Folks,
Dawn Stover asked for methods to explain positive feedback (for
issues such as climate change) to a general audience. For many years
I have used the most common "feedback" that general audiences
are aware of - from live audio systems. Music is ubiquitous and part of
everyday experience for our students and much of the public, and
as a concert audio engineer I am well aware how essentially everyone
has experienced "feedback". So I have a whole portion of my
general audience talks on mathematics related to biology - a
typical title is "Drugs, Sex and Rock n' Roll: Biology and Mathematics
in Everyday Experience" - devoted to first demonstrating audio
feedback (it's a simple preparation to do this in any venue I've ever
talked in - just hold your mic near a speaker), and then explaining
verbally, symbolically and graphically why it arises.
I encourage those interested in providing an intuitive explanation
for positive feedback in climate systems to use audio examples and
let me know how it has worked for you. There are hosts of other examples
of positive feedback in biological systems (onset of contractions
in childbirth, blood clotting, lactation, action potential in nerves,
evolutionary arms races) and of course homeostatic mechanisms are
examples of negative feedback. All this goes back to Norbert Weiner's
classic work in cybernetics.
Cheers,
Lou
--
Louis J. Gross
James R. Cox and Alvin and Sally Beaman Distinguished
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
and Mathematics
Director, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological
Synthesis (NIMBioS.org)
Director, The Institute for Environmental Modeling
University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Past-President, UTK Faculty Senate
Past-President, Society for Mathematical Biology (www.smb.org)
[email protected]
http://www.tiem.utk.edu/~gross/
http://NIMBioS.org/
