Conference Presentations by Michael Sidiropoulos
It is widely recognized that climate is one of the most complex phenomena known to science. There... more It is widely recognized that climate is one of the most complex phenomena known to science. There are variables, interactions, and feedbacks that are known only qualitatively, and there are others that are not known. A great deal of climate research is still going on, with the aim of improving and refining existing models, as well as developing new explanations of climate change phenomena. After a few decades of intensive research, it is logical to assume that all plausible explanations have been proposed. This article provides basic descriptions of the most plausible theories that have been proposed. It is written in non-technical language and does not take a position in favor of or against any theory. Climate is a multi-variate phenomenon, and it is more than likely that the final truth will be a multivariate one, a combination of some of the theories described here.
Researchgate.net, 2021
The Butterfly Effect is commonly known as the thoroughly entertaining idea that a butterfly flapp... more The Butterfly Effect is commonly known as the thoroughly entertaining idea that a butterfly flapping its wings somewhere in the Amazon valley could cause a tornado in Texas. The idea goes back half a century ago when an MIT meteorology professor named Edward Lorenz made an amazing discovery. In this article I attempt to separate fact from fiction and to determine the scientific importance of this phenomenon, if it really exists.
Researchgate.net, 2021
Basic facts about the oceans with specific reference to three major oscillations impacting global... more Basic facts about the oceans with specific reference to three major oscillations impacting global climate.
researchgate.net, 2021
The use of a global temperature is widespread in the literature of climate change, but it also ha... more The use of a global temperature is widespread in the literature of climate change, but it also has received criticism from numerous researchers, who point out that it is not a measurable quantity and is dependent on weather stations that varied over time in numbers and locations. This brief article presents in graphical form the record of temperatures at individual locations in North America and for entire states of the USA. A comparison with global temperature historical data reveals a serious discrepancy. Regional temperatures are fairly stable, while the global temperature shows significant warming in the last 40 years.
researchgate.net, 2021
There are many factors that affect scientific objectivity. Even the most diligent and bias-free s... more There are many factors that affect scientific objectivity. Even the most diligent and bias-free scientists may be influenced by various factors that compromise their impartiality. Like all people, scientists carry their own personal perspectives. These may be ideological, psychological, or other types of attitudes shaped by social influences. Scientific objectivity requires freedom from personal, political, religious, and social preferences. Of the many psychological factors that influence objectivity, I will focus on groupthink, which has not been adequately recognized as a bias factor in the evolution of science.
researchgate.net, 2021
The article explores some ideas about the scientific plausibility of the existence of life, intel... more The article explores some ideas about the scientific plausibility of the existence of life, intelligent or not, outside of our planet.
researchgate.net, 2021
Helen Keller did not have direct sensations of her world, but to us she is a sensation of the tri... more Helen Keller did not have direct sensations of her world, but to us she is a sensation of the triumph of the human spirit.
Researchgate.net, 2021
The problem of induction is a central problem in the philosophy of knowledge, and the issue is de... more The problem of induction is a central problem in the philosophy of knowledge, and the issue is debated to this day. The problem was brought to the forefront of philosophical enquiry by Scottish philosopher David Hume, who is widely regarded as the greatest among empiricist philosophers. Hume was not comfortable with the idea of drawing conclusions from the observed to the unobserved. He believed that all such inference depends on the expectation that the future will resemble the past.
researchgate.net, 2021
The idea of Occam's Razor is known to many people, as it became popular in 1997 film Contact, bas... more The idea of Occam's Razor is known to many people, as it became popular in 1997 film Contact, based on a novel written by Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan. In the film we are told the story of scientist Ellie Arroway, who finds evidence of extraterrestrial life and is chosen to make first contact. She undertakes interstellar travel and returns after 18 hours, but in Earth time it appeared that she had never left. Ellie tried to persuade the others that she did travel through time, only to be reminded of Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is usually the preferred one. Hence, she probably never left. The idea is itself simple enough, but does it also have any profound philosophical consequences?
researchgate.net, 2021
These are the three greatest philosophers of all time. I am not influenced by their antiquity in ... more These are the three greatest philosophers of all time. I am not influenced by their antiquity in this assessment. I am convinced that if they were living now, teaching the same ideas as they did then, they would still be at the top of modern philosophy. These are ideas that deeply affected every great thinker. Their greatness has been untouched by time and has only been strengthened by the passage of twenty-five centuries.
researchgate.net, 2021
The island of Antikythera Archaeology has always fascinated people, even before George Lucas' fic... more The island of Antikythera Archaeology has always fascinated people, even before George Lucas' fictional professor Indiana Jones achieved worldwide popularity. Our desire to know our past probably stems from our search for our inner self. The term archaeology is a Greek word meaning "the study of ancient history". Archaeology helps us understand how and why human behavior has changed over time. Archaeologists search for patterns in the evolution of significant events such as the emergence of cities, or the collapse of major civilizations. One of the most stunning ancient discoveries in the twentieth century, in the spring of 1900, was not achieved by archaeologists but by divers from the Greek island of Symi, looking for sponges in the Aegean sea near Antikythera, a small island between Crete and the island of Kythera. At a depth of about 50 meters, the divers came upon a shipwreck. A first expedition to investigate the shipwreck was undertaken a few months later by the Hellenic Royal Navy. It turned out that this was a Roman cargo ship and the team retrieved bronze and marble statues, pottery, jewellery, coins, and a very strange-looking mechanism.
researchgate.net, 2021
The Milesian School is without any doubt the beginning of all western philosophy and science. It ... more The Milesian School is without any doubt the beginning of all western philosophy and science. It was the first attempt to reject religious and mythological explanations of natural phenomena. It gave the first account that all matter is composed of the same primal origin, an idea which is valid in modern science. Even in the pragmatic world of modern philosophy, the ideas of the Milesians are discussed, debated, and admired.
researchgate.net, 2021
The oil drop experiment performed by Robert Millikan and Harvey Fletcher in 1909 to measure the c... more The oil drop experiment performed by Robert Millikan and Harvey Fletcher in 1909 to measure the charge of the electron was a stunning success in its scientific outcome and yet very controversial in its circumstances.
researchgate.net, 2021
We have all heard of logical paradoxes and puzzles from the world of mathematics, logic, and phil... more We have all heard of logical paradoxes and puzzles from the world of mathematics, logic, and philosophy. A paradox is a statement that starts from premises that appear to be true and leads to a logically unacceptable conclusion. Many paradoxes have puzzled and influenced philosophers and logicians for centuries. For most of us non-logicians who like to train our mind with some mental exercise, they can be challenging, inspiring, sometimes infuriating, and always amusing.
researchgate.net, 2021
The story, the set-up, and the implications of the Michelson-Morley experiment.
researchgate.net, 2021
In two exciting decades, Becquerel, the Curies, Thomson, Rutherford, and Bohr, became the undispu... more In two exciting decades, Becquerel, the Curies, Thomson, Rutherford, and Bohr, became the undisputed protagonists of a new scientific revolution, one we might call “the atom is not the smallest unit of matter”. Scientists now had the huge task of trying to look inside the atom. The nuclear age had begun.
researchgate.net, 2021
Newton’s laws are a phenomenal scientific achievement, and they are the very foundation of all ph... more Newton’s laws are a phenomenal scientific achievement, and they are the very foundation of all physics. They rationalized Kepler’s planetary system and answered important questions but they also raised many issues, some of which remain unresolved to this day.
researchgate.net, 2021
The discovery of electromagnetism and Maxwell's electromagnetic field theory was a new scientific... more The discovery of electromagnetism and Maxwell's electromagnetic field theory was a new scientific revolution and opened the door to relativity and quantum physics, two theories that are now one hundred years old but are still at the very front of modern physics. The road from Maxwell to Einstein and Planck has many parallel paths and many exciting discoveries that we need to understand before we venture into quantum physics and relativity. The nineteenth century has multiple scientific revolutions that changed our perception of nature.
researchgate.net, 2021
This article was written for the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA) in response to PSA's Out... more This article was written for the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA) in response to PSA's Outreach and Engagement initiative. My own discussions and feedback at academia.edu and researchgate.net on issues of science and philosophy have revealed that many academics encourage simple and down-toearth explanations, free of the obscure and complex jargon often found in scholarly papers. The need for better elucidation is more important now than ever before, as modern science and philosophy are becoming increasingly complex and consequently less accessible to wider audiences.
researchgate.net, 2021
The Johari Window is a model of the human psyche based on four quadrants of Self. It helps us bet... more The Johari Window is a model of the human psyche based on four quadrants of Self. It helps us better understand our interactions with people and it has been used successfully in conflict resolution.
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Conference Presentations by Michael Sidiropoulos