It has been statistically proven that the first born child has a distinct advantage in mathematical abilities. This can also be seen in observation if you consider your own acquaintances. Now then, a recent university study made an interesting finding in their data. It appears that babies conceived in June, July and August have a 1 to 1.5% advantage in their mathematical abilities.

Their data seems to be pretty worthy and it is relevant, but the question is why, why is this the case? Why are babies born at a certain times, better at math then others born at different times? Now then, one would have to ask if it is a temperature issue? Or maybe the mothers are moving around less or more during pregnancy due to climate, if babies are conceived at a different time, during early child development this might have something to do with it?

If that is the case then there is the off-cycles places like AZ where winter is like summer or those who are snow birds and never truly realize a winter? What about Australia, is the scenario reversed? Or if it is something regarding being further or closer to the sun? Yes, well if we take this premise, we can divide out those who are first born with certain birth days and we can find those who are the best suited for a pool of applicants to choose from, when looking for the best mathematicians for our civilization?

Of course, perseverance always trumps all, it is the "Gatica" wild-card, and you can never underestimate it. I always vote for strength of character. Question is where do you find it, strength of character, perseverance and will? Now then, we find those hard core winners and individuals with those who are first born and have birthdays that fall in range with the conception of June, July or August.

So, where do we find those who have perseverance, will and strength of character? I'd say in competition, is where it comes out. Those who pursue and work hardest, do shine too? So what if you had the birth order (first born), conception time (birth date) and then competition (debate, chess, sports, music competitions) at early ages before 6 and in the teens between 15-19 years old, now some brains form late so could be well into the 25 years old. Also remember the sharpest minds are young minds, that is when they come up with the break- thrus right? All interesting, but if I was designing a system to find high IQ math ability, I'd factor all this in.

• Music +

• Birth Order +

• Date of Birth +

• Perseverance Test +

Let's start with a 1,000 person test group and test for a probability against the research? If so, then move on to implement such a strategy for the future of the nation. Eventually these people will filter to the top anyway, as we must realize that if you work 10% harder than everyone else you shine 50%, if you work 100% harder than everyone else, you just end far out in front of the pack. Of course, if we find these people early, in childhood years, we can indeed nurture them through coaching and extra emphasis on mathematics.

Whatever the case I believe that this is of interest to locating the best math minds and WE NEED THEM for so many things, everything from NanoTech and Cyber Warfare Defense to aeronautics, medicine, NASA and nuclear physics. Think about it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance Winslow's Bio

¶ 11:42 AM 0 comments

It was long before science became compartmentalized. Professions could freely intermingle and overlap. Wilhelm Olbers was a German physician who enjoyed exploring the night sky with his telescope. His work on comets and asteroids earned him a fairly respectable niche in astronomy, still he continued to be a physician. But something about the night sky kept bothering him. Almost towards the end of this career he brought it in the open. In 1826 he wrote a paper and asked the question Why is the sky dark at night?

Until then and even through the nineteenth century it was generally believed that the universe was infinite with infinite number of stars. Newton argued in its favor and explained why it should be so. Newtons eminence and stature notwithstanding Olbers was not convinced. He reasoned that if there were infinite number of stars, the sky would be covered with stars. No matter how far they were the cumulative effect of the star light would ultimately make the sky as bright as the sun. Yet the night sky is dark.

Olbers was the first to address the scientific community with this problem and this is known as Olbers paradox. It turns out though that a Swiss astronomer Cheseaux had made the same observation half a century ago and had mentioned it in his book. Apparently Olbers never read that book and came upon the idea on his own. He tried a couple of explanations but found them unsatisfactory. Finally he assumed that the light from the stars was absorbed by the interstellar gas and rested his case. Later though it turned out that this explanation would not fit either. The interstellar gas will be eventually heated to bright glow and the sky will be again as bright as the sun. So the paradox remained unresolved.

A century after Olbers had put his question Edwin Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe from the observation of redshifts. The answer to the question was: the sky is not dazzling bright because the universe is spending its energy in expanding. The radiation from the galaxies and stars is mostly dumped into the redshift. Whatever remains is so thinned out over the vast distance as to be negligible. The night sky thus remains dark.

Redshift is the term used for the shift of the frequency of light towards the red end of the spectrum due to the source moving away from the observer. This occurs due to a phenomenon known as Doppler Effect. The frequency emitted by a source increases if it is approaching and decreases if it is receding. For example the whistle from an approaching train becomes higher pitched if it is approaching and lower pitched if it is moving away. In the case of visible light the two ends of the spectrum are blue and red. For stars or galaxies approaching the earth the spectral lines will have a blueshift, for those receding they will have redshift. All distant galaxies show redshifts directly depending on their distance, which shows that the universe is expanding.

Dharmbir Rai Sharma is a retired professor with electrical engineering and physics background. He obtained his M.S. degree in physics in India and Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Cornell University. He has taught in universities here and also in Brazil, where he spent sometime. He maintains a website http://www.cosmosebooks.com devoted mainly to philosophy and science.

¶ 5:19 AM 0 comments