Issue 32 - May/July 2021

New Philosopher

For curious people

New Philosopher1 min read
Energy
Our relationship with energy began with fire. In the mythology of the Wurundjeri people, the Crow stole the secret of fire from the Karatgurk women. The Vainakh people gave the credit to the hero Pkharmat, while in Ojibwa myth, the hare stole fire an
New Philosopher1 min read
New Philosopher
Zan Boag Antonia Case Carlos Egan, Aida Novoa Genís Carreras Nigel Warburton Jim Al-Khalili, Marina Benjamin, Antonia Case, Tom Chatfield, Myisha Cherry, André Dao, Tim Dean, Caspar Henderson, Timothy Olds, DBC Pierre, Richard Rhodes, Patrick Stokes,
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Online At
newphilosopher.com is an online portal for exploring philosophical ideas on ways to live a more fulfilling life. Read the articles, join in discussions, and watch free online documentaries. When it comes to measuring the vastness of outer space, yo
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New Philosopher Writers’ Award
Entries are open for the New Philosopher Prize for Philosophical Writing. Enter now to win $1,000 and have your work featured in the magazine. Open to NP subscribers, award XXXII entries close 10 September 2021 Up to 1,500 words of fiction or non-
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To receive your copy of the beautifully-designed, perfect-bound 132-page print version delivered directly to your door, subscribe now at: www.newphilosopher.com/subscribe ■
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Contributors
DBC Pierre won the Booker Prize for his debut novel Vernon God Little, which was also awarded the Whitbread First Novel Award in 2003 – the first time the two awards had been granted to the same book. Pierre is also the author of Ludmilla’s Broken En
New Philosopher2 min read
Power Is Power
1882 was a big year for Thomas Edison. On January 12, he opened the world’s first coal-fired power station generating electricity for public use. The station burnt coal that powered 968 16-candle incandescent streetlamps, lighting the way from Holbor
New Philosopher2 min read
Life Force
Vitalism – the idea of a ‘life force’ that separates living from non-living matter – is an ancient and persistent belief. Chinese philosophers called it qi; millions of people still do today. Louis Pasteur, who made seismic advances in microbiology,
New Philosopher2 min read
I Contain Multitudes
In his second song since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, Bob Dylan lists a catalogue of influences, including Edgar Allen Poe, William Blake, Beethoven, and Chopin. The title of the song is taken from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, in which t
New Philosopher2 min readChemistry
Burning The Front Fence
“Someday, some fellow will invent a way of concentrating and storing up sunshine to use instead of this old, absurd Prometheus scheme of fire. I’ll do the trick myself if someone doesn’t get at it. Why, that is all there is about my work in electrici
New Philosopher2 min read
Energy Density
Imagine running a car on wood instead of petrol, diesel, or electricity. In fact, ‘wood gas’ can run an internal combustion engine fairly well, with lower emissions than petrol. In 1944, at a time when fossil fuels were heavily rationed, 12% of Frenc
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Stimulating Qi
Moxibustion is the practice of burning a plant, moxa, on the skin at specific points on the body. Moxa is also known as mugwort herb. It is a member of the Artemisia plant family used for medical purposes across different cultures. In traditional Chi
New Philosopher1 min read
A Clown's Energy
With less than 5% of the world’s population, the US consumes almost 17% of the world’s energy. Each day, US per capita energy consumption includes 2.6 gallons of oil, 9.7 pounds of coal, and 255 cubic feet of natural gas. The United States gets 81% o
New Philosopher5 min read
Perpetual Motion
If I ask you to visualise ‘eccentric Victorian-era inventor’, there’s a good chance whatever you imagine will look pretty close to John Ernst Worrell Keely. Splendid mutton-chop sideburns and moustache, three-piece suits, steampunk machines with name
New Philosopher5 min read
Limited Energy
In March this year, weeks before expecting my first baby, my husband and I moved to a larger apartment in Brooklyn. With no time to stock up, we arrived at our new home with the bare minimum: two plates; a handful of mismatched cutlery; a small bag o
New Philosopher1 min read
Energy
In 2019, around 11% of global primary energy came from renewable technologies. The first four common domestic items to be powered by electricity were the sewing machine, fan, kettle, and toaster. The rate of living theory: in 1908, Max Rubner obser
New Philosopher4 min read
It Began With Fire
The south of England doesn’t get particularly cold in winter, but temperatures do sometimes lurk below freezing for a few days. At those times, an intermittent roaring and rumbling sounds through my house: our gas boiler and central heating pump labo
New Philosopher4 min read
Sleep No More!
Perhaps it was the shock of being returned to a state we thought we’d escaped forever, or just that no amount of experience can truly prepare you for the next bout of sleeplessness. Either way, we took our second child’s 18-month sleep regression har
New Philosopher6 min read
The Power To Endure
We should talk about this ‘life force’. Because under the sawtooth graph of rises and falls in our actions and effects on the universe, and under the shifting template scoring those actions as good, bad or indifferent – other, bigger things seem to g
New Philosopher6 min readChemistry
We’re Not Ready For Utopia
There were many visions of utopia on display at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.The official theme of the fair was Peace Through Understanding but it might as well have been called Peak Capitalism. The 50 million-odd attendees were shown a better worl
New Philosopher2 min read
Energy
“The entire cosmos is made out of one and the same world-stuff, operated by the same energy as we ourselves.” — Julian Huxley “Technology innovation in clean energy is at the core of the solutions to climate change.” — Ernest Moniz “The impetuosity
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Pooling Resources
When I first got together with my husband, we were gifted a joint astrological chart by a mystically-inclined friend who’d studied deeply in the field of astrology. A beautiful thing to behold, it was circular, artful, and symbol-laden, with constell
New Philosopher1 min readChemistry
Energy /ˈɛnədʒi/
1. The strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity; 2. A person’s physical and mental powers; 3. Power derived from the utilisation of physical or chemical resources, especially to provide light and heat or to work ma
New Philosopher10 min read
An Eternal Delight
Caspar Henderson is an author and journalist who has written about energy and climate change for many years. He received the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors in 2009 and the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award in 2010. He is the a
New Philosopher1 min read
Energy Use Per Person
Note: Energy refers to primary energy – the energy input before the transformation to forms of energy for end-use (such as electricity or petrol for transport). Figures are for 2019. Source: Our World in Data ■
New Philosopher4 min read
The Power Of Words
Energy efficiency is key to our survival. To ensure that it occurs, our brains are constantly predicting – making sure our body gets the resources it needs (salt, glucose, water, blood, etc.) well ahead of time. It does it through a process known as
New Philosopher8 min read
Human Energy
Modern science says: The Sun is the past, the Earth is the present, the moon is the future. From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn
New Philosopher4 min read
Should We Leave The Lights On?
I’m the one in our house who turns off the lights. It bothers me that they’re on when no one is in the room, and that the heating is turned up when no one is in the house. Each time I see the light left on in the bathroom I turn it off. (I’m also the
New Philosopher12 min read
Infinite Energy
Jim Al-Khalili OBE FRS is an academic, author, and broadcaster. Since 2005, he has held a joint chair in physics and in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey, where he teaches and conducts research in theoretical physics. He re
New Philosopher3 min read
Energy
With the exception of the polar regions, solar energy is available everywhere; it does not need transportation facilities and cannot be cut off by sudden emergencies created by man. Solar energy cannot produce soot, fire hazards, and mining accidents
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Does The Inertia Of A Body Depend Upon Its Energy-content?
The results of the previous investigation lead to a very interesting conclusion, which is here to be deduced. I based that investigation on the Maxwell-Hertz equations for empty space, together with the Maxwellian expression for the electromagnetic e
New Philosopher12 min read
Energy And Longevity
Richard Rhodes is the author of twenty-six books including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which won a Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award; Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, which was s
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Deeds And Weeds
They that have power to hurt, and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow: They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces, And husband nature’s riches from
New Philosopher6 min read
The Interplay Between Nature And Ourselves
The room is pitch black. Carefully, the test person gropes for the button in front of her. A single flash appears for a split second. Almost too faint to be visible, the flicker could nearly be a product of imagination. Or was it? The experimental se
New Philosopher6 min read
Smells Like Dispirit
“I wish I had lost my sense of smell,” I thought while swabbing the back of my nasal cavity. I continued to carefully follow the step-by-step instructions that I had been given: Snap off the end of the elongated cotton swab into the small vial. Cl
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Writer's Award
AWARD XXXI: SPACE. CLOSES 10 JUNE 2021 AWARD XXXII: ENERGY. CLOSES 10 SEPTEMBER 2021 WORD LENGTH UP TO 1,500 WORDS, THE WINNER RECEIVES $1,000 AND THE TOP TWO WILL HAVE THEIR WORK PUBLISHED IN THE NEXT EDITION OF NEW PHILOSOPHER. Email your piece
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Our Library
Despite many differences in agronomic practices and in cultivated crops, all traditional agricultures shared the same energetic foundation. They were powered by the photosynthetic conversion of solar radiation, producing food for people, feed for ani
New Philosopher1 min readInternational Relations
Documentaries
The great 19th-century Austrian physicist, Ludwig Boltzmann, was one of the most important proponents of the idea that all matter is made of atoms. Today no one doubts this is true but in Boltzmann’s day it was a controversial idea and many of his co
New Philosopher2 min readMathematics
Around The Web
Exactly which colours an object absorbs depends on all the complex molecules that make up its surface – in particular on the electrons and atomic bonds within those molecules. To understand that, you need to know what colour really is. Light is a wav
New Philosopher1 min readInternet & Web
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Extraordinary quality in all respects. New Philosopher is one of the best things happening. I love how the writing reminds me that the types of issues we are grappling with today are similar to those grappled with by philosophers for centuries. I lov
New Philosopher4 min readDiet & Nutrition
The Energy-mass Conversion Business
In May 1979, the American Jon Brower Minnoch achieved one of the greatest conversions of mass into energy in human history – he lost 419 kilograms over 14 months, reducing from 635 kg (the highest weight ever recorded for a human) to 216 kg. His wife
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Katherine Scholes
What is your demon? Indecision, often driven by fear of regret. Which ‘thinker’ has had the greatest influence on your life? Bede Griffiths introduced me to the idea of the underlying unity of all religions. I’m not concerned with religion these d

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