It is estimated that there are 30 million species on the earth now, which is only 1% of the total number of species that once existed on the earth.
This means that about 99% of the species that have ever lived on earth have become extinct. According to Dawkins' book, the cycle of mass extinction of biological species is 26 million years. Because the sun has a sister star named "Nemesis", the sun and she revolve around each other in a cycle of 26 million years. This means that every 26 million years
"Nemesis" will pass through the Oort Nebula composed of billions of comets, which may disrupt the orbit of comets
and cause One or several comets are driven out, which may impact the earth. Fang Zhouzi's note: This is a hypothesis without any basis, and it is not even a "scientific hypothesis." Dawkins did not say in the book that such a companion star called Nemesis really existed. There are two most serious species extinctions in the history of the earth: one was at the end of the Permian 250 million years ago, when 50% of species were extinct; the other was during the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. century,
50% of species represented by dinosaurs became extinct.
"Parsing the Rainbow" is a recent work by Richard Dawkins. It was published by Penguin Press in London in 1998.
The reason why "Analysis of the Rainbow" is used as the title of the book is because the famous British poet Keats believed that Newton destroyed the poetic meaning of the rainbow and regarded it as just an arrangement of the spectrum. Dawkins responded to this in "Analyzing the Rainbow":
"Exploring the mystery does not lose the poetry. On the contrary, the results are more fascinating and more beautiful." Read
Dawkins’s works can indeed constantly feel the shock of beauty.
Survival is the greatest miracle
Compared with most planets, our earth is lucky, that is, using the most optimistic statistical method, such
opportunities Only one in a million. Dawkins believes that we should not regret that life is relatively short.
He wrote in the book: "Because you will die, you are lucky. Because many immortal beings have no chance to come to the world." He proposed that just like in the long river of development of the universe, Just as the time of darkness greatly exceeds the time of light, the number of lives that have not yet been born greatly exceeds the number of people who have ever lived or are alive on the earth. Each of us
obtains 23 chromosomes from our father and mother respectively, forming a unique you and a unique me; and these 23 chromosomes
are randomly selected . It can be seen that there must be a series of coincidences for you and me to be born.
What a small probability this is! Therefore we must cherish life and love life.
It is estimated that there are 30 million species on the earth now, which is only 1% of the total number of species that once existed on the earth.
This means that about 99% of the species that have ever lived on earth have become extinct. According to Dawkins' book, the cycle of mass extinction of biological species is 26 million years. Because the sun has a sister star named "Nemesis", the sun and she revolve around each other in a cycle of 26 million years. This means that every 26 million years
"Nemesis" will pass through the Oort Nebula composed of billions of comets, which may disrupt the orbit of comets
and cause One or several comets are driven out, which may impact the earth. Fang Zhouzi's note: This is a hypothesis without any basis, and it is not even a "scientific hypothesis." Dawkins did not say in the book that such a companion star called Nemesis really existed. There are two most serious species extinctions in the history of the earth: one was at the end of the Permian 250 million years ago, when 50% of species were extinct; the other was during the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. century,
50% of species represented by dinosaurs became extinct.
According to Dawkins’s estimation at the time, by the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, the sequences of all human genes
would be packed into two compact discs and sent to the universe; from now on In the end, humans themselves will not be afraid even if they face another mass extinction of species, because highly civilized creatures on a distant star may resurrect humans.
Therefore, the river of human life will never dry up.
Unraveling the Mystery
Dawkins patiently explores in the book: Why are people easily deceived?
He believes that human beings have two major natures: one is to like weird things, and the other is to be gullible.
Dawkins wrote a true story in the book, analyzing the program "Thoughts Can Stop the Watch" on British television——
A famous person with special abilities went to the TV station to host a profitable program: He stared at the tens of millions of eyes in front of the screen with a hypnotic and melancholy
gaze, and used a A chanting tone spoke his prophecy.
He said that he
felt a strangely pulsing cosmic force and that he had a *squawk* with some people in the audience who just asked him to speak. Spell, these people's watches will stop. After a brief silence, suddenly a phone on his desk rang. From the amplified sound, it could be heard that the woman was a little scared. She said she was in the main room.
Seconds after the wielder uttered the spell, her watch stopped. She also said that she had a hunch that no matter whether she looked at her watch or not, she felt that it would stop because there was something in the host's burning eyes.
Talking to her directly, she felt the pulse of "cosmic power." Before she finished speaking, another call came in, saying that his watch had also stopped. The second caller said that what had stopped was an old wall clock belonging to his grandfather
This is undoubtedly an even more surprising amount of magic to make a pendulum much bulkier than a watch hairspring< /p>
Stop. Another TV viewer reported that his watch stopped working the day before the program aired, while he was reading a newspaper with the famous presenter's photo prominently displayed on it. This kind of report made all the TV viewers fall into admiration. There is no doubt that no one can deny the existence of special powers. Is that true?
Dawkins proves to readers through scientific calculations that such a thing is not accidental, but inevitable.
It is inevitable. In fact, any watch may stop at some point. Because all kinds of watches may
malfunction or need to replace the battery. There are approximately 100,000 5-minutes in a year, and the chance that each watch will stop during a specific 5-minute period is one in 100,000. It should be said that this is a very small chance, but there are 10 million TV viewers. Even if only half of them wear watches, it can be calculated that there will be 50 watches during this period< /p>
Stop. In fact, even if only one-fifth (10) of the 50 watches stopped, it would be enough to make the innocent audience stunned with surprise.
It can be seen from this that scientific perspective can make the mystery appear in its true form and make the "secret" leak.
Science is both true and beautiful
Dawkins fully demonstrated the beauty of science when disseminating scientific truths, making people feel the influence of beauty.
He is not only a scientist, but also a successful science communicator. In 1995, Microsoft Corporation of the United States donated to Oxford University to establish the "Popular Understanding of Science" course. Dawkins became the first professor of the course.
He was awarded the Royal Popular Science Advancement Award.
Scientists also value innovation when conducting scientific communication. How to fully demonstrate the poetry in science requires the re-creation of scientists. When I was in college, the author had the honor to listen to the report delivered by the famous bridge expert Mao Yisheng to the freshmen of our Department of Bridges and Tunnels. His first sentence was unique: "What is a bridge?" He saw that we looked at each other in confusion, and he answered by himself: "A bridge is a road in the sky." It's so concise
>The vivid definition is both scientific and beautiful, how creative! It is best suited to popular understanding of science.
On the other hand, "distorted poetry" must be prevented in scientific communication. Dawkins pointed out: "I want to refute the distorted poetry in science. This book is not to deny poetry; on the contrary, science itself is full of poetry. It should start from Draw on rich imagination in poetry, and let poetic imagination and metaphors inspire science
" The above two may be called the basic principles of scientific communication.
Dawkins attaches great importance to the public understanding and scientific communication of science. He wrote in the book: "You can become an excellent music connoisseur without having to learn to play any instrument. Isn't it the same with studying science? ”
Scientists, teachers, journalists, radio, television and film workers, and writers can all become excellent science communicators.
Whenever we hear or see wonderful sports reports, we often think: When will our country also have a large number of scientific communicators like sports communicators? When will universities in our country offer courses on "Public Understanding of Science" and appoint professors of "Public Understanding of Science" like Oxford University? We
are looking forward to it.