February 21, 2007

THE IMPROBABLE FLIGHT OF THE LORENZ BUTTERFLY (aka OUT OF THIN AIR) -- by Steve Nadis

Ron Hassner of UC-Berkeley has written a funny article in the current issue of the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) called "The Travels of the Lorenz Butterfly." Starting with the 1972 paper by Edward Lorenz, "Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas" (a landmark in chaos theory), Hassner tracked the flight of this butterfly in the published literature where it turns up in Peking, Paris, Switzerland, and other locales. Charting the movement of the butterfly over the years in graphic form, Hassner reproduces a prime example of chaotic behavior known as the "Lorenz attractor."

When I suggested writing about this to an editor, she said: "It does sound amusing but it doesn't sound like real research, which is what we need.” I say to her: How can research get more "real" than this?

Posted by Snake at 08:04:07 | Permanent Link | Comments (3) |
Comments
1 - It's a good thing I don't work in the academic world because it certainly seems like "real" research to me. Why don't you recast your proposal as a study of worldwide butterfly migration patterns and how they relate to chaos theory? Is that "research-y" enough? (Comment this)

Written by: Oldroses at 2007/02/21 - 19:37:19
2 - thanks Roses, though perhaps I misrepresented things a bit... On the one hand it's real, on the other hand, it's ___... (Comment this)

Written by: Snake at 2007/02/21 - 20:27:17
3 - I'm with you... this almost falls into a field of study that I like to call, The Guttersnake No-Duh Theory. Saying that the flight of a butterfly is chaotic would definately meet some criteria.

Scientists might do well not to confuse philosphical moments with actual research... some theory just stays theory. (Comment this)

Written by: guttersnake at 2007/02/22 - 16:37:48
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