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Cognita: The Known and the Unknown

A parable to illustrate the limits and progress of science and human knowledge.

There is a community of intelligent beings who live in a place they call Cognita.  It's made up of two islands: Prima and Segunda.  Collectively, they call themselves the Cognitians.  Their world is composed of a variety of natural environments, full of life in a multitude of forms.  All the life on the two islands (and the waters surrounding them) evolved from a single common ancestor.  The Cognitians themselves descended from a single ancestor (the Proto-Cognitian) who was herself born of an earlier species of beings (the Pre-Proto-Cognitians or Precognitians).  All Cognitians were born on either Prima or Segunda and none has ever ventured beyond them. 

Immortality: the Cold, Hard, Scientific Way

This article is accompanied by the complete interview with Dr. Alejandro Jenkins.

Quantum physics is probably the most bizarre part of our description of the universe that is collectively known as "the standard model."  The field is concerned with the physics of the incredibly small, like atoms and the subatomic particles of which they are composed. 

Out with the Old and In with the Hubris

 A look back at 2012 and a look forward at 2013.
 

Do We Live in a Two-Dimensional Universe? An Interview with Physicist Craig Hogan

Is Space Digital? asks the cover story of this past February's Scientific American (by Michael Moyer).  The subject of that article, the Fermilab's Holometer experiment (officially called Experiment E990), is a remarkable project.  It is designed not to study some exotic particle or the properties of matter or energy, but to examine the fabric of space itself.

Interview: Testing Bombs, Splitting Worlds and Saving Israel with Professor Lev Vaidman

Lev Vaidman is not a household name, but perhaps it should be.  The Russian-born physicist at Tel Aviv University has demonstrated that teleportation (of photons, if not Star Fleet officers) is possible.  His work has led to evidence of parallel universes.  It has suggested that in the quantum world, time moves both backwards and forwards.  And now, He might just guarantee the survival of Israel--in at least one parallel world.


The Joe Hubris Show: Brazen, an Interview with Morgan Page

Morgan Page is a multi-disciplinary artist and social worker based in Toronto.  She is the author of Brazen: the transwomen guide to safer sex.  While it's primarily aimed at trans sex workers, it's full of useful information for anyone in the trans community or their partners.

Joe Hubris talked to her at the 2012 Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.

Click here for the interview.

The Joe Hubris Show: Stand to Urimate

Click here to view the first ever Joe Hubris Show: Stand to Urimate

WARNING:  This video contains images of realistic prosthetic penises.

Stand to Urimate, L.L.C. provides a variety of products primarily for transmen.  Joe Hubris spoke to them at the 2012 Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.

Darwin's 200th Birthday--Updated

UPDATE October 14, 2009: In honor of his 200th birthday, a "missing link" of flying dinosaurs, which filled in a gap, millions of years long, between the earliest, primitive pterosaurs and those that followed has been named after him.  The gap was known in Darwin's time and the features of Darwinopterus reveal much about how these creatures evolved.

Interview with Alejandro Jenkins of Florida State

Dr. Alejandro Jenkins is a post-doctorate researcher studying high-energy physics at Florida State University.  His work was featured on the cover of the January 2010 Scientific American.  He participated in this interview as part of the accompanying article on quantum immortality.  He is currently working on the application of quantum field theory to the physics of elementary particles, atomic nuclei and cosmology.

Quantum mechanics includes some of the most difficult concepts for laypeople (this one included) to understand.  Why do you think that is?