Search

[German Version] At the close of the 19th century, the majority of physicists believed that the classical paradigm inaugurated by I. Newton would soon resolve the few remaining puzzles of physics, including blackbody radiation, the photoelectric effect, and the discrete spectral emissions of atoms (Atomism). In 1900 M. Planck solved the blackbody puzzle but only by introducing the curious notion that energy comes in discrete units called “quanta,” rather than in ¶ continuously varying amounts, as physicists had commonly supposed. In 1905 A. Einstein explained the ph…

[German Version] What is contingent could have been otherwise; what is necessary could not have been otherwise. These simple definitions are the starting point for discussions about the religious significance of chance, but their appropriate application is still a matter of vigorous debate. In fact both terms often have quite different meanings in different contexts. In logic, necessary propositions are propositions that cannot be false, while contingent propositions are possible (i.e. they are not self-contradictory) but not necessary…

[German Version] Like Newtonian mechanics (I. Newton), quantum theory aims to describe the state and evolution of physical systems (Physics), however simple or complex. Unlike Newtonian mechanics though, the standard account of quantum theory – commonly referred to as the “Copenhagen interpretation” after Niels Bohr, its Danish originator – insists that physical objects, from subatomic particles such as electrons to macroscopic objects such as E. Schrödinger’s famous cat, can exist not only in classical states such as will-appear-at-A or will-appear-at-B, but also in curio…

[German Version] I. Biology – II. Physics I. Biology 1. Randomness The pre-Darwinian view of the biological world had no place for concepts such as randomness and chance. Living creatures were considered to have been purposefully created by the Creator (Creation). Even the physical world as strictly presented by I. Newton was deterministic and hence ultimately predictable (Determinism and indeterminism). Randomness as such, however, is more a mathematical concept than a physical one. In the age of cybernetics, a different approach to randomnes…