Epistemophilia: wave particle duality, poor Kodak and wtf is prosopagnosia

Listened to an Astronomy Cast on wave particle duality. The way stars keep expanding is due to photons crashing into each other. This is an example of the particle nature of light. So is the way we see, reflection and refraction. It explains why glasses work (so yay for duality as I am almost legally blind now.) Newton thought light was a particle, case closed.

For his near contemporary Huygens though, light was clearly a wave based on his observations of interference and diffraction patterns.

On Matt's Today in History, learned about poor George Eastman (as in Eastman Kodak.) He wanted to bring photography to the masses by making it portable and developing the film for his customers in the beginning. He developed some kind of degenerative bone disease and killed himself in the 30's rather than spend his life in a wheelchair. His suicide note said something like "I've already done everything so why not?"

New Yorker Out Loud interviewed Oliver Sacks. No wonder he's into rare neurological problems. He has face blindness (prosopagnosia.) He said he has learned to recognize people by the way they walk. Other famous sufferers include Penn Jillette and Jane Goodall. Sacks said she even had trouble identifying her chimps but I dunno if he was kidding. Agnosia is from the Ancient Greek for ignorance and prosop from the Ancient Greek for face.