Nico de Vries . COM

HOME BLOG Family Hobbies Interests Fun Professional (private)

Nico de Vries . COM

Saturday, May 10th 2008

Interests

Too many to mention
I am interested in technology and I am interested in people. I have been fortunate enough to have my work (managing people in ICT environments) reflect my interests. Besides my work, space travel and orthomolecular medicine, I am also interested in psycology (a good friend of mine has a practice with coaching and support lenneke.derks.org), neuroscience, religions, philosophy, nanotechnology, genetics and news.

Interests - Theory of Everything

"An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything"
Many scientist have been trying to unify quantum field theory and general relativity. So far the superstring theory seems to be the most popular attempt to achieve this. In november 2007 Garret Lisi published a new "Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" based on Lie groups (pure geometry) which looks very promising. For example unlike superstring theory it only needs 4 dimensions and unlike superstring theory (so far) it can probably be used to make verifyable predictions. This will perhaps allow actual verification of this theory in the future. E.g. mathematical physicist Peter Woit has used lack of testable predictions to argue against superstring theory.

Links related to this:
Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything
An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything by Garret Lisi
Lie groups, E6, E7, E8
Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory And the Search for Unity in Physical Law
Reaction to the article by Sabine Hossenfelder
Wiki from Garret Lisi
Homepage from Garret Lisi
Peter Woit's response to Garret Lisi's article
Negative response by Luboš Motl
Slashdot comment explaining the E8 thing

Interests - Space Travel

Science fiction
Science fiction like Star Trek, Farscape and Star Wars is probably the most exiting way of traveling through space:

Faster than a speeding Photon
Thought it might be a long while before we will actually travel faster than light, Chris Van Den Broeck (physicist over at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium) has developed a method to travel faster than light which might someday be used to travel across the galaxy. His article General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology is hard to read but explains exactly how it works. For more readable articles on this subject you might want to try Faster than light or Is Faster Than Light Travel or Communication Possible?. The Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics has an even more unconventional way of traveling through space. Read all about it in If you thought warp drive was weird, try jolt propulsion. All of this requires huge amounts of energy, a machine called Z might become the source.

Man on the moon
Though a while ago, our trip to the moon is still our most impressive achievement:

International Space Station
The International Space Station, which might someday be used as base for human exploration of Mars:

Interests - Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular Medicine ???
Orthomolecular Medicine describes the practice of preventing and treating disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of substances which are natural to the body. Or more simple: please make very sure you eat enough vitamins and minerals.

It is very important to know that the "well-balanced diet" is a myth. The only way to get enough vitamins and minerals is to eat a well-balanced diet AND to eat supplements. A good example of this can be found in the Vitamin E Online Fact Book. Vitamin E is an antioxidant which (in combination with other vitamins and minerals) slows down the aging process and reduces the chance of cancer, coronary heart disease and an array of degenerative diseases.

Vitamin E:

In the (far) future companies like Geron might develop methods based on Telomerase which not only reduce aging effects (like Vitamin E does) but will stop it altogether. Don't expect this to happen anytime soon though. Companies like Geron also work on human pluripotent stem cell technology which can be used to clone organs.

Other interesting links: The New England Journal of Medicine, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and The International Journal of Cancer.

HOME BLOG Family Hobbies Interests Fun Professional Top

Copyright © 2008 Nico de Vries. All rights reserved. E-mail: Nico de Vries Stats:

OpenSesame ICT, experts in Open Source

Interests
		Too many to mention I am interested in technology and I am interested in people. I have been fortunate enough to have my work (managing people in ICT environments) reflect my interests. Besides my work, space travel and orthomolecular medicine, I am also interested in psycology (a good friend of mine has a practice with coaching and support lenneke.derks.org), neuroscience, religions, philosophy, nanotechnology, genetics and news.

Interests - Theory of Everything
		"An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" Many scientist have been trying to unify quantum field theory and general relativity. So far the superstring theory seems to be the most popular attempt to achieve this. In november 2007 Garret Lisi published a new "Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" based on Lie groups (pure geometry) which looks very promising. For example unlike superstring theory it only needs 4 dimensions and unlike superstring theory (so far) it can probably be used to make verifyable predictions. This will perhaps allow actual verification of this theory in the future. E.g. mathematical physicist Peter Woit has used lack of testable predictions to argue against superstring theory. Links related to this: Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything by Garret Lisi Lie groups, E6, E7, E8 Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory And the Search for Unity in Physical Law Reaction to the article by Sabine Hossenfelder Wiki from Garret Lisi Homepage from Garret Lisi Peter Woit's response to Garret Lisi's article Negative response by Luboš Motl Slashdot comment explaining the E8 thing

Interests - Space Travel
		Science fiction Science fiction like Star Trek, Farscape and Star Wars is probably the most exiting way of traveling through space: Faster than a speeding Photon Thought it might be a long while before we will actually travel faster than light, Chris Van Den Broeck (physicist over at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium) has developed a method to travel faster than light which might someday be used to travel across the galaxy. His article General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology is hard to read but explains exactly how it works. For more readable articles on this subject you might want to try Faster than light or Is Faster Than Light Travel or Communication Possible?. The Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics has an even more unconventional way of traveling through space. Read all about it in If you thought warp drive was weird, try jolt propulsion. All of this requires huge amounts of energy, a machine called Z might become the source. Man on the moon Though a while ago, our trip to the moon is still our most impressive achievement: International Space Station The International Space Station, which might someday be used as base for human exploration of Mars:

Interests - Orthomolecular Medicine
		Orthomolecular Medicine ??? Orthomolecular Medicine describes the practice of preventing and treating disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of substances which are natural to the body. Or more simple: please make very sure you eat enough vitamins and minerals. It is very important to know that the "well-balanced diet" is a myth. The only way to get enough vitamins and minerals is to eat a well-balanced diet AND to eat supplements. A good example of this can be found in the Vitamin E Online Fact Book. Vitamin E is an antioxidant which (in combination with other vitamins and minerals) slows down the aging process and reduces the chance of cancer, coronary heart disease and an array of degenerative diseases. Vitamin E: In the (far) future companies like Geron might develop methods based on Telomerase which not only reduce aging effects (like Vitamin E does) but will stop it altogether. Don't expect this to happen anytime soon though. Companies like Geron also work on human pluripotent stem cell technology which can be used to clone organs. Other interesting links: The New England Journal of Medicine, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and The International Journal of Cancer.