Complex Numbers

Worst Year Ever

So, you thought 2018 was bad...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive

Not much to say here, really, except that interdisciplinary science is cool.

"We've entered a new era with this ability to integrate ultra–high-resolution environmental records with similarly high resolution historical records," Loveluck says. "It's a real game changer."

Whenever you see someone on TV with a PhD, the implication is "wow, this person is really smart and knows a lot about their field." In reality, though, PhDs tend to focus in on minute details of one aspect of one branch of study. Perhaps it's just because I prefer to know a little bit about a lot of things than a lot about a single thing, but I find this sort of syncretic science fascinating.

Both approaches are necessary, of course. But you don't often get archaeologists, climate scientists, historians, and practitioners of other disciplines working together. When you do, things get interesting because you have multiple insights into the same era, painting a better picture of what really happened.

In any event, while the past sure is interesting, I'm not one of those people who romanticizes it. I'd rather be in my own era. Or possibly in the future. Still sore about not having a flying car. So this article puts things in perspective for me: 2018 was not, after all, the Worst Year Ever.