Monday Links: Defining Time, Neurology's Limitations, SpaceShipTwo Launches, and Northern Ireland's New Schism

Chad Orzel at Uncertain Principles did not have time to enter this year’s Flame Challenge—a competition in which science writers and communicators explain a part of scientific knowledge in 300 or fewer words, and in a manner understandable to an 11-year-old. This year’s subject, very appropriately, is time, and although he didn’t have enough to enter the competition, Chad blogs about time anyway.

On Science Based Medicine, Harriet Hall reviews a new book by neurologist Robert Burton. The subject at hand is the difficulty in drawing conclusions about the mind through the study of neurology. The review offers only a glimpse of Mr. Burton’s arguments, but they do provide some food for thought.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo launched successfully on April 29^th. The Economist has the story.

Also from The Economist: Northern Ireland’s conservative Catholics and Protestants have forged an alliance in defiance of growing acceptance of homosexuality, women’s rights, and other non-traditional matters. This conflict between more progressive and more reactionary ideals apparently resembles the American culture wars, according to The Economist.