Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Go Back   Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community > Main Forums > The Off Topic Forum
Register Forum Rules FAQ Community Calendar Today's Posts Search

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 03-07-2016, 11:19 AM   #2621
photon
The new goggles also do nothing.
 
photon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by polak View Post
Do Dark Matter & Energy, Singularities and Gravity not fitting into current Quantum Physics theories not scream that we're completely out to lunch?
Does the orbit of Mercury not fitting into the model of Newtonian gravity not scream that we're completely out to lunch?

Of course not. It just meant that Newtonian gravity was incomplete, it still is valid for a large range of experiences.

Any new discoveries can't invalidate all current observations, it can only add to them. So any new theory has to explain the new phenomenon AND all the already explained things.

GR didn't make Newton wrong, GR simplifies down to Newtonian gravity as long as you aren't going too fast or space isn't too curved.

Should be required reading: http://chem.tufts.edu/answersinscien...ityofwrong.htm

Observations that aren't explained within an existing framework just means your existing framework isn't complete.

Dark matter and dark energy are names for observations of phenomenon with candidates to explain the mechanism behind the phenomenon. Something may come up that finally explains the phenomenon that is quite different than what we'd expected (by calling it dark matter or dark energy), but that doesn't invalidate all the observations that led to the creation of the placeholder terms in the first place and the new theory will have to explain all the observations.
__________________
Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
photon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2016, 11:34 AM   #2622
Bring_Back_Shantz
Franchise Player
 
Bring_Back_Shantz's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: In my office, at the Ministry of Awesome!
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by polak View Post
Do Dark Matter & Energy, Singularities and Gravity not fitting into current Quantum Physics theories not scream that we're completely out to lunch?

From my vary amatuer reading, it seems like we have a good idea about how things might work but not knowing what 5/6ths of the universe is made of? "Infinitely" dense and small points of matter? Being completely out to lunch wouldn't surprise me at all. Seems like we've picked the low hanging fruit but have no idea that there is a tree that it's attached too.

The way you are using quantum mechanics leads me to believe you really don't understand what it is about.

Dark matter & Energy fit perfectly well into general relativity which is the area that that actually has to do with those things, in fact the reason we think they exist is because if they didn't that would me GR is way off. It's possible that GR IS way off, and that dark matter & energy don't actually exist, but so far every prediction of GR has been correct, so it looks pretty solid at this point. Sure it may be wrong, and if it is then physicists have some work to do, but again I wouldn't bet on it.

Right now the biggest open question in physics is how to combine GR and quantum theory, they work great in the areas they are meant for, but they don't play well together. Combining them is where some of the really cutting edge stuff comes in, but in the end those are way more likely to be breakthroughs that work to confirm the current framework, rather than blow them right apart.

Like I said, it's possible we are wrong, that's an admission that is key to the scientific method, but to bring this back to the original post that started this discussion, the JWT isn't the tool that is likely to lead to a paradigm shifting discovery. They types of things that will do that are going to be things like the LHC, not an infrared space telescope.

If you're really interested in learning more about these things I would highly recommend two youtube series:
1) Crash Course Astronomy
2) PBS Space Time (specifically the two episodes "Why the Big Bang Definitely Happened" and "What's Wrong With the Big Bang". The whole "Relativity" playlist is really great too.

Both are great and do a fantastic job of working through some of these concepts in bite sized chunks.
__________________
THE SHANTZ WILL RISE AGAIN.
<-----Check the Badge bitches. You want some Awesome, you come to me!
Bring_Back_Shantz is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Bring_Back_Shantz For This Useful Post:
Old 03-09-2016, 11:57 AM   #2623
polak
In the Sin Bin
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Exp:
Default

I'm definitely going to check those out. Love me some science TV.

In other news:

COSMOLOGIST THINKS A STRANGE SIGNAL MAY BE EVIDENCE OF A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
http://www.universetoday.com/123322/...llel-universe/
polak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2016, 03:43 AM   #2624
Thor
God of Hating Twitter
 
Thor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Exp:
Default

Also a must series is with Brian Greene in the PBS Elegant Universe series 3 parter:

The Elegant Universe Part 1 - Einstein's Dream


The Elegant Universe Part 2 - String's the Thing


The Elegant Universe Part 3 - Welcome to the 11th Dimension


The weirdness of near absolute zero and its relevance to some of the ideas of string theory.

PBS NOVA - Absolute Zero: The Race For Absolute Zero


Also while we're at it, Brian Green rules so Discovery's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" is a must watch as well.

__________________
Allskonar fyrir Aumingja!!
Thor is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to Thor For This Useful Post:
Old 03-10-2016, 05:10 PM   #2625
photon
The new goggles also do nothing.
 
photon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

Did LIGO detect dark matter?

http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/...t-dark-matter/

Quote:
Recently, of course, black holes were in the news, when LIGO detected gravitational waves from the inspiral of two black holes of approximately 30 solar masses each. This raises an interesting question, at least if you’re clever enough to put the pieces together: could the dark matter be made of primordial black holes of around 30 solar masses, and could two of them have come together to produce the LIGO signal? (So the question is not, “Are the black holes made of dark matter?”, it’s “Is the dark matter made of black holes?”)
__________________
Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
photon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2016, 09:06 AM   #2626
troutman
Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer
 
troutman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Crowsnest Pass
Exp:
Default

Are Black Holes Real?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/ph...ck-holes-real/

While black holes have gone mainstream, a handful of researchers are investigating exotic ultra-compact stars that, they argue, would look exactly like black holes from afar. Well, almost exactly. Though their ideas have been around for many years, researchers are now putting them to the most stringent tests ever, looking to show once and for all that what looks and quacks like a black hole really is a black hole. And if not? Well, it could just spark the next revolution in physics.

Now, the EHT is about to add a superstar player: the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, a telescope made up of 66 high-precision dishes sited 16,000 feet above sea level in Chile’s clear, dry Atacama desert. With ALMA on board, the EHT will finally be able to make the leap from fitting models to seeing a complete picture of the black hole’s shadow. EHT astronomers are now rounding up time at all of the telescopes so that they can take new data and assemble that first coveted image in 2017.

And if they don’t see what they expect? It could mean that the black hole isn’t really a black hole at all.

That would come as a relief to many theorists. Black holes are mothers of cosmic paradox, keeping physicists up at night with the puzzles they present: Do black holes really destroy information? Do they really contain infinitely dense points called singularities? Black holes are also the battlefield on which general relativity and quantum mechanics clash most dramatically. If it turns out that they don’t actually exist, some physicists might sleep a little better.

But if they’re not black holes, then what could they be?

Most physicists have placed their bets on Saggitarius A* and other candidates being black holes, though. Boson stars and gravastars already have a few strikes against them.

Last edited by troutman; 03-11-2016 at 09:09 AM.
troutman is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to troutman For This Useful Post:
Old 03-18-2016, 10:30 AM   #2627
Harry Lime
Franchise Player
 
Harry Lime's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Exp:
Default

Kind of cool and might be interesting to anyone who enjoys Egyptology. They may have found the tomb of Nefertiti, which has been an ongoing mystery for an extremely long time.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-material.html

Quote:
British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves speculates that Tutankhamun, who died at the age of 19, may have been rushed into an outer chamber of what was originally Nefertiti’s tomb, which archeologists have yet to find.
__________________
"By Grabthar's hammer ... what a savings."
Harry Lime is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to Harry Lime For This Useful Post:
Old 03-22-2016, 09:36 PM   #2628
KevanGuy
Franchise Player
 
KevanGuy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Estonia
Exp:
Default

NASA CATCHES THE FLASH OF AN EXPLODING STAR FOR THE FIRST TIME

Spotting the initial flash of an exploding supernova is extremely rare, to the point that NASA has only just managed to do it for the first time.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/03/2...the-first-time
KevanGuy is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to KevanGuy For This Useful Post:
Old 03-23-2016, 09:45 AM   #2629
polak
In the Sin Bin
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Exp:
Default

NASA link for those that have that one blocked

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/Kep...xploding-star/

Cool!
polak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-23-2016, 11:25 AM   #2630
troutman
Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer
 
troutman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Crowsnest Pass
Exp:
Default

The Virus That Could Cure Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and More

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/bo...zheimers-cure/

NeuroPhage’s rise is an extraordinary example of scientific entrepreneurship. While I am rooting for Solomon, Hillerstrom, and their colleagues, and would be happy to volunteer for one of their trials (I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2011), there are still many reasons why NeuroPhage has a challenging road ahead. Biotech is a brutally risky business. At the end of the day, NPT088 may prove unsafe. And it may still not be potent enough. Even if NPT088 significantly reduces amyloid beta, tau, and alpha-synuclein, it’s possible that this may not lead to measurable clinical benefits in human patients, as it has done in animal models.

But if it works, then, according to Solomon, this medicine will indeed change the world: “A single compound that effectively treats Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s could be a twenty billion-dollar-a-year blockbuster drug.” And in the future, a modified version might also work for Huntington’s, ALS, prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and more.

Last edited by troutman; 03-23-2016 at 11:27 AM.
troutman is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to troutman For This Useful Post:
Old 03-23-2016, 11:43 AM   #2631
Regulator75
Franchise Player
 
Regulator75's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Behind Nikkor Glass
Exp:
Default

http://inhabitat.com/conservationist...e-in-40-years/

Quote:
Conservationists have spotted a Sumatran rhino in Indonesian Borneo for the first time in 40 years. Until now, humans have only glimpsed signs of the critically endangered species through camera traps or footprints. With only around 100 remaining, it was particularly exciting for conservationists when they came across a female earlier this month.
__________________

More photos on Flickr
Regulator75 is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Regulator75 For This Useful Post:
Old 03-23-2016, 12:12 PM   #2632
northcrunk
#1 Goaltender
 
northcrunk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Lime View Post
Kind of cool and might be interesting to anyone who enjoys Egyptology. They may have found the tomb of Nefertiti, which has been an ongoing mystery for an extremely long time.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-material.html
Very interesting. Akhenaten was well known for completly changing the artistic style as well as the religion in Egypt (from polytheism to worshipping one god 'Aten'). He also moved the capital to build a new capital under his name. He is always sculpted/drawn with an elongated head and there are conspiracy theories within archaeology that he was actually an extra-terrestrial and Tutankhamun (original name Tutankhaten meaning living image of aten) died at an early age because he was a alien hybrid but his parents were brother and sister (possibly cousin) so imbreeding likely would have more to do with his health problems. There are also theories of political opportunism that killed Tutankhamun and Nefertiti had him killed to become queen.
northcrunk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-23-2016, 12:46 PM   #2633
Coach
Franchise Player
 
Coach's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Vancouver
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Regulator75 View Post
Huntin' time!

/dentist
__________________
Coach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-23-2016, 12:55 PM   #2634
kermitology
It's not easy being green!
 
kermitology's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: In the tubes to Vancouver Island
Exp:
Default

You may or may not agree that this should go in here, but I think in terms of practical applications of science, this is revolutionary:

__________________
Who is in charge of this product and why haven't they been fired yet?
kermitology is online now   Reply With Quote
The Following 8 Users Say Thank You to kermitology For This Useful Post:
Old 03-28-2016, 02:06 PM   #2635
Regulator75
Franchise Player
 
Regulator75's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Behind Nikkor Glass
Exp:
Default "Siberian Unicorn" Went Extinct Much Later Than We Thought

http://www.sciencealert.com/a-fossil...lived-on-earth

Quote:
For decades, scientists have estimated that the Siberian unicorn - a long-extinct species of mammal that looked more like a rhino than a horse - died out some 350,000 years ago, but a beautifully preserved skull found in Kazakhstan has completely overturned that assumption. Turns out, these incredible creatures were still around as recently as 29,000 years ago.

Before we talk about the latest discovery, yes, there was a very real 'unicorn' that roamed Earth tens of thousands of years ago, but it was nothing like the one found in your favourite children’s book. (Sorry - it’s a bummer for us, too.) The real unicorn, Elasmotherium sibiricum, was shaggy and huge and looked just like a modern rhino, only it carried the most almighty horn on its forehead.

According to early descriptions, the Siberian unicorn stood at roughly 2 metres tall, was 4.5 metres long, and weighed about 4 tonnes. That’s closer to woolly mammoth-sized than horse-sized. Despite its very impressive stature, the unicorn probably was a grazer that ate mostly grass. So, if you want a correct image in your head, think of a fuzzy rhinoceros with one long, slender horn protruding from its face instead of a short, stubby one like today’s rhinos.

The newly found skull, which was remarkably well-preserved, was found in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan. Researchers from Tomsk State University were able to date it to around 29,000 years ago via radiocarbon dating techniques. Based on the size and condition of the skull, it was likely a very old male, they suggest, but how it actually died remains unknown.


__________________

More photos on Flickr

Last edited by Regulator75; 03-28-2016 at 02:09 PM.
Regulator75 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2016, 02:20 PM   #2636
Fuzz
Franchise Player
 
Fuzz's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Pickle Jar Lake
Exp:
Default

That unicorn doesn't look the the type that farts rainbow skittles....we've been lied to.
Fuzz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2016, 02:24 PM   #2637
Coach
Franchise Player
 
Coach's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Vancouver
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz View Post
That unicorn doesn't look the the type that farts rainbow skittles....we've been lied to.
Almost as disappointing when we discovered the real Mermaids...



Not exactly Princess Ariel....
__________________
Coach is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2016, 02:24 PM   #2638
photon
The new goggles also do nothing.
 
photon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

__________________
Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
photon is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to photon For This Useful Post:
Old 03-28-2016, 02:29 PM   #2639
peter12
Franchise Player
 
peter12's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Exp:
Default

Manatees and dugongs are such delightful creatures.
peter12 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-01-2016, 04:09 AM   #2640
T@T
Lifetime Suspension
 
T@T's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Exp:
Default

Asteroid appears to hit Jupiter, the impact explosion was probably close to the size of earth

T@T is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to T@T For This Useful Post:
Reply

Tags
biology , chemistry , physics , research , science


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:42 AM.

Calgary Flames
2024-25




Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright Calgarypuck 2021 | See Our Privacy Policy