FEAST OR FAMINE

  Quantum Physics for Beginners : From Quantum Confusion to Clarity: A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Core Concepts and Key Ideas in Quantum Physics by Orion Wells (2015) aims to simplify complex scientific principles and theories.   This is a comprehensive book with 12 chapters covering quantum principles, light and matter, the uncertainty principle, quantum entanglement, quantum tunneling, the mathematics of quantum mechanics, probability and statistics, computing and artificial intelligence (AI), cryptography, the theory of relativity, paradoxes, the big bang, and everyday life. And so much more.   The structure is easy to follow, the font is readable, the dot points are succinct, the graphics are sparse and relevant, and the use of mathematical equations is limited or simplified so as not to overwhelm readers.    I have qualifications in mathematics so I went straight to that chapter. Orion Wells states, “If you’re concerned about the complexity of these ...

  The Order of Time  by Carlo Rovelli (1959) is about the physics of time and space: ‘We are time. We are this space, this clearing opened by the traces of memory inside the connections between our neurons. We are memory. We are nostalgia. We are longing for a future that will not come.’   The book is divided into three parts: 1) The Crumbling of Time, 2) The World without Time, and 3) The Sources of Time.    Part One is an account of modern physics and time – from Anaximander (‘the Earth floats in space’) and Nicolaus Copernicus (‘the Sun is at the centre of the Universe’) to Albert Einstein (‘the equations that describe how proper times develop relative to each other’) and others.    Poets, artists, philosophers, and scientists have all been fascinated by the mystery of time. The more humans develop, the more they transform their understanding of it.     Carlo Rovelli talks of altitude, speed, the midday sun, timezones, Earth’s hemisph...

  Dark Mode  by Ashley Kalagian Blunt (2023) is a psychological crime thriller set in Sydney, Australia, in 2017.    Reagan Carsen keeps a low profile in life. Even when she finds the dead body of a young woman, she does not contact the police, especially because the dead woman looks eerily like her.   Two more women are murdered, fuelling Reagan’s paranoia. Someone is after her. The police think she is a suspect; she thinks someone is framing her. She can’t trust anyone.    When a deepfake video has images of her apartment, she freaks out. After she receives strange emails, the video, and has her bank accounts frozen, she knows she is next.    This dark web thriller is an interesting, suspenseful page-turner – a fusion of fact and fiction – that will evoke a fear of having too much personal information on the web – or any information. Too many are watching; too many people have access to your information – to you. It evokes paranoid tendenci...

  Rainstick TM  is an Australian indigenous electrobiology company harnessing the power of lightning to transform the food, agriculture, materials, medical, and research industries. Rainstick TM  biotech startup combines traditional indigenous knowledge systems and modern electrokinetics for the future of food and an alternative to pesticides, fungicides, and genetic modification.    Like thunderstorms, electrical influences on growing systems are an untapped and overlooked resource, says the founder of Rainstick TM , Darryl Lyons, a Maiawali man.    By controlling which electrical signals are given to plants and fungi, Rainstick TM  can encourage certain behaviours around growth, nutrient use, nutrient density, and speed of growth. Darryl Lyons hypothesizes that someday even inter-generational epigenetic expressions can accelerate the process of selective breeding.   Rainstick TM  sees opportunity for this innovative technology for food...

  Le Select Restaurant in Montparnasse, Paris, is exhibiting a solo collection of artworks by Jean Luc Feugeas in its gallery-restaurant from 15 May to 5 June 2022.    There are 35 canvass acrylics on display in this collection.    Jean Luc Feugeas is a French painter with a doctorate degree in mathematics, working as a university researcher in theoretical physics. In his collection, he combines the principles of geometry with colour and design that appear both fragmented and flowing at the same time.   Jean Luc has exhibited his artwork around the world and has also been commissioned to produce numerous public murals including the 2019 mural “Un Sauvage on the Occasion of Muralis, the Festival of Urban Art in Dax, France.” "Un sauvage" "Le tourbillon" "The deluge" "Melanie's reading" "The Bath III" "Une économie de l'attention" "The bath" "Portrait 2" "haus 2" "l'economie de l...

The Denis Papin stone staircase in the city of Blois in the Loire Valley in France commemorates the French physicist, mathematician, and inventor.  Denis Papin (1647-1713) experimented with steam, and invented the steam digester – the forerunner of the pressure cooker.  The Denis Papin staircase has 120 steps, with four landings. At the top landing is Aimé Millet’s sculptured statue of Denis Papin, erected in 1880.  Since 2013, the staircase has been decorated in artwork depicting current events around Blois. A theme is usually announced each year. In 2019, the Mona Lisa was painted on the staircase to commemorate the 500 th  anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death.  In September 2021, the Denis Papin staircase was painted to look like a bookshelf full of books by JK Rowling, Stephen King, George Orwell,  Molière, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll,  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Guy de Maupassant, Emile Zola, Patrick Suskind, Marjane Satrapi, Masashi Kishimoto, ...