In surfing the net I recently came across an article about the chemicals (pheromones) released by ants as a means of communication. When an ant dies, a few days later it releases a blast of skatol, the odoriferous agent in feces. After the release, the next ant in line throws the dead ant on its back and carries it off to the ant graveyard and throws it on the heap. The scientist decided to try an experiment. He would drop a small amount of skatol onto a live ant in the line and see what happened. Sure enough, the next ant in line picked up the 'dead' ant threw it on its back and carried the ant kicking and screaming pheromones and dropped it in the graveyard. The dead ant tried to get back in line but had not cleaned off the skatol, so the next ant in line picked it up and threw it right back on the heap. I Googled 'dead ant skatol' but couldn't find it. It really is hilarious.
Last week when brother Bob was here he suggested I check out a book called Parkinson's Disease. Since I have a real interest in the subject, off I went to the library. I found it. But serendipitously I found a book by Lee Smolin, a particle physicist titled, "The Problem With Physics". It questioned the scientific basis of String Theory! So I brought it home. I'm only on page 15 and am getting the sense of his argument. Really, his complaint is that String Theory cannot be verified experimentally and probably will not be in the foreseeable future. Maybe he'll show me something new.
String theory, quantum gravity. It just goes to show that we're all on this flight together.
Dick
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