Sound and Fury

Right, so I am part of two (count ‘em TWO!) reading groups on category theory. One aiming at foundations of maths from a category theory perspective, the other trying to understand those topos foundations of physics papers (eventually).

I have got 5000 words written for one of my essays. It feels good. I’m pretty pleased with how it has turned out so far. I’m taking a break from objective probabilities in quantum physics to have a look at some second order logic, the topic of my other paper. But I thought I’d have a little breather to get down something that’s been rattling around my head for a couple of days.

So… OK, Science! Right. Sodium; Na;  group 1 metal, atomic number 11. Explodes when put in contact with water. Chlorine; Cl; a halogen gas, atomic number 17. Poisonous. Put the together and what have you got?

Salt. Table salt. Chlorine that you put in swimming pools to kill things plus sodium which blows up when put in contact with water (remeber you are 70% water…) when combined produce… a flavour enhancer. Something people are quite willing to eat?

Hydrogen; highly flammable gas. Oxygen; necessary for any combustion process. But them together and what have you got?

Water. Puts out fires. No really? Mixing the gas responsible for the hindenburg disaster with that which is needed for things to burn creates something that can put out fires? I don’t want 70% of me to be made out of something flammable that can’t decide if it’s a gas or a metal and something that makes fire possible.

Yeah science is nutty.

I have two 5000 word essays due in on the 1st of February. So the 2000 (nearly) words I have down so far isn’t really enough. What I do have written isn’t even that good. So I plan to panic a lot and spend a lot of time working… I got an amazon package courtesy of my Dad which had several books for my Christmas/Birthday presents. But I’ve just packed them away on the shelf for now, because I should get back to reading What could be objective about probabilities. Exciting stuff.