This kind of goes beyond science into philosophy, but it was an interesting read and I'd thought I'd share, but not starting a thread because I want to get some work done this week and this discussion could easily consume all available free time lol.
Determinism has to be true to some extent given that, as per Fabric of the Cosmos, every moment from the instant of the big bang to the end of the universe exists and has always existed in a 4-dimensional space-time loaf that we simply "move through".
The most Earth-like planet ever discovered is circling a star 600 light years away, a key finding in an ongoing quest to learn if life exists beyond Earth, scientists said on Monday.
The planet, called Kepler-22b, joins a list of more than 500 planets found to orbit stars beyond our solar system. It is the smallest and the best positioned to have liquid water on its surface -- among the ingredients necessary for life on Earth.
"We are homing in on the true Earth-sized, habitable planets," said San Jose State University astronomer Natalie Batalha, deputy science team lead for NASA's Kepler Space Telescope that discovered the star.
The most Earth-like planet ever discovered is circling a star 600 light years away, a key finding in an ongoing quest to learn if life exists beyond Earth, scientists said on Monday.
The planet, called Kepler-22b, joins a list of more than 500 planets found to orbit stars beyond our solar system. It is the smallest and the best positioned to have liquid water on its surface -- among the ingredients necessary for life on Earth.
"We are homing in on the true Earth-sized, habitable planets," said San Jose State University astronomer Natalie Batalha, deputy science team lead for NASA's Kepler Space Telescope that discovered the star.
There was a great Nova Science Now that featured scientists looking for habitable planets and how they go about their search:
The spacecraft Voyager 1 is now 11 billion miles from the sun, at the very end of the solar system. It's peacefully sailing in a new region between us and interstellar space. NASA poetically calls it cosmic purgatory.
The cosmic purgatory is not full of souls wandering in angst. At least, Voyager 1 doesn't have any instrument to register these. But it has other instruments to measure more material things, like solar particles, magnetic fields and cosmic rays.
Using its Low Energy Charged Particle instrument, Cosmic Ray Subsystem and Magnetometer Voyager 1 has been collecting data for the past year, showing that there's no solar wind going either way. Like in the Earth's oceans doldrums, space here is serene, unperturbed.
This stagnation region is an area in which "the wind of charged particles streaming out from our sun has calmed, our solar system's magnetic field has piled up, and higher-energy particles from inside our solar system appear to be leaking out into interstellar space." Like a body, this is the skin of our solar system.
That would fit within the model they have.. which I guess is good news for the model, but bad news since we know that that model is ultimately incomplete.
Not finding the Higgs or finding it somewhere completely different would have led to new physics or at least a hint as to how combine quantum theory with gravity.
Basically something completely unexpected would push the current logjam, but finding what you expect doesn't help on that front.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
That would fit within the model they have.. which I guess is good news for the model, but bad news since we know that that model is ultimately incomplete.
Not finding the Higgs or finding it somewhere completely different would have led to new physics or at least a hint as to how combine quantum theory with gravity.
Basically something completely unexpected would push the current logjam, but finding what you expect doesn't help on that front.
Gotcha. I only have a rudimentary understanding of these things but have taken an interest in them recently. (I still have a lot of NOVAs to get through.)
Gotcha. I only have a rudimentary understanding of these things but have taken an interest in them recently. (I still have a lot of NOVAs to get through.)
If you are interested in learning more I would highly suggest Professor Matt Strassler's Blog - Of Particular Significance
Plenty of articles from basic introductions all the way through to physics I will never stand a chance in hell of understanding
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Gotcha. I only have a rudimentary understanding of these things but have taken an interest in them recently. (I still have a lot of NOVAs to get through.)
Novas are a fantastic way to get up to speed quickly on what's happening, but I found the following shows to be the best and most inclusive ways of getting up to speed on things (even for a complete novice like my wife who is interested in clothes and Top Chef).
A very interesting bit of information concerning the Higgs boson gotten from the science20 blog: if it is discovered below a certain mass threshold, it would, basically (based on current leading theories) mean that the vacuum of space is unstable, and the universe decays (something called False Vaccuum Decay.) The life expectancy ogf the universe would be based on the mass of the Higgs particle. The lower the mass, the shorter the life of the universe.
Sascha Voneghr, in his blog, mentions that vaccuum decay could be triggered by cosmic collisions or even -- gasp! -- partical acceleration experiments! When will this new doomsday theory hit the net? Who knows!
Either way, if it happened, or (as might be likely) has already begun to happen, the decay would occur and spread at the speed of light, and you'd be gone before you even knew it.
I'll also add that Tomasso Dorigo may have cryptically leaked the reported Higgs mass at CMS at 124.6 GeV. He may also have leaked the "best guess" of the Higgs mass in another article of his at 125.5 GeV, which is in between the numbers likely to come out of CMS and ATLAS.
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"An adherent of homeopathy has no brain. They have skull water with the memory of a brain."
Here's an interesting study on infants that appears to suggest that morality is imprinted very very early.
Money quote for me:
Quote:
When we make moral judgments, we do so subtly and selectively. We recognise that explicitly antisocial acts can seem appropriate in the right circumstances. We know that the enemy of our enemy can be our friend. Now, Kiley Hamlin from the University of British Columbia has shown that this capacity for finer social appraisals dates back to infancy – we develop it somewhere between our fifth and eighth months of life.
All these kids must have been receiving religious teaching in utero and/or through sign language when they were 5 months old
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Not fata but I've been reading news on Kepler-22b a little.
-600 light years away(about 3500 trillion miles away)
-Orbits it's star every 290 days
-about 2.5 times the size of earth
-average temp about 70 degrees F
-should have a large magnetic field(if it has a surface)
-would have no problem keeping an atmosphere
-gravity would be a problem for humans though (scientists figure at least twice as much as earth)
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Same, Groovy Gecko, not too groovy! I'll have to wait for the Coles Notes, this is not watchable.
They can build some of the most complex, intricate machinery on the planet, yet can't set up a simple, stable stream!
Reminds me of a Seinfeld quote (as things often do):
Quote:
Originally Posted by "George and Kramer
"I really cannot comprehend how stupid people can be sometimes. Can you comprehend it?"
"No, I can't comprehend it."
"I mean, we can put a man on the moon but we're still basically very stupid. The guy who's car this is, he could be one of the guys that built the rocket. You see what I'm saying?"
"Well, yeah, he can build the rocket, but he's still stupid for double-parking and blocking somebody in."
"So you really understand my point about building the rocket and double-parking?"
"On the one hand he's smart with rockets and on the other hand he's dumb with parking."
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"An adherent of homeopathy has no brain. They have skull water with the memory of a brain."
