Inside Darren

It astounds me how much blind faith the modern world has in Science. And when I say blind faith, I mean that in the truest sense of that idea - That people will accept something as true, just because Science says so.

How many newspaper articles have you read, or news stories have you heard, that start out with something along the lines of “Researchers today discovered that…” or “A new scientific study has recently shown that…”, after which some claim is made, which you believe without question. Even if it’s something ridiculous like “Studies show that eating koala bear toenails can significantly reduce your chance of armpit cancer”, you’re less likely to say “That’s a load of crap”, and more likely to say “I didn’t know koala bears had toenails”.

The scientific method is a tool that is used for discovery, but like any other tool, it can be used well, or used poorly. The world is full of poor science, and more to the point, the world is full of questions which science has not been able to answer. Here are a few examples:

1. Why do muscles get sore the day after you work out?

Anyone who has undertaken a new, physically taxing activity has had to cope with sore muscles the next day. Perhaps you’ve started a new workout routine, or taken up rollerblading, or decided to speed up your workday by running through your meter reading route wearing heavy boots in 30cm of snow. I’m just pulling examples off the top of my head here. One thing is certain - within 24 hours of doing this activity, you will be SORE.

Even though this experience has occurred since the dawn of humanity (being sore, not meter reading), we still do not know for certain why soreness develops. A quick google search brought up these 5 websites which speak about the issue (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and all have them use qualifying words such as “the latest theory is” or “we think this is the case”.

2. Why is ice slippery?

I came across this interesting article in The Hamilton Spectator during the Olympic games, dealing with the question of why ice is slippery. I had no idea that science was clueless as to why ice is slippery, but apparently, that’s the case.

This is ice we’re talking about. That stuff that is so abundant (at least during Canadian winters) that we have to shovel it off our roads so that we can drive properly. We still don’t scientifically understand the reasons behind the physical properties of ice.

3. What’s the deal with Gravity?

Yes my friends, gravity. That force that acts upon us every moment of every day, for everyone who has ever existed. It’s everywhere in the universe where you find something that’s not nothing, and even light itself is affected by it. And yet, we still don’t understand what it’s all about.

We know that mass creates it. We don’t know why or how. The best theory, as I understand it, is explained on this page of the website How Stuff Works. It was theorized by Einstein, and, to quote a section of the article, he believes that

The presence of mass or concentrated energy causes a local curvature in the space-time continuum. This curvature is such that the inertial paths of bodies are no longer straight lines but some form of curved (orbital) path, and this acceleration is what is called gravitation.

So what you have is objects creating “dents” in the fabric of the universe, the same way that a heavy object like, I dunno, your butt?…will create a dent in your sofa. All of us are essentially falling into the dent that the earth is making in the universe.

But like I said, it’s only a theory. Science has yet to prove that this is really happening, or if it’s just a fun idea to think about while you’re putting off doing something productive, like attending the computers class that you’re skipping to write blog entries.

By the way, if you want a good object lesson in the above mentioned shortcomings of science, go to your local ice-rink, do some speed skating, and try to wipe-out at least once. You’ll learn all about sore muscles, slippery ice, and gravity in one, concise outing.