Do you like to keep things simple?

The superposition principle states that, for a linear system the superposition of stimuli yields a superposition of responses.

where x is some sort of stimulus, r is some sort of response and F(x)=r is the linear relationship.

In other words, in a linear system,

The net response at a given place and time caused by two or more independent stimuli is the sum of the responses which would have been caused by each stimulus individually.

32 suns orbiting the Earth?

Somehow ... yes! Let's try to demonstrate it ...

Do you remember those summer holidays, many years ago, when you took these two pictures, at sunset? I'm sure you do .... But: do you remember which of the two days was the windy day?

To answer to this question you just have to carefully look at the pictures. Did you find it out? Yes! You're right! The second day was windier!

For those who are not old salts: just look at the width of the sun glint. It is larger in the right hand picture (the one of the second day): this means that the sea surface was rougher and this in turn means that there was a higher wind speed blowing over the surface!

(Image: The Earth seen from Apollo 17).

What is an organism? Some sort of organized community of entities giving rise to what scientists call “emergent” behavior, behavior which is complex and unexpected given the relative simplicity of its parts.

A human being is an organism: a community of cells, a huge set of simpler organisms. The community “agrees” to work together for the greater common benefit. Indeed, when a revolt takes place it’d better be put down fast, or all chaos will ensue and the organism will die.

Giulio Ruffini is the coordinator of Peach as well as  the director of Starlab, a company transforming science into technologies with a profound and positive impact on society. He is also the project coordinator of Peach, a coordination action of the European Commission supporting Presence research.

Besides his work in PEACH community, he is currently involved in various Space and Neuroscience research projects, including the recently completed Sensation (advanced sensor development for attention, stress vigilance, and sleep/wakefulness monitoring) and HIVE (Hyper Interaction Viability Experiments).

 Interview carried out by Leo Ruffini of Starlab with Elem3ntal Creative Lab.