Narrated by: Antonia Beamish

Sarah Bakewell (British author and professor, received the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction in 2018.

Sarah Bakewell provides a detailed history of humanism. To many, Bakewell’s story is a history of society falling away from God. Bakewell puts religion aside while explaining why and how humanists challenge religious belief and lean toward science as an explanation of life.

Bakewell notes humanism reaches back to the 5th century BCE with the Greek philosopher Protagoras. He was a teacher identified by Plato in a dialogue titled “Protagoras”. Through Plato’s dialogue, one finds Protagoras taught the importance of literature, and art that infers a set of moral principles to guide human behavior. Several centuries later, Diogenes Laertius writes “Lives of the Philosophers” that adds to history’s knowledge of Protagoras’s beliefs. Protagoras taught public speaking, poetry criticism, citizenship, and grammar.

Protagoras (490-420 BCE, Bakewell suggests Protagoras set the foundation for the humanist movement.)

Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) takes up the humanist movement during the Italian Renaissance. Petrarch became internationally known as a humanist. He traveled extensively, looking for Classical manuscripts and ancient texts to recover the knowledge of Greek and Roman writers. He discovered letters that told of Cicero’s personal life–what it was like in the late Roman Republic (106-43 BCE). Cicero’s observations showed the importance of human character in the way one lives life.

Francesco Petracco (1304-1374, Italian scholar and poet and one of the earliest students and promoters of humanism.)

Collection of ancient manuscripts by Petrarch and Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) of Florence expanded the humanist movement. Giovanni Boccaccio writes “The Decameron”, a collection of short stories that reinforces the principles of human worth and dignity, belief in reason and human ethics, and the value of critical thinking, i.e., humanist ideals.

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO (1313-1375, ITALIAN WRITER, POET, AND HUMANIST)

The humanist mantle is picked up in England and the wider part of continental Europe after the early 15th century. Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, and William Shakespeare, reinforce the movement. Desiderius Erasmus is a Dutch humanist. He attacks the excessive powers of the papacy. He values human liberty more than orthodoxy. He inspires the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. He emphasizes the study of classics over medieval tradition. Erasmus has great impact on the Renaissance and its religious and intellectual climate with an eye for life on earth, more than an afterlife. He wrote “The Praise of Folly”, satirizing religious practices based on superstition and impiety. Though he hoped for divine mercy, Erasmus emphasized faith and good deeds in life, humanist ideals.

Bakewell notes Sir Thomas More writes “Utopia”, published in 1516, that describes an ideal society that addresses penology, state-controlled education, religious pluralism, divorce, euthanasia, and surprisingly, women’s rights.

Shakespeare’s plays introduce psychological realism and depth to human thought and action. Much of what he writes is secular rather than religious. Shakespeare implies life on earth is more than preparation for an afterlife.

Shakespeare suggests life on earth is more than preparation for an afterlife. Death is viewed as final, a humanist view of life and death.

Bakewell goes on to write of Denis Diderot, David Hume, Kant, Adam Smith, and Voltaire. They become leaders of humanism in the 17th and 18th centuries. Diderot emphasizes critical thinking, education, and secular values. Hume writes “A Treatise of Human Nature” to explain human morality. Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” reflects on national economic growth and how the principle of “raising all boats” comes from free enterprise and free trade, humanity in action.

Denis Diderot (French philosopher 1743-1784)

The idea of humanism is rocketed into American thought by Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species”.

CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882) FOUNDER OF THE THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.

Natural selection became a science-based explanation for the origin of species, including human beings. Its impact is evident in the personal transition of Darwin (the son of a medical doctor and grandson of a botanist), who planned to join the clergy, but became a person who identifies himself as an agnostic. Thomas Henry Huxley publicly endorses Darwin’s theory and coins the term “agnosticism” in 1869. Many of the scientific community joined that endorsement during Darwin’s life.

As Bakewell advances her history into the twentieth century, Thomas Mann and Bertrand Rusell carry the torch of humanism. The interesting point made about humanism by Mann is that a humanist must guard against the tendency to reason too much. The rise of Nazism in Mann’s home country and the repressiveness of Stalin’s (and now Putin’s) communism are examples of what concerned Mann. On the one hand, Mann recognizes the “unbearable pity for the sufferings of mankind” but also the danger of accepting authoritarian leaders who preach nationalist socialism or communism while promoting nationalist hegemony, forced labor, racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and gender inequality. The rise of Nazism and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine show how authoritarian reasoning can magnify the sufferings of humanity.

Paul Thomas Mann (1875-1955, German novelist, won Nobel Prize in literature 1929, wrote “Buddenbrooks “and “The Magic Mountain”)

Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, mathematician, logician, historian, and humanist activist, warned against superstition and preached the importance of education. Both Mann and Russell advance the ideals of humanism. One still reserves judgement about humanist’ rejection of God when both religion and science have a mixed history for humanity.

Bakewell does not end with just a history of humanism. She speculates on where humanism may go from here.

She acknowledges her own beliefs as a humanist. She notes humanism has been noted in the past as a fragile vessel for transporting humanity into a future. The vessel’s fragility is in the nature of human beings.

Few can doubt we are self-interested animals that have to come to grips with what is ultimately in our self-interest.

Human self-interest must change from greed for money and/or power for humanism to work. If self-interest rests anywhere, it needs to be in the prestige that is earned by being engaged with the welfare of humanity. In light of history, human pursuit of societal welfare seems only to appear when annihilation is nigh. The war in Ukraine and human history are evidence of humanity’s failures. When perceived threats to peace and happiness disappear, humanity returns to the destructive self-interest of money and power.

Sartre seemed right when he wrote “hell is other people” in “No Exit”. Neither belief in humanism nor God seem to hold an answer for humanity’s future.

NUCLEAR RISK & REWARD

The two edges of nuclear physics that may save or destroy the world is still with us. The best humanity can hope for is balance between human nature and science.

Blog: awalkingdelight

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“American Prometheus” The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

By: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

Kai Bird (American author and columnist who wrote about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Born in 1951.)

Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin tell the story of America’s “god of fire”. Like the myth of Prometheus who reveals Olympian gods’ knowledge of fire, J. Robert Oppenheimer reveals physicists’ secrets of nuclear fission that give atomic power to humanity. Their history tells listeners of the risk entailed in research and production of nuclear bombs.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967, Died at the age of 62.)

Bird and Sherwin offer an intimate and revealing story of J. Robert Oppenheimer that reveals his genius, his human frailty, his growth as a project manager, and the abysmal way American government treated his historic achievements.

Like Promethius’s fire, the heat of atomic power can destroy or benefit humanity.

Every student of history knows of atomic powers potential to destroy.

NEVER AGAIN?

Though Bird’s and Sherwin’s history is more about Oppenheimer’s life than his discoveries, it seems prudent to note Oppenheimer discovered the Born-Oppenheimer molecular wave functions about how electrons and positrons work. Oppenheimer also worked with fellow physicist William Phillips on the Oppenheimer-Phillips process in nuclear fusion with work on what is called quantum tunneling. Though Oppenheimer was nominated for a Nobel Prize three times, he never won. Phillips and Steven Chu receive the Nobel in 1997.

Max Born (German/British physicist, 1882-1970)

The great controversy surrounding Oppenheimer is his association with communism. Bird and Sherwin clearly acknowledge the association but convincingly argue Oppenheimer was an American patriot who contributed to communist social welfare programs without being a card-carrying member of the CP.

“American Promethius” illustrates Oppenheimer’s growth as a consummate manager of a complex organization that could successfully develop a weapon of mass destruction, an atomic bomb that can end war. However, as history shows, the atom bomb may end a world war, but nuclear bombs become a threat to human existence by any nation that acquires the same technology.

Los Alamos National Laboratory entrance located a short distance NW of Santa Fe, NM

The first atomic bomb exploded on July 16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

The authors show Oppenheimer’s understanding of an atom bomb’s threat by quoting the Bhagavad Gita. “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Oppenheimer refuses to continue research on Edward Teller’s plan to create a fusion bomb of even greater destructive potential. Teller succeeds in creating that bomb. Oppenheimer recognizes any small or large nation that gains fusion bomb technology increases a threat to humanity.

The second atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll was a fusion bomb released on July 25, 1946. The Marshall Islands, where Bikini is located, is suing the U.S. for what it calls a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Edward Teller was a leading physicist who worked on the Los Alamos project. Teller’s difficult interpersonal relations and volatile personality made him an important influencer, and defamer of Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer refuses to continue research on a fusion bomb because of its destructive potential and its potential influence in an arms race.

Edward Teller (1908-2003) Hungarian American, theoretical physicist who was the principal inventor of the hydrogen bomb based on the principle of fusion. It’s destructive potential from heat and light are substantially greater than the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan.)

Teller and an American German physicist, Hans Bethe a team leader, come to lager heads when Bethe agrees with Oppenheimer’s’ focus on a fission rather than fusion bomb. Teller fell out with his team leader, as well as Oppenheimer, over the disagreement.

Hans Bethe (1906-2005, received a Nobel Prize in 1967 for the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.)

The arrival of Niels Bohr (1885-1962) at Los Alamos in 1943 raises a fundamental concern about creation of a weapon of mass destruction. Bohr’s concern is a nation’s failure to share nuclear physics technology about the bomb with allied forces, particularly Russia, to avoid an international arms race.

Bohr believes scientific cooperation would reduce the probability of an arms race. Bohr’s view seems idealistic in light of today’s history, but the idea is adopted by Oppenheimer. Nuclear weapons have become widely coveted by weaker economic nations of the world because of their political systems failure to improve the lives of their citizens.

Human nature is not overcome by technological sharing because of differences in fundamental religious and political beliefs.

Pursuit of the bomb is just another tool to accelerate national leaders’ political or religious beliefs. Niels Bohr’s noble idea and Oppenheimer’s acknowledgement of the value of sharing science is victim to national leaders’ beliefs and human nature.

A nation like North Korea covets the bomb because it gives them the ability to punch (negotiate or fight) above their weight. A nation like Iran is led by a religious leader who only views the modern world in light of a beneficent afterlife.

Katherine Oppenheimer. Robert’s wife (1910-1972, German American biologist, botanist, and member of the Communist Party.)

A disturbing note about Oppenheimer is his marriage to his wife, Katherine “Kitty” Puening whom he married in 1940. Kitty became pregnant before they married. They had two children, a boy and girl. This is Kitty’s fourth marriage. Neither parent seems to show much interest in their children. Kitty is shown to be a free spirit, beautiful and charming who generally supports Oppenheimer in his job at Los Alamos. One wonders how their children were affected by their parents’ neglect. Their daughter committed suicide in 1977. The boy still lives in New Mexico and makes a living as a carpenter.

In 1947, Oppenheimer is recruited by Princeton to head a new organization that is called the Institute for Advanced Study. Because of frequent trips to Washington D.C. and the attraction of running a broad organization for the study of science and humanities, Oppenheimer chooses to take the position. His team management experience at Los Alamos and his broad interest in the humanities make Oppenheimer a perfect match for the position. With millions of dollars set aside for the Institute, Oppenheimer attracts the best and brightest science and humanities luminaries from around the world. Einstein, Kurt Godel, John von Neumann, George Kennan, T.S. Eliot, and too many more to mention, were recruited by Oppenheimer. Some were at the height of their professions and became Nobel Prize winners.

The last chapters of “American Prometheus” address the investigation of Oppenheimer’s communist associations during the McCarthy era.

His greatest initial concern was for his brother, Frank, who had joined the communist party. However, the wide range of the investigation and the zealous pursuit of Lewis Strauss, a former shoe salesman who chaired the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), results in Oppenheimer’s security clearance being stripped. His reputation is unfairly diminished by overzealous politicians and investigators ranging from the FBI director to the AEC chairman.

One leaves this history with a feeling of shame about how Oppenheimer is treated by some and over-praised by others. No human being is without faults, regardless of their intelligence and ability. Oppenheimer was an American patriot who served America with what it needed in the circumstances of his time.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (center) receives the 1963 Enrico Fermi Award from President Lyndon B. Johnson at a White House ceremony on December 2, 1963, as then AEC chairman Glenn Seaborg (left) looks on. (Photo: DOE). He died at age 62 in 1967.

The two edges of nuclear physics that may save or destroy the world is still with us. The best humanity can hope for is balance between human nature and science.

WHAT IS REAL

The significance of Becker’s book is in his explanation of Bell’s theory that disagrees with Einstein’s theory of locality.

Blog: awalkingdelight

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“What is Real” The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics

By: Adam Becker

Narrated by: Greg Tremblay

Adam Becker (Author, American astrophysicist, philosopher with BA’s from Cornell, and a PhD in the philosophy of physics from University of Michigan.)

Adam Becker explains a mystery that surrounds the concept of quantum mechanics. The theory of quantum mechanics continues to confound Einstein’s disagreements about quantum physics. No one, including Albert Einstein’s and Niels Bohr’s discussions, has fully agreed on the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. There are theories about quantum mechanics but proof about “What is Real” remains a mystery.

Becker explains in broad terms the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. The Copenhagen interpretation came from the work of Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Born. Study of the sub-atomic world is based on the Copenhagen mathematical theory created in 1925-1927. The theory argues quantum mechanics is inherently probabilistic, not deterministic. (The term probabilistic is only reference to a collapse or disappearance of an expected proton when sent through a split screen. It is not suggesting that quantum physics results are not reliable tools. Quantum physics has been found to be a reliable, accurate, and dependable tool for the desired effects when applied in the tech world.)

Interestingly, Becker suggests Werner Heisenberg tried to cover up his support and belief in Nazism. Becker suggests Heisenberg’s ineptitude as a manager of the research and experimentation process is the cause of Germany’s failure, not any sympathy for holocaust victims.

Einstein argues the only reason quantum mechanics appears probabilistic is because of an undiscovered fundamental law about the sub-atomic world. Einstein believes all physics theory must obey the law of locality which postulates physics laws must be based directly on related and surrounding causes.

Becker notes John Stewart Bell experimentally proves Einstein is wrong and that quantum effects violate the principle of locality.

Bell’s proof is mathematical and based on experiment. His calculations and experiment show two light particles can have spin characteristics that correlate with each other at a distance, non-locally. This quantum entanglement is dubbed “spooky action at a distance” by Einstein. Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen argue entanglement (“spooky action at a distance”) is not proof of non-locality. Einstein believes there is an undiscovered cause for the appearance of non-locality’s entanglement. The argument against locality is called the EPR paradox after its theorists’ last names. Bell proves through experiment that “spooky action at a distance” is real and that the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics is wrong.

John Stewart Bell (1928-1990)

Bell’s theorem verifies that “spooky action at a distance” is no paradox by proving that quantum mechanics reflect a non-local phenomenon.

Hugh Everett, a physicist who studied under John Wheeler, published a paper with the idea that non-locality is evidence of another reality, another world with the same people experiencing a different course of life. The collapse or disappearance of a quantum particle is evidence of another reality, another world. For example, an incident of a near drowning would be survival in another reality that simultaneously exists in a different world.

Hugh Everett (1930-1982, died at age 51)

Hugh Everett proposed a many worlds theory of quantum mechanics based on Bell’s theorem of non-locality.

Everett was a student of physics professor John Wheeler who had worked with Niels Bohr.

John Wheeler (1911-2008)

Wheeler became an early supporter of Everett’s many worlds theory.

Wheeler popularized the terms “black hole”, quantum foam”, “neutron moderator”, and “it from bit”. He participated in the Manhattan Project during WWII and worked at the Hanford Site where he helped Dupont build a nuclear reactor in Richland, Washington. Wheeler became skeptical of the many worlds’ hypothesis in later years because of what he called its “metaphysical baggage”.

“What is Real” remains a mystery wrapped in a conundrum.

The significance of Becker’s book is in his explanation of Bell’s theory that disagrees with Einstein’s theory of locality. Einstein presumes missing variables will explain “spooky action at a distance”. Becker notes most physicists still believe in the Copenhagen theory of quantum mechanics despite Bell’s theory and proof that quantum mechanics allow for non-local affects. All the answers for “What is Real” proposed by Becker seem to contradict themselves or lack common sense. However, they still may be true or valid. They are just unproven or unobservable by repeated experiment.

RELIGION AND SCIENCE

Evolution may ultimately reveal the truth of life and death but neither religion nor science have been historically infallible nor unerring.

Blog: awalkingdelight
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Scientism and Secularism: Learning to Respond to a Dangerous Ideology

By: J.P. Moreland, Dan Egeler-Forward

Narrated by: Mathew McAuliffe

J. P. Moreland (Author, American philosopher, theologian and Christian apologist.)

“Scientism and Secularism” is a disappointing polemic on an important but highly biased assessment of religion and science. No one escapes the bias of belief because of their life experience. J. P. Moreland’s life experience leads him to believe God is the proven origin of life. For many that is not how they became believers or non-believers. Belief in God is an evolutionary belief just as truths of science have evolved with newer discoveries.

The horrible consequences of religious belief have murdered millions of human beings.

Moreland’s book is a tiring replication of faith not factual certainty or proof of God’s existence. Religion, like science, has evolved over centuries of human existence.

The other side of history is that religion has been the foundation of human progress.

Maybe there is God, but Moreland’s God is only Moreland’s God, a God founded on faith not proof.

Who in their right mind would not want a God that is omniscient and omnipresent that ultimately ensures the fair treatment during life and after death?

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900, died at age 55.)

As a discipline, philosophy addresses fundamental questions about the nature of reality, knowledge, and existence. It plays an important role in science because it provides a framework for empirical evaluation, but categorization as a philosopher is not evidence of truth. At best, Philosophy is only a beginning of knowledge, not proof of knowledge.

Though Moreland has a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry and is certainly classified as a scientist, when philosophizing about an unmeasurable concept like God’s existence, proof is a matter of faith not science.

Moreland denies evolution but history shows both religion and science have evolved over the centuries with immeasurable pain and gain for society. Moreland argues Darwin is wrong about the evolution of man. Moreland argues the randomness of genetic selection and time are not an experimentally proven explanation of the perfection and distinction of animal species. Really?

Richard Dawkins (English Ethologist and Evolutionary Biologist.)

The only area of agreement one may have with Moreland is that great achievements in the world of ideas and things could not have been created without the existence of both religion and science. Evolution may ultimately reveal the truth of life and death but neither religion nor science have been historically infallible nor unerring.

DIAGNOSIS

Doctor Benaroch’s fundamental point in writing this speculative history is to emphasize the importance of a patient’s explanation of their symptoms in coming to a conclusion about a diagnosis.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Medical Mysteries Across History

By: Roy Benaroch MD

Narrated by: Roy Benaroch

Roy Benaroch MD (Author, general pediatrician practitioner at Emory University near Atlanta, Georgia.

From kings to jazz singers, Roy Benaroch reviews the diagnosis of ten historical figures with a medical opinion about their cause of death. Based on written evidence of their physical complaints, Benaroch offers a medical opinion about what today’s knowledge of medicine would have revealed about their lives and causes of death.

Benaroch presents his analysis with an element of mystery by not revealing the more familiar names of the dying person until later in each chapter.

The historical figures he chooses are famous, so their medical complaints are recorded in ancient or more modern publications. With written documentation of their complaints, Benaroch gives his opinion on modern-day diagnosis with cursory notes about their accomplishments. In his review of written reports of their medical complaints, he surmises a medical diagnosis and their probable cause of death.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (1882-1945, DIED AGE 63 )

This interesting and brief journey through history reflects on the medical complaints of Franklin Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Marie Curie, Alexander the Great, Billie Holiday, and King Henry VIII, among four others not noted here. Roosevelt’s polio, Keller’s deafness and blindness, Marie Curie’s aplastic anemia, Billie Holiday’s addiction, and the causes of death for Alexander the Great and King Henry are interesting examples of Beneroch’s diagnosis of their diseases, its symptoms, and how their medical complaints should or could be treated today.

Though polio had been around for thousands of years, it is not identified as a virus until 1909. It usually attacks children under age 5 but can be acquired from contaminated water at any age.

Roosevelt first shows symptom of paralysis when he reaches the age of 39 in 1921. His symptoms were fever, muscle weakness, facial numbness, bowel and bladder dysfunction. Benaroch notes Roosevelt first notes symptoms after diving into water off his family’s yacht. Dr. Robert Lovett, with consultation from William Keen (a former doctor for Presidents and America’s first brain surgeon) came up with the correct diagnosis.

A practical nurse named Anne Sulivan is hired by Keller’s family because of her experience with deaf children.

Helen Keller, aka “bronco kid” because of her unruly behavior as a child, contracted an illness at age of 19 months. She exhibited a high fever and lost consciousness. She survives her symptoms but is unable to hear or see after her return to consciousness. Benaroch explains the high fever likely induced damage to Keller’s optic nerve and auditory processing system without fatally impairing her remaining nervous system. Sullivan becomes Keller’s teacher and companion who helps Keller learn how to read, write, and speak despite her lost sight and hearing. Keller becomes the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She became a global advocate for the blind from 1924 to 1968 when she died.

Marie Curie is diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a disease that destroys bone marrow ability to create red blood cells.

Marie Curie and her husband were chemists working with radioactive material before its harmful effects were known. Her husband dies in a street accident in 1906 so is not known to have been affected by their joint experiments with radium and polonium. Later, Marie Curie works with x-ray machines during WWI. To compound her risk from exposure, she is known to have carried test tubes of radium around in her lab coat. Benaroch notes Curie dies at age 66 in 1934 which is remarkable considering her exposure to radon and other radioactive materials. Benaroch explains her symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, bruising, headache, and fever. However, years after her death, Curie’s body is not found to have excessive levels of radiation in her remains. The cause of death remains obscure according to another book that notes Curie as an exemplar of women in science.

Benaroch notes drugs are miracles of pain reduction. When one becomes addicted to drugs to relieve one’s pain, humans need treatment, not incarceration.

Benaroch tells the story of Billie Holiday’s tragic life and death. As a physician, he notes a condition of human abuse that ranges from a low of 1 to a high of 10. His opinion is that Holliday nears 8 if not 10 on that scale. She was raped twice as a teenager, married three times to husbands that abused and took advantage of her fame and income from singing. She was arrested several times for drug possession and with a drug conviction in 1947, her cabaret license is revoked. Though she made a lot of money as a blues singer, Benaroch explains she died from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 44 with $750 strapped to her leg. Benaroch notes addiction is a disease that continues to be misunderstood by the public and law enforcement. Benaroch explains America lost a national treasure when Billie Holiday died. He implies being black in America is hard but being addicted and black in America is a death sentence.

Benaroch suggests Alexander the Great drank to excess by choice, not because of addiction to alcohol.

Alexander the Great is characterized by Benaroch as a binge drinker, not an alcoholic. On Alexander’s last overindulgence, he falls unconscious, appears to quit breathing, and dies. The odd recording of his condition after death is that the body lays quiescent for several days without putrefaction. The embalmers refuse to treat his body because he appears to be something other than dead. Benaroch is unsure of whether this is a myth or accurate report of Alexander’s dead body. After considering what written record exists, Benaroch suggests Alexander probably died from blood poisoning from a former wound that never healed. Alexander appears alert up until his breathing and heartbeat stops. Benaroch suggests the slow advance of organ shutdown from blood poisoning allows Alexander to react to those who draw his attention. Benaroch infers the lack of putrefaction is likely a myth because blood poisoning could slow Alexander’s breathing and his stillness and inactivity reduce his heartbeat to the point that his body remained nourished enough to delay his actual death.

Benaroch notes jousting events in which the King of England’s head is hit with a lance. In a 1524 Henry is nearly killed in a match.

Benaroch’s diagnosis of King Henry is one of the more interesting diagnoses of his short book. Benaroch suggests Henry, in his early years as ruler of England, is an affable, intelligent, and effective monarch. However, Benaroch suggests Henry’s athletic life resulted in head injuries that changed his personality and the direction of his reign to one of erratic rule, unnecessary divorces, marriages, and behavior unbecoming a King. He is hit in the face by splinters from one jousing encounter that could have killed him. He continues to participate in jousting tournaments.

In 1533, Henry formally marries Anne Boleyn after his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Henry marries four more times between 1533 and 1543. Benaroch suggests Henry’s behavior changes as he got older. In Beraroch’s opinion, he becomes more of an erratic tyrant than pragmatic ruler because of repeated head injuries. Jousting, like football, is a physical hard-hitting sport that has affected many of history’s athletes.

Doctor Benaroch’s fundamental point in writing this speculative history is to emphasize the importance of a patient’s explanation of their symptoms in coming to a conclusion about a diagnosis. Physical examination is important but listening to a patient’s physical and mental explanations of their condition are the best evidence for determining a correct diagnosis. This is the belief of other physician’s books that have been reviewed in this blog. There are many reasons why doctors may misdiagnose a patient’s condition. Some are too busy to take the time necessary to properly understand a patient’s comments. Doctors have various levels of experience and may not know how to interpret what a patient is saying. That does not change the point of Benaroch’s observations. It is essential for a good diagnosis to be based on the details of the patient’s history.

ECONOMIC EVOLUTION

The demographics of life demand better care of the human population and the environment. Power, whether from individual wealth or ruling authority, needs to be refocused on service.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

By: Robin Wall Kimmerer

Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer (Author, Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology, PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.)

Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” channels a movement for economic change around the world. Capitalism and socialism are evolving in similar ways to respond to the world’s ecological crises. Neither economic system is capable of dealing with the crises because of the governing weaknesses of their evolution. Capitalism, like socialism, is driven by human nature’s self-interests. With capitalism, unbridled self-interest views individual wealth as a measure of success. Socialism views unbridled power as a measure of success. Neither freedom of capitalism nor the power exercised in socialism will stop earths’ despoliation.

Kimmerer tries to convince listeners to recognize their self-interest is in caring for the ecology of earth and its environmental and human diversity.

This is not a new argument. Sir David Attenborough, Jonnie Hughes, Joseph Marshall III, Charles Mann, Barry Lopez and others make similar arguments. Even though they may be right, human’ interest in balancing ecology and diversity will only happen with governance that is neither purely capitalist nor purely socialist.

Kimmerer, as a scientist and descendent of the Potawatomi Indian nation, has dedicated her life to nurturing the earth with her education as a botanist. She reflects on her spiritual beliefs, historic values of her heritage, and her education to change the direction of earth’s despoilation. Attenborough and Hughes write about the importance of rewilding the world. Joseph Marshall III argues science offers the opportunity to rebalance the relationship between humanity and nature. Charles Mann recalls the history of William Vogt and Norman Borlaug with Vogt arguing for conservation while Borlaug argues for scientific research to deal with overpopulation and hunger. A more sanguine view is taken by Barry Lopez who simply catalogues and implies the demise of earth because of human habitation.

At times, Kimmerer’s solutions are too mystical and spiritual. Some of her tales will dispirit listeners. On the other hand, some of the mythology she writes about is entertaining, if not actionable.

The character of “Windigo” is a representation of the weakness of capitalism and its extremity that entails the growth of greed. Her tales of the creation of humanity reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of human nature.

What Kimmerer offers listener’s is contemplation, if not realistic solutions for earth’s despoilation.

What is wrong with capitalism and/or socialism that can be corrected to stop earth’s deterioration? It is in a middle way where money and power are not ends in themselves but tools for improvement. Service to all species of life is an objective that can only be achieved with money and power. A cultural shift is required to understand what can be done. There needs to be a shift from manufacturing and industrial growth to a service-based economy. With the advent of technology, particularly A.I. that shift is happening.

INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION ON A BAD DAY IN BEJING,, CHINA

Homelessness, hunger, disease, natural disasters, pollution, mental dysfunction, failing public education, racial and religious discrimination are all solvable problems in the world. Money and power are the tools that can be used to solve those problems, but it requires the will of governments to manage those tools to focus on service to society, not manufacture of things that do not conserve the environment. This is evident in the too-long story written by Kimmerer. There is an element of irony in her book because that is what her Indian heritage practiced hundreds of years ago. Indian tribes had no need for money, but their Chiefs used their power to care for land and its diversity that served their people’s needs.

Money has become synonymous with power in both capitalist and socialist economies.

Even Indian societies in America have adopted that reality with the building of Casinos. What is missing is how that power is being used. Kimmerer explains power should be used to serve the earth’s rebirth and the needs of all life. The obvious point is that without earth’s rebirth, human society ends. The future of the world is dependent on service, not manufacturing. The demographics of life demand better care of the human population and the environment. That job can be fulfilled with a reorientation of the world’s economic rewards and punishments. Power, whether from individual wealth or ruling authority, needs to be refocused on service.

HEART RENDERING

Live as healthy a life as you can because death is a part of every life, and fulfillment is in one’s health.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Heart: A History

By: Sandeep Jauhar

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Sandeep Jauhar (Author, Cardiovascular Physician, opinion writer for The New York Times.)

“Heart” is a history of cardiovascular medicine, personalized by Sandeep Jauhar, a cardiovascular physician. Jauhar’s history of cardiovascular medicine is not for squeamish listeners. It is a personalized account of advances in cardiovascular medicine by a physician whose personal life is interwoven with the ravishes of heart disease. Jauhar addresses the history of heart ailments, his family, his patients, and physician/inventors who advanced the treatment of heart disease.

Heart disease remains the top medical cause of death according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other statistical agencies.

Jauhar notes the heart is a critical organ of the human body, but its essential function is as a pump for blood. It is a muscle. With its contraction, blood carries the nutrients and oxygen of life to organs of the body. When that pump malfunctions or stops, life is in jeopardy. Jauhar’s history of the “Heart” recounts advances in medical treatment for the heart’s repair and maintenance.

There are several reasons why Jauhar’s history is difficult for listeners to hear.

Many of the most important advances in cardiology are dependent on animal experimentation before human application. To animal lovers, the thought that animals, whether they have awareness or not, are used to test pacemakers, heart transplants, and human drug treatments for heart ailment. Their earts are stopped and restarted. Animals die from tests being run by doctors and clinicians searching for answers and treatments for heart disease and other medical maladies. The human reason for this method of research poses the question–who would want sons, daughters, or parents treated without tests for the unknown consequences of experimental drug treatments and physical interventions?
Descriptions of pain and anxiety of heart disease symptoms are explained with details that may scare listeners who have been diagnosed with heart disease.
The balance between living and dying, pain and nothingness, is a constant presence in conversations between physician and patient. Stories of individual patient and mass casualty events are a part of Jauhar’s history of “Heart” disease and treatment.
Jauhar views major advances for heart disease treatment are near their end in the 21st century.

Jauhar offers many stories showing how research and great inventions have mitigated the consequences of heart disease. The key to that observation is that inventions and interventions mitigate but do not cure the disease.

Jauhar explains an abnormal heartbeat called an arrhythmia led to the invention of an implanted mechanical electrical conduction system to automatically shock the heart when an arrhythmia occurs in a patient. The shock can be painful. However, without that shock, an arrhythmia stops the flow of blood to vital organs which may lead to death or disability. The idea of the shock creates anxiety in some patients that can induce further arrhythmia which repeats the shock. Jauhar reports one patient asks to have the implant removed because of its repeating shocks. Jauhar notes the patient dies soon after the removal of the implant.

Three-dimensional echocardiography has significantly improved diagnosis of cholesterol build-up in blood vessels that can be mitigated with drugs. Statins have been shown to reduce high cholesterol. As with any drug therapy, there are unintended consequences when something new is introduced to one’s blood stream. Muscle pain, digestive problems, and mental fuzziness can be side effects from statin treatment. As one grows older, the first two may be manageable but with age who wants to be fuzzy headed. Clarity of thought seems more and more a sadly missed luxury as we age.

Jauhar notes better diet and exercise, and no smoking are important benefits to those who have hereditary heart disease. Jauhar suggests anger management and quieting one’s thoughts through meditation offers benefits to those who suffer from heart disease. Don’t get mad and don’t try to get even because both aggravate the heart muscle.

Jauhar explains a number of inventions have led to short- and long-term treatments for cardiovascular diseases. From the example of stab wounds to congenital heart malfunction, the medical profession has invented machines that can take over the hearts’ function during surgery. More time for operation on the heart is provided to the surgeon with the use of the artificial heart pumping machines.

Christian Barnard (Resident surgeon at Grotte Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, S. Africa, Born 1922. Died 2001.)

Heart transplantation’s history is reviewed by Jauhar. The first heart transplantation was by Christiaan Barnard in 1967. The patient lived for 18 days after the surgery. The average life span for a heart transplant has risen to 10 years but the supply of healthy human hearts limits its potential. Jauhar notes the Jarvik-7, named after its inventor, is the first mechanical heart pump but its refinement has failed to repeat the success of human heart transplants. Its practical use has been limited to short term use for time to find donated hearts and extend patients’ lives during surgery.

Jauhar tells of his experience in New York on 9/11. It is a horrific story told by many writers but not with any more stomach-turning clarity than that which a participating doctor imparts.

Jauhar ends his book with the loss of his mother who may have died from a heart attack. He suggests there are other conditions that may have led to her death, but his point seems to be–live as healthy a life as you can because death is a part of every life, and fulfillment is in one’s health.

LIFE’S MEANING

Ananthaswarmy’s “Through Two Doors at Once” gives hope for young scientists, like the 26-year-old Einstein, to guide humanity to the meaning of life.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Through Two Doors at Once (The Elegant Experiment That Captures the Enigma of Our Quantum Reality)

By: Anil Ananthaswamy

Narrated by: Rene Ruiz

Anil Ananthaswarmy (Indian author, and science journalist, Journalism Research fellow at MIT.)

Anil Ananthaswarmy makes a valiant effort to explain the “…Enigma of Quantum Reality” with “Through Two Doors at Once”. It takes a writer’s courage and determination to explain what science presently understands about quantum physics; particularly, to someone whose education is limited to reading and liberal arts.

Ananthaswarmy notes Einstein acknowledged the truth and value of quantum physics.

However, Einstein believes quantum mechanics proof only explains an aspect of life in the universe. Einstein insists underlying fundamental laws of physics are undiscovered which will reaffirm all life exists in a cause-and-effect, rather than probabilistic, world. Einstein is presumably surprised, if not disappointed, by the growing experimental confirmation of quantum mechanics that destroys his locality theory of physics and presents a mystery of entangled particles that seems to violate the speed of light.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)

Ananthaswarmy’s history of the quantum world is like the difference between Newton’s physics laws on earth and Einstein’s physics laws in the universe.

Both Newton and Einstein argued life exists in a cause-and-effect world, but quantum mechanics theorists, Bohr (on the left below) and Eisenberg, and many of today’s scientists suggest otherwise. They believe life on a microscopic scale is probabilistic, not ordered by cause and effect as implied by the classical physics of Newton and Einstein.

“Through Two Doors at Once” is a history of experiments that confirm the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. The theory of quantum mechanics implies the nature of reality is probabilistic. Einstein fully acknowledges the validity of quantum mechanics as a part of the physics of life but insists there is a more fundamental law of physics, not defined as probabilistic. In Einstein’s and some scientist’s opinions that undiscovered fundamental law of physics will confirm life exists in a cause-and-effect, rather than probabilistic, universe.

Ananthaswarmy gives listeners the history of differences of opinion about the nature of reality. Some may think–why care?

Isn’t existence all that matters? Others suggest it matters because understanding the nature of reality changes belief in ourselves. Are humans in the universe more important than rocks, plants, or other forms of existence? There is no answer in Ananthaswarmy’s book, but it is a good summary of how science has different views of the fundamental laws of nature.

The point is that existence of quantum mechanics implies whatever one does in the world may not have predictive meaning, only endless probabilities.

At a microscopic level, quantum mechanics implies reality is a matter of chance, not cause and effect. Quantum mechanics denies predictability unless, as Einstein insisted throughout his life, we live in a world that has a natural law that explains all life’s consequences are based on defined actions.

Einstein’s holy grail is a physics theory that explains everything about everything.

Followers of Einstein’s classical physics may believe in quantum mechanics but only see it as a part of reality, not a complete theory of reality. After all, 68% of the universe is dark energy and 27% is dark matter. Everything observed by humans constitutes a mere 5% of the universe.

The idea of a “two split experiment” isolates a single proton or electron to test the theory of quantum uncertainty. (An experiment first performed by Thomas Young in 1801.)

What is amazing about Anathaswary’s history is how inventive scientists have been in proving quantum mechanics is real. That amazing accomplishment leads to proof that physics reactions are not only local but exhibit spooky action at a distance (entanglement). With as much of the universe’s energy and matter not observable, it seems Einstein had a point in suggesting quantum mechanics would be drawn back into a “cause and effect” world. As recent as this week, the activity of muons in dark energy suggests there is more to the story of the predictability of life.

The building of a mechanism to isolate one elemental particle of an atom for a “two split experiment” boggles the uninformed mind. Ironically, human inventiveness gives one confidence that Einstein’s goal of a unified theory of everything is conceivable. It seems a matter of time for science to discover what makes life real. Ananthaswarmy’s “Through Two Doors at Once” gives hope for young scientists, like the 26-year-old Einstein, to guide humanity to the meaning of life. Hopefully, before humanity kills itself with two-edged discoveries like e=mc2.

SOCIAL BRAIN

Is one born with a gender identity like a chicken or is one born as an egg with a chicken’ identity determined by socialization?

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Gender and Our Brains (How New Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the Male and Female Minds.)

By: Gina Rippon

Narrated by: Hannah Curtis

Gina Rippon (British Author, neurobiologist, received a PhD in physiological psychology, professor at Aston Brain Centre, Aston University in Birmingham, England.)

Gina Rippon develops an argument, reinforced by literature but indeterminant by science, that there is little intellectual or social difference between the sexes. Like white dominance of the western world, Rippon implies difference between the sexes has been institutionalized and biased by society.

Though Rippon does not reach back to fossil evidence of human beings, one might make a case for the beginning of biased human socialization in the discovery of homo habilis males and females that lived 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago in Eastern and Southern Africa. Ironically, “homo habilis” is Latin for “handy man”.

The vary choice of identification of the oldest known fossil is a reminder of the influence of socialization and gender discrimination by the actions and definitions of science researchers. ((Hardly a surprise when only 38% of the population of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics’ (STEM) bachelor’s degrees are held by women.)) Conceivably, in the beginning of history men dominated women because of inherent physical strength and a division of labor that set sexual bias for generations to come.

In “Gender and Our Brains”, Rippon is raising the chicken and egg paradox for the origin of male and female identity.

Is one born with a gender identity like a chicken or is one born as an egg with a chicken’ identity determined by socialization?

Having been raised by a mother with the only consistent father figure in the family being an older brother, this reviewer’s belief is as clouded as the conclusions reached by Rippon. There is as much evidence for being born as a chicken as an egg in the history of science and sociology. The conclusion one may draw from “Gender and Our Brains” is “let people choose to be whom and what they desire to be”.

Society should neither condemn nor deny a person’s sexual preference. Just as racial and ethnic minorities should not be discriminated against, neither should those who choose a sexual identity.

Societal acceptance and equality of opportunity should be the same for all. There is no justification for denial of equal rights and opportunities based on what one becomes as an individual whether one’s life is an inherent or learned difference. The only reason sexual identity is a controversial question is because societies lean toward a “we/them” mentality. Why should one care whether one identifies as male or female if they make a positive contribution to society. America is founded on the principles of equal treatment and opportunity for all, not just a white, largely male, majority.

Rippon’s conclusion is that human beings may or may not have a sexual identity when they are born. Science experiments and studies give no distinct answer to inherent sexual identity.

If sexual identity is inherent (which is neither proven or unproven by science), socialization is shown to influence sexual identities maturation and how men and women behave toward each other. Rippon argues if sexual identity is partly determined by socialization, then socialization is where equality of the sexes should and can be reinforced.

Rippon makes a convincing argument that there is minimal difference between men and women except in their role in human reproduction.

Many literary stories believe in the equality of the sexes. Rippon’s fundamental point is that all humans are born equal whether male, female, or other. Her inference is that the world needs to get over discrimination and promote equal rights and opportunity for all because any natural origin of sexual identity remains a scientifically indeterminant puzzle.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: