People are expected to rely on supernatural belief, especially in questions of fundamental concern. So far, there is little knowledge on the possible supernatural beliefs of individuals who hold science in high regard. We investigated whether science-oriented Finns also apply supernatural explanations for origins, death and suffering, when the term ‘supernatural’ refers to conceptions that mix ontological core knowledge. Moreover, we examined how supernatural explanations are integrated with scientific accounts. The open-ended responses of 387 Finns were analysed. Participants integrated supernatural belief with science in two ways: by describing scientific processes as the proximate cause and supernatural agency as the ultimate cause, or by referring to a perceived similarity between supernatural and scientific accounts (belief in immortality of the soul based on the law of conservation of energy). The results extend upon prior work by depicting the coexistence of natural and supernatural explanations in a more secular context.
We have tested how queueing theory can be applied to improve energy efficiency of scientific computing clusters. Our method calculates the number of required servers based on the arrival rate of computing jobs and turns on and off computing nodes based on this estimate. Our tests indicated that this method decreases energy consumption. However simultaneously the average lead time tends to increase because of higher waiting times in cases when the arrival intensity goes up.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.