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Gauging the age of the universe
CULTURELAB
A dark heart
plainpicture/Yom Lam
It’s time to weigh the case that the internet offends as much as it empowers
The Offensive Internet: Speech, privacy, and reputation, edited by Saul Levmore and Martha C. Nussbaum, Harvard University Press, $27.95 Reviewed by Liz Else
AN OLD saying has it that when one of China’s leaders, Zhou Enlai, was asked about the consequences of the French revolution, he replied it was too soon to tell. When it comes to the internet, you might think it equally wise to wait for the e-dust to settle. But since this revolution threatens (or promises) an unprecedented revision of the world, the drive to analysis is probably unstoppable. Hence a slew of books due in the coming months, starting with a heavy-going critique with a great title. It’s a collection of essays by law and philosophy academics, edited by Chicago professors Saul Levmore and Martha Nussbaum, 48 | NewScientist | 15 January 2011
focusing on real-world worries about how the internet causes “offence”. They look at privacy, freedom of speech and reputation, and while the last two may present old problems in new clothing, privacy, say the editors, clarifies the true novelty of the internet. Suppose formerly confidential information ends up circling the globe (WikiLeaks); or a false accusation becomes part of someone’s online identity, affecting relationships and job prospects forever (cyber-bullying); or a break-up triggers retaliation, with the exposure of sexual details harming reputations or mental health (campus suicides). And any of us could be the Star Wars Kid, cited in one essay – a pudgy, nerdy 15-year-old who videoed himself pretending a golfball retriever was a lightsaber. This went viral when his tormentors uploaded it in 2002, to blogospheric derision. The essays have an academic tone, and sometimes raise issues seldom addressed. For example,
Nussbaum’s essay “Objectification and internet misogyny” is full of graphic detail, reminding us that much of the damage done by the spread of gossip and slander is to women, and may involve what feminists call “objectification”. To turn anyone into an object “involves conferring on the object a spoiled, or stigmatised, identity”, says Nussbaum, while to objectify publicly “is a variety of shame punishment”. Harassment on the AutoAdmit website led two female students from Yale Law School to file complaints. Mild examples read: “[DOE I] is a dumbass bitch and [DOE II] is a slut”. Beyond citing feminist Andrea Dworkin’s remedy of “asserting one’s humanness”, Nussbaum has only questions, wondering how to ensure those assertions are not “silenced by pornographic hate”. Other authors dealing with less pervasive “offences” have easier recourse to legal solutions. This is not a book for those already “living online”, many of whom may see feminism as a spent force and total exposure as harmless, even good. But it is for those who care how the internet has complicated privacy, speech and reputation, and for those who may have to rescue it from itself.
Alien evolution Evolution: The story of life on Earth by Jay Hosler, illustrated by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon, Hill and Wang, $18.95 Reviewed by Clint Witchalls
IT IS not often that the books I am asked to review go missing. After hours of searching, I found the errant item, with the spine cracked, in my teenage son’s room – an otherwise book-free zone. I can offer no higher recommendation. This superb comic book tells the story of terrestrial evolution from the perspective of creatures
from a planet called Glargal. The development of life on Earth, from primitive cellular organisms to Homo sapiens, is presented by the alien scientist Bloort-183 via an interactive hologram to the king of Glargal and his son. They urgently need to understand evolutionary adaptation, as their own planet faces an unspecified “genetic crisis”, and Earth may offer some clues on how to avert it. I am not sure why comic books make words like alphaproteobacteria less daunting, but they do. Every classroom should have this book.
Proud achievement How Old is the Universe? by David A. Weintraub, Princeton University Press, £20.95/$29.95 Reviewed by Michael Brooks
YOU probably know the answer already. But do you know how we found it? This is nononsense science writing that will be enjoyed for years: David Weintraub is an expert guide, laying out the evidence in just the right amount of detail. There are no flounces or diversions, no attempts to hold the reader’s attention by lifting the scientists above the science. The simple strategy works because the science is simply fascinating. Working out the age of the universe is among the most audacious tasks we have ever embarked upon. But we did not aim too high: we now have four independent lines of evidence that converge on the figure – spoiler warning – of 13.7 billion years. As Weintraub puts it, the “trials and errors, painstaking observations and brilliant insights that have led to this answer amount to one of mankind’s most impressive intellectual achievements”. It makes you proud to be human.
A dark heart
plainpicture/Yom Lam
It’s time to weigh the case that the internet offends as much as it empowers
The Offensive Internet: Speech, privacy, and reputation, edited by Saul Levmore and Martha C. Nussbaum, Harvard University Press, $27.95 Reviewed by Liz Else
AN OLD saying has it that when one of China’s leaders, Zhou Enlai, was asked about the consequences of the French revolution, he replied it was too soon to tell. When it comes to the internet, you might think it equally wise to wait for the e-dust to settle. But since this revolution threatens (or promises) an unprecedented revision of the world, the drive to analysis is probably unstoppable. Hence a slew of books due in the coming months, starting with a heavy-going critique with a great title. It’s a collection of essays by law and philosophy academics, edited by Chicago professors Saul Levmore and Martha Nussbaum, 48 | NewScientist | 15 January 2011
focusing on real-world worries about how the internet causes “offence”. They look at privacy, freedom of speech and reputation, and while the last two may present old problems in new clothing, privacy, say the editors, clarifies the true novelty of the internet. Suppose formerly confidential information ends up circling the globe (WikiLeaks); or a false accusation becomes part of someone’s online identity, affecting relationships and job prospects forever (cyber-bullying); or a break-up triggers retaliation, with the exposure of sexual details harming reputations or mental health (campus suicides). And any of us could be the Star Wars Kid, cited in one essay – a pudgy, nerdy 15-year-old who videoed himself pretending a golfball retriever was a lightsaber. This went viral when his tormentors uploaded it in 2002, to blogospheric derision. The essays have an academic tone, and sometimes raise issues seldom addressed. For example,
Nussbaum’s essay “Objectification and internet misogyny” is full of graphic detail, reminding us that much of the damage done by the spread of gossip and slander is to women, and may involve what feminists call “objectification”. To turn anyone into an object “involves conferring on the object a spoiled, or stigmatised, identity”, says Nussbaum, while to objectify publicly “is a variety of shame punishment”. Harassment on the AutoAdmit website led two female students from Yale Law School to file complaints. Mild examples read: “[DOE I] is a dumbass bitch and [DOE II] is a slut”. Beyond citing feminist Andrea Dworkin’s remedy of “asserting one’s humanness”, Nussbaum has only questions, wondering how to ensure those assertions are not “silenced by pornographic hate”. Other authors dealing with less pervasive “offences” have easier recourse to legal solutions. This is not a book for those already “living online”, many of whom may see feminism as a spent force and total exposure as harmless, even good. But it is for those who care how the internet has complicated privacy, speech and reputation, and for those who may have to rescue it from itself.
Alien evolution Evolution: The story of life on Earth by Jay Hosler, illustrated by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon, Hill and Wang, $18.95 Reviewed by Clint Witchalls
IT IS not often that the books I am asked to review go missing. After hours of searching, I found the errant item, with the spine cracked, in my teenage son’s room – an otherwise book-free zone. I can offer no higher recommendation. This superb comic book tells the story of terrestrial evolution from the perspective of creatures
from a planet called Glargal. The development of life on Earth, from primitive cellular organisms to Homo sapiens, is presented by the alien scientist Bloort-183 via an interactive hologram to the king of Glargal and his son. They urgently need to understand evolutionary adaptation, as their own planet faces an unspecified “genetic crisis”, and Earth may offer some clues on how to avert it. I am not sure why comic books make words like alphaproteobacteria less daunting, but they do. Every classroom should have this book.
Proud achievement How Old is the Universe? by David A. Weintraub, Princeton University Press, £20.95/$29.95 Reviewed by Michael Brooks
YOU probably know the answer already. But do you know how we found it? This is nononsense science writing that will be enjoyed for years: David Weintraub is an expert guide, laying out the evidence in just the right amount of detail. There are no flounces or diversions, no attempts to hold the reader’s attention by lifting the scientists above the science. The simple strategy works because the science is simply fascinating. Working out the age of the universe is among the most audacious tasks we have ever embarked upon. But we did not aim too high: we now have four independent lines of evidence that converge on the figure – spoiler warning – of 13.7 billion years. As Weintraub puts it, the “trials and errors, painstaking observations and brilliant insights that have led to this answer amount to one of mankind’s most impressive intellectual achievements”. It makes you proud to be human.