Saturday, November 19, 2011

The DNA Delusion

Last Christmas a friend of mine bought me Richard Dawkins' book "The Greatest Show on Earth". I was staggered to find out how narrow minded this man is. I have not read his book "The God Delusion" nor will I waste my money on it. He articulates a well-reasoned treatise on how a living form could arise from the primordial soup and then with a sudden leap of faith says that consciousness is simply the result of the complexity of the molecules - I have to say that this viewpoint reflects an act of faith rather than reason. Descartes pursues the argument the other way around, saying that the rules of the universe are simple and elegant, therefore there must be a God. I have to say both viewpoints are interesting but not totally convincing.

How many zeroes at the end of 100!

I thought this was a fun question from one of the (Junior) Maths Challenge papers. It's a good way to reflect on prime factorisation.