scientists-from-the-united-kingdom

"It should be earnestly remembered that besides the blessings of the Gospel, Christianity is the only remedy for the rapid decline of the northern Indians, and the terrible distresses they sometimes endure."

"The visit of the British Association for the Advancement of Science to Montreal last autumn was much more than a startling innovation… it was a surprising testimony to the social and political change that has come over the British Empire within the quarter of a century."

"At the recent La Palma eruption in the Canary Islands, we had a classic signal that something's going to happen (on its volcano). There was a scattering of earthquakes slowly moving up towards the surface to a particular spot. There also could be gas emissions, or increased temperatures of surface water, or the ground inflating slowly­ – these things can be detected by satellite. But most of the data that serve to warn scientists of an impending eruption are collected by instruments around the volcano. (However) Gathering that data is very difficult in the case of submarine systems (2022 Tonga volcano eruption case)."

"One remaining uncertainty is how severe the disease caused by the omicron variant is compared to disease caused by previous variants. Whilst it may take several weeks to fully understand this, governments will need to put in place plans now to mitigate any potential impact. Our results demonstrate the importance of delivering booster doses as part of the wider public health response."

"Second order Cybernetics presents a (new) paradigm in which the observer is circularly (and intimately) involved with/connected to the observed. The observer is no longer neutral and detached, and what is considered is not the observed (as in the classical paradigm), but the observing system. The aim of attaining traditional objectivity is either abandoned/passed over, or what objectivity is and how we might obtain (and value) it is reconsidered. In this sense, every observation is autobiographical. … The principle of the Black Box is that, where we observe some change in a behavior, we construct and insert a Black Box allowing us to interpret the change as the result of the operation of an invisible mechanism, held within the Box, on what is now seen as input giving rise to output. The observer/scientist develops a description functioning as a mechanism/explanation (i.e. model) which accounts for the transformations of what are now input into output. The explanation is purely historical and the product of the interaction between the observer and his inventive, fictional insertion, the Black Box. What is vital, for the development of second order Cybernetics, is that the Black Box is essentially and crucially a construct of the observer. When we use this concept, we bring the observer in to the process, rather than denying him. That the Black Box requires the observer’s presence is acknowledged, and is circularly connected in. The observer watches and changes. What the observer learns he learns from interaction with the Black Box (which is his construct). When what is observed is observed by an observer, that observer is responsible for the observation, the sense he makes of it, and the actions he takes based on that sense. Von Foerster gives an Ethical Imperative: “Act always so as to increase the number of choices.” (This is joined by an accompanying Aesthetical Imperative: “If you desire to see, learn how to act.” The third is that we construct our realities. “Draw a Distinction!”"

"We have our gurus, we admire them – and with good reason. But they become in the end a source of laziness because we just accept them and we know the little we know of them without feeling the need either to pursue their work very thoroughly, or the need to question it."

"In my view it is premature to conclude, on the basis of the evidence currently available (as of 29 January 2020), that the new (COVID-19) virus can be transmitted before symptoms appear."

"Those (anyone who returns from Wuhan being isolated for 14 days with all necessary medical attention) are the sorts of measures that will protect countries from the introduction of the (COVID-19) virus and onward transmission. There's always a balance between the draconian measures of public health and what people might want to do, and obviously it's regrettable if people who turn out not to have the virus are quarantined unnecessarily."