5 ms·

Oysters That Knew What Time It Was

mc32 6y ago
It’s unfortunate the pressure researchers suffer to not come across as cranks that can derail a field. His colleagues feared his theories would discredit the nascent field of chronobiology. Brown’s peers even ran an experiment that corroborated Brown’s hypothesis but kept it secret. Looks like Brown is being tentatively vindicated —it’s not completely understood but it appears he was on to something circadian rhythms are somehow influenced by magnetic fields in some species.
- dwd 6y ago
  Anyone remember the B.C. Comic where BC claims "Clams have hands" and other attributes only he witnesses and is ridiculed for? You would have to wonder if that had any influence on their reluctance to publish similar claims.
- emilfihlman 6y ago
  One thing I don't understand why it has to be one or the other, but not both (as indicated is really the case).
steve_adams_86 6y ago
Things like this are what I find exciting these days. It says to me that the surrounding universe has a greater presence in our lives than we’d guess, and the implications are huge. How much do we take for granted? How much of the world isn’t originating from the world alone? In a way this seems somewhat obvious, yet, I’d never have guessed that oysters are synchronized with something that seems so distant and external. There’s so much left to learn and understand.
basicplus2 6y ago
The question that arises is how much are our internal systems disrupted by living in a sea of electromagnetic radiation from tv transmitters, radio transmitters, mobile phones and towers, wifi etc
- gumby 6y ago
  Well his suggests that the oysters would Likely not be affected as they weren’t responding to signals. Birds, i believe, navigate with a compass so could suffer disruption
scottrogowski 6y ago
There is a popular argument being made recently that science and innovation are slowing down. If true, the next question is what factors are causing this slow down. The way that Brown was dismissed for (apparently) good research in the 50s feels a lot like the struggles that heterodox academics seem to face today. My question is whether that sort of dismissal and ostracization was common during the "more innovative" eras of, say, 1800-1950. I legitimately don't know. To use some big hitters as examples, I'm unaware of Einstein or Millikan ever dealing with serious questioning of their work. Darwin faced questions but more from non-academics. Freud should have faced more questioning than he actually received. Is it fair to characterize modern research as having a problem with group-think and if so, how important is that problem in the supposed slow-down of science?
- throwaway2048 6y ago
  Einstein actually faced fairly stiff opposition to his ideas amongst physicists, especially his ideas about special relativity early in his career, A lot of it was driven by the fact he was an outsider to the physics community at the time. [1] >This world is a strange madhouse. Currently, every coachman and every waiter is debating whether relativity theory is correct. Belief in this matter depends on political party affiliation." Thus begins a letter by Albert Einstein to his one time close collaborator, mathematician Marcel Grossmann. It was written on 12 September 1920, just some three weeks after Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall had hosted a rambunctious rally at which Einstein had been denounced as a fraud and scientific philistine. Another good example of a revolutionary innovative thinker of the time being branded a fraud and a charlatan by mainstream voices is Georg Cantor, who was so badly treated he suffered mental illness for much of the rest of his life because of how completely his theories had been rejected. [2] [1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.2181 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.2181 [2] https://infinityplusonemath.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/no-one-liked-cantor/ https://infinityplusonemath.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/no-one-...
  - raverbashing 6y ago
    True. One of the reasons why the solar eclipse experiments were so important is that they corroborated Einstein's theory, but I don't think there was any prior proof of Relativity except for the known discrepancies (Mercury's orbit and the failure to measure ether velocity) https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-the-1919-solar-eclipse-made-einstein-the-worlds-most-famous-scientist https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-the-1919-s...
emmelaich 6y ago
The strongest tidal influences (m2,s2,n2) are all about around 12.5 hours, i.e. about half of the discovered cycle of 25. So it seems weird that the moon theory was so easily dismissed. It doesn't even get a mention in the article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_tides#Semi-diurnal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_tides#Semi-diurnal
imjusttesting 6y ago
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deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mrphoebs 6y ago
This was a very well written article.
- sho_hn 6y ago
  The article is an excerpt from a new book by Jo Marchant, a PhD/BSc microbiology/genetics who apparently has made a name for herself writing popular science books that intermingle covering a subject with covering the science history and the colorful personalities involved. Like you I enjoyed this piece tremendously, then discovered this info via the byline below and ended up buying three of her books, including this new one. I started her older book on King Tut's Mummy last night and it's equally fun so far (it's about the discoveries of and research about this and related mummies, and their relationship to the science news cycle - so you get stuff about ancient DNA and that scene of science along with an inspection of popular Egyptology). The third book I bought is about the Antikythera Mechanism. This author might end up giving me a similar popsci fix as Simon Singh did as a kid! :) Side note, if you end up picking the King Tut book, this blog series is a fantastic companion adopting a similar approach to the topic of the Pyramids and their research history: https://analog-antiquarian.net/2019/01/11/chapter-1-the-charlatan-and-the-gossip/ https://analog-antiquarian.net/2019/01/11/chapter-1-the-char... This is the side project of Jimmy Maher, better known as the author of the Digital Antiquarian blog. Under the guise of Analog Antiquarian he wrote this and is now writing further history books in chapter-as-blog form about the Seven World Wonders of antiquity. It's some of the best reading I did last year, and since some of the historic characters overlap with Marchant's book they end up combining into a fuller picture for me currently. I love this genre - learning about history via the history of the historians and researchers. You learn about the subject as well as of the twists and turns of how the present day knowledge was amassed. Singh, but also Neal Stephenson novels to some extent (couched in fiction), etc. And, though more of a witness' account rather than critical writing, the favorite book of my youth, John Chadwick's "The Decipherment of Linear B".
  - mrphoebs 6y ago
    Thanks for the information and links, looks like a great way to spend some downtime.
coldcode 6y ago
The more we learn of life, biology, chemistry and especially physics, the more interesting life becomes. Today it's harder to separate complete nonsense from a reality that hasn't reached sufficient consensus. All the reasons for rejecting Brown were right at the time, but ultimately life turned out to be more complex than people realized back then. Science ultimately is about finding what's real and what's a temporary illusion of reality.

mc32 6y ago

It’s unfortunate the pressure researchers suffer to not come across as cranks that can derail a field. His colleagues feared his theories would discredit the nascent field of chronobiology. Brown’s peers even ran an experiment that corroborated Brown’s hypothesis but kept it secret. Looks like Brown is being tentatively vindicated —it’s not completely understood but it appears he was on to something circadian rhythms are somehow influenced by magnetic fields in some species.

dwd 6y ago
Anyone remember the B.C. Comic where BC claims "Clams have hands" and other attributes only he witnesses and is ridiculed for? You would have to wonder if that had any influence on their reluctance to publish similar claims.
emilfihlman 6y ago
One thing I don't understand why it has to be one or the other, but not both (as indicated is really the case).

steve_adams_86 6y ago

Things like this are what I find exciting these days. It says to me that the surrounding universe has a greater presence in our lives than we’d guess, and the implications are huge. How much do we take for granted? How much of the world isn’t originating from the world alone? In a way this seems somewhat obvious, yet, I’d never have guessed that oysters are synchronized with something that seems so distant and external. There’s so much left to learn and understand.

basicplus2 6y ago

The question that arises is how much are our internal systems disrupted by living in a sea of electromagnetic radiation from tv transmitters, radio transmitters, mobile phones and towers, wifi etc

gumby 6y ago
Well his suggests that the oysters would Likely not be affected as they weren’t responding to signals. Birds, i believe, navigate with a compass so could suffer disruption

scottrogowski 6y ago

There is a popular argument being made recently that science and innovation are slowing down. If true, the next question is what factors are causing this slow down. The way that Brown was dismissed for (apparently) good research in the 50s feels a lot like the struggles that heterodox academics seem to face today. My question is whether that sort of dismissal and ostracization was common during the "more innovative" eras of, say, 1800-1950. I legitimately don't know. To use some big hitters as examples, I'm unaware of Einstein or Millikan ever dealing with serious questioning of their work. Darwin faced questions but more from non-academics. Freud should have faced more questioning than he actually received. Is it fair to characterize modern research as having a problem with group-think and if so, how important is that problem in the supposed slow-down of science?

throwaway2048 6y ago
Einstein actually faced fairly stiff opposition to his ideas amongst physicists, especially his ideas about special relativity early in his career, A lot of it was driven by the fact he was an outsider to the physics community at the time. [1] >This world is a strange madhouse. Currently, every coachman and every waiter is debating whether relativity theory is correct. Belief in this matter depends on political party affiliation." Thus begins a letter by Albert Einstein to his one time close collaborator, mathematician Marcel Grossmann. It was written on 12 September 1920, just some three weeks after Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall had hosted a rambunctious rally at which Einstein had been denounced as a fraud and scientific philistine. Another good example of a revolutionary innovative thinker of the time being branded a fraud and a charlatan by mainstream voices is Georg Cantor, who was so badly treated he suffered mental illness for much of the rest of his life because of how completely his theories had been rejected. [2] [1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.2181 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.2181 [2] https://infinityplusonemath.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/no-one-liked-cantor/ https://infinityplusonemath.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/no-one-...
- raverbashing 6y ago
  True. One of the reasons why the solar eclipse experiments were so important is that they corroborated Einstein's theory, but I don't think there was any prior proof of Relativity except for the known discrepancies (Mercury's orbit and the failure to measure ether velocity) https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-the-1919-solar-eclipse-made-einstein-the-worlds-most-famous-scientist https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-the-1919-s...

emmelaich 6y ago

The strongest tidal influences (m2,s2,n2) are all about around 12.5 hours, i.e. about half of the discovered cycle of 25. So it seems weird that the moon theory was so easily dismissed. It doesn't even get a mention in the article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_tides#Semi-diurnal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_tides#Semi-diurnal

imjusttesting 6y ago

asd asdasdasdasdasd asdasdasd

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

mrphoebs 6y ago

This was a very well written article.

sho_hn 6y ago
The article is an excerpt from a new book by Jo Marchant, a PhD/BSc microbiology/genetics who apparently has made a name for herself writing popular science books that intermingle covering a subject with covering the science history and the colorful personalities involved. Like you I enjoyed this piece tremendously, then discovered this info via the byline below and ended up buying three of her books, including this new one. I started her older book on King Tut's Mummy last night and it's equally fun so far (it's about the discoveries of and research about this and related mummies, and their relationship to the science news cycle - so you get stuff about ancient DNA and that scene of science along with an inspection of popular Egyptology). The third book I bought is about the Antikythera Mechanism. This author might end up giving me a similar popsci fix as Simon Singh did as a kid! :) Side note, if you end up picking the King Tut book, this blog series is a fantastic companion adopting a similar approach to the topic of the Pyramids and their research history: https://analog-antiquarian.net/2019/01/11/chapter-1-the-charlatan-and-the-gossip/ https://analog-antiquarian.net/2019/01/11/chapter-1-the-char... This is the side project of Jimmy Maher, better known as the author of the Digital Antiquarian blog. Under the guise of Analog Antiquarian he wrote this and is now writing further history books in chapter-as-blog form about the Seven World Wonders of antiquity. It's some of the best reading I did last year, and since some of the historic characters overlap with Marchant's book they end up combining into a fuller picture for me currently. I love this genre - learning about history via the history of the historians and researchers. You learn about the subject as well as of the twists and turns of how the present day knowledge was amassed. Singh, but also Neal Stephenson novels to some extent (couched in fiction), etc. And, though more of a witness' account rather than critical writing, the favorite book of my youth, John Chadwick's "The Decipherment of Linear B".
- mrphoebs 6y ago
  Thanks for the information and links, looks like a great way to spend some downtime.

coldcode 6y ago

The more we learn of life, biology, chemistry and especially physics, the more interesting life becomes. Today it's harder to separate complete nonsense from a reality that hasn't reached sufficient consensus. All the reasons for rejecting Brown were right at the time, but ultimately life turned out to be more complex than people realized back then. Science ultimately is about finding what's real and what's a temporary illusion of reality.