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In a special collection of articles published beginning 1 July 2005, Science Magazine and its online companion sites celebrate the journal's 125th anniversary with a look forward -- at the most compelling puzzles and questions facing scientists today.
Questions, with accompanying essays include:
* what is the universe made of?
* how and where did life on earth arise?
* how are memories stored and retrieved?
Syzygy
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
The only answer I've heard is:
A woodchuck could chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood
Perhaps if I could read an essay . . .
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
That should, IMHO, be "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?". (I have seen a woodchuck just once in my life, incidentally. It wasn't chucking wood, of course. It was standing beside the road, watching the traffic, for all the world as if it was waiting for someone to stop and offer it a lift. I didn't.)
(Added: Posted before Syzygy posted his link, which gives the correct quotation.)
I notice, BTW, in the essay on Malthus in the original Science link, it isn't noted that Malthus was right about England in the centuries preceding when he wrote his Essay on Population. He was wrong to predict the same for the couple of centuries following. Whether he'll be right ever again is yet another question.
[edited by: TheDoctor at 8:06 pm (utc) on July 5, 2005]
Re: "What is the Universe made of?"
I think I mentioned in this folder once before that the UK mathematician and theoretical physicist CK Thornhill has already solved the question of dark matter and dark energy without resorting to string theory or M theory. (The mainstream scientific community seems unwilling to a) accept the proposed solution or b) point out what is wrong with the basic mathematics underpinning the solution if it is unacceptable).
See: Non-singular Ethereal Cosmology
