Friday, July 20, 2007

English draughts, Harry Potter and the Fellowship of Scientists

Well before we get on to Harry Potter, one word about an article that caught my attention recently: Computer program is unbeatable at English draughts, the prestigious science journal Nature is reporting. The article explains also that Chess and the game of Go have a lot more possible combinations so it isn't yet possible to completely resolve them.

That's one more reason we should continue to enjoy our little Java Chess program from activity 11...

And now, let's move on to the topic of the day. I wish Sarah and all Harry Potter's fans good luck in their quest for the latest volume Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. One more hour to go here in Canada eastern time. If only we could find the magical receipe to make books about popular science as appealling. What can we learn from Harry Potter that we could apply to science books? Alchemy and science have long been sisters, see the evidence with this article on Newton the alchemist. Maybe we just have to say the truth about science to make it fun. That is, we need to reveal all the wizardy behind the fragile mathematical interpretations. Science is made by all these wizards in their lab, learning how to master the many steps in mysterious and unexplained experiments. We prefer to call them Nobel laureates, doctors, scientists or engineers. But they know better. They are true wizards in their domain... Just like Harry.

Maybe we should invite Harry to join the summer camp in the book 'Fun Science With Your Computer' and rename its title to 'Harry Potter and the Fellowship of Scientists'... Note I am half serious, half joking. Truth is, I really am impatient to read the latest Harry Potter too!

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