August 15, 2015

How symbolic are word sounds?

[via Slashdot] A recent study in Royal Society Open Science (featured in Science) discusses sound symbolism in the vocal representations for antonyms (similar to the kiki/bouba effect).

The news here is that the participants created their own "words" during a game of vocal charade and that they were able to communicate their meaning increasingly well in subsequent rounds. The made-up words were also identified by "naive listeners" (not involved in creating them) better than predicted by mere chance. Furthermore, the meaning of the vocalizations was correlated to some acoustic characteristics (e.g. the signals for "up" were reliably shorter, more intense, with higher pitch and pitch change than those for "down".)
 
On a completely unrelated note, the authors felt the need to warn the reader that:

"Unavoidably, as in similar semiotics experiments, our participants already spoke a language and thus came well acquainted with symbolic communication."

I have already written a few times about language symbolism, in the series on Genette's Mimologics (first part here) and also here and here.

August 12, 2015

Law enforcement priorities

The victim is found shot dead, and his encrypted smartphones are found next to him. Four prosecutors from four different countries take to the pages of the New York Times asking for restrictions on encryption. No word about restrictions on firearms.



August 11, 2015

Logos for scientists

This is great!

August 6, 2015

Materials science...

...is when chemists do physics and physicists do chemistry. It is not always a pretty sight.

August 5, 2015

French humour

I finally realized that a distinctive trait of French humour is combining hyperbola and understatement in the same phrase. I'll just post this and look for examples later...

The Dirac delta "function" - part II

The relation between δ(x) and dx

After introducing the Dirac delta "function" \(\delta(x)\) in the previous post, I'll try now to explain the relation between it and the differential element \(\mathrm{d}x\). In the process, I'll through all mathematical rigour out the window and aim for an intuitive understanding.

August 4, 2015

The Dirac delta "function" - part I

When describing a physical system, one would often like to describe some of its components as pointlike particles, i.e. with no spatial extent. Obviously, all objects have a finite size, but this size can be much smaller than the length scales relevant to the problem at hand. All the attributes of the particle (mass, charge, etc.) can then be assigned to a space point.

August 1, 2015

When is science settled?

"By definition, science is never settled. It is always subject to change in the light of new evidence."

The quotation above is from a completely uninteresting, but symptomatic article in the Wall Street Journal. We learn that nothing is certain when it comes to global warming because, among other things, "climatology is only about 170 years old". Also, flat earth and relativity. Caution is an honorable position, but I cannot resist linking to Isaac Asimov's The Relativity of Wrong.

I am however a bit surprised to notice that the same author asserts as a self-evident truth that, should the corporate income tax be abolished, "revenue from other sources, especially the personal income tax, would quickly make up for it and then some". No bet-hedging on this one? Is it a proven result of the venerable science of economics?