B23-ScienceA.txt

Graham L. Kendall
Modified 7/21/2008
Email grahamkendall74135@yahoo.com
I am found on IRC Efnet/Undernet/Dalnet as glk
Files found at http://www.grahamkendall.net/
All are free to use any of this material without limit.
*******************************************************************************
=====
Some of the techniques based on radioactive decay.
1. Carbon 14 - This technique can only be used on the organic remains of
living things that have died in the last 40,000 years. It is best applied to
terrestrial organisms and should never be used on the shells of mollusks.
(More about this later.)

2. Potassium 40 - This technique is used on rocks (minerals) containing
potassium and formed from a molten state (lava or magma) a.k.a. igneous
rock. It works on rocks that are more than 60,000 years old.

3. Rubidium 87 - Also can be used on igneous rocks that contain minerals
with rubidium. It is usable on rocks that formed more than 10,000,000 years
ago.

4. Uranium 238 - Also can be used on igneous rocks that contain minerals
with uranium. It also works on rocks older than 10,000,000 years.

5. Fission Track - When uranium 238 atoms in natural glasses and minerals
like quartz and zircon split, it leaves tiny scars in the minerals. The
objects can be dated by measuring the number of the scars. This method works
on any appropriate material regardless of its age.

6. Thermolumionescense - Certain atoms in clay change when the clay is fired
(as in a potters kiln). Light is given off in the process. Over time the
atoms gradually return to normal. If the clay is fired again the amount of
light given off can be used to tell how long it was since it was first
fired. This allows archeologist to determine the age of ceramics and clay
pots from past civilizations. This works on clay artifacts less than 10,000
years old.

Some of the techniques not based on radioactive decay clocks.

1. Tree Rings - Each year trees add a new layer of vascular tissue. All the
layers from past years are essentially "dead." A layer formed 1000 years ago
can be analyzed and reveals details about the atmospheric conditions that
year. This also gives us a way to test the accuracy of our Carbon 14 dating
techniques. The oldest trees around are about 8,200 years old.

2. Varves - Varves are layers of sediments and silt that collect at the
bottom of riverbeds and lake floors. They form annual layers much like tree
rings. The age of a varve and anything imbedded in it can be found by
counting the number of layers above it. These also allow us to test the
accuracy of our Carbon 14 techniques. Varves can be counted back for 300,000
years.

3. Stratigraphy - This is a very old technique that does not always result
in an absolute date but more of a relative age or sequence for the rock
layers and the fossils found in them. With the exception of areas that have
been significantly altered by seismic activity (and these affects are easily
identified), older rock layers are deeper then younger ones. When
circumstance exist that allows us to assign an age to one rock layer, it
gives us a way to estimate the ages of the layers just above and below it.
If a rock layer is sandwiched between two lava flows, we can use the
radioactive dating techniques described above on the lava flows and narrow
down the age of the rock layers between them. We have sedimentary rocks
layers ranging back 600,000,000 years.

4. Fossils - Fossils that have been dated using other techniques can then be
used to determine the age of the rock layers they are in. These are usually
referred to as "index fossils." They are known to have existed during a
particular time period so when a rock layer is found containing them it
narrows down the age of that rock layer and subsequently other fossils found
in that layer. This technique works with many of the 600,000,000 years worth
of rock layers.

5. Pollen - Certain plants are known to have existed during certain times
and their pollen grains are far more widespread than they are. When known
pollen types are found in rock layers, varves, sediments or peat, the ages
of these materials are then known. We have index types going back
200,000,000 years.

6. Obsidian - Objects and artifacts made of obsidian (volcanic glass) such
as arrowheads, absorb water. The rate of absorption in a given type of glass
is constant. The depth at which moisture can be detected tells the age of
the artifact. This works on artifacts ranging from 200 to 200,000 years old.

7. Racemization - This is one of the newest methods and possibly the most
difficult to explain. It is based on the fact that amino acids (the building
blocks of proteins) can exist in mirror image forms called stereo-isomers.
When in crystallized form, polarized light can be passed through them and
one isomer rotates the light to the right and the mirror image form rotates
it to the left. The two isomers are then referred to as "left-handed" and
"right-handed." Amino acids produced by living things are of the
"left-handed" variety. After an organism dies, the amino acids slowly
transform to the right handed variety. This happens at a known and
measurable rate and can be used to measure with a high degree of
reliability, the age of the fossils less than 1,000,000 years old. This one
(unlike Carbon 14) does work on the shells of mollusks.

This is a sampling of the techniques available to scientists. Many dates are
determined not by a single method but by a combination of methods. The more
methods we can use and get corroborating results, the more confidence we
have in those results.
 
==
George Johnson Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order
==
The self-correcting machinery of science fuels the corroboration
of provisional facts. But, what powers provisional purpose? Life itself.
Life began with the most basic purpose of all: survival and reproduction. For
3.5 billion years organisms have survived and reproduced in a lineal descent
from the pre-Cambrian to us, an unbroken continuity that has endured countless
terrestrial and extraterrestrial assaults and six mass extinctions.
==
Ancient "Snowball Earth" Melted Fast Due to Methane

A massive release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, may have triggered
rapid melting of the last "snowball Earth" about 635 million years ago, a new
study suggests.
According to the snowball theory, ancient Earth experienced periods of global
glaciation when ice sheets extended all the way to the Equator.

Methane ice forms and stabilizes beneath glaciers under certain temperatures
and pressures, noted lead study author Martin Kennedy, a geologist at the
University of California, Riverside.
But ice sheets are inherently unstable. Once they reach a certain size, they
begin to fall apart.
The collapse of ancient ice sheets at the Equator would have unleashed trapped
methane deposits and pushed global temperatures higher.
This warming would have caused ice sheets at slightly higher latitudes to
melt, unleashing even more methane and causing Earth to warm even more.
"You can see the feedback there, that pretty soon you'll unzipper the entire
reservoir" of methane, Kennedy said, which could have caused the abrupt
transition from a very cold state to a much warmer climate.
A similar mechanism, the authors say, could uncontrollably accelerate global
warming today.
Warming Trigger
Kennedy and colleagues collected and analyzed hundreds of marine sediment
samples from a region of South Australia state that was near the Equator about
635 million years ago.
They found a broad range of chemical signatures in the sediments consistent
with melting ice sheets and destabilization of methane deposits.
In addition, they found evidence that ice-sheet collapse and methane release
preceded a rise in global sea levels.

"The coincidence of being able to find all these particular lines of evidence
tells us that we might have found the trigger for deglaciation," Kennedy said.
The researchers describe their work in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature.

Richard Norris is a paleobiologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the study.
He said Kennedy's team has solid evidence and makes a reasonable case for a
methane-driven warming event.
"I don't think it is proof, but it is what you'd expect to find if it is
true," he said.
According to Kennedy, a similar abrupt temperature spike could occur today if
abundant methane deposits in the Arctic permafrost and the continental margins
of the oceans are suddenly released.
(Related: "Deep Sea, Arctic, May Hold World's Largest Fuel Supply, Experts
Say" [March 7, 2007].)
"We're sitting at a time when we're forcing the climate enormously, and we're
wondering what the relevant analog for our future climate is going to be," he
added.
"I would suggest that this particular type of feedback is one scenario that we
could be looking at in the future."
Warning Sign?
Norris, of the Scripps Institution, agrees that today's methane reservoirs are
enormous and warrant keeping a close eye on as the climate changes.
"They could be a real problem for us," he said.
But he cautioned that the connection between snowball Earth and modern warming
is tenuous, because the world is dramatically different now than it was
millions of years ago.
For example, Earth is far from a snowball state, and the continents are in
different positions and thus have different effects on ocean and atmospheric
circulation.
Also, it's unknown how fast the transition from snowball Earth to a warmer
world occurred, Norris said.
If methane was released over hundreds or thousands of years, the associated
climate changes could have been catastrophic.
But over longer time scales, Earth processes could have absorbed the excess
carbon, lessening the impact.
While they remain unsure about the exact duration of the ancient event,
Kennedy and other researchers believe the evidence is consistent with changes
over geologically short time scales.
A more critical issue is to figure out how much warming is required to trigger
the release of methane deposits, Kennedy said.
"This scenario is one that once triggered, there is nothing to stop it," he
said. "You have to act preemptively before the trigger is reached."
==
The reason science really matters runs deeper still. Science is a way of life.
Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion
to understanding in a manner thats precise, predictive and reliable  a
transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering
and emotional. To be able to think through and grasp explanations  for
everything from why the sky is blue to how life formed on earth  not because
they are declared dogma but rather because they reveal patterns confirmed by
experiment and observation, is one of the most precious of human experiences.
==
http://www.dcscience.net/improbable.html   
==
When the Earth was very young, only 10 to 50 million years old and still a
global ocean of magma, a body about the size of Mars impacted the Earth. This
impact blasted a mixture of materials, from both the impactor and from Earth,
into orbit around the primitive Earth. This material then re-condensed to form
the moon. By measuring the chemical makeup of the moon now, and knowing what
we think was the makeup of the Earth back then, we will be able to better
understand how much of the early Earth is
incorporated into the moon, and what happened during this great impact event. 
After the Earth started to cool, the first crust started to float on top of
the magma. During this period the Earth was subjected to increased meteor
bombardment. The bombardment had been very intense at the beginning of the
solar system and then had started to decline, but about 500 million years
after the birth of the Earth, or about 2 hours and 40 minutes into our clock
of 24 hours, there was a burst of impactors. This lasted for about hundred
million years, and we call this the late heavy bombardment. Many of the large
basins on the Moon are evidence of this late heavy bombardment period. In this
way, the Moon is a history book for the inner solar system and the Earth. We
have studied these basins with the SMART-1 mission.The Moons heavily cratered
surface is evidence of the many meteorite impacts that occurred in the inner
solar system during the late heavy bombardment period.
Credit: ESAThe Earth was hit more often than the Moon, however, because Earth
is larger and has more gravity. This increased gravity also caused the
impactors to be accelerated to higher velocities towards the Earth. That must
have been a catastrophic time to be here. So many bombardments would have
sterilized the planet. If life had appeared before this period, it would have
been extinguished unless it found a way to retreat into niches where it could
be protected from these global catastrophes.
When some of these impactors hit the Earth, the explosion caused rocks and
dirt from Earth to shoot up and away from our planet. Some of that projected
material flew all over the solar system, and some of it landed on the Moon.
There could be a few hundred kilograms of Earth material per square kilometer
of the Moons surface, buried under a few meters of lunar soil. It would be
interesting to retrieve those rocks and bring back samples of the early Earth.
Almost nothing from this time period has survived on the Earth because of
tectonic recycling of the crust plates or because of atmospheric weathering.
We would try to detect some organics within those rocks, and that could tell
us about the history of organic chemistry on Earth. Some of these rocks could
even have preserved fossils of life. Such rocks could help us look further
back into the fossil record, which now stops at 3.5 billion years ago. This
way, we could possibly learn about the emergence of life on Earth.
===
The Puzzle of Entropy
Physicists encapsulate the concept of time asymmetry in the celebrated second
law of thermodynamics: entropy in a closed system never decreases. Roughly,
entropy is a measure of the disorder of a system. In the 19th century,
Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann explained entropy in terms of the
distinction between the microstate of an object and its macrostate. If you
were asked to describe a cup of coffee, you would most likely refer to its
macrostateits temperature, pressure and other overall features. The
microstate, on the other hand, specifies the precise position and velocity of
every single atom in the liquid. Many different microstates correspond to any
one particular macrostate: we could move an atom here and there, and nobody
looking at macroscopic scales would notice.
Entropy is the number of different microstates that correspond to the same
macrostate. (Technically, it is the number of digits, or logarithm, of that
number.) Thus, there are more ways to arrange a given number of atoms into a
high-entropy configuration than into a low-entropy one. Imagine that you pour
milk into your coffee. There are a great many ways to distribute the molecules
so that the milk and coffee are completely mixed together but relatively few
ways to arrange them so that the milk is segregated from the surrounding
coffee. So the mixture has a higher entropy.
From this point of view, it is not surprising that entropy tends to increase
with time. High-entropy states greatly outnumber low-entropy ones; almost any
change to the system will land it in a higher-entropy state, simply by the
luck of the draw. That is why milk mixes with coffee but never unmixes.
Although it is physically possible for all the milk molecules to spontaneously
conspire to arrange themselves next to one another, it is statistically very
unlikely. If you waited for it to happen of its own accord as molecules
randomly reshuffled, you would typically have to wait much longer than the
current age of the observable universe. The arrow of time is simply the
tendency of systems to evolve toward one of the numerous, natural,
high-entropy states.

The early universe was a remarkable place. All the particles that make up the
universe we currently observe were squeezed into an extraordinarily hot, dense
volume. Most important, they were distributed nearly uniformly throughout that
tiny volume. On average, the density differed from place to place by only about one part in 100,000. Gradually, as the universe expanded and cooled, the pull of gravity enhanced those differences.
Regions with slightly more particles formed stars and galaxies, and regions
with slightly fewer particles emptied out to form voids.

==
In conventional physicsthat is, the kind that relies on Einstein's theory of
general relativity to describe the very large and quantum mechanics to
describe the very smallthe Planck temperature was reached 10-43 seconds after
the Big Bang got under way. At that instant, known as one Planck time, the
entire universe is thought to have been the Planck length, or 10-35 meters.
The Planck temperature is the highest temperature in conventional physics
because conventional physics breaks down at that temperature. Above 1032 Kthat
is, earlier than one Planck timecalculations show that strange things, unknown
things, begin to happen to phenomena we hold near and dear, like space and
time. Theory predicts that particle energies become so large that the
gravitational forces between them become as strong as any other forces. That
is, gravity and the other three fundamental forces of the
universeelectromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forcesbecome a single
unified force. Knowing how that happens, the so-called "theory of everything,"
is the holy grail of theoretical physics today.
"We do not know enough about the quantum nature of gravitation even to
speculate intelligently about the history of the universe before this time,"
writes Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg about this up-against-a-brick-wall
instant in his book The First Three Minutes. "Thus, whatever other veils may
have been lifted, there is one veil, at a temperature of 1032 K, that still
obscures our view of the earliest times." Until someone comes up with a widely
accepted quantum theory of gravity, the Planck temperature, for conventional
physicists like Steven Weinberg, will remain the highest temperature.
==
Geologists have mapped the surface geology of most
areas of the world, producing maps showing the age &
kind of rock currently exposed at the surface, along
with such features as fault lines, upthrusts &
folding.

Crust

The oceanic crust of the Earth is different from its
continental crust. The oceanic crust is 5 km (3 mi) to
10 km (6 mi) thick and is composed primarily of
basalt, diabase, and gabbro. The continental crust is
typically from 30 km (20 mi) to 50 km (30 mi) thick,
and it is mostly composed of less dense rocks than is
the oceanic crust. Some of these less dense rocks,
such as granite, are common in the continental crust
but rare to absent in the oceanic crust.

The continental crust and the oceanic crust are
sometimes called sial and sima respectively. Due to
the change in velocity of seismic waves (measured
during earthquakes) it is believed that on continents
at a certain depth sial becomes close in its physical
properties to sima and the dividing line is called
Conrad discontinuity.

The temperature of the crust increases with depth,
reaching values typically in the range from about 500
C (900 F) to 1,000 C (1,800 F) at the boundary
with the underlying mantle. The crust and underlying
relatively rigid mantle make up the lithosphere.
Because of convection in the underlying plastic,
although non-molten, upper mantle and asthenosphere,
the lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates that
move.

The upper part of the crust is constantly being
reworked. Most of the seafloor is younger than 180
million years because of seafloor spreading from
mid-ocean volcanic ridges that split plates apart,
inducing continental drift.

http://upload. wikimedia. org/wikipedia/ commons/c/ cb/Earth_ seafloor_
crust_age_ poster.gif

Older continental strata like those from the
Pre-Cambrian are rare at the surface of the earth, but
strata become increasingly more common with younger
age, in general.

The layers are eventually worn down on the continents
or subducted under them. But the entire geologic
column can be tens of thousands of feet thick. Older
layers are thrust up to form mountains up to 30,000
feet above sea level, which is why you can find marine
fossils on the highest peaks.

Layers from geologic periods at the surface & below it
can be hundreds to thousands of feet thick, depending
upon how long the period lasted, how rapidly sediment
piled up during it, how much subsequent pressure &
heat it was subjected to (turning sedimentary rocks
into metamorphic or igneous) & how much it has
weathered.

The Old Red Sandstone from the Devonian of Britain,
for instance, is thousands of feet thick. Early
geologists traced it from where it was exposed on the
surface, to where it was still above ground but
overlain by "Coal Measures" (Carboniferous Period
layers) to underground.

Please read Sir Charles Lyell's text book from 1871 on
this geological group in Britain.

http://geology. com/publications /lyell/ch25. shtml
==
This article references Jurassic prints in the Entrada
Formation of the San Rafael Group in five Western
states.

http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Entrada_Sandston e

The theropods would presumably include well-known
Allosaurus.

The Entrada Formation consists of ten members, listed
in alphabetical order:

* Cannonville Member (UT),
* Cow Springs Member (AZ),
* Dewey Bridge Member (CO, UT) - named after the
type locality at Dewey Bridge, Utah. This brick-red
layer has a blocky look to it.
* Escalante Member (UT),
* Exeter Member (NM),
* Gunsight Butte Member (UT),
* Iyanbito Member (NM),
* Moab Member (CO, UT) or Moab Tongue (CO, UT) -
named after the type locality of Moab, Utah. The
whitish sands from inland dunes make up this "cap
rock" layer, as seen atop Delicate Arch and Broken
Arch in Arches National Park.
* Red Mesa Member (AZ, NM, UT),
* Slick Rock Member (CO, UT) - named for the type
locality at Slickrock, Colorado; Rounded beach sands
were cemented together to create this uniform layer.

==
I suggest you visit some of the many fine Cretaceous
age formations in North America to see these phenomena
for yourself. In many of them, layers laid down under
water are interspersed with layers formed as dry land,
so that, for instance, fossils of marine reptiles like
plesiosaurs, sea-fishing flying pterosaurs & oceanic
birds like Hesperornis alternate with fossils of land
animals like dinosaurs. During the Cretaceous, an
inland waterway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic
Ocean waxed & waned, creating these alternating marine
& terrestrial layers.
==
Cenozoic erosion has worn down the
Sierras & exposed Mesozoic rocks on your peninsula.

http://math. ucr.edu/ftm/ bajaPages/ Geology.html

Here's a reference on Jurassic exposures in Baja:

http://www.bioone. org/perlserv/ ?request= get-document& amp;doi=10.1661%2F0026- 2803(2002)048[0097% 3APLJRFB] 2.0.CO%3B2& ct=1&SESSID= 96954eb44b2cbe1e 972c286a9eb22861

And Cretaceous:

http://www.bioone. org/perlserv/ ?request= get-document& amp;doi=10.1666%2F0022- 3360(2003)077%3C0442% 3ANCCGFT% 3E2.0.CO% 3B2&ct=1& SESSID=96954eb44 b2cbe1e972c286a9 eb22861

Here's some locales you could visit:

"The Alisitos Formation (Aptian-Albian) , shaped as a
marine volcanic arc, crops out along the western side
of Baja California bounding the Peninsula Range
batholith.^Litholog ically, this formation is formed by
volcanic breccias, porphyritic flows, biohermal
limestones, and tuffaceous and pyroclastic
sediments.^The distribution of the different facies
depends on the nature of volcanism and the distance
from a volcanic center, although the presence of
massive biohermal limestone indicates that in the
Early Cretaceous (during tectonic episodes), the
volcanic activity decreased to the level that the
environmental conditions were favorable for the
development of an organic barrier reef behind an
island arc.^Such conditions pertained south of the
Agua Blanca fault and extended to El Arco, Baja
California.^ Based on field observation and petrologic
analysis in the Alisitos limestone, an attempt has
been made to re-create the environmental condition in
the Punta China and San Fernando, Baja California,
sites."

Volcanic island arcs are a common feature of
continental edges, both in the Mesozoic & now.

Due to plate tectonics, Baja California & the coast of
California south of Pt. Reyes north of the Bay Area
are moving north so that in about 50 million years,
they'll form an island off the coast of North America.
Perhaps you've noticed the earthquakes in that
region, which result from the land west of the fault
lines moving north.
==
http://www.uwgb.edu/DutchS/EarthSC202Slides/SROXSLID.HTM  geology 
==
Biologist: Medicine is just a special case of biology.
Chemist: Biology is just a special case of chemistry.
Physicist: Chemistry is just a special case of physics.
Philosopher: Science is just a special case of philosophy.
==
The researchers found that we pass through the galactic plane every 35 to
40 million years, raising the chances of a comet collision tenfold.
Evidence from craters on Earth also suggests we suffer more collisions
roughly every 36 million years, they said.
==
Hope dims that Earth will survive Sun's death
The future looks bright for the Earth  but not in the way wed hoped. The slim
chance our planet will survive when the Sun begins its death throes has been
ruled out.
In a few billion years, the Sun will fuse the last of its hydrogen into
helium, turn into a red giant and expand to 250 times its current size. At
first, the Suns loss of mass will loosen its gravitational pull on Earth,
which will allow the planet to migrate to a wider orbit about 7.6 billion
years from now.
This process has led some to speculate that the Earth might escape
destruction  but survival now seems impossible, says Peter Schroder of the
University of Guanajuato in Mexico and Robert Smith of the University of
Sussex in the UK.
They created the most detailed model to date of the Suns transition to a red
giant, based on observations of six nearby red giant stars. Sure enough, they
found that Earths orbit will widen at first. But Earth will also induce a
tidal bulge on the Suns surface, with its own gravitational pull. The bulge
will lag just behind the Earth in its orbit, slowing it down enough to drag it
to a fiery demise.
There is one last hope for anybody still living on Earth, the researchers say.
In the past, some have suggested that Earths orbit could be tweaked by
arranging the fly-by of a nearby asteroid to tug at it. This method could
potentially maintain Earths speed enough to keep it in a widening orbit, they
say

Earth's Final Sunset Predicted
"Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice," wrote the poet Robert
Frost. Astronomers, it turns out, are in the former camp.
A new calculation predicts that Earth will be swallowed up by the sun in 7.6
billion years, capping off a longstanding debate over whether the sun's
gravitational pull will have weakened enough for Earth to escape final
destruction or not.
Other theorists have predicted that our planet will fry as the sun expands in
its old age. But the time estimates have varied by a couple billion years.
"Although people have looked at these problems before, we would claim this is
the best attempt that's been made to date, and probably the most reliable,"
said astronomer Robert Smith, emeritus reader at the U.K.'s University of
Sussex, who made the new calculations with astronomer Klaus-Peter Schroeder of
the University of Guanajuato in Mexico. "What we've done is to refine existing
models and to put the best calculations we can at each point in the model."
If 7.6 billion years doesn't sound like an urgent death sentence, don't relax
yet. Regardless of whether Earth will ultimately be vaporized, as the sun
heats up, our planet will become too hot to live on before then.
"After a billion years or so you've got an Earth with no atmosphere, no water
and a surface temperature of hundreds of degrees, way above the boiling point
of water," Smith told SPACE.com. "The Earth will become dry basically. It will
become completely impossible for life of any kind to exist. It's a pretty
gloomy forecast."
Nonetheless, scientists are curious about the ultimate fate of our planet
after we are gone (like all previous hominids and more than 99 percent of all
species that have lived on Earth, humans will probably go extinct, and it will
likely happen sooner than a billion years).
Smith's earlier studies found that Earth would narrowly escape being engorged.
As the sun ages and expands into a red giant star, it will shed its outer
gaseous layers, thus losing mass and weakening its gravitational pull.
Previous calculations found that this let-up would allow the Earth's orbit to
shift outward, enabling the planet to slip free of the smoldering sun.
But this scenario doesn't account for tidal forces, and the drag of the sun's
outer layers. As the Earth orbits the sun, its smaller gravitational pull
isn't completely negligible it actually causes the side of the sun closest to
our planet to hoard more mass and bulge out toward us.
"Just as the Earth is pulling on the sun's bulge, it's pulling on the Earth,
and that causes the Earth to slow in its orbit," Smith said. "It will spiral
back and finally end up inside the sun."
In addition, the gas that the sun expels will also drag Earth inward toward
its demise.
Smith's previous calculations had ignored these effects.
"We didn't think it mattered, but it turns out it does," he said. "You might
say our previous models had a gap."
There may even be hope for Earth. Some scientists have proposed a scheme for
down the road to use the gravity of a passing asteroid to budge Earth out of
the way of the sun toward cooler territory, assuming there is life around at
the time that is intelligent enough to engineer this solution.
"It sounds like science fiction, but there's a group of people who have quite
seriously suggested that it might be possible," Smith said. "If it's done
right, that would just keep the Earth moving fast enough to keep it out of
harm's way. Maybe life could go on for as much as 7 billion years."

==
How Writing Changed the World
Humans had been speaking for a couple hundred thousand years before they got
the inspiration or nerve to mark their ideas down for posterity.
But when a Mesopotamian people called the Sumerians finally did scratch out a
few bookkeeping symbols on clay tablets 5,000 years ago, they unknowingly
started a whole new era in history we call, well .
The presence of written sources denotes the technical dividing line between
what scholars classify as prehistory versus what they call history, which
starts at different times depending on what part of the world you're studying.
In most places, writing started about the same time ancient civilizations
emerged from hunter-gatherer communities, probably as a way to keep track of
the new concept of "property," such as animals, grain supplies or land.
By 3000 B.C. in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), and then soon after in Egypt,
and by 1500 B.C. in China, people were scribbling, sketching and telling their
world about their culture in a very permanent way.
When memory failed
When ancient Mesopotamians started settling down onto farms surrounding the
first cities, life became a bit more complicated. Agriculture required
expertise and detailed recordkeeping, two elements that led directly to the
invention of writing, historians say.
The first examples of writing were pictograms used by temple officials to keep
track of the inflows and outflows of the city's grain and animal stores which,
in the bigger Sumerian urban centers such as Ur, were big enough to make
counting by memory unreliable.
Officials began using standardized symbols rather than, say, an actual
picture of a goat to represent commodities, scratched into soft clay tablets
with a pointed reed that had been cut into a wedge shape. Archaeologists call
this first writing "cuneiform," from the Latin "cuneus," meaning wedge.
The system developed quickly to incorporate signs that represented sounds, and
soon all of Mesopotamia was taking notes, making to-do lists and (presumably)
writing love letters.
Egyptian writing the famous hieroglyphics developed independently not long
thereafter, under similar circumstances, historians think.
A few thousand years later, as variations on the two systems spread throughout
the region, the entire ancient world had writing schemes that vastly improved
the efficiency of economies, the accountability of governments and, maybe most
importantly to us, our understanding of the past.
Literacy a privilege
Reading and writing in ancient times wasn't for the masses, however. Daily
life in Mesopotamia and Egypt was time-consuming, and so writing became a
specialized profession, usually for members of the elite class. The
highly-regarded scribes of ancient Mesopotamia were even depicted in art
wearing cuneiform writing implements (a bit like a set of chopsticks) in their
belts as a mark of their importance.
Literacy remained a privilege of aristocratic males in most societies all the
way until the 19th-century, when public education became more widespread
around the world.
That means that while the historical period is exponentially better understood
than the experiences of humans before writing was invented, written accounts
are largely about the experiences of the upper classes, historians say.
About one in five people today, concentrated mostly in Third World nations,
are illiterate.
This cuneiform text dates back to the 6th year of prince Lugalanda who ruled
about 2370 B.C. in southern Mesopotamia. It is an administrative document
concerning deliveries of three sorts of beer to different recipients (to the
palace and to a temple for offerings) and gives the exact quantities of barley
and other ingredients used in brewing.
==
Preons are hypothetical particles that have been proposed as the building
blocks of quarks, which are in turn the building blocks of protons and
neutrons. A preon star - which is not really a star at all - would be a chunk
of matter made of these constituents of quarks and bound together by gravity.
==
A massive cluster of yellowish galaxies magnifies what may the farthest galaxy
ever seen (in white box). It does not show up in the visible-light image (top,
right), because its light is stretched to invisible infrared wavelengths by
the Universe's expansion. Credit: NASA, ESA, L. Bradley (JHU), R. Bouwens
(UCSC), H. Ford (JHU)and G. Illingworth (UCSC)

Farthest Galaxy Found, Perhaps
Astronomers have glimpsed what may be the farthest galaxy we've ever seen,
providing a picture of a baby galaxy born soon after the beginning of the
universe.
Images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed the galaxy at
almost 13 billion light-years away, making it the strongest candidate for the
most distant galaxy ever seen, said European Southern Observatory astronomer
Piero Rosati, who helped make the discovery.
Since the galaxy is so far away, its light took ages to reach us, so what we
see now is a snapshot of how this galaxy looked 13 billion years ago. At that
point in time, the galaxy would have been newly formed, so the new
observations provide a baby picture.
"We certainly were surprised to find such a bright young galaxy 13 billion
years in the past," said astronomer Garth Illingworth of the University of
California, Santa Cruz, a member of the research team. "This is the most
detailed look to date at an object so far back in time."
The young galaxy, called A1689-zD1, was born about 700 million years after the
Big Bang that scientists think created the universe. For most of its early
life, the universe languished in "dark ages" when matter in the expanding
universe cooled and formed clouds of hydrogen. Eventually matter began to
clump into stars and galaxies that radiated light, heating up the universe and
clearing the fog.
Scientists think this newly discovered galaxy may have been one of the first
to form and help end the dark ages.
"This galaxy presumably is one of the many galaxies that helped end the dark
ages," said astronomer Larry Bradley of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,
leader of the research team. "Astronomers are fairly certain that high-energy
objects such as quasars did not provide enough energy to end the dark ages of
the universe. But many young star-forming galaxies may have produced enough
energy to end it."
The discovery was made possible by a natural magnifying glass  the galaxy
cluster Abell 1689, which lies between us and the distant galaxy. Abell 1689's
gravity is so strong it bends light that passes near it, acting like a giant
zoom lens that magnifies what we see.
"This galaxy lies near the region where the galaxy cluster produces the
highest magnification," Rosati said, "which was essential to bring this galaxy
within reach of Hubble and Spitzer."
The discovery, announced today, will be detailed in the Astrophysical Journal.
==
Only fairly massive stars seem to be able to cook up nuclei with masses all
the way up to iron as parts of their stable thermonuclear fusion life
cycle. The lighter mass stars (such as eventually our own sun) have the
process peter out after a core of carbon and oxygen forms at the end of
their life cycle, at which point a helium-shell flash expels
the outer hydrogen and helium envelope off of said core forming a planetary
nebula. The exposed C-O core then just cools off forming a white dwarf
remnant as the planetary nebula gradually fades away. Extremely low mass
stars (around 8 - 20 % of a solar mass) won't even ever get *that* far. They
would just fade away to black after finishing their main sequence life of
fusing hydrogen into helium. Of course none of the stars in this latter category
have done that yet since the universe is not old enough for any of them to have
yet finished their time as very low luminosity main sequence stars.
Heavier elements are generated only during a supernova blast.
==
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
(Paperback) by Ray Kurzweil 
==
It is the same as in the case of the theologians' unsupported proposition
carrying a default presumption of false unless proven true, in the example
given in Copi. Contrary to your assertion, there is no logical fallacy in
the presumption of innocence in criminal court, and there is no logical
fallacy in the presumption of false unless proven true adhering by default
to the theologians' proposition in Copi's example:
Famous in the history of science is the argument _ad ignorantium_ given in
criticism of Galileo, when he showed leading astronomers of his time the
mountains and valleys on the moon that could be seen through his telescope.
Some scholars of that age, absolutely convinced that the moon was a perfect
sphere, as theology and Aristotelian science had long taught, argued
against
Galileo that, although we see what appear to be mountains and valleys, the
moon is in fact a perfect sphere, because all its apparent irregularities
are filled in by an invisible crystalline substance. And this hypothesis,
which saves the perfection of the heavenly bodies, Galileo could not prove
false!
Legend has it that Galileo, to expose the argument _ad ignorantium_,
offered
another of the same kind as a caricature. Unable to prove the nonexistence
of the transparent crystal supposedly filling the valleys, he put forward
the equally probable hypothesis that there were, rearing up from the
invisible crystalline envelope on the moon, even greater mountain peaks --
but made of crystal and thus invisible! And this hypothesis his critics
could not prove false.
(Copi and Cohen, _Introduction to Logic_, Ninth Edition, p. 117)
==
Bacteria outnumber human cells in your body 10 to 1.
==
A Mind of its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives (Hardcover)
by Cordelia Fine

Thomas Kida "Don't Believe Everything You Think"

The truth of the matter. . .is that your unscrupulous brain is entirely
undeserving of your confidence. It has some shifty habits that leave the truth
distorted and disguised." This book might be considered in concert with
Linden's recent book, "The Accidental Mind.
==
Science does indeed require *evidence* for its facts and
theories. But it does not require "proof". "Proof"
is in the domains of mathematics and logic, and represents
certainty. In science, there is never certainty. Any fact or
theory may turn out to be wrong based upon new evidence.
==
Earth's water brewed at home, not in space
Where did the Earth's oceans come from? Most scientists think they came from
water-rich asteroids and comets raining down on the planet in its youth.
But now planetary scientists in Japan suggest the oceans were actually
"home-grown" they may have formed because the young Earth had a thick blanket
of hydrogen, which reacted with oxides in the Earth's mantle to form lakes and
seas.
"Water is essential for the origin and evolution of life," says Hidenori Genda
from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. "Why does water exist on Earth, where
did it come from? These are fundamental questions for human beings."
Scientists believe that just after the Earth formed, it was very hot and dry.
Theory also suggests that millions of water-rich comets and asteroids
bombarded our planet around 3.8 billion years ago, neatly explaining why
oceans later appeared.
What's more, the ratio of deuterium or "heavy hydrogen" because it contains a
neutron in addition to a proton to hydrogen in our sea water matches the value
found in water-rich asteroids, suggesting a common origin.
But Genda and his colleague Masahiro Ikoma suggest another possibility. They
say the Earth could have had a thick atmosphere of hydrogen, which reacted
with oxides in the Earth's mantle to produce copious water.
Thick gas
Evidence for the thick hydrogen shroud comes from the Earth's orbit. Its
orbit, like those of Venus and Mars, is very circular now, but models suggest
it started out more elongated. If the planets were still submerged in a thick,
hydrogen-rich solar nebula after they formed, however, the thick gas might have
damped out any elongation of the orbits.
If the water on Earth did form from a thick hydrogen atmosphere, however, it
should have originally had a far lower value of the deuterium-to-hydrogen
ratio than we see in sea water today. But Genda and Ikoma have got round this
problem. Their calculations show that the ratio would have naturally drifted
upwards over time.
Several effects would have contributed to this rise, including leakage of
hydrogen into space. Energy from the Sun would have made most of the hydrogen
escape, but the heavier deuterium would have escaped less easily, so it would
have become more concentrated.
Also, chemical reactions favour the gradual exchange of hydrogen in water
molecules for deuterium. Genda and Ikoma conclude from their calculations that
that the oceans might well have been chemically manufactured right here on
Earth.
"This is an interesting paper but in my opinion the results are not
compelling," says comet expert Don Brownlee of the University of Washington in
Seattle, US. He points out that a gas-rich nebula is not the only way to
'circularise' a planet's orbit. "[And] as far as I know, there is no direct
evidence for a large amount of free hydrogen . . . on the early Earth."
Mars test
"It's only theoretical, but it's a good hypothesis and I think it's very
interesting for future research," comments Kathrin Altwegg, a comet expert
from Bern University in Switzerland. "We might have to rethink theories of how
much water the comets could have brought."
She suspects the picture might be a complex one in which water came from
chemical reactions on Earth as well as asteroids and comets.
But Altwegg says much more observational evidence is needed to clarify our
hazy picture of the solar system's early history. Spacecraft missions need to
investigate deuterium-to-hydrogen ratios on planets, moons and comets at
various locations across the solar system, she says.
One intriguing clue could come from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, due to arrive
on the Red Planet in May 2008. It aims to measure the deuterium-to-hydrogen
ratio in Martian water ice for the first time.
"It will be really interesting once we analyse water on Mars," says Altwegg.
"It would be funny if Mars did not get water in the same way as the Earth."
==
Early Upper Paleolithic in Eastern Europe and Implications for the Dispersal
of Modern Humans
Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating and magnetic
stratigraphy indicate Upper Paleolithic occupation-probably representing
modern humans-at archaeological sites on the Don River in Russia 45,000 to
42,000 years ago. The oldest levels at Kostenki underlie a volcanic ash
horizon identified as the Campanian Ignimbrite Y5 tephra that is dated
elsewhere to about 40,000 years ago. The occupation layers contain bone and
ivory artifacts, including possible figurative art, and fossil shells
imported more than 500 kilometers. Thus, modern humans appeared on the
central plain of Eastern Europe as early as anywhere else in northern
Eurasia.
==
The Devonian period contains continent scale Old Red Sandstone formation with
a thickness in places of over 10000 ft. in England.
====
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/astronomy/bigbang.html big bang
===
Polar Dinosaur Footprints Found in Australian Outback
Newly discovered footprints made by carnivorous dinosaurs in Australia reveal
the ancient beasts survived in polar climes when the outback was still joined
to Antarctica and close to the South Pole.
The discovery of the three fossil tracks, each about 14 inches (36
centimeters) long and showing two to three partial toe-prints, was presented
by Anthony Martin, senior lecturer in environmental studies at Emory
University, Friday at a meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in
Austin, Texas.
The researchers estimate the tracks were made 115 million years ago during the
Cretaceous Period by theropod dinosaurs, a group of bipedal carnivores that
includes Tyrannosaurus rex.
And based on the tracks' size, Martin and his colleagues estimate the beasts
stood 4.6 to 4.9 feet (1.4 to 1.5 meters) at the hip. While not half-pints,
the dinosaurs would've been about 20 percent smaller than Allosaurus, a large
theropod from the Jurassic Period.
Martin spotted two of the tracks in February 2006 at the Flat Rocks site near
Melbourne, and a year later at the same dig site, Tyler Lamb, an undergraduate
student at Monash University in Melbourne, uncovered the third track.
==
1000 tons of space dust falls on the earth each year.
==
Kurzweil has recently caused a stir with his best-selling book
The Singularity is Near, which explores what happens when our technologies
become smarter than us. Ray Kurzweil (Paperback - Sep 26, 2006)
==
Robert Sungenis' 'Galileo Was Wrong'
'The Earth is not Moving Marshall Hall about Galileo
===
Type II supernova, which scientists think typically occurs when the core of a
massive star collapses under its own weight, triggering an explosion.
==
New Telomere Discovery Could Help Explain Why Cancer Cells Never Stop
Dividing
Science Daily - A group working at the Swiss Institute for Experimental
Cancer Research (ISREC) in collaboration with the University of Pavia
has discovered that telomeres, the repeated DNA-protein complexes at
the end of chromosomes that progressively shorten every time a cell
divides, also contain RNA.
A human metaphase stained for telomeric repeats. DAPI stained
chromosomes are false-colored in red, telomeres are in green.
This discovery, published in Science Express, calls into question our
understanding of how telomeres function, and may provide a new avenue
of attack for stopping telomere renewal in cancer cells.
Inside the cell nucleus, all our genetic information is located on
twisted, double stranded molecules of DNA which are packaged into
chromosomes. At the end of these chromosomes are telomeres, zones of
repeated chains of DNA that are often compared to the plastic tips on
shoelaces because they prevent chromosomes from fraying, and thus
genetic information from getting scrambled when cells divide.
The telomere is like a cellular clock, because every time a cell
divides, the telomere shortens. After a cell has grown and divided a
few dozen times, the telomeres turn on an alarm system that prevents
further division. If this clock doesn't function right, cells either
end up with damaged chromosomes or they become "immortal" and continue
dividing endlessly -- either way it's bad news and leads to cancer or
disease. Understanding how telomeres function, and how this function
can potentially be manipulated, is thus extremely important.
The DNA in the chromosome acts like a sort of instruction manual for
the cell. Genetic information is transcribed into segments of RNA that
then go out into the cell and carry out a variety of tasks such as
making proteins, catalyzing chemical reactions, or fulfilling
structural roles. It was thought that telomeres were "silent" -- that
their DNA was not transcribed into strands of RNA. The researchers have
turned this theory on its head by discovering telomeric RNA and showing
that this RNA is transcribed from DNA on the telomere.
Why is this important" In embryonic cells (and some stem cells), an
enzyme called telomerase rebuilds the telomere so that the cells can
keep dividing. Over time, this telomerase dwindles and eventually the
telomere shortens and the cell becomes inactive. In cancer cells, the
telomerase enzyme keeps rebuilding telomeres long past the cell's
normal lifetime. The cells become "immortal", endlessly dividing,
resulting in a tumor. Researchers estimate that telomere maintenance
activity occurs in about 90% of human cancers. But the mechanism by
which this maintenance takes place is not well understood. The
researchers discovered that the RNA in the telomere is regulated by a
protein in the telomerase enzyme. Their discovery may thus uncover key
elements of telomere function.
"It's too early to give yet a definitive answer," to whether this could
lead to new cancer therapies, notes Joachim Lingner, senior author on
the paper. "But the experiments published in the paper suggest that
telomeric RNA may provide a new target to attack telomere function in
cancer cells to stop their growth."
Joachim Lingner is an Associate Professor at the EPFL (Ecole
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne). Funding for this research was
provided in part by the Swiss National Science Foundation NCCR
"Frontiers in Genetics".
Article: "Telomeric Repeat Containing RNA and RNA Surveillance Factors
at Mammalian Chromosome Ends"

==
The new VLBA measurements show the Orion Nebula's distance is 11,270
light-years away.
==
Neutron mass greater than H atoms by 782 keV.
===
In the Brain,there are 100 billion neurons, which are connected to each other
via multiple synapses (around 3000 synapses per neuron). These neurons can
fire in very intricate ways, thereby setting up incredibly complicated
patterns.
==
Sir Roger Penrose (The Emperor's New Mind;
The Shadows of the Mind(1994)
The Large, the Small and the Human Mind
==
Evolution of the Earth (Paperback)
by Donald R. Prothero, Jr., Robert H. Dott,
Donald Prothero, Jr., Robert Dott

Bringing Fossils To Life: An Introduction To Paleobiology (Paperback)
by Donald R. Prothero (Author)

Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters (Hardcover)
by Donald R. Prothero (Author), Carl Buell (Illustrator)
===
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) made very accurate measurements of the planets'
positions over several decades. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) derived from
these data three planetary laws, which formed the basis for Newton's brilliant
work, which in turn formed the basis for Einstein's brilliant work. But, it all
started with numerous, accurate measurements in the real world.
===
In his 1950 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Alan Turing foresaw
a day when it would be hard to tell the difference between the responses of
a computer and a human being.
==
The oldest dated zircons date from about 4.4 Billion years ago - very close to
the hypothesized time of the Earth's formation. The Greenland sediments include
banded iron beds. They contain possibly organic carbon and quite possibly
indicate that photosynthetic life had already emerged at that time. The oldest
known fossils (from Australia) date to 3.5 billion years of age.
==
During the Permian all the world's land masses joined together into a
single supercontinent, Pangea. The collision between Laurasia and
Siberia-Kazakhstania and China finalized assembly of Pangaea by end of
Permian. This was the first time since the late Proterozoic
supercontinent of Rodinia that such a landmass had formed. Pangea was
shaped sort of like a giant Pacman, with the mouth on the east.
There was a correspondingly large single ocean, called Panthalassa.
The body of water enclosed by the pacman mouth constituted a smaller
sea, the Tethys, which covered much of what is now southern and
central Europe.
http://www.palaeos.com/Paleozoic/Permian/Permian.htm
==
George P. Hansen, in _The Trickster and the Paranormal_
==
The Late Heavy Bombardment about 4.2 billion to 3.8 billion years ago, which
gouged out 50 or so giant basins still visible on the lunar surface.
Astronomers suspect it occurred when the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn shifted,
with the gravitational pull of these giant planets hurling more asteroids and
comets around.
All the inner planets likely got hit at the same epoch as well--Foing estimated
Earth suffered 25 or 30 times more impacts than the moon. Scientists aren't
quite certain when the Late Heavy Bombardment occurred and how long it lasted,
but it apparently took place around when life arose on Earth.
==
Tom Bethell The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science,

Seeing in the Dark : How Amateur Astronomers Are Discovering the Wonders
of the Universe (Paperback) by Timothy Ferris
==
A virus (from the Latin noun virus, meaning toxin or poison) is a
sub-microscopic particle (ranging in size from 20300 nm) that can
infect the cells of a biological organism. Viruses can replicate
themselves only by infecting a host cell. They therefore cannot
reproduce on their own.
===
An onion (far less complex than a mammal) has about 12 times the amount of DNA
than humans do. Some single celled amoebas have over 200 times our DNA code.

The Microverse, edited by Byron Preiss and William R. Alschuler
William Dunham's Journey Through Genius
Alan Lightman's Great Ideas in Physics
Isaac Asimov's Great Ideas of Science
Jacob Bronowski's Science and Human Values
Martin Goldstein's How We Know
The Ring of Truth by Philip and Phylis Morrison
===
Rationalist books
-----
An Anatomy of Skepticism
An Illusion of Harmony, Science and Religion in Islam
Adventure Lessons: Teaching of an Existential Vagabond
An Evolutionist Deconstructs Creationism
A Somewhat Sceptical Philosophy
Affirmations: Joyful and Creative Exuberance
And God Created Lenin: Marxism vs. Religion in Russia 1917-1929
Artificial Minds
Brain & Belief: An Exploration of the Human Soul
Coping in Politics with Indeterminate Norms: A Theory of Enlightened Localism
Concepts: A ProtoTheist Quest for Science-Minded Skeptics
Dare to Think for Yourself: A Journey from Faith to Reason
Developing a Universal Religion: Why one is Needed and How it might be Obtained
Father, In a Far Distant Time I Find You
Fear Faith Fact Fantasy
Fifty Nifty Ways to Help Your Child Become a Better Learner
Genesis 2.0 - The Search for the Truth Continues
God, The Devil and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory
God.com: A Deity for the New Millennium
God's Brothel: The extortion of sex for salvation...
Heretics: The Bloody History of The Christian Church
History: Fiction or Science
Hope's Fool: A Grandfather's Millennium Notebook
Human Evolutionary Biology: Human Anatomy and Physiology from an Evolutionary
Perspective
Hypoic's Handbook: The Evolutionary Origin, Genetic Blueprint, and
Neurophysiological Foundation of Addiction: Hypoism
In Darwin's Image
Landmines of the Mind: One Thousand Asseverations, Surmises, and Questions
about the Design of the Universe and the Meaning of LifeMassa Damnata
Nonbelief & Evil: Two Arguments for the Nonexistence of God
Our Almost Impossible Universe: Why the Laws of Nature Make the Existence of
Humans Extraordinarily Unlikely
One Nation Under God
Outside, Looking In
Psychological Foundations of Success: A Harvard-Trained Scientist Separates
the Science of Success from Self-Help Snake Oil
Reading The Bible: Intention, Text, Interpretation
Reality Essays, Differential Reality and Belief
Scenario: Nascent Christianity Emerges
Science and Nonbelief
Second Genesis: A Science Thriller
Seeking Truth: Living with Doubt
Secular Wholeness: A Skeptic's Paths to a Richer Life
Sense and Goodness Without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism
Scenario: Nascent Christianity Emerges: A Carefully Researched Novel Set in
the Late First Century of the Common Era
The Cosmic Force, an intriguing investigation
The Essence of Humanism: Free Thought versus Religious Belief
The Fundamentals of Extremism: The Christian Right in America
The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science
The Numinous Legacy (Modern Cosmology and Religion)
The Mystery of the Seance, the force of belief
Theological Incorrectness: Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn't
The Person of the Millennium: The Unique Impact of Galileo on World History
Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind
Wisdom In Perspective
==
Principle of Competitive Exclusion, previously studied by Alfred Lotka,
Vito Volterra, and Charles Elton, is a pruning rule that implies ... the
impossibility of two species occupying the same niche in a steady-state
ecosystem.
==
Donald R. Griffen Animal Minds
==
The Pauli exclusion principle is the restriction that no two electrons in an
atom can share the same four quantum numbers.
===
Scientists explain why stuff is matter
All down to decay rates, it seems
Miniscule differences in the way antimatter and matter behave may help to
explain why the universe is dominated by matter, according to a group of
scientists working on the BABAR experiment.
The big bang should have produced equal quantities of matter and antimatter.
The fact that our universe is so dominated by matter must be down to some
subtle difference in the two substances. The research teams on the BABAR
experiment have discovered tiny differences in the decay patterns of B and
anti-B mesons, a phenomenon known as a CP violation.
This is one of three conditions outlined by Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov
to explain the observed imbalance in the relative quantities of matter and
antimatter, and is not easy to find. The differences in the decay patterns
that point to a CP violation are tiny: in this case less than 300 parts in
200m pairs of B and anti-B mesons.
The BABAR experiment involves the Stanford Linear Accelerator's PEP II
accelerator, which collides electrons and positrons. This collision produces
exotic heavy particle and anti-particle pairs known as B and anti-B mesons. In
turn, these decay into other subatomic particles, like kaons and pions.
SLAC's Marcello Giorgi, who is also spokesman for the BABAR experiment, said
that if there were no difference between matter and antimatter, both the B
meson and the anti-B meson would exhibit exactly the same decay patterns.
"However, our new measurement shows an example of a large difference in decay
rates instead."
Giorgi explained that the team has examined the decays of more than 200m pairs
of B and anti-B mesons and found 910 examples of the B meson decaying into a
kaon and a pion, but only 696 examples of the same final state for the anti-B.
This is what is known as a direct charge conjugation parity, or CP violation:
you can read upon that here.
"The new measurement is very much a result of the outstanding performance of
SLAC's PEP-II accelerator and the efficiency of the BABAR detector," Giorgi
said. "The accelerator is now operating at three times its design performance
and BABAR is able to record about 98 per cent of collisions."
==
A rare exception among scientists, Galileo saw the unknown as a place to
explore rather than as an eternal mystery controlled by the hand of God.

As long as the celestial sphere was generally regarded as the domain of the
divine, the fact that mere mortals could not explain its workings could safely
be cited as proof of the higher wisdom and power of God. But beginning in the
sixteenth century, the work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton-not to
mention Maxwell, Heisenberg, Einstein, and everybody else who discovered
fundamental laws of physics-provided rational explanations for an increasing
range of phenomena. Little by little, the universe was subjected to the methods
and tools of science, and became a demonstrably knowable place.

If you're not swayed by academic arguments, consider the financial
consequences. Allow intelligent design into science textbooks, lecture halls,
and laboratories, and the cost to the frontier of scientific discovery-the
frontier that drives the economies of the future-would be incalculable. I don't
want students who could make the next major breakthrough in renewable energy
sources or space travel to have been taught that anything they don't
understand, and that nobody yet understands, is divinely constructed and
therefore beyond their intellectual capacity. The day that happens, Americans
will just sit in awe of what we don't understand, while we watch the rest of
the world boldly go where no mortal has gone before.
==
Why is the sky blue?" So you explain about Rayleigh scattering and the fact
that molecules in the atmosphere scatter photons with an efficiency that's
inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength.
==
Martin Rees' Just Six Numbers the basic forces binding the cosmos
There are six key properties: 2 relating to basic forces, 2 to scale and
structure, and 2 describing space.
The term "number" here is important, as these are all dimensionless ratios
and fractions. According to Rees the numbers are:
1) Ratio of electrical force to gravitational force (10^36)
2) Fraction of rest mass converted to energy when hydrogen fuses (0.007)
3) Ratio of actual density to critical density in universe (close to 1.0)
4) Ratio of gravity to antigravity (very small)
5) Ratio of gravitational binding energy of galaxies to their rest-mass energy
(10^-5)
6) Number of spatial dimensions in our universe (3)
==
Stephen J. Gould wrote, "Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures
of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away when
scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of
gravitation replaced Newton's in the last century, but apples did not
suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome.
"Moreover, "fact" does not mean "absolute certainty"; there ain't no such
animal in an exciting and complex world. The final proofs of logic and
mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only
because they are NOT about the empirical world. In science "fact" can only
mean confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold
provisional consent. I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but
the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
"Scientists have been very clear about this distinction of fact and theory
from the very beginning, if only because we have always acknowledged how far
we are from completely understanding the mechanisms (theory) by which
evolution (fact) occurred. Darwin continually emphasized the difference
between his two great and separate accomplishments: establishing the fact of
evolution, and proposing a theory natural selection to explain the
mechanism of evolution.
"Scientific Theories are structured so that they can be tested or, in a
sense, are open to potential falsification, allowing them to be put under
scrutiny by means of making predictions. If a Theory is falsified it is
because of more facts being discovered. A theory implies self-consistency,
agreement with observations, and usefulness. You can make predictions from
what you would expect to observe by the Theory. YECism fails to be a
scientific Theory partly because of the last point; it makes few or no
specific claims about what we would expect to find, so it does not
become useful, scientifically."
===
"Finite and Infinite Games - A Vision of Life as Play and
Possibility" by James P. Carse
ISBN 0-345-34184- 8, Ballantine, $4.95
===
Science formulates laws in the sense of, generalizations based on recurring
facts or events, inductive in nature, and always subject to change according
to the preponderance and convergence of evidence. If science stops being
self-correcting, it stops being science.
==[
Beginning in about 1348, very large numbers of
people began to die from the Plague. Eventually it killed
between 1/3 and 1/2 of the population of Europe.
==
The 19 year cycle is called the Metonic cycle after Meton of Athens
(5th century BC) who discovered that 19 solar years equals 245 lunar
months to within 2 hours.
==
Ranging has also improved historic knowledge of the Moon's orbit, enough to
permit accurate analyses of solar eclipses as far back as 1400 BC. Continued
improvements in range determinations and the need for monitoring the details
of the Earth's rotation will keep the lunar reflector experiments in service
for years to come.
==
Our Moon was born when a Mars-sized planet, usually called "Theia," collided
with early Earth. The impact carved out a large molten chunk from Earth which
eventually coalesced into the Moon.
The identical nature of the silicon composition on the Moon and Earth suggests
our planet must have already undergone the core transformations necessary to
make the heavier isotope before the Moon formed about 40
million years after the start of our solar system.
==
Science feeds on mystery. Matt Ridley has put it: "Most
scientists are bored by what they have already discovered. It is ignorance
that drives them on." Science mines ignorance. Mystery-that which we don't
yet know; that which we don't yet understand-is the mother lode that
scientists seek out. Mystics exult in mystery and want it to stay
mysterious. Scientists exult in mystery for a very different reason: it
gives them something to do.
Admissions of ignorance and mystification are vital to good science. It is
therefore galling, to say the least, when enemies of science turn those
constructive admissions around and abuse them for political advantage.
Worse, it threatens the enterprise of science itself. This is exactly the
effect that creationism or "intelligent design theory" (ID) is having,
especially because its propagandists are slick, superficially plausible and,
above all, well financed. ID, by the way, is not a new form of creationism.
It simply is creationism disguised, for political reasons, under a new name.
===
The Second Law of Thermodynamics is generally given in English as:
"The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to
increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." (Clausius)
or
"A transformation whose only final result is to convert heat, extracted
from a source at constant temperature, into work, is impossible" (Kelvin)
==
Most Distant Black Hole Discovered
The most distant black hole ever found is nearly 13 billion light-years from
Earth, astronomers announced today.
The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope spotted the bright burst of light the black
hole created as it sucked up nearby gas, heating it and causing it to glow very
brightly in what's known as a quasar.
The distance to the quasar, which sits in the constellation Pisces, was
determined by measuring the amount of redshift in the lines of the quasar's
spectrum, or prism of light. Because light is "redshifted" to longer
wavelengths as an object moves away from an observer, the higher the redshift,
the further away the object is-and this quasar had quite a large redshift.
"As soon as I saw the spectrum with its booming emission line, I knew this one
was a long way away," said team member Chris Willott of the University of
Ottawa.
Because the Big Bang is believed to have occurred around 13.7 billion years
ago, astronomers are seeing the quasar as it appeared a mere 1 billion years
after the Big Bang, which gives them a unique view into universe's past.
Sometime around the universe's one billionth birthday, the first stars and
galaxies began to shine and ionized all of the hydrogen atoms in the universe
(or removed an electron from each atom). The quasar's bright light illuminates
the hydrogen gas in front of it, which lets astronomers see whether the atoms
still have their electrons attached or not, which could help pin down the date
of this momentous event.
The quasar might also be able to help astronomers learn about the growth of
the first black holes; the black hole powering this quasar is estimated to be
about 500 million times the mass of the sun, which is thought to be unusual
for an early black hole.
"It is puzzling how such enormous black holes are found so early on in the
universe ... because we believe that black holes take a long time to grow,"
said team member John Hutchings of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics.
The finding was announced at the annual conference of the Canadian
Astronomical Society.
==
Since geomagnetic reversals have been well mapped back to 150
million years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission_track_dating

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium-argon_dating

Another example of a secondary dating method is pollen
identification. Many plant pollens are unique to short periods
of time (often a few millions of years but sometimes much
less), so if you find them deposited with a fossil, you've got
a pretty good date.
==
Catastrophic Comet Chilled and Killed Ice Age Beasts
An extraterrestrial object with a three-mile girth might have exploded over
southern Canada nearly 13,000 years ago, nearly wiping out an ancient Stone
Age culture as well as megafauna like mastodons and mammoths.
The blast could be to blame for a major cold spell called the Younger Dryas
that occurred at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, a period of time spanning
from about 1.8 million years ago to 11,500 years ago.
Research, presented today at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU)
in Acapulco, Mexico, could shed light on major questions about the megafauna
extinction, the demise of the Clovis people, and an abrupt climate change.
"Based on the distribution of material, it looks like this impact probably
occurred in southern Canada near the Great Lakes, over what at that time would
have been a major glacier, the Laurentide ice sheet," said one of the
presenters, Richard Firestone of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Comet chemistry
They couldn't find a distinct crater, suggesting the comet burst in the air
rather than slamming into Earth. Even an airburst should leave its mark, so
the scientists think the Laurentide Ice Sheet absorbed much of the impact.
A much smaller object burst in the air over Siberia in 1908, flattening 800
square miles of forest
Firestone and his colleagues investigated buried carbon-rich layers dating
back 12,900 years and blanketing more than 50 areas that span from California
through Canada and into Belgium. They found a slew of extraterrestrial
markers, including nanodiamonds, which are formed by energetic explosions in
space, elevated amounts of the rare element iridium and tiny capsules of
glass-like carbon.
"Glass-like carbon is essentially carbon that's been melted at very high
temperatures," like those from a comet impact, Firestone explained. They also
found elevated levels of the rare Earth element iridium that are too high to
be from Earth.
Mega die-off
During the last catastrophic animal extinction, more than three-fourths of the
large Ice Age animals, including woolly mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed
tigers and giant bears, died out. Scientists have debated for years over the
cause of the extinction, with both of the major hypotheses-human overhunting
and climate change-insufficient to account for the mega die-off.
An extraterrestrial explosion could have triggered a wave of massive wildfires
that reduced to ashes the mastodons of the day, say the scientists. At one site
called Murray Springs in Arizona, a well-known Clovis site, the scientists
found megafauna covered by the comet debris.
"This black mat drapes over the bones of partially butchered mammoths as if
somebody was in the process of working on these animals while they were
actually killed," Firestone told LiveScience in a telephone interview. "And
between this black mat and the bones of this mammoth we find this ejecta
layer. So it's as if the [impact] event occurred right on top of these mammoth
bones and then this black mat occurs on top of that."
Once put out, the fires would have left a barren landscape devoid of food for
any remaining animals.
"I would argue that most of the megafauna either died or starved after this
thing," Firestone said. "But certainly there must've been pockets of survival
of large animals even mammoths that may have survived for thousands of years
beyond that, ultimately to be hunted to death or whatever happened to them."
Chill out
The comet theory could also explain the abrupt plunge in temperatures during
the Younger Dryas period. Presenters at this AGU symposium argue that the
comet impact or explosion would have heated up the area, causing the
Laurentide Ice Sheet to melt and send massive amounts of water into the
Atlantic Ocean. The input would affect ocean currents, which are responsible
for keeping the atmosphere at livable temperatures.
Plus, the massive wildfires would have loaded the atmosphere with Sun-blocking
dust, soot, water vapor and nitric oxides. The result would be the abrupt
climate cooling.
The explosion would have been life-shattering for humans living in North
America, particularly near the Great Lakes.
"It would have had major effects on humans," said one of the researchers,
Douglas Kennett of the University of Oregon. "Immediate effects would have
been in the North and East, producing shockwaves, heat, flooding, wildfires,
and a reduction and fragmentation of the human population."
Any Clovis survivors would have been driven into isolated groups in search of
food and warmth. Kennett said archaeological evidence at the Clovis sites is
"suggestive of significant population reduction and fragmentation, but
additional work is necessary to test the data further."
One thing is for sure, "It was a bad day in North America for those folks who
were living there," Kennett said in a telephone interview.
The evidence for a comet impact is substantial.
"I think the fact that there's an impact is pretty definite. There are too
many markers there for it all to be coincidence or happenstance explanations,"
Firestone said, adding, "What will be debated is whether the extent of the
impact was sufficient for instance to kill all of the megafauna or whether
other factors were also equally important."
==
Pinker "How the Mind Works",
==
'Resistance to science' has early roots
Stem cells, global warming, evolution, vaccination why do some scientific
ideas push political and societal hot buttons? Proving that scientists can
study practically anything, a pair of psychologists considered "resistance to
science" as a subject in its own right. And they found deep roots, childhood
ones, to some of the contention that increasingly crowds public discourse on
science issues.
Resistance to science is nothing new, of course. The Catholic Church condemned
the astronomer (a poor one by all accounts) Giordano Bruno to death in 1600.
Galileo famously received home imprisonment in the same era. In the U.S., the
1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial," a battle over a Tennessee law that forbid the
teaching of human origins, was the "Trial of the Century" long before O.J.
Simpson ever took the stand.
Today, we don't toss scientists on bonfires, of course. We have congressional
hearings. Last year, climate scientists Ray Bradley, Michael Mann and Malcolm
Hughes, answered questions about their research funding from a congressional
committee. Fights over evolution led to 2005's redo of Scopes Trial issues in
a court case involving the Dover, Pa., school system. And stem-cell research
has fueled prolonged political fights, figuring in the last three national
elections and a recent vote by Congress to expand the number of human
embryonic stem cell lines available for federal research funding, which faces
a veto threat from President Bush.
"Scientists, educators and policymakers have long been concerned about
American adults' resistance to certain scientific ideas," note Yale
psychologists Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg in the review published
in the current Science magazine. In 2005 for example, the Pew Trust found that
42% of poll respondents think people and animals have existed in their present
form since the beginning of time, a view that is tough to reconcile with
evidence from fossils. Many people believe in ghosts, fairies and astrology.
"This resistance to science has important social implications because a
scientifically ignorant public is unprepared to evaluate policies about global
warming, vaccination, genetically modified organisms, stem cell research, and
cloning," the psychologists say.

In the last three decades, studies of children show that they quickly pick up
an intuitive understanding of how the world works, say the researchers. For
example, babies know that objects fall and are real and solid (even though
physics experiments show they are mostly made of atoms containing empty
space.) "These intuitions give children a head start when it comes to
understanding and learning about objects and people. However, they also
sometimes clash with scientific discoveries about the nature of the world,
making certain scientific facts difficult to learn," the review says.


"To be scientifically educated means you have to pick up a lot of
counter-intuitive beliefs," says Bloom, whose research centers on how children
develop their ideas about the world. It's perfectly rational for people to rely
on intuitive beliefs about the world, i.e. that objects fall down, rather than
learning Einstein's theory of gravity, he adds. "Life is too short." The
conflict comes when intuition conflicts with scientific evidence.
Kids often have a lot of trouble understanding that the Earth is a sphere, the
review notes, because common sense suggests things should fall off a ball. And
college students surveyed believe that a ball shot from a curled hose
continues to travel in a curved path after its exit, although a demonstration
can correct this belief.
One intuition that causes trouble for science is "promiscuous teleology," a
natural tendency in children to see a purpose and design in everything, part
of normal development in making sense of the world. For this reason, children
in studies prefer creationist explanations for animals and people, studies
show too.
"A lot of scientific ideas are fundamentally at odds with religious ones,"
Bloom says. "Every religion in existence adopts dualism," a belief that draws
a distinction between the mind (i.e. the soul) and the brain, he notes, a
finding completely at odds with the basic evidence from neuroscience that the
brain itself generates all our thoughts and feelings. The belief that thoughts
and being arise from something besides a bunch of brain cells zapping one
another explains much of the debate over the moral worth of stem cells, Bloom
contends.
An added childhood source of resistance is how we learn to defer to authority,
the review suggests. Again it makes perfect sense to defer to those we trust in
childhood, i.e. "don't cross the street," "don't stick your hand in the light
socket," or "leave the dog alone." But in adulthood, who we decide to trust
has a powerful effect on how we view science, says Bloom. This goes both ways,
he notes. Many people who accept that natural selection and evolution are
reasonable explanations for where species come from, can't explain the
concepts, polls show. This "scientifically credulous subpopulation accepts
this information because they trust the people who say it is true," says the
review.
Similarly, when trusted religious or political leaders endorse an idea, people
who view them as trustworthy will hew to their views, as demonstrated in a 2003
study in which, "participants were asked their opinion about a social welfare
policy that was described as being endorsed by either Democrats or
Republicans. Although the participants sincerely believed that their responses
were based on the objective merits of the policy, the major determinant of what
they thought of the policy was, in fact, whether or not their favored political
party was said to endorse it."
So, there you have it. Resistance to science springs from a clash of
experimental or observational evidence with childhood intuition about the
world, coupled with what political or religious community we embrace.
For scientists, the review suggests they need to show how they use evidence
and observations to demonstrate their conclusions, in contrast to religious
and political leaders. Scientists, who have struggled mightily to distrust
childhood intuition, must understand that their way of seeing things based
on experimentation, observation and debate is unnatural, Bloom adds. "We
have to understand the idea that that supernatural or religious ideas are not
the product of stupidity or malice, but are in fact, normal human nature."
==
Gould pointed out: "The final proofs of
logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and
achieve certainty only because they are not about the empirical
world." In other words, mathematicians are able to prove that 1+1=2,
but they are not able to prove that 1 bean and 1 bean equals 2 beans,
because "beans" are not a mathematical concept.
===
Supernova 1987A by Richard McCray
==
The New Tourist's Guide to the Milky Way
Because Earth is located on the same plane as the Milky Way's disk,
astronomers can't look down upon our galaxy to study it the way they can for
others, like Andromeda. So for a long time, even basic things about the Milky
Way, such as its shape and size, were difficult to determine.
Astronomers came up with a variety of ways to solve this problem. They
invented tools that see in ways human eyes can't, devised clever measuring
techniques, and, as Moore suggested, they "travel."
With penetrating telescopes, astronomers roam the entire universe, exploring
billions of galaxies in their virtual spaceships. They take the lessons, some
of them learned billions of light-years away and billions of years back in
time, and apply them closer to home.
As a result, our picture of the Milky Way is constantly changing as technology
improves and astronomers learn more about distant galaxies. The current picture
is richer than even just a few years ago as astronomers have filled in
knowledge gaps and added new details.
They've recently learned, for example, that the mysterious dark matter
saturating our galaxy is actually "warm," and they verified by various
indirect means the existence of a supermassive black hole at its center.
Studies have also shown that the Milky Way is more massive, more crowded and
its stars more lonely than previously thought.
If our virtual travelers could then now fly home, approaching the Milky Way
from afar and then soar to its center, here is what they would find.
The galaxy's main disc is surrounded by a halo of old stars and globular
clusters (shown in red) in this rendering. Credit: NASA
The Milky Way is a member of a collection of more than 50 galaxies called the
Local Group. In terms of space occupied, Andromeda, or M31, is the biggest
galaxy in this posse, but the Milky Way is the most massive.
Were an intergalactic traveler to approach the Milky Way edge-on, the first
thing she would notice is a luminous halo made up of gas and stars enveloping
the galaxy. The halo is about 100,000 light-years in diameter and 1,000
light-years thick.
A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles
(10 trillion km).
This halo contains some 170 orbiting star clusters and about a dozen small
galaxies. The gravitational tug of the Milky Way is so great that it can
sometimes tear these passing satellites apart, stripping them of gas and even
stars. One star cluster, Messier 12, is thought to have been robbed of as many
as a million stars in this way.
Orphan stars stripped from their parent galaxies and clusters form
streamer-like "tidal tails" or else they linger in the galactic halo, where
they intermingle with other lone stars. These other stars are mostly ancient,
around 12 billion years old and older, and they don't rotate around the
galactic center in any organized way.
Orbiting satellites can also affect the shape of the Milky Way. According to
one hypothesis, the strange warp in the Milky Way's hydrogen disk is caused by
the movement of two dwarf galaxies-the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds- and
their interactions with dark matter as they orbit our galaxy.
Dark matter is an unknown sort of material that has never been seen.
Astronomers know it permeates or galaxy and others because the collections of
stars could not hold together without some other, invisible source of gravity.
Astronomers estimate that the Milky Way contains about 100 billion stars.
Recently, however, this number was upped by about a billion after the
discovery that very old, nearly invisible stars had escaped earlier detections.
The Milky Way is believed to contain four major spiral arms, all of which
start at the galaxy's center, plus a number of smaller arms. Our Sun is
located on a spur of the Orion Arm. Credit: NASA/JPL
Most of the Milky Way's stars are concentrated in a main disk, which lately
has been described as a series of disks, none of which are entirely distinct,
but instead overlap one another. The largest is known as the thick disk; this
disk is fairly flat and spirals like a slow-spinning hurricane because of our
galaxy's rotation.
Nestled within the thick disk is an even flatter disk of stars, known as the
thin disk. The stars in this thin disk rotate even faster around the galactic
center than those in the thick disk.
Further in is yet another disk, known as the extreme disk, where stars and
clouds of gas are moving fastest of all.
Our Sun, which is 4.6 billion years old, is located 26,000 light-years away
from the galactic center on one of the spiral arms. It is a location
considered more suitable than others for harboring life, in part because the
central region is too chaotic, and in part because the concentration of metals
there is too heavy, and it's too light in the galaxy's outer fringes.
The Sun makes one complete orbit around the galaxy about once every 225
million years. In contrast, stars near the galactic center complete a lap in a
few million years or less. These stars as a group tend to be younger than the
galactic average, most ranging in age from 1 billion to 10 billion years old.
A galactic traveler nearing the center of the Milky Way will feel a greater
pull of gravity as the ship approaches the densest and brightest part of our
galaxy, a spherical region known as the central bulge.
Things are much different here. Most of our galaxy is relatively uncrowded-the
nearest star to our Sun, for example, is 4.2 light-years away. But roughly 10
million stars are known to orbit within a light-year of the galaxy's center.
Recent infrared surveys with NASA's Spitzer space telescope confirmed that the
Milky Way is not a perfect spiral galaxy but instead sports a long bar of stars
within the central bulge. This galactic bar is believed to be made up of about
30 million stars, stretching 27,000 light-years from end to end. It consists
mainly of old, red stars, which is one reason it stands out and can be
detected.
The galactic bar is thought to spin like a propeller inside the Milky Way
center, helping to create our galaxy's unique spiral shape.
Observations of other galaxies also suggest that galactic bars plays an
important role in feeding the colossal black holes believed to lay at the
heart of many galaxies, including our own.
The Milky Way's suspected black hole is called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*, and
is thought to have between 3.2 and 4 million times the mass of our Sun.
Recent studies suggest that all of this mass is confined, amazingly, to an
area approximately 10 times smaller than Earth's orbit around the Sun. Sgr A*
is also probably rotating, making one full revolution about every 11 minutes.
Scientists haven't glimpsed Sgr A* directly but they infer its distance from
the incredible speeds of the stars around it, which move 50 times faster than
Earth orbits the Sun. The gravity required to keep these stars in such a fast,
tight orbit is calculable, and the tiny area into which it must fit indicates
that it has to be a black hole, experts say.
While most black holes form from the collapse of massive stars, colossal black
holes like Sgr A* are believed to have "co-evolved," or formed along with the
galaxies they inhabit.
According to this view, black holes are more than just indiscriminate and
voracious gobblers of matter; they are forces of creation that help sculpt a
galaxy's shape and distribute its stars.
Our intergalactic traveler's journey through the Milky Way ends here at Sgr
A*. The ship must either swerve away and make for other galaxies, or risk
breaching the black hole's event horizon, the theoretical boundary beyond
which gravity is so strong that no form of matter or energy can escape.
There are still vital details missing in our picture of the Milky Way. Current
models insist, for example, that our galaxy should have as many as a thousand
dwarf galaxies buzzing around it, each with between 0.01 percent to 10 percent
the mass of the Milky Way. Yet only a relative few satellite galaxies and
globular clusters have been found.
One hypothesis is that these missing satellites are composed entirely of dark
matter and therefore invisible to current technology.
Also, even though astronomers can predict that the Milky Way will collide with
Andromeda and cease to be a spiral galaxy in about three billion years, our
galaxy's origins is a story that remains largely untold.
According to the best recent theories, the Milky Way and other large galaxies
like it grew through a combination of mergers between small hot clouds of
intergalactic matter and, over time, galactic cannibalism.
Like many of the details about our Milky Way uncovered so far, the answer to
this mystery will probably be found far from home as well, in young galaxies
that are still forming and in distant ones where scientists have found new
features thought to be important for galaxy formation and star births.
==
When Milky Way and Andromeda Collide, Earth Could Find Itself Far From Home
If Homo sapiens can stick it out on
Earth for another two billion years, our descendants may witness quite a show
in the night sky. Researchers estimate that the Milky Way will collide with
its nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, at around that timewell before
the sun collapses into a white dwarf, perhaps destroying the Earth in the
process.
This close encounter of the galactic kind could easily kick our solar system
to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, and there is a small chance we might
even take up residence in Andromeda, according to astronomers T. J. Cox and
Abraham Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge,
Mass.
The pair simulated the collision by estimating the relative speed between the
two galaxies and the amount of gas and dark matter in the intervening space,
which exerts a drag on their motions.
Andromeda is currently 2.3 million light-years from our galaxy. Researchers
know that the two neighbors are approaching each other at 120 kilometers per
second, but they are far less certain of Andromeda's sideways speed. If moving
fast enough to the side, it would miss us entirely.
"I think it's very likely they will come together," Loeb says. "The issue is,
will it be [in] three billion years, five billion years or 10 billion years?"
==
Gunter Faure Principles of Isotope Geology
==
Astronomers date star's birth back to nearly the dawn of time
Astronomers have used a unique process to determine that a star in our galaxy
is nearly as old as the universe itself.
The star is 13.2 billion years old, while the universe dates back 13.7 billion
years, according to the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the
Southern Hemisphere (ESO).
A group of international astronomers used the ESO's powerful VLT telescope to
measure radioactive elements thorium and uranium to determine the star's age.
The technique is similar to carbon dating methods used in archaeology to
measure time spans of up to a few tens of thousands of years, the ESO said.
Astronomers, however, must work with much longer timescales, it said.
"Surprisingly, it is very hard to pin down the age of a star," Anna Frebel,
the lead author of a paper on the results, said in a statement.
"This requires measuring very precisely the abundance of the radioactive
elements thorium or uranium, a feat only the largest telescopes such as ESO's
VLT can achieve," she said.
The organisation said "this star very clearly formed very early in the life of
our own galaxy," which is believed to itself have formed soon after the Big
Bang. The star's name is HE 1523-0901.
===
Date of Great Pyramid 2566 BC
==
The link between the prefrontal cortex and violence was first revealed in 1848
in the case of a railroad worker, Phineas Gage, whose skull was impaled by an
iron rod in an explosion -- damaging the front part of his brain.
Gage survived the accident but his behavior radically changed, with his
formerly respectful, sensitive manner replaced by an impulsive and aggressive
personality. Medical cases since have linked violent tendencies to damage to
the front part of the brain, Siegel said.
A recent study shows children who suffer injury to the prefrontal cortex
before age seven developed abnormal behavior, characterized by an inability to
control their frustration, anger and aggression, according to an article in the
journal Neuroscience.
Neurologists believe the frontal region regulates and controls aggression and
violent impulses.
A brain imaging study of 41 murderers found evidence that in most cases the
prefrontal cortex as well as some deeper brain areas, including the amygdala,
functioned abnormally, researchers wrote in the Neuroscience article.
In the case of the Virginia Tech gunman, a medical investigation would also
have to examine if he suffered a deficiency in his serotonin system, said
Klaus Miczek, a neuroscientist at Tufts University.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and low levels
have been associated with several disorders.
"Brain sertonin is a transmitter that has been investigated more than any
other transmitter when it comes to violent, aggressive activity," Miczek said.
A number of drugs have proved effective in controlling violent impulses by
compensating for serotonin deficiencies, said Siegel, citing prozac and
lithium used also to treat schizophrenia.
==
THE CHOSEN: A new study finds that neurons compete to be in the lucky 20
percent that make a memory during learning or training activities.
Remember the old myth that people only use 10 percent of their brains?
Although a new study confirmed that bromide to be apocryphal, it did find that
we may only use 20 percent of the nerve cells in our midbrain to form memories.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and The Hospital for
Sick Children in Toronto monitored neurons in the lateral amygdalae (two
almond-shaped regions on either side of the midbrain associated with learning
and memory) of mice to see whether the presence of the CREB (cAMP response
element binding) protein plays a key role in signaling brain cells to make
memories. CREB, a transcription factor that typically increases the production
of other proteins in cells, is believed to be involved in memory formation in
organisms from sea slugs to humans. Scientists hope that their findings,
reported in the current issue of Science, may help pave the way to new
treatments for Alzheimer's Disease.
Researchers injected a vector designed to return CREB production to normal in
mice that had been genetically modified to underproduce the protein. After
being injected, these mice, who also were memory-impaired, performed as well
as normal mice in memory tests. During the trials, researchers played a sound
and then shocked the animals; when the sound was played again, normal mice and
those with rescued CREB function frozefor a certain[short? ] period of timea
reaction typical of fear.
When the researchers later dissected the mice's brains, they found that the
fluorescent probes they had attached to the CREB vectors showed they had
affected only about 20 percent of the neurons in the lateral amygdala. "That
surprised us. We thought that we would have to affect a lot more neurons in
order to see a big change in memory," says study co-author Sheena Josselyn, a
neurophysiologist at The Hospital for Sick Children. "Not all [neurons]
participate in every memory. Maybe we're biasing these neurons to participate
in this memory and [CREB is] all you need'' to compel it."
To determine if the CREB-producing cells were involved, the scientists then
tried to follow the memory-making process by inserting a probe, which would
give off a fluorescent tag if RNA from a gene known as Arc had recently been
transcribed in brain cells. Arc levels are normally low in a cell but increase
considerably when neuronal activity has taken place. The RNA is transcribed in
the nucleus of a cell and then transported through the cell's body to its
dendrite, the projection of the neuron that receives information from other
cells. "Arc RNA provides a really good molecular marker of when this neuron
was active," says Josselyn. She adds that if the team found RNA in the nucleus
of neurons immediately after a training event, they knew cells had been active
within the last five minutes; if the probe was in the dendrite, they estimated
activity had taken place 20 minutes earlier.
The team found CREB-enabled nuclei to be three times more likely to have the
Arc signature in them than nuclei in CREB-impaired neurons. The researchers
also tested normal mice that were injected with a vector that would
selectively decrease CREB function in some of their neurons. After running the
fear-training trials again, they noticed that the mice learned normally,
suggesting that the neurons unaffected by the CREB-reducing vector were still
producing enough CREB to make the memories.
The results: the memory trace, signified by Arc, showed that activity had
taken place in 20 percent of neurons. "We think that it's really a
competition, that neurons are really battling it out" amongst each other to be
involved in the memory-making process, says Josselyn. "It's like grading on a
curve the same number [20 percent] of students are going to get As"or in
this case help make the memory.
It is the same percentage, but not the same neurons, however, that create each
memory. Also, researchers are not certain what causes naturally boost CREB
function and, therefore, the likelihood of any particular neuron participating
in making a memory. But Josselyn speculates that the brain likely
"differentiates different memories by having different neurons encode them."
In the future, Josselyn says, this mechanism could be harnessed to produce a
new treatment for Alzheimer's disease. "In time, we're going to have some sort
of neuron-replacement therapy for Alzheimer's, " she says, conceding, "It's a
little sci-fi right now." But, if new neurons are inserted into a damaged
brain, modulating CREB function could help bias the healing brain to use the
functioning neurons and not its injured population.
==
Did the universe just get 15 percent larger?
Astronomers question the accuracy of a key figure used to calculate the
distance of faraway galaxies.
Trust but verify. That little piece of strategy that Ronald Reagan applied to
the measurement of nuclear stockpiles during the cold war is being used by
astronomers.
When measuring the size and age of the universe, astronomers have relied on
the "Hubble constant," named after the late American astronomer Edwin Hubble.
The constant relates a galaxy's distance to the speed at which it's moving
away from us.
Astronomers determine a galaxy's speed by looking at its light. The redder the
light, the faster the speed. Divide that speed by the Hubble constant, and you
get the galaxy's distance from Earth.
As Max Bonamente at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.,
has explained, "astronomers absolutely need to trust this number because we
use it for countless calculations."
Attempts to verify that number, however, don't yet support that level of trust.
This high-stakes need for verification has energized a painstaking effort to
refine the Hubble constant. Fritz Benedict and Barbara McArthur at the
University of Texas in Austin led the international team that published their
attempt to refine this number in this month's Astronomical Journal.
To verify the Hubble constant, astronomers compare the distance they get using
the constant against the distance they get from an independent measurement
based on Cepheid variable stars. A Cepheid's light varies with time. This
variation reflects the star's inherent brightness. Once astronomers know this
inherent brightness, or intrinsic luminosity, they can estimate the distance
to the Cepheid by noting how dim it appears from Earth.
But the relationship between a Cepheid's variability and its intrinsic
luminosity has not been known accurately enough to serve to verify the Hubble
constant. The international team worked largely with nearby Cepheids whose
distance could be measured directly by geometrical means. Comparing these
absolute distances with those indicated by the Cepheid's apparent brightness
helped refine this relationship.
The team had to take account of myriad errors. They include minute motions of
the Hubble Space Telescope that made the observations. "We've been cranking on
this since 1977," Dr. Benedict says. Now this picky picky work has produced a
result that Benedict says "has excited me more than any [other result] in my
35-year career."
Astronomers now have a more accurate distance-measuring tool to use wherever
they can find a Cepheid.
Last August, Dr. Bonamente and colleagues reported new distance measurements
to 38 galaxy clusters ranging from 1.4 billion to 9.9 billion light years
away. They used radio and X-ray observations to estimate the physical size of
a galaxy cluster. Geometric triangulation then gave the cluster's distance.
Their check of the Hubble constant confirmed its currently accepted value.
But Kris Stanek at Ohio State University in Columbus and colleagues found that
value in error. They reported last August how they measured the intrinsic
brightness of a binary star system in galaxy M33. Judging the stars' distance
by how dim they appear from Earth, they found it to be 3 million light years
away. The estimate based on the Hubble constant's accepted value was only 2.6
million light years. The true value of the constant may be 15 percent smaller
and the universe may be 15 percent larger and older than we thought.
Astronomers will "trust" whatever they believe is the best value for the
constant. But the need to verify remains.
==
With 12 times the mass of Jupiter, CHXR 73 B straddles the line between the
largest planets and the smallest stars. The latter, called browndwarfs or
"failed stars," don't have enough mass to sustain the types of thermonuclear
reactions that keep larger stars alight for billions of years.
==
According to Wkipedia at the web page
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Plate_tectonics
here is the current view on that issue:

"The movement of plates has caused the formation and break-up
of continents over time, including occasional formation of a
supercontinent that contains most or all of the continents.
The supercontinent Rodinia is thought to have formed about
1 billion years ago and to have embodied most or all of
Earth's continents, and broken up into eight continents
around 600 million years ago. The eight continents later
re-assembled into another supercontinent called Pangaea;
Pangea eventually broke up into Laurasia (which became North
America and Eurasia) and Gondwana (which became the remaining
continents). "
==
Two Curious Structures and an Evolving Volcano
National Geographic reported evidence that an enormous meteorite struck
ancient California more than 35 million years ago. A formation found buried
west of Stockton, Calif., resembles an impact crater and contains rocks that
appear to be 37 million to 49 million years old.
San Diego State University geologist Jared Morrow presented preliminary details
last month at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston. His team
includes a high school senior, Samuel Spevack, whose geologist father first
spotted the crater while examining seismic survey data for the Central Valley
region.
==
http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/snovaet_c07/kirshner/
expanding universe great
===
<< History is replete with those who can
<< imagine things that science is only now finding out to be correct.

The thing is, it is good to imagine and propose ideas- but it
is cheap. Very cheap. It costs nothing and Man is a creative and
imaginitive critter. Virtually all ideas and speculations which we
are capable of generating have been laid on the table and kicked
about at one time or another. Which is fine- but you should not
condemn or demean the people who take the time and trouble to make
the sometimes hurculean effort to actually rigorously test these
ideas and analyze the data to determine which of these ideas is true
and which are just pretty fantasies. That sort of work takes much
longer and demands much greater effort than simply dreaming up the
ideas to begin with.
==
A new dinosaur species was a plant-eater with yard-
long (meter-long) horns over its eyebrows, suggesting an evolutionary
middle step between older dinosaurs with even larger horns and the
small-horned creatures that followed, experts said.
The dinosaur's horns, thick as a human arm, are like those of
triceratops which came 10 million years later. However, this animal
belonged to a subfamily that usually had bony nubbins a few inches
(centimeters) long above their eyes.
Michael Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology for the Cleveland
Museum of Natural History, published the discovery in this month's
Journal of Paleontology. He dug up the fossil six years ago in
southern Alberta, Canada, while a graduate student for the University
of Calgary.
"Unquestionably, it's an important find," said Peter Dodson, a
University of Pennsylvania paleontologist. "It was sort of the
grandfather or great-uncle of the really diverse horned dinosaurs
that came after it."
Ryan named the new dinosaur Albertaceratops nesmoi, after the region
and Cecil Nesmo, a rancher near Manyberries, Alberta, who has helped
fossil hunters.
The creature was about 20 feet (6 meters) long and lived 78 million years ago.
The oldest known horned dinosaur in North America is called
Zuniceratops. It lived 12 million years before Ryan's find, and also
had large horns.
That makes the newly found creature an intermediate between older
forms with large horns and later small-horned relatives, said State
of Utah paleontologist Jim Kirkland, who with Douglas Wolfe
identified Zuniceratops in New Mexico in 1998. He predicted then that
something like Ryan's find would turn up.
==
Geology of the Grand Canyon area
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Geology_of_ the_Grand_ Canyon_area

Young-Earth Creationism and the Geology of the Grand Canyon
by Jon Woolf
Introduction: http://www.jwoolfde n.com/gc_ intro.html
Part 1: http://www.jwoolfde n.com/gc_ rocks.html
Part 2: http://www.jwoolfde n.com/gc_ canyon.html
Summary: http://www.jwoolfde n.com/gc_ summary.html

Strata of the Grand Canyon:
Grand Staircase
http://www.geocitie s.com/earthhisto ry/grand. htm
Paleozoic Strata
http://www.geocitie s.com/earthhisto ry/grandb. htm
Triassic Strata of the Colorado Plateau
http://www.geocitie s.com/earthhisto ry/grand2. htm
Jurassic - Cenozoic Strata of the Colorado Plateau
http://www.geocitie s.com/earthhisto ry/grand2b. htm

USGS - Stratigraphy of Grand Canyon National Park
http://3dparks. wr.usgs.gov/ coloradoplateau/ grandcanyon_ strat.htm

USGS - Stratigraphic Units of the Colorado Plateau, by Age
http://3dparks. wr.usgs.gov/ coloradoplateau/ age.htm

The Geology of the Grand Canyon
by Bob Ribokas
http://www.kaibab. org/geology/ gc_geol.htm

Grand Canyon Rock Layers
by Bob Ribokas
http://www.kaibab. org/geology/ gc_layer. htm

Overview of Grand Canyon Geology and Rock Formations
by Bob Keller
http://www.rockhoun ds.com/grand_ hikes/geology/ overview. shtml

The Grand Canyon Supergroup Formations
by Bob Keller
http://www.rockhoun ds.com/grand_ hikes/geology/ supergroup_ formations. shtml

The Kaibab Formation
http://www.rockhoun ds.com/grand_ hikes/geology/ kaibab_formation .shtml

Stromatolite Fossils in the Hakatai Shale
http://www.rockhoun ds.com/grand_ hikes/hikes/ stromatolites_ in_the_hakatai

Grand Canyon Geology
by The Resource Center for Environmental Education
http://edu-source. com/GCpages/ CVOpage1. html
==
3500 B.C. began with copper tools, then 2500 B.C. superior bronze tools, then
1200 B.C. superior iron tools.
Retrieved from "http://www.conservapedia.com/Age_of_Metal"
==
Towering Ancient Tsunami Devastated the Mediterranean
A volcano avalanche in Sicily 8,000 years ago triggered a devastating tsunami
taller than a 10-story building that spread across the entire Mediterranean
Sea, slamming into the shores of three continents in only a few hours.
A new computer simulation of the ancient event reveals for the first time the
enormity of the catastrophe and its far-reaching effects.
The Mt. Etna avalanche sent 6 cubic miles of rock and sediment tumbling into
the waterenough material to cover the entire island of Manhattan in a layer of
debris thicker than the Empire State Building is tall.
The mountain of rubble crashed into the water at more than 200 mph. It
pummeled the sea bed, transformed thick layers of soft marine sediment into
jelly and triggered an underwater mudslide that flowed for hundreds of miles.
To create their computer simulation, researchers at the National Institute of
Geology and Volcanology in Italy used sonar-equipped boats to survey seafloor
sediment displaced by the Mt. Etna avalanche.
Their recreation suggests the tsunami's waves reached heights of up to 130
feet and maximum speeds of up to 450 mph, making it more powerful than the
Indonesian tsunami that killed more than 180,000 people in 2004.
The researchers have also linked the ancient tsunami with the mysterious
abandonment of Atlit-Yam, a Neolithic village located along the coast of
present-day Israel. When archeologists discovered the village about 20 years
ago, they found evidence of a sudden evacuation, including a pile of fish that
had been gutted and sorted but then left to rot.
"A tsunami was not suspected before," lead researcher Maria Pareschi told
LiveScience.
According to Pareschi, if the same tsunami struck today, Southern Italy would
be inundated within the first 15 minutes. In one hour, the waves would reach
Greece's western coasts. After an hour and a half, the city of Benghazi in
Northern Africa would be hit. At the three and a half hour mark, the waves
would have traversed the entire Mediterranean to reach the coasts of Israel,
Lebanon and Syria.
Avalanches and minor eruptions still occur on Mt. Etna today, but so far,
nothing approaching the magnitude of the ancient event.
"Should the Neolithic Etna tsunami have occurred today, the impact is
tremendous because the Eastern Mediterranean coasts are very inhabited ones,"
Pereschi said.
==
New Mollusk Species Found in Philippines
A French-led marine expedition team believes it has discovered thousands of
new species of mollusks and crustaceans around a Philippine island.
Some 80 scientists, technicians, students and volunteers from 19 countries
surveyed the waters around Panglao island, 390 miles southeast of Manila.
"Numerous species were observed and photographed alive, many for the first
time, and it is estimated that 150-250 of the crustaceans and 1,500-2,500 of
the mollusks are new species," said a statement from the expedition team,
which was led by Philippe Bouchet of the French National Museum of Natural
History.
"However, it requires a thorough comparison with all previously named species
to ascertain if a novel species is indeed new to science," it added. "This is
a slow and tedious process."
The Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project turned over to the
Philippine National Museum more than a hundred holotypes or representative
specimen of the rare finds, officials said.
The expedition team said its survey revealed over 1,200 species of decapod
crustaceans - a group that includes crayfish, crabs, lobsters and shrimps -
and some 6,000 species of mollusks.
==
Electron charge is 1.60217653(14) x 10-19 coulombs,[2] where the 14
indicates the uncertainty of the last two decimal places
==
'Astounding' Findings Pin Down Age of Universe, Birth of First Stars
Astronomers announced today a slew of remarkable findings about the early
cosmos, including a firm determination of the age of the universe and the
discovery of when the first stars were born.
The discoveries, based on an all-sky map that is like a baby picture of the
universe, were detailed at a NASA press conference. They provide the strongest
support to date for the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe and a
sub-notion within that theory that asserts that "hyperinflation" ruled during
the first seconds.
The results come from measurements of radiation emitted before there were any
stars.
The snapshot shows the state of the universe about 380,000 years after the Big
Bang. The study of this so-called cosmic microwave background (CMB) was made
using NASA's space-based Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) observatory.
The data were projected to a slightly more modern yet unseen era, revealing
that the universe had cooled enough for matter to condense and form the first
stars just 200 million years after the Big Bang.
"That's a surprisingly early time for the turn-on of the first stars," said
Charles L. Bennett, principal investigator for MAP at NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center.
The new data show the universe to be 13.7 billion years old, to within 200
million years, Bennett said. That figure has been estimated and re-estimated
many times, but often with wide margins of error.
Further, the study finds that early universe was 4 percent real matter in the
form of atoms, about 23 percent unseen dark matter, and about 73 percent dark
energy, a totally unknown and exotic force that causes the universe to
accelerate at an ever-faster pace.
Importantly, all of these figures are in line with other estimates made from
data collected in the nearby universe. Bennett and others said the new results
now serve as a cornerstone for modern cosmological theory and support its most
widely accepted aspects.
The results also confirm that the geometry of the universe is flat. This sort
of geometry, the same as what's taught in high school, does not allow two
parallel lines to intersect, even across great cosmic distances.
Hyperinflation
Among the more tantalizing findings is what appears to be the first
observational evidence that, as theorized, the first seconds of the universe
involved extremely rapid inflation. And data shows that some of the many
inflation models -- each trying to explain how this rapid expansion occurred
-- can probably be ruled out, while others may work.
Andrei Linde, of Stanford University, developed some of the inflationary
models that still seem to be alive. He had been greatly anticipating the
results and in a telephone interview called them "extremely impressive."
Linde said inflation had seemed like science fiction when it was first
introduced, about 20 years ago.
"We didn't expect in our lifetimes it would be verified," Linde said. "Now we
hear the basic features of inflationary cosmology fit with observational data."
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) was unleashed about 380,000 years after
the Big Bang, when the universe had first expanded enough to cool and allow
atoms to form. Around that time, a dense and impenetrable primordial cloud
cleared out. The radiation escaped in one form and, over time, its wavelengths
were stretched to the microwave range by the perpetual expansion of the
universe. The remnant radiation retains an imprint of the end of that era and
hints about what occurred before, much like the patterns on a cloud's exterior
provide clues to its insides.
The microwave radiation has since spread out and cooled, filling the universe.
It appears to be of nearly uniform temperature across all of space, but minute
variations first detected a decade ago provide the clues needed to help
decipher the primordial structure of the universe.
Tiny variations
The MAP spacecraft launched June 30, 2001. These are the first findings
attributed to it. MAP examines the CMB in greater detail than its predecessor,
the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. COBE first discovered the fine
variations in the CMB in 1992. It took about 3 months to get MAP into position,
and since then it has been building up the data that led to today's
long-anticipated announcement.
The temperature of the CMB ranges from 2.7251 to 2.7249 degrees Kelvin (a
measure of degrees above absolute zero). These tiny variations reflect the
earliest lumps and bumps in the universe -- seeds for galaxies and stars.
These seeds, then, formed roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Scientists
have no observations to tell them what happened next, but here's what they
imagine:
Nodes of matter were connected by long filaments, much like a spider web.
Clumps of hydrogen -- something like drops on the spider web -- developed
along the filaments. Each drop had heft, gravity and a random velocity, and
eventually they were drawn toward the nodes, where material gathered to
generate the first galaxies.
Princeton University's David Spergel, co-investigator for MAP, said the new
findings result from using the MAP data and running them against millions of
computer simulations to look for matches of what the composition and geometry
of the young cosmos must have been like.
"It's a lot like matching fingerprints," Spergel said. Once a match is found,
then a computer model can be run forward in time to see if things turn out to
match up with observations of the modern universe.
"What we find when we do that is remarkable," Spergel said. "It all fits."
Crazy universe, but true
The process is as daunting as taking a picture of a 12-hour-old baby and
morphing it into an image of a 50-year-old adult, said John Bahcall of the
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.
Bahcall was not involved in the project. But he lauded the results. "I'm
astounded," he said. Bahcall said the observations and analysis were so
precise that they must be believed.
"We live in an implausible, crazy universe, but one whose defining
characteristics we now know," Bahcall said.
The cosmic microwave background was detected by accident in 1965, by Bell Labs
researchers who heard extra noise in a radio receiver they were testing. At the
time, Princeton physicist David Wilkinson had been working on a way to detect
the radiation. He helped write a scientific paper back then for the Physical
Review, describing the implications of the inadvertent discovery.
Wilkinson later helped develop the COBE satellite. He then worked on the MAP
project. "Dave was really the father of MAP," Lyman Page, a MAP team member
from Princeton, said late last year. Wilkinson died in September.
NASA announced today that the observatory had been renamed WMAP, or Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
The results announced today had originally been slated for a press conference
last Thursday but were delayed in deference to the Space Shuttle Columbia
astronauts and their families. By any account, the discoveries represent a
remarkable way for NASA to get its science program heading back toward
business as usual.
From speculation to science
"Before the WMAP results, astronomers and physicists had put together a very
implausible picture of our universe," Bahcall said. "It had a tiny amount of
ordinary matter. It had a modest amount of dark matter, whatever that is. It
had an overwhelming amount of dark energy, which is a strange beast. I have to
confess I was very skeptical of this picture. But the WMAP results have
convinced me."
He added that every astronomer will remember when they first heard these
results.
"The announcement today represents a rite of passage for cosmology from
speculation to precision science," Bahcall said.
WMAP has more work to do, however, and it will continue collecting data.
Paul Steinhardt, another Princeton physicist who was not involved in WMAP
project but has reviewed the findings, said the results do not rule out a
so-called cyclic model of evolution, which competes with the inflationary
model. The cyclic model holds that instead of a set beginning to the universe,
evolution is periodic.
Both models predict virtually the same temperature fluctuations reported by
WMAP, Steinhardt told SPACE.com. Inflation further predicts the generation of
so-called gravitational waves, which should also be imprinted on the CMB.
"That does not occur in the cyclic model," he said.
Steinhardt said the WMAP data are not yet sensitive enough to address this
unresolved issue, but further observations by the satellite or other projects
might yield an answer.
==
The most detailed x-ray image yet of one of the youngest known
supernova remnantsthe debris cloud created when a massive star explodessolves a
long-standing mystery about how the star died.
About 400 years ago people on Earth, including the famous German astronomer
Johannes Kepler, saw the light from a supernova.
The explosion was so bright that it was visible with the naked eye even though
it occurred about 13,000 light-years away.
Scientists have been studying what became known as the Kepler supernova
remnant for about 30 years, but the formation had left them baffled about the
type of explosion that created it.
So far, scientists know of two types of supernovas: core-collapse and
thermonuclear.
Previous images suggested that the Kepler remnant is surrounded by dense
material, as expected from a core collapse. But the formation also appeared to
contain copious amounts of iron, a signature of a thermonuclear explosion.
The new image, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, clearly shows
abundant iron (yellow) and sparse oxygen, proving the Kepler blast was
thermonuclear, said Stephen Reynolds of North Carolina State University in
Raleigh.
"But at the same time we confirmed the presence of circumstellar material
[red]," which is normally a telltale sign of core collapse, Reynolds said. The
finding could mean that Kepler belongs to a new class of thermonuclear
supernova, he added.
But for now, Reynolds said, the image just shows that "it has both
[features]. Live with it. That's Chandra's message."
==
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/galileo/galileoaccount.html
Galileo history
==
Grand Canyon "Archeological Resources:
The oldest human artifacts found are nearly 12,000 years old and date to the
Paleo-Indian period. There has been continuous use and occupation of the park
since that time. Archeological remains from the following culture groups are
found in Grand Canyon National Park: Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Basketmaker,
Ancestral Puebloan (Kayenta and Virgin branches), Cohonina, Cerbat, Pai, Zuni,
Hopi, Navajo, and Euro-American. The park has recorded over 4,800
archeological resources with an intensive survey of nearly 3% of the park area.

The rocks exposed within Grand Canyon range from the fairly young to the
fairly old (geologically speaking). Kaibab limestone, the caprock on the rims
of the canyon, formed 270 million years ago.
The oldest rocks within the Inner Gorge at the bottom of Grand Canyon date
to 1.84 billion years ago. For comparison geologists currently set the age
of Earth at 4.5 billion years..."
==
Observationally, the lightest black hole candidates are about six
solar masses.
Going, Going, Gone?
The realization that holes could be small prompted Hawking to consider what
quantum effects might come into play, and in 1974 he came to his famous
conclusion that black holes do not just swallow particles but also spit them
out [see "The Quantum Mechanics of Black Holes," by S. W. Hawking; Scientific
American, January 1977]. Hawking predicted that a hole radiates thermally like
a hot coal, with a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. For a
solar-mass hole, the temperature is around a millionth of a kelvin, which is
completely negligible in today's universe. But for a black hole of 1012
kilograms, which is about the mass of a mountain, it is 1012 kelvins--hot
enough to emit both massless particles, such as photons, and massive ones,
such as electrons and positrons.
Because the emission carries off energy, the mass of the hole tends to
decrease. So a black hole is highly unstable. As it shrinks, it gets steadily
hotter, emitting increasingly energetic particles and shrinking faster and
faster. When the hole shrivels to a mass of about 106 kilograms, the game is
up: within a second, it explodes with the energy of a million-megaton nuclear
bomb. The total time for a black hole to evaporate away is proportional to the
cube of its initial mass. For a solar-mass hole, the lifetime is an
unobservably long 1064 years. For a 1012-kilogram one, it is 1010 years--about
the present age of the universe. Hence, any primordial black holes of this mass
would be completing their evaporation and exploding right now. Any smaller ones
would have evaporated at an earlier cosmological epoch.
==
http://www.wmnh. com/wmas0002. htm

Pierre and Marie Curie (1867-1934) discovered radium (1898) which led to a
new tool (measuring radioactive decay) for absolute dating of certain rocks.
In 1903 they discovered that radioactive decay produces heat as a
by-product. This invalidated Lord Kelvin's calculations since it introduced
a new heat source that Kelvin had not accounted for. Geologists no longer
had to assume that the Earth had steadily cooled from a molten state. The
fuel of plutonism had been clearly identified.
Bertram Boltwood (1907) dated the Earth's age as somewhere between 400
million and 2.2 billion years using the radioactive decay method.
Joseph Barrell (1917) reinterpreted geologic history to conform with the
latest results of radioactive dating. Even though these results indicated an
age of a few billion years, many geologists still preferred the 100 million
year old Earth.
George Ashley (1923) published A Geologic Time Scale while serving as state
geologist of Pennsylvania. At this point, Earth's geologic history was
already divided into Paleozoic(400 million years duration), Mesozoic(150
million years) and Cenozoic(61 million years). [Current revisions are
approximately 360 million, 185 million and 65 million years respectively. ]
Arthur Holmes (1926) was the primary author of a report for the National
Academy of Sciences in which the committee agreed unanimously that
radioactive dating was the only reliable geologic timescale. By this time,
the constants of radioactivity were firmly established and other sources of
problems such as specimen selection and lead isotopes were understood. The
scale has been further refined over the last 70 years. Currently, the record
for the oldest known rocks on Earth is 3.96 billion years.
Harry Hess (1960) placed sea-floor spreading on firm theoretical and
empirical footing. The modern study of plate tectonics is born.
Alvarez et. al. (1980) proposed a major asteroid or comet impact at the K/T
boundary which was probably the major causative agent of the K/T mass
extinction. The Alvarez hypothesis sparked interest in searching for similar
evidence at other extinction horizons.
Eugene Shoemaker (1983) tabulated lists of Earth crossing asteroids and
comets and calculated cratering rates for Earth.
Harland et. al. (1989) published A Geologic Time Scale which is considered
an authoritative work on on the geologic timescale and is widely used by
geologists and paleontologists.
D. McLaren and W. Goodfellow (1990) presented a model for the environmental
effects of large asteroid and comet impacts and some evidence for large
impact events at most of the major extinction horizons.
===
In proper science there are only "better" theories, never absolute truths.
==
Geological periods

Eon	Era

Period Start, Million Years Ago
Phanerozoic	Cenozoic	Neogene* (Miocene/Pliocene/Pleistocene/Holocene)

23.0
Paleogene
(Paleocene/Eocene/Oligocene)

65.5
Mesozoic Cretaceous

145.5

Jurassic

200

Triassic

251

Paleozoic	Permian

300

Carboniferous
(Mississippian/Pennsylvanian)

359

Devonian

416

Silurian

444

Ordovician

488

Cambrian

542

Proterozoic	Neoproterozoic	Ediacaran

630
==
"In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden;
If I were to divulge it, it would overturn the world."
-- Jelaleddin Rumi
==
Carving Grand Canyon by geologist Wayne Ranney or
The Colorado River: Origin and Evolution,
==
More than six and a half million compounds of the element carbon, many times
more than those of any other element, are known, and more are discovered and
synthesized regularly. Hundreds of carbon compounds are commercially important
but the element itself in the forms of diamond, graphite, charcoal, carbon
black, and fullerene is also indispensable.
===
In the Coconino sandstone are the numerous appearances of clearly defined
lizard tracks going up the side of one dune and down the other? Snake and
beetle trails are so distinct and characteristic that sometimes the species
can be identified? These occur all through the Coconino, top to bottom.
==
Big Bang
First was the discovery of red shift by astronomer Fred Hoyle. He discovered
that light was red-shifted, which is the light equivalent of the Doppler
effect in sound waves. The only reasonable explanation for this phenomenon
that anyone has come up with is that everything in the universe is moving away
from everything else. If everything is moving away from everything else, then
it's a simple matter to reverse the movement in your imagination and you will
realize that there comes a time when everything was in the same place at the
same time. This is called the singularity. It was from the singularity that
the Big Bang came.
Second was the discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. George
Gamow, a famous theoretical physicist, speculated that, if the Big Bang were
true, then we should see a uniform radiation residue of the event, everywhere
in the universe. Such radiation had not before been observed, but, within 10
years of Gamow's speculation, the Microwave Background Radiation was
discovered and it's temperature was measured to be within a few degrees Kelvin
of Gamow's prediction.
Third was the initial finding that the Microwave Background Radiation was
homogeneous to a high degree. That meant that it seemed to be the same
everywhere. In fact, it seemed to be so much the same that physicists began to
be concerned. How could stars and galaxies have begun to form if the background
radiation showed no "blips"? It was definitely felt that gravity needed some
small difference to get started forming stars and galaxies, but they weren't
seeing any. Finally, using the COBE satellite, they were able to see the
"blips" they felt had to be there if the Big Bang were to be true.
===
Universe's First Objects Possibly Seen
Astronomers might have seen the very first stars in the universe. If so, these
are incredible stars, some 1,000 times as massive as the Sun.
The alternative is just as interesting: The objects might be early black holes
consuming gas voraciously and spitting out radiation like crazy as nascent
galaxies form.
The observations, by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, were first reported on a
preliminary basis in November 2005 in the journal Nature. A new analysis was
announced today.
"We are pushing our telescopes to the limit and are tantalizingly close to
getting a clear picture of the very first collections of objects," said
Alexander Kashlinsky of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author on
two reports to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. "Whatever
these objects are, they are intrinsically incredibly bright and very different
from anything in existence today."
Way back
The light comes from objects that are more than 13 billion light-years away.
That means the light began its journey more than 13 billion years ago. The
universe is just a smidgeon older, at 13.7 billion years, and astronomers are
pretty sure it took a few hundred million years for the matter of the Big Bang
to spread out enough, and cool, to allow the first stars to form.
A little math therefore shows that these newfound objects are indeed the
infants of the universe. But what are they? If they are stars, they are about
10 times more massive than theories suggest the first stars would have been.
The mysterious objects are in clusters. If they are each stars, then the
clusters might be the first mini-galaxies. And if so, each apparently has a
mass that's less than a million suns. Our Milky Way, by contrast, holds the
mass of about 100 billion suns and is thought to have been built up by mergers
of smaller galaxiesperhaps like those the astronomers now think they might be
seeing.
What they see
When light travels to us from near the beginning of the universe, it is
stretched. Other observations of the universe's first light have been made in
the microwave range. This cosmic microwave background reveals patterns of
matter clumping, but no specific objects.
The light measured in the new study is thought to have started as ultraviolet
and optical light, and it has been stretched over time to infrared.
Kashlinsky's team calls it the cosmic infrared background and describes it as
a diffuse light from the early time when structure first emerged.
"There's ongoing debate about what the first objects were and how galaxies
formed," said Harvey Moseley of Goddard, a co-author on the new papers.
Some think our galaxy and other large galaxies grew through mergers. One
recent study questioned that notion, however.
"We are on the right track to figuring this out," Moseley said. "We've now
reached the hilltop and are looking down on the village below, trying to make
sense of what's going on."
Difficult observations
The problem in making sense of it all lies with the fact that the observations
are not clear-cut. The scientists had to remove light from foreground stars and
galaxies, and then study fluctuations in what is a relatively diffuse light
"Imagine trying to see fireworks at night from across a crowded city,"
Kashlinsky suggested. "If you could turn off the city lights, you might get a
glimpse at the fireworks. We have shut down the lights of the universe to see
the outlines of its first fireworks."
The researchers expect NASA's planned James Webb Space Telescope will be able
to identify the nature of the newfound clusters.
==
The earliest Neandertals date from 225,000 years ago at Pontnewydd cave in
Wales and at Ehringsdorf, Germany about the same time. (Stringer and Gamble,
1993, p. 66)
==
"The Ethical Basis of Science" Science. Vol. 150. 1965, p. 1254. [Q1 S35]
==
Bertrand Russell said, "Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world
from earlier centuries is attributable to science..."

Richard Feynman said, "For a successful technology, reality must take
precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled...I believe
that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb
as the next guy."
===
The Moon is moving away from us. Each year, the Moon steals
some of Earth's rotational energy, and uses it to propel itself about
3.8 centimeters higher in its orbit. Researchers say that when it formed,
the Moon was about 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) from Earth. It's now more
than 280,000 miles, or 450,000 kilometers away.
All this tugging has another interesting effect: Some of Earth's rotational
energy is stolen by the Moon, causing our planet to slow down by about
1.5 milliseconds every century.
Scientists say they think the Moon probably has a core that is hot and perhaps
partially molten, as is Earth's core. But data from NASA's Lunar Prospector
spacecraft showed in 1999 that the Moon's core is small -- probably between
2 percent and 4 percent of its mass. This is tiny compared with Earth, in which
the iron core makes up about 30 percent of the planet's mass.

==
The History of Dark Energy Goes Way, Way Back
Scientists now have evidence that dark energy has been around for most of the
universe's history.
Using NASAs Hubble Space Telescope, researchers measured the expansion of the
universe 9 billion years ago based on 23 of the most distant supernovae ever
detected.
As theoretically expected, they found that the mysterious antigravity force,
apparently pushing galaxies outward at an accelerating pace, was acting on the
ancient universe much like the present.
All supernovas of a certain variety, called Type-1a, burn with the same
brightness, so scientists can calculate relative distances in the universe
based on how dim or bright these exploding stars get. In the late 1990s it was
realized that these standard candles were dimmer than expected and that the
expansion of the universe was accelerating.
Scientists blamed the acceleration on an inexplicable repulsive force, dark
energy.
"Although dark energy accounts for more than 70 percent of the energy of the
universe, we know very little about it, so each clue is precious," said Adam
Riess, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who was involved in the initial
discoveries back in the '90s. "Our latest clue is that the stuff we call dark
energy was present as long as 9 billion years ago, when it was starting to
make its presence felt."
The universe is about 13.7 billion years old.
The researchers believe that although this new observation is a significant
clue in the quest to understand what is probably, in Riess's words one of the
most, if not the most, pressing question in physics, its far from the proof to
what dark energy actually is.
Mario Livio from the Space Telescope Science Institute put the situation in
perspective at a media teleconference at NASA headquarters today. Water covers
70 percent of the surface of the Earth, Livio said, yet it took humans many
centuries to first discover the properties of water. With dark energy, he
said, researchers are still in the phase of determining its properties.
Previous observations revealed that the early universe was comprised of matter
whose gravity was trying to pull it all inward and slow down its expansion. But
the spreading out of the cosmos started speeding up around 5 billion to 6
billion years ago. Thats when scientists believe dark energy started to win
the cosmic tug of war.
"After we subtract the gravity from the known matter in the universe, we can
see the dark energy pushing to get out," said Lou Strolger from the University
of Western Kentucky.
Another important finding, the researchers said, is that they can now compare
the properties of ancient stellar explosions to today's explosions.
This is important because we use these tools to measure the universe [and] we
need to make sure that our understanding of their nature themselves have not
changed, Riess said. The chemical composition in these 9-billion-year-old
supernovas look remarkably similar to those that occur in the modern universe.
So this finding continues to validate the use of supernovas as cosmic probes
for understanding the nature of dark energy.
This latest finding is consistent with Einsteins explanation for what dark
energy is, the researchers noted. Einsteins cosmological constant idea, which
he called his biggest blunder and later rejected, turned out to be the same
thing that scientist now see as the repulsive form of gravity called dark
energy.
==
Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that dark
energy is not a new constituent of space, but rather has been present for most
of the universe's history. Dark energy is a mysterious repulsive force that
causes the universe to expand at an increasing rate. Investigators used Hubble
to find that dark energy was already boosting the expansion rate of the
universe as long as nine billion years ago. This picture of dark energy is
consistent with Albert Einstein's prediction of nearly a century ago that a
repulsive form of gravity emanates from empty space. Data from Hubble provides
supporting evidence to help astrophysicists to understand the nature of dark
energy. This will allow them to begin ruling out some competing explanations
that predict that the strength of dark energy changes over time.
Researchers also have found that the class of ancient exploding stars, or
supernovae, used to measure the expansion of space today look remarkably
similar to those that exploded nine billion years ago and are just now being
seen by Hubble. This important finding gives additional credibility to the use
of these supernovae for tracking the cosmic expansion over most of the
universe's lifetime. Supernovae provide reliable measurements because their
intrinsic brightness is well understood. They are therefore reliable distance
markers, allowing astronomers to determine how far away they are from Earth.
These snapshots, taken by Hubble reveal five supernovae and their host
galaxies. The arrows in the top row of images point to the supernovae. The
bottom row shows the host galaxies before or after the stars
exploded. The supernovae exploded between 3.5 and 10 billion years ago.
==
The Big Bang is the scientific theory of how the universe emerged from a
tremendously dense and hot state about 13.7 billion years ago.
The Big Bang produced about 10 percent He4, .001 percent He3 with almost the
rest made up of hydrogen.
The universe contains about 74 percent hydrogen and 26 percent helium by mass.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/cern/ideas/bang.html
==
They are eerie sensations, more common than one might think: A man describes
feeling a shadowy figure standing behind him, then turning around to find no
one there. A womanfeels herself leaving her body and floating in space, looking
down on her corporeal self. Such experiences are often attributed by those who
have them to paranormal forces.
But according to recent work by neuroscientists, they can be induced by
delivering mild electric current to specific spots in the brain. In one woman,
for example, a zap to a brain region called the angular gyrus resulted in a
sensation that she was hanging from the ceiling, looking down at her body. In
another woman, electrical current delivered to the angular gyrus produced an
uncanny feeling that someone was behind her, intent on interfering with her
actions.

The two women were being evaluated for epilepsy surgery at University Hospital
in Geneva, where doctors implanted dozens of electrodes into their brains to
pinpoint the abnormal tissue causing the seizures and to identify adjacent
areas involved in language, hearing or other essential functions that should be
avoided in the surgery. As each electrode was activated, stimulating a
different patch of brain tissue, the
patient was asked to say what she was experiencing.
Dr. Olaf Blanke, a neurologist at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
in Switzerland who carried out the procedures, said that the women had normal
psychiatric histories and that they were stunned by the bizarre nature of their
experiences.

The Sept. 21 issue of Nature magazine includes an account by Dr. Blanke
and his colleagues of the woman who sensed a shadow person behind her. They
described the out-of-body experiences in the February 2004 issue of the journal
Brain.
There is nothing mystical about these ghostly experiences, said Peter Brugger,
a neuroscientist at University Hospital in Zurich, who was not involved in the
experiments but is an expert on phantom limbs, the sensation of still feeling
a limb that has been amputated, and other mind-bending phenomena.
"The research shows that the self can be detached from the body and can live a
phantom existence on its own, as in an out-of-body experience, or it can be
felt outside of personal space, as in a sense of a presence," Dr. Brugger said
Scientists have gained new understanding of these odd bodily sensations as they
have learned more about how the brain works, Dr. Blanke said. For
example, researchers have discovered that some areas of the brain combine
information from several senses. Vision, hearing and touch are initially
processed in the primary sensory regions. But then they flow together, like
tributaries into a river, to create the wholeness of a person's perceptions. A
dog is visually recognized far more quickly if it is simultaneously
accompanied by the sound of its bark.
These multisensory processing regions also build up perceptions of the body as
it movesthrough the world, Dr. Blanke said. Sensors in the skin provide
information about pressure, pain, heat, cold and similar sensations. Sensors in
the joints, tendons and bones tell the brain where the body is positioned in
space. Sensors in the ears track the sense of balance. And sensors in the
internal organs, including the heart, liver and intestines, provide a readout
of a person's emotional state.
Real-time information from the body, the space around the body and the
subjective feelings from the body are also represented in multisensory regions,
Dr. Blanke said. And if these regions are directly simulated by an electric
current, as in the cases of the two women he studied, the integrity of the
sense of body can be altered. As an example, Dr. Blanke described the case of
a 22-year-old student who had electrodes implanted into the left side of her
brain in 2004.
"We were checking language areas," Dr. Blanke said, when the woman turned her
head to the right. That made no sense, he said, because the electrode was
nowhere near areas involved in the control of movement. Instead, the current
was stimulating a multisensory area called the angular gyrus.
Dr. Blanke applied the current again. Again, the woman turned her head to the
right.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked.
The woman replied that she had a weird sensation that another person was lying
beneath her on the bed. The figure, she said, felt like a "shadow" that did
not speak or move; it was young, more like a man than a woman, and it wanted to
interfere with her.
When Dr. Blanke turned off the current, the woman stopped looking to the right,
and said the
strange presence had gone away. Each time he reapplied the current,
she once again
turned her head to try to see the shadow figure.
When the woman sat up, leaned forward and hugged her knees, she said
that she felt as if the shadow man was also sitting and that he was
clasping her in his arms. She said it felt unpleasant. When she held a card
in her right hand, she reported that the shadow figure tried to take it from
her. "He doesn't want me to read," she said. Because the presence closely
mimicked the patient's body posture and position, Dr.Blanke concluded that
the patient was experiencing an unusual perception of her own body, as a
double. But for reasons that scientists have not been able to explain, he
said, she did not recognize that it was her own body she was sensing. The
feeling of a shadowy presence can occur without electrical stimulation to
the brain, Dr. Brugger said. It has been described by people who undergo
sensory deprivation, as in mountaineers trekking at high altitude or sailors
crossing the ocean alone, and by people who have suffered minor strokes or
other disruptions in blood flow to the brain. Six years ago, another of
Dr. Blanke's patients underwent brain stimulation to a different
multisensory area, the angular gyrus, which blends vision with the body sense.
The patient experienced a complete out-of-body experience.
When the current flowed, she said: "I am at the ceiling. I am looking down
at my legs." When the current ceased, she said: "I'm back on the table now.
What happened?"
Further applications of the current returned the woman to the ceiling,
causing her to feel as if she were outside of her body, floating, her
legs dangling below her. When she closed her eyes, she had the sensation
of doing sit-ups, with her upper body approaching her legs.
Because the woman's felt position in space and her actual position
in space did not match, her mind cast about for the best way to turn her
confusion into a coherent experience, Dr. Blanke said. She concluded
that she must be floating up and away while looking downward.
==
Prof. Stephen Hawking while at Cambridge University in the 1970s, was asked
Where did the energy come from for the Big Bang? His answer? He said it is
outside the scope of physics.
==
The existence of the CMB radiation was first predicted by George Gamow in
1948, and by Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman in 1950. It was first observed
inadvertently in 1965 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at the Bell Telephone
Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. The radiation was acting as a source
of excess noise in a radio receiver they were building. Coincidentally,
researchers at nearby Princeton University, led by Robert Dicke and including
Dave Wilkinson of the WMAP science team, were devising an experiment to find
the CMB. When they heard about the Bell Labs result they immediately realized
that the CMB had been found. The result was a pair of papers in the Physical
Review: one by Penzias and Wilson detailing the observations, and one by
Dicke, Peebles, Roll, and Wilkinson giving the cosmological interpretation.
Penzias and Wilson shared the 1978 Nobel prize in physics for their discovery.
So, the existence of the cosmic background radiation of a particular
frequency and intensity was predicted as a corollary of the Big Bang theory.
It was then detected by more than one observer, which verified the theory.
The Nobel prize committee concurred, so it is now part of the body of
accepted physics.
==
Professor Michael Rowan-Robinson, president of the Royal Astronomical Society,
UK, commented: "The demonstration of the perfect blackbody form of the cosmic
microwave background spectrum by John Mather and his team, and the detection
of fluctuations in the cosmic background radiation by George Smoot and his
team, are among the most significant discoveries in astronomy of the past
century. "The blackbody form demonstrates the correctness of the Hot Big Bang
model, in which matter and radiation were locked together in thermal
equilibrium for the first 150,000 years after the initial singularity.
==
Copernicus
Revolution in Science by I. Bernard Cohen (Harvard University Press).
In fact De Revolutionibus was printed just before Copernicus died, and he saw
the galley print on his deathbed.
==
Fossilization
Let's look first at the composition of bone: it is mostly calcium
phosphate, calcium carbonate, and calcium apatite (a mixed phosphate
and carbonate), and a little silicate.
When buried for millions of years, and exposed to heat, and hot water
solutions that contain small amounts of dissolved iron, manganese,
and particularly silicion (as silicates), a very slow replacement and
re-deposition process occurs. Everything is slightly soluble, and
phosphates slightly more than silicates. The process is abetted when
the solution is acidic, as often occurs (owing to sulfides and
sulfates), which attacks the carbonate components. It can also be
abetted when the solution is highly alkaline, as occurs in sodic
solutions, pH>9. The result is gradual transformation of phospho-
carbonates with complex silicates, usually related to orthoclases and
plagioclases. Electronegativity and solution potentials are
important, too. The process is abetted by high pressures--almost
always the new crystalline compound has lower molar volume than the
original.
==
Poorly educated people make the language paramount. However, since language
is just a tool for describing reality, it is necessarily reality that is
paramount. Scientific words should have meanings that accurately reflect
reality. Often it happens that reality itself is not precise, as with the
concept of species. To give a precise definition of "species" would be to give
a definition that did not refer to the actual concept. If the precise
definition were adopted and accepted as precise, it would only mislead.
Scientific definitions should be clear and unambiguous, but not necessarily
precise. We can create definitions of species, but they will "never" reflect
exactly what happens in nature.
The same is true of innumerable other terms, such as "tree" and "planet" and
"white". They work in most cases, but sometimes we need to add qualifiers to
clarify that what we are referring to doesn't quite fit cleanly into the
category.
==
Potassium 40 (K40) decays to argon 40, which is an inert gas, or to calcium
Potassium is present in most geological materials, making potassium-argon
dating highly useful. Potassium is about 1/40 of the earth's crust, and about
1/10,000 of the potassium is potassium 40.

Zircons exclude lead, for example, so U-Pb dating can be applied to zircon to
determine the time since lava cooled. Micas exclude strontium, so Rb-Sr dating
can be used on micas to determine the length of time since the mica formed.
==
Quantum theory dictates that empty space-what physicists call the
pop in and out of existence.
This vacuum energy has some subtle but measurable effects. For example,
it shifts the energy levels of atoms slightly and exerts a force
between closely spaced metal plates (SN: 2/10/01, p. 86). In 1967, the
Russian astrophysicist Yakov B. Zeldovich showed that vacuum energy has
an intriguing property. The energy associated with this nothingness has
negative pressure. The Lamb shift is such a frequency shift effect.
That means vacuum energy could push galaxies apart at ever-increasing
speeds, making it an ideal candidate for being the dark energy.
Alas, there appears to be a huge problem. Calculations reveal that the
energy stored in the vacuum is 120 orders of magnitude larger than the
dark energy that cosmologists are positing.
If the vacuum energy density really is so enormous, it would cause an
exponentially rapid expansion of the universe that would rip apart all
the electrostatic and nuclear bonds that hold atoms and molecules
together, note Paul J. Steinhardt of the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia and Robert R. Caldwell of Dartmouth College in Hanover.
It's likely, physicists admit, that they don't really know how to
calculate vacuum energy. That complication may have to do with their
limited knowledge about the nature of gravity. Einstein's theory holds
that gravity curves empty space-the vacuum-but scientists don't yet
know how gravity does so on a quantum mechanical scale.
Thus, scientists have yet to unify quantum theory with gravity. Some
hold out the hope that when they do, they'll miraculously find that the
120 orders of magnitude drop to zero-almost. There might be just
enough vacuum energy left over to account for the amount harbored by
dark energy.
Many researchers think that's a forlorn hope, however. They believe
that a better understanding of the vacuum energy will reveal it to be
exactly zero.
==
A PhD student in the University of Adelaide s School of Earth and
Environmental Sciences has found evidence of a collision between northern and
central Australia 1.64 billion years ago. Kate Selway says that two billion
years ago, the Australia we know today existed only in bits.

While Africa originally moved to the southeast relative to Europe,
it then began to rotate in a more northwest direction. This change
probably resulted from the ocean floor spreading in the South
Atlantic. At this point spreading in the Tethys either stopped or was
outpaced by the spreading of the Atlantic. The African plate continued
to rotate counterclockwise until about 70 million years ago. At that
point it moved more directly East for a period before moving to the
Northwest for the remainder of the Tertiary. During this time the
Tethys was closed and the geologic units described above were
compressed, uplifted and exposed.
==
"Calculations show that a meteorite with a diameter of 30 m, weighing about
300,000 tons, traveling at a velocity of 15 km/sec (33,500 miles/hour) would
release energy equivalent to about 20 million tons of TNT. Such a meteorite
struck at Meteor Crater, Arizona (the Barringer Crater) about 49,000 years ago
leaving a crater 1200 m in diameter and 200 m deep. The amount of energy
released by an impact depends on the size of the impacting body and its
velocity. An impact like the one that struck the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mexico
about 65 million years ago, thought responsible for the extinction of the
dinosaurs and numerous other species, created the Chicxulub Crater, 180 km in
diameter and released energy equivalent to about 100 million megatons of TNT.
For comparison, the amount of energy needed to create a nuclear winter on the
Earth as a result of nuclear war is about 8,000 megatons, and the energy
equivalent of the world's nuclear arsenal is about 60,000 megatons."
(Meteorites, Impact and Mass Extinction).
==
The Moon's width, 2,159 miles, is about 2.5 miles greater than its pole-to-pole
height it was still greater than would be expected for its current rotation
period of 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes and 11.5 seconds.
==
Antarctic crater linked to ancient die-off
Scientists say impact might have caused extinction 250 million years ago
An apparent crater as big as Ohio has been found in Antarctica. Scientists
think it was carved by a space rock that caused the greatest mass extinction
on Earth, 250 million years ago.
The crater, buried beneath a half-mile (1 kilometer) of ice and discovered by
some serious airborne and satellite sleuthing, is more than twice as big as
the one involved in the demise of the dinosaurs.
The crater's location, in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of
Australia, suggests it might have instigated the breakup of the so-called
Gondwana supercontinent, which pushed Australia northward, the researchers
said.
This Wilkes Land impact is much bigger than the impact that killed the
dinosaurs, and probably would have caused catastrophic damage at the time,
said Ralph von Frese, a professor of geological sciences at Ohio State
University.
The crater is about 300 miles (500 kilometers) wide. It was found by looking
at differences in density that show up in gravity measurements taken with
NASA's GRACE satellites. Researchers spotted a mass concentration, which they
call a mascon dense stuff that welled up from the mantle, likely in an impact.
If I saw this same mascon signal on the moon, I'd expect to see a crater
around it, Frese said. (The moon, with no atmosphere, retains a record of
ancient impacts in the visible craters there.)
So Frese and colleagues overlaid data from airborne radar images that showed a
300-mile-wide subsurface, circular ridge. The mascon fit neatly inside the
circle.
And when we looked at the ice-probing airborne radar, there it was, he said
Thursday.
The Permian-Triassic extinction, as it is known, wiped out most life on land
and in the oceans. Researchers have long suspected a space rock might have
been involved. Some scientists have blamed volcanic activity or other culprits.
The die-off set up conditions that eventually allowed dinosaurs to rule the
planet.
The newfound crater is more than twice the size of the Chicxulub crater in the
Yucatan peninsula, which marks the impact that may have ultimately killed the
dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The Chicxulub space rock is thought to have
been 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide, while the Wilkes Land meteor could have
been up to 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide, the researchers said.
==
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/index.html astronomy
==
Blob biggest thing in universe
An enormous amoeba-like structure 200 million light-years wide
and made up of galaxies and large bubbles of gas is the largest known object
in the universe, scientists say.
The galaxies and gas bubbles, called Lyman alpha blobs, are aligned along
three curvy filaments that formed about 2 billion years after the universe
exploded into existence after the theoretical Big Bang.
The filaments were recently seen using the Subaru and Keck telescopes on Mauna
Kea.
The galaxies within the newly found structure are packed together four times
closer than the universe's average.
Some of the gas bubbles are up to 400,000 light years across, nearly twice the
diameter of our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy.
Scientists think they formed when massive stars born early in the history of
the universe exploded as supernovas and blew out their surrounding gases.
Another theory is that the bubbles are giant gas cocoons that will one day
give birth to new galaxies.
The finding will give researchers new insight into what the structure of
cosmos looks like at the largest scale.
"Something this large and this dense would have been rare in the early
universe," said study team member Ryosuke Yamauchi from Tohoku University.
"The structure we discovered and others like are probably the precursors of
the largest structures we see today which contain multiple clusters of
galaxies," Yamauchi said.
==
Grand Canyon
Consider that by the late 1800s geologists were beginning to realize
that the Colorado River within the Grand Canyon had been blocked
several times and at several locations by lava dams that were built
when local volcanoes spewed their molten lava into the developing
canyon. Of course, being uniformitarian in their thinking, these
earlier geologists theorized that these lava dams were each slowly
worn away in sequences of tens of thousands of years as water flowed
over them during a total course of around 5.5 million years. For a
long time now this position has been the prevailing opinion of the
geological community and of scientists in general.
Interestingly enough though, this long cherished uniformitarian
concept has been recently challenged by modern geologists who are
presenting evidence that these lava dams did not erode away slowly at
all. Instead, mounting evidence suggests that these lava dams failed
almost instantaneously in catastrophic events of staggering
proportions. Modern geologists are now theorizing that the sudden
failure of these dams released raging torrents of water carrying up to
"37 times" more water than the largest ever recorded flooding of the
mighty Mississippi River. Of course, the reason that such massive
amounts of water could be stored and released so quickly is partially
due to the fact that some of the dams were very large, rising up to
2,000 feet above the river bed. It seems that some of these larger
dams lasted just long enough for very large amounts of water to build
up behind them. The formation of very large lakes behind some of
these dams seems to have proceeded at a very rapid rate since there is
no evidence of lakes existing in the region beyond very short periods
of time. Then, with the sudden failure of a 2,000-foot dam, a huge
wall of rapidly rushing water charged through the Canyon carving out
significant portions of the Canyon in very short order. But, why did
these dams fail so quickly?
As it turns out, lava dams are inherently unstable. This is because
when molten lava meets cold river water it cools very rapidly. This
rapid cooling effect turns the lava into fragile walls of glass. As
this glass is cooled and heated it fractures quickly and easily,
sometimes \explosively\. Not all that surprisingly then, recent
evidence seems to suggest that many of the dams failed from the bottom
up since the glass content was greatest at the base of the dams.
Also, various fault lines run through the Grand Canyon. Active
earthquakes were thought to affect the Grand Canyon region during the
time of the various lava flows. It seems then that with the help of
even minor earthquakes fragile dams with glass bases supporting the
enormous pressure of very large lakes would indeed fail in a
catastrophic manner in very short order.
Such a massive and sudden release of water would obviously result in
very rapid erosion. In fact, growing numbers of geologists now
believe that certain portions of the Grand Canyon, once thought to be
up to 5 million years old (Marble Canyon and the Inner Gorge), may be
as young as 600,000 years old. Talk about getting younger with time!
An 8-fold decrease in supposed age is a very dramatic reduction. How
could geologists have been so far off in their dating techniques?
Some mainstream geologists are even starting to refer to the Grand
Canyon as a \geologic infant.\ This is especially interesting because
the initial estimates were supposedly backed up by fairly reliable
potassium-argon (K-Ar) radiometric dating techniques, which are now
thought by some to be inaccurate in this region due to the lack of
complete removal of the argon daughter product at the time of initial
formation of the lava dams.
Further evidence for a catastrophic model comes from USGS scientist
and University of Arizona (UA) graduate, Jim O'Conner, along with UA
hydrologist Victor Baker and others, who found evidence of a \400,000
cfs [cubic feet per second] flow that occurred about 4,000 years
ago.\ For comparison, this is about the rate of catastrophic flow that
would result if the Glen Canyon Dam suddenly failed. Taking this
into account, scientists have noted that, \Large sustained floods can
cause rapid downcutting in bedrock. The Inner Gorge and Marble Canyon
are essentially giant slot canyons: features consistent with rapid
down-cutting.\ Also, when large dams fail catastrophically, such as
Idaho's Teton Dam did in 1976, they leave distinctive profiles in
soils and on canyon walls. The water drops quickly with an
exponential decay curve. Such decay curves are clearly evident in the
Grand Canyon. For this sort of catastrophe to happen the lava dams
must have failed almost instantaneously - as did the Teton dam, which
failed and was completely destroyed in less than 2 hours.
Because the Grand Canyon lava dams were so unstable, the lakes that
formed behind these dams did not have very much time to develop. In
fact, the evidence clearly shows that these lakes must have filled
fairly quickly before they were drained catastrophically a short time
later. Though these lakes were sometimes very large when they
emptied, they did not leave evidence of significant deltas or expected
sedimentation, which would have developed if these lakes had survived
longer than tens of years to a few hundred years.
Another interesting finding comes from the fieldwork of Webb, an
adjunct faculty member of the University of Arizona department of
geosciences, hydrology and water resources. With co-researchers
Fenton and Cerling, Webb applied a newly developed \cosmogenic dating
method\, developed by Cerling, to date basalt flows and other
landforms in the Grand Canyon. The technique measures how long a
surface has been exposed to cosmic rays from space. Their application
of this technique to lava flows in the western Grand Canyon is thought
to make this region one of the best understood in terms of the ages of
volcanic features in the Southwest. Interestingly enough, they dated
some of the lava flows at only \1,300 years old.\
These findings are simply devastating to long held notions of slow
uniformitarian process creating the Grand Canyon gradually over vast
periods of time. Rather, it seems abundantly clear that much if not
all of the expanse of the Grand Canyon was cut out catastrophically
over very short periods of time - perhaps faster and more
catastrophically than even currently recognized.
==
An isolated neutron is unstable and will decay with a half-life of
10.5 minutes. A neutron decays into a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino
==
The earliest evidence of human settlement in Ireland dates from
8000 to 7000 BCE.
==
Theories of the birth of the Universe, the formation of the first galaxies,
stars and black holes, and their evolution to the present will be presented
and discussed in the light of the latest observations.
Most of the Universe seems to consist of mysterious dark matter and even more
mysterious dark energy. A major challenge of present cosmological research is
to understand the origin and roles of these invisible players in cosmic
evolution, and how they determine the structure of the visible Universe.
As in living organisms, the evolution of the Universe is determined by a
continuous feedback from cosmological to star-size structures.
Gamma-ray bursts, detected throughout the Universe at rates of about one a day
and lasting form a few milliseconds to several minutes, are incredibly violent
signals of other mysterious events - perhaps the merger of neutron stars, the
collapse of a massive star or neutron star-black hole binary. Metals,
essential constituents of life on Earth, are ejected by exploding stars at the
end of their lifetimes and provide raw material for the next generation of
stars. New telescopes in space and on Earth are revealing ever more about the
most distant and oldest parts of Universe and are scanning near stars for
other solar systems.
==
The part of the brain most associated with reasoning--is the dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex. Most active were the orbital frontal cortex, which is
involved in the processing of emotions; the anterior cingulate, which is
associated with conflict resolution; the posterior cingulate, which is
concerned with making judgments about moral accountability; and--once subjects
had arrived at a conclusion that made them emotionally comfortable--the ventral
striatum, which is related to reward and pleasure.
==
In science we have built-in self-correcting machinery. Strict double-blind
controls are required in experiments, in which neither the subjects nor the
experimenters know the experimental conditions during the data-collection
phase. Results are vetted at professional conferences and in peer-reviewed
journals. Research must be replicated in other laboratories unaffiliated with
the original researcher. Disconfirmatory evidence, as well as contradictory
interpretations of the data, must be included in the paper. Colleagues are
rewarded for being skeptical. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence.
===
"The Afterglow of Creation" by Marcus Chown big bang

The Trouble With Physics : The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science,
and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin

Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory And the Search for Unity in
Physical Law by Peter Woit
==
The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.
Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919)

It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is
never better than knowledge.
Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954)

Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.
Laurence J. Peter (1919 - 1988)

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Will Durant (1885 - 1981)

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the
illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914 - )
==
Dawkins: You'll hear scientists arguing and they'll sit down together and
say, "Well, I accept that if you could show with this experiment
here that so and so happened, I would change my mind, and I would
come over to your side."

One of the most formative experiences of my undergraduate life, if I
could tell you a story, is we had an elderly professor in my
department who had been teaching us for more than a dozen years -
not teaching us, I mean teaching a particular theory - a favorite
theory which he was passionately in favor of, and it was very
controversial and he was passionate about it. A visiting American
researcher came to the department to give a public talk in the
department. He stood up and he demolished this old man's theory. At
the end of the talk the old man strode to the front, shook him
warmly by the hand, and said, "My dear fellow, I wish to thank you.
I have been wrong these fifteen years." And we all clapped our hands.
That's the way science proceeds. I think that's a very good lesson.
==
Galaxy M81 (aka, NGC 3031), we're observing the galaxy as it was about 11.8
million years ago.
===
There where only about 30 species of dinosaurs on earth when the asteroid hit.
==
Hemoglobin's globins
are larger. Both show less constraint than cytochrome c. Histones H3
and H4 are larger (but not much larger, because for there to be
significant constraint it is important that most of the protein be in
contact with the substrate and that requires a small protein) than the
minimum cytochrome c and shows more constraint. If you
plot the rate of amino acid substitutions as amino acid changes per 100
residues against millions of years since divergence based on the
fossil record, you get reasonably straight lines on linear/linear plot
(no log plot) with quite small standard errors for the data points.
This can be done for fibrinopeptides, hemoglobin, and cytochrome c.
Each protein gives a different line. Fibrinopeptides are peptides
clipped from fibrinogen to activate clot formation and essentially all
its amino acids are selectively neutral. The rate of aa substitution
from the line plot of this data gives a value of 9.0 x 10^-9/yr. That
is, for a protein sequence that is quite close to a completely neutral
one, complete (100%) substitution will take, on average, about 10^8 yrs
or 100 million years. *That* is what I based my estimate on, not some
hypothetical calculation from an estimate of mutation rates. BTW, the
rate of aa substitution for alpha globin of hemoglobin is 1.4 x 10^-9
and cytochrome c is 0.3 x 10^-9 and histone H4 is 0.006 x 10^-9. Note
again the fact that the rate of substitution is not a function of size
(other than that small proteins tend to be more constrained *when* more
of the aa's are in contact with the substrate).
If you look at molecular evolution in viruses, especially RNA viruses
that have a much higher rate of mutation because they lack repair
systems, you can observe the same pattern of a relatively constant rate
of sequence change over time. For example, the rate of nucleotide
sequence change in the NS genes influenza virus (from samples saved over
the last 60 years) is 1.73 +/- 0.08 nucleotide substitutions/year. The
+/- shows the degree to which the rate of change is relatively constant
rather than episodic due to changed environments (Buonagurio, D.A., et.
al. Science 232:980-982, 1986). Similar rapid rates of substitution
occur in the polymerase enzyme of the AIDS virus.
Whales nest with artiodactyls and not seals. Humans and chimps who separated
some 5-6 milllion years ago still show more similarity in sequence than
very similar frogs that were divided by the Atlantic Ocean's opening up
40 million years ago. Humans and chimps (ground-dwelling omnivores)
show more sequence similarity with leaf-eater monkeys (arboreal
herbivores) than with racoons (ground-dwelling omnivores).
==
Evolution is the change of alle frequencies in a given population
through time.
==
The total number of possible false proposals is almost infinite, and the total
number of true proposals is finite.
==
This is a special case of the definition of information in
information theory. The general definition of information allows for
the possibility that not all outcomes are equally probable. The
general equation is
H = sum[k = 1 to n](p(k) lg p(k))
where H is the information (entropy), k is an element in a series of
length n, p(k) is the probability of element k, and lg in the
logarithmic function of unspecified base.
==
If science were to become a belief system, then the belief with the greatest
number of followers would become established fact and received knowledge.
Knowledge based on observation and rational inference would play second fiddle
to what Barnes calls "customarily accepted belief." This belief is "sustained
by consensus and authority."
==
Roche limit for Earth/Moon
= 2.423 * (Earth radius) * [(Earth density) / (Moon density)]
= 2.423 * (6,380 km) * [5.52 / 3.34]
= 25,500 km (or 15,800 miles)

The "Roche limit" refers to that distance from the Earth within which "Earth's
gravity would have fragmented the Moon." The Roche limit for the Earth/Moon
system is approximately 25,500 kilometers.)
==
Civilisation requires agriculture, which in turn requires the
co-evolution between humans and a suitable cereal crop. See Jared
Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" for a fascinating account of the process.
==
Several comments from the physics perspective:
1. Quantum mechanics allows for the experimental distinction between
indeterminacy due to "hidden variables" (deterministic causes that are
obscured from detection) and indeterminacy due to innate randomness.
Cf. Bell's Theorem and the experiments by Aspect et al. The
experimental results clearly favor innate randomness. This is very
strange, but physics has to come to grips with things that defy what we
normally presume to be obvious.
2. Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a phenomenon related to quantum
fluctuations that results in large-scale behavior -- this is somewhat
akin to chaos phenomena. The physics of the system may exhibit complete
symmetry but the particular instance that obeys that symmetric law need
not exhibit the same symmetry.
3. There is real difficulty in understanding what "nothing" means in
physics. Defining "nothing" to mean absent of matter does little,
because energy-matter equivalence allows the spontaneous creation of
matter. Furthermore, there is no physical meaning to absolute energy
content; a corollary is that there is no such thing as absolutely zero
energy content. The reference point for energy is arbitrary. This
allows something fundamental and interesting to happen. In a vacuum
state that is completely symmetric but where nearby states are
asymmetric and at lower potential energy, a quantum fluctuation of
arbitrarily small order is perfectly able to produce a *random* loss of
symmetry in falling to the lower energy state. In so doing, the
potential energy lost is now available for the creation of matter. Note
that the initial state can be *arbitrarily* chosen to have zero energy,
and nothing changes. From a vacuum state with no matter and no energy,
a quantum fluctuation can produce something *from nothing*. This is the
so-called Higgs mechanism. The quantized field associated with this
asymmetric end-state has not yet been directly observed, but
experimenters know where it is and expect to find it within the next
3-5 years. If it is not found, then there will be much head-scratching.
If it is found, it will be another clear demonstration by nature that
things are not nearly as straightforward as our axioms and ensuing
logical arguments would suggest.
==
Bell's Theorem addresses the fundamental question whether there is a
way to tell if there is a hidden variable in a quantum mechanical
process, even if we don't know what it is. It turns out -- and that's
his theorem -- that there is indeed a way to experimentally distinguish
whether a process is *inherently* random or whether there is a hidden
but deterministic process involved. And Aspect designed and performed
the experiment according to this theorem. The result is unambiguous --
the hidden variable interpretation of quantum mechanics is wrong.
==
Modern investigations into and discoveries about consciousness are based on
_psychological_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_statistics)
_statistical studies_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_study)
and _case studies_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_studies) of
consciousness states and the deficits caused by _lesions_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesion) ,
_stroke_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke) , _injury_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injury) , or _surgery_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgery) that
disrupt the normal functioning of human _senses_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense) and _cognition_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition) . These
discoveries suggest that the _mind_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind) is a
complex structure derived from various localized functions that are _bound_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binding_problem) together with a unitary
awareness. Several studies point to common mechanisms in different clinical
conditions that lead to loss of consciousness. _Persistent vegetative state_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_vegetative_state) (PVS) is a
condition in which
an individual loses the higher cerebral powers of the brain, but maintains
sleep-wake cycles with full or partial autonomic functions. Studies comparing
PVS with healthy, awake subjects consistently demonstrate an impaired
connectivity between the deeper (brainstem and thalamic) and the upper
(cortical) areas of the brain. In addition, it is agreed that the general
brain activity
in the cortex is lower in the PVS state. Some _electroneurobiological_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Electroneurobiology&action=edit)
interpretations of consciousness characterize this loss of
consciousness as a loss
of the ability to resolve time (similar to playing an old phonographic record
at very slow or very rapid speed), along a continuum that starts with
inattention, continues on sleep, and arrives to coma and _death_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death) .
Loss of consciousness also occurs in other conditions, such as general
(tonic-clonic) _epileptic seizures_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epileptic_seizure) , in _general anaesthesia_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_anaesthesia) , maybe even in
deep (slow-wave) _sleep_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep) . At present, the best-supported
hypotheses about such cases of loss of
consciousness (or loss of time resolution) focus on the need for 1) a
widespread cortical network, including particularly the frontal,
parietal and
temporal cortices, and 2) cooperation between the deep layers of the brain,
especially the thalamus, and the upper layers, the cortex. Such
hypotheses go under
the common term "globalist theories" of consciousness, due to the
claim for a
widespread, global network necessary for consciousness to interact with
non-mental reality in the first place.
Brain chemistry affects human consciousness. Sleeping drugs (such as
_Midazolam_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midazolam) = Dormicum) can
bring the brain
from the awake condition (conscious) to the sleep (unconscious). Wake-up
drugs such as _Anexate_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexate) reverse this
process. Many other drugs (such as _alcohol_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol) , _nicotine_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine) , _THC_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THC) , _heroin_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin) ,
_cocaine_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine) , _LSD_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD) , _MDMA_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA) ) have a
consciousness-changing effect.
There is a neural link between the left and right hemispheres of the brain,
known as the _corpus callosum_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum)
. This link is sometimes surgically severed to control severe seizures in
epilepsy patients. This procedure was first performed by Roger Sperry in the
1960's. Tests of these patients have shown that, after the link is _completely
severed_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain) , the hemispheres are no
longer able to communicate, leading to certain problems that usually arise
only in test conditions. For example, while the left side of the brain can
verbally describe what is going on in the right visual field, the
right hemisphere
is essentially mute, instead relying on its spatial abilities to interact
with the world on the left visual field. Some say that it is as if two
separate
minds now share the same skull, but both still represent themselves as a
single "I" to the outside world.
The bilateral removal of the _centromedian nucleus_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centromedian_nucleus) (part of the
Intra-laminar nucleus of the
Thalamus) appears to abolish consciousness, causing coma, PVS, severe
mutism and
other features that mimic _brain death_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_death) . The centromedian nucleus
is also one of the principal sites of action of
general anaesthetics and anti-psychotic drugs. This evidence suggests that a
functioning thalamus is necessary, but not sufficient, for human
consciousness.
Neurophysiological studies in awake, behaving monkeys performed by
neuroscientists point to advanced cortical areas in prefrontal cortex
and temporal
lobes as carriers of neuronal correlates of consciousness. _Christof Koch_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christof_Koch) and _Francis Crick_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick) argued that neuronal
mechanisms of consciousness
are intricately related to prefrontal cortex the most advanced cortical
area. Experimental work of Steven Wise, _Mikhail Lebedev_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Lebedev) and their colleagues
supports this view. They
demonstrated that activity of prefrontal cortex neurons reflects illusory
perceptions of movements of visual stimuli. Nikos Logothetis and
colleagues made
similar observations on visually responsive neurons in the temporal
lobe. These neurons reflect the visual perception in the situation when
conflicting visual
images are presented to different eyes (i.e., bistable percepts during
binocular rivalry). The studies of _blindsight_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight) vision without awareness
after lesions to parts of the visual
system such as the primary visual cortex performed by Lawrence
Weiskrantz and
David P. Carey provided important insights on how conscious perception arises
in the brain. In recent years the theory of two visual streams, vision for
perception versus vision for action was developed by Melvyn Goodale, David
Milner and others. According to this theory, visual perception arises as the
result of processing of visual information by the ventral stream areas
(located
mostly in the temporal lobe), whereas the dorsal stream areas (located mostly
in the parietal lobe) process visual information unconsciously. For example,
quick catching of the ball would engage mostly the dorsal stream
areas, and
viewing a painting would be handled by the ventral stream. Overall, these
studies show that conscious versus unconscious behaviors can be linked to
specific brain areas and patterns of neuronal activation.
==
Look up the uncertainty principle and quantum vacuum. If you look at a
vacuum for a short enough period of time, you see particles popping in
and out of existance (always in pairs since they recombine to conserve
energy). The mass of these particles depends on how long you look. The
shorter the period, the heavier the particles.
==
The Carboniferous period can be broken down into a series of shorter
subperiods, each about 10 million years in duration: the Tournaisian, Visean,
Serpukhovian, Bashkirian, Moscovian, Kasimovian, and Gzhelian periods,
in Europe. In North America, the periods are called Mississippian and
Pennsylvanian periods.
==
The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
A scientific revolution occurs, according to Kuhn, when scientists
encounter anomalies which cannot be explained by the universally
accepted paradigm within which scientific progress has thereto been
made. The paradigm, in Kuhn's view, is not simply the current theory,
but the entire worldview in which it exists, and all of the
implications which come with it. There are anomalies for all paradigms,
Kuhn maintained, that are brushed away as acceptable levels of error,
or simply ignored and not dealt with (a principal argument Kuhn uses to
reject Karl Popper's model of falsifiability as the key force involved
in scientific change). Rather, according to Kuhn, anomalies have
various levels of significance to the practitioners of science at the
time. To put it in the context of early 20th century physics, some
scientists found the problems with calculating Mercury's perihelion
more troubling than the Michelson-Morley experiment results, and some
the other way around. Kuhn's model of scientific change differs here,
and in many places, from that of the logical positivists in that it
puts an enhanced emphasis on the individual humans involved as
scientists, rather than abstracting science into a purely logical or
philosophical venture.
When enough significant anomalies have accrued against a current
paradigm, the scientific discipline is thrown into a state of crisis,
according to Kuhn. During this crisis, new ideas, perhaps ones
previously discarded, are tried. Eventually a new paradigm is formed,
which gains its own new followers, and an intellectual "battle" takes
place between the followers of the new paradigm and the hold-outs of
the old paradigm. Again, for early 20th century physics, the transition
between the Maxwellian electromagnetic worldview and the Einsteinian
Relativistic worldview was not instantaneous nor calm, and instead
involved a protracted set of "attacks," both with empirical data as
well as rhetorical or philosophical arguments, by both sides, with the
Einsteinian theory winning out in the long-run. Again, the weighing of
evidence and importance of new data was fit through the human sieve:
some scientists found the simplicity of Einstein's equations to be most
compelling, while some found them more complicated than the notion of
Maxwell's aether which they banished. Some found Eddington's
photographs of light bending around the sun to be compelling, some
questioned their accuracy and meaning.
Sometimes the convincing force is just time itself and the human toll
it takes, Kuhn pointed out, using a quote from Max Planck: "a new
scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and
making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually
die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
==
Steve Olson is the author of "Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our
Common Origins."
==
Polonium 214 is a radioactive element with a half-life ot 200
microseconds.
It is the result of a beta decay from Bismuth-214.

214Po decays to 210Pb with a half-life of just 164 microseconds.
210Pb decays to 210Bi with a half-life of a bit over 22 years.
210Bi decays to 210Po with a half-life of about 5 days.
210Po decays to 206Pb with a half-life of about 138 days.
206Pb is stable.

Now, where does 214Po come from? It comes from 218Rn or from 214Bi. Pretty
much all of the Polonium in nature began as atoms of either Uranium or
Thorium isotopes with fairly large half-lives.
===
1 Second = the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation
corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground
state of the cesium-133 atom
==
The San Andreas Fault would not split apart, since it is a transform plate
boundary, when two plates grind past each other. Only a divergent boundary
would split apart and those only occur in the ocean.
==
Black Holes: Gravity's Relentless Pull
Collisions of galaxies contribute to the growth of supermassive black holes.
How are black holes born?
A black hole is born when an object becomes unable to withstand the
compressing force of its own gravity. Many objects (including our Earth and
Sun) will never become black holes. Their gravity is not sufficient to
overpower the atomic and nuclear forces of their interiors, which resist
compression. But in more massive objects, gravity ultimately wins.
Stellar-mass black holes are born with a bang. They form when a very massive
star (at least 25 times heavier than our Sun) runs out of nuclear fuel. The
star then explodes as a supernova. What remains is a black hole, usually only
a few times heavier than our Sun since the explosion has blown much of the
stellar material away.
We know less about the birth of supermassive black holes, which are much
heavier than stellar-mass black holes and live in the centers of galaxies. One
possibility is that supernova explosions of massive stars in the early Universe
formed stellar-mass black holes that, over billions of years, grew
supermassive. A single stellar-mass black hole can grow rapidly by consuming
nearby stars and gas, often in plentiful supply near the galaxy center. The
black hole may also grow through mergers with other black holes that drift to
the galactic center during collisions with other galaxies. Astronomers are
actively investigating these and other scenarios through observations and
computer simulations. The Large Hadron Collider is a 17-mile long particle
accelerator in Switzerland that may reach energies high enough to create
miniscule black holes.
==
Cosmic sound waves
Both groups also detected in their maps the surviving imprint of
cosmic sound waves, released shortly after the big bang. Evidence of
the waves, which are thought to have been trapped by the early
universe's dense fog of gas and photons, was first reported last
year by SDSS and Two Degree Field galaxy redshift survey teams.
"We can detect the surviving imprint of these sound waves in the
distribution of galaxies. They are echoes of a quite remarkable
epoch of the universe that occurred less than 300,000 years after
the big bang, when the cosmos was so hot and dense that hydrogen
atoms were ionised into protons and electrons," Blake says.
Scientists have found that ripples from the waves slightly increase
the probability that galaxies will be located 500 million light
years apart than any other distance. Such a "ruler" could help
astronomers map the expansion history of the universe and assess the
accuracy of astronomical distance measurements.
==
Ancient rock points to life's origin
BBC News Online science editor The continents were moving across the face of
the Earth much sooner than had been thought, according to new evidence from
China. The new data come from a huge chunk of the rock that lay beneath the sea
floor 2.5 billion years ago. It is the first large intact piece of oceanic
mantle ever found from our planet's earliest period, the Archean.
Located not far from the Great Wall of China, the ancient mantle rocks are
preserved in a highly faulted belt 100 kilometres (62 miles) long.
It may also contain clues as to when life developed on Earth.
Working with researchers from Peking University, Kusky found the rock section
where last year the same team discovered the Earth's oldest complete section
of oceanic crust.
The newly found rock was formed tens of kilometres below the ancient sea
floor. Scientists say it preserves 2.5-billion-year-old minerals that hold
clues to the origin of how continents move across the globe - plate tectonics.
The minerals, including an unusual type of chromite (iron chromium oxide)
deposit previously only known from deep ocean floor rocks, appear to have
been deformed at extremely high temperatures before they were completely
crystallized by volcanic heat.
This indicates that the rocks were moving away from mid ocean ridges, say
scientists. This suggests that the continents were moving more than 500
million years earlier than was previously believed.
The discovery that ancient tectonic plates were shifting could throw some
light on the origin of life on Earth.
The region of the Earth's interior that lies between the crust and the core
The mantle accounts for approximately 80% of the Earth's volume
Consists largely of peridotite, an igneous rock composed mainly of the
minerals olivine and pyroxene Hot volcanic vents on the ocean floor may have
provided the nutrients and conditions required for life to begin.
Because such volcanic vents are associated with tectonic movements.
It is possible that life developed and diversified around these vents
as the plates started spreading.
==
"Father Georges-Henri Lemaitre (July 17, 1894 June 20, 1966) was a
Belgian Roman Catholic priest and astronomer."
"... it is Fr. Lemaitre that made the theory famous with his widely
read papers and media appeal."
"Fr. Lemaitre himself liked to describe his theory as *"the Cosmic Egg
exploding at the moment of the creation"*, which was later to be coined
by his critics as the Big Bang theory."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges-Henri_Lema%C3%AEtre
==
Cosmic ray fluxes, consisting of completely ionized atomic nuclei originating
outside the solar system and accelerated to very high energies, provided
average dose rates of 1.0 millirads per hour in cislunar space and
0.6 millirads per hour on the lunar surface.
==
Measured today, the ratio indicates that a proton weighs 1836.15267261 times
more than an electron.
==
Animals need oxygen. "You cannot evolve animals like us without having a
significant amount of oxygen," says geochemist Dick Holland of Harvard
University. "Without the Great Oxidation Event [a dramatic rise of oxygen in
Earth's atmosphere some 2.3 billion years ago], we would not be here. No
dinosaurs, no fish, no snakes - just a lot of microorganisms."
Oxygen has not always been as abundant as it is today. Most scientists believe
that for half of Earth's 4.6-billion-year history, the atmosphere contained
almost no oxygen.
Cyanobacteria or blue-green algae became the first microbes to produce oxygen
by photosynthesis, perhaps as long ago as 3.5 billion years ago and certainly
by 2.7 billion years ago. But, mysteriously, there was a long lag time
-hundreds of millions of years - before Earth's atmosphere first gained
significant amounts oxygen, some 2.4 billion to 2.3 billion years ago.
==
In the late 80s or early 90s, the National Science Foundation release the
results of a study showing that the majority of school children did not know
whether the earth went around the sun or the other way around.
Statistical fact site: "45% of Americans don't know that the sun is a star."
==
At around 10^-43 seconds after the big bang ,the Planck era of the Universe,
the density can be estimated as 10^97 Kg per metre^3.
==
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmolog.htm
==
1. Ocean basin crust is made of basalt, which has a density of 3011
kg/m3. It averages about 7 km thick.
2. Ocean water has a density of 1026 kg/m3. It averages about 4188 m
deep in the Pacific, which is the deepest ocean.
3. Continental crust is mostly made of granite, which has a density
of 2691 kg/m3. It averages about 40 km thick but can be as much as 80
km thick underneath mountain ranges.
4. The mantle is made up mostly, I believe (don't have a geology
reference in front of me) of olivine, which has a density of 3320
kg/m3. It is denser than either the ocean or the continents.
==
The Earths radius is about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers). The main layers of
its interior are in descending order: crust, mantle and core.
*	The crust thickness averages about 18 miles (30 kilometers) under the
continents, but is only about 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the oceans. It is
light and brittle and can break. It is where most earthquakes originate.
*	The mantle is more flexible it flows instead of fractures. It extends down
to about 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) below the surface.
*	The core consists of a solid inner core and a fluid outer core. The fluid
contains iron, which, as it moves, generates the Earths magnetic field.
*	The crust and upper mantle form the lithosphere, which is broken up into
several plates that float on top of the hot molten mantle below.
==
Chaitin's constant has been calculated to some extent to be
0.0078749969978123844...
==
The Aral, Black, Caspian and Mediterranean Seas are mere remnants of
the once Great Tethys Seaway. That region of the world south of
Eurasia is moving northerly causing the Great Tethys Seaway to be
pinched closed and it's still moving.
India is part of this system and was once south of the equator. It
is moving to the north rapidly pushing up the Himalaya Mountains. It
is the same tectonic system that caused Thailand's recent tsunami.
Italy once was to the south laid in an east-west direction. It's
moving northerly spinning counter clock wise and hit Europe pushing
up the Alps as well as getting subducted under the continent where
it melts and sometimes comes up as lava through Mt. Etna and Mt.Vesuvio.
Portugal and Spain is a micro continent. It was once further south
and out in the Atlantic. It's moving in a northeasterly direction
and hit Europe spinning in a clock wise fashion pushing up the
Pyrenees Mountains.
Africa is moving north too. All the seas in that region will someday
be pinched close with the rivers and streams finishing it off by
silting them in.
Reference: "The Atlas of life on Earth" by Professor Michael J. Benton
==
"The Atlas of life on Earth" by Professor Michael J. Benton

The fate of the Earth By Jonathan Schell, 1982
==
Heat capacity of water = 4.19 (kJoules/(kg H2O).degree Kelvin)
1 joule (J)= 1.054350 E+03 British Thermal Units
==
Bose-Einstein condensate and fermionic condensates are formed by chilling the
molecules of a gas. As temperatures approach absolute zero (-273.15C), the
motion of the individual atoms slows to the point where they combine to form a
single "super atom".
==
A Lit Fuse
Like the fuse of a time bomb, telomeres are long strands of repeating DNA that
shorten each time a cell divides. When the telomeres become too short, the
cell's time is up: It can no longer divide, a state of affairs known as
"replicative senescence."
Without this built-in fuse, human cells would be able to continue growing and
dividing indefinitely. In fact, scientists believe that cells evolved
telomeres as a way of preventing the out-of-control cell growth of cancerous
tumors. Because of telomeres, most human cells can only divide 50 to 100 times
before the time bomb goes off.
One current theory of aging holds that, as the cells of a person's body start
to hit this telomere-imposed limit, the lack of fresh, new cells causes the
typical signs of aging: wrinkled skin, failing organs, weaker immune system,
etc.
Whether or not telomere loss actually causes aging remains a matter of debate,
Shay notes. The fact that shortened telomeres go hand in hand with aging is
well documented. People with shorter telomeres, for example, are known to not
live as long on average as people with longer telomeres. But mere correlation
doesn't prove whether telomeres are in fact the cause.
"It's hard to prove cause and effect in these things. But I think there's a
sufficient number of these correlative studies from a variety of different
investigators that one has to start believing that short telomeres are a
marker of aging," Shay says.
Recent research, performed by Frank Cucinotta and colleagues, showed that
iron-nuclei radiation (a chief component of cosmic rays) does indeed damage
the telomeres of human cells.
==
The Map Makers by John Noble Wilford
==
THE INFLATIONARY BIG BANG MODEL has passed a crucial test as
scientists working on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
released a long-awaited second set of data at a press conference
held March 17. WMAP was launched in 2001 to map the anisotropies in
the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with far greater precision
than the Cosmic Background Explorer, the predecessor that first
discovered the anisotropies in 1990s. The earlier release of WMAP
data 3 years ago nailed down several grand features of the universe
that had previously been known only very roughly, including: the
time of recombination (380,000 years after the big bang, when the
first atoms were formed); the age of the universe (13.7 billion
years, plus or minus 200 million years); and the makeup of the
universe (with dark energy accounting for 73% of all energy---see
update 624, http://aip.org/pnu/2003/split/624-1.html).
Since that 2003 announcement WMAP researchers have painstakingly
worked to reduce the uncertainties in their results. The big new
thing in yesterday's announcement, based on three years of data, was
the release of a map of the sky containing information about the
microwaves' polarization. The microwaves are partly polarized
(oriented) from the time of their origin (emerging from the so
called sphere of last scattering---see
http://www.aip.org/pnu/2002/split/591-1.html ) and partly polarized
by scattering (later on their journey to Earth) from the pervasive
plasma (mostly ionized hydrogen) created when ultraviolet radiation
from the first generation of stars struck surrounding interstellar
gas. WMAP now estimates that this reionization, effectively
denoting the era of the first stars, occurred 400 million years
after the big bang, instead of 200 million years as had been
previously thought.
The main step forward is that smaller error bars, courtesy of the
polarization map and the much better temperature map across the sky
(with an uncertainty of only 200 nK), provide a new estimate for the
inhomogeneities in the CMB's temperature. The simplest model, called
Harrison-Zeldovic, posits that the spectrum of inhomogeneities
should be flat; that is, the inhomogeneities should have the same
variation at all scales. Inflation, on the other hand, predicts a
slight deviation from this flatness. The new WMAP data for the first
time measures the spectrum with enough precision to show a
preference for inflation rather than the Harrison-Zeldovic
spectrum---a test that was long-awaited as inflation's smoking gun.
(Papers available at
map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_mm/pub_papers/threeyear.html )

The cosmic microwave background, was produced when the universe was about
300,000 years old
==
Rubidium and Strontium, and most other elements used in isochron
dating, are part of the chemical formula of very few minerals. But
they are not rejected as strongly as lead is from zircons. Rb+ is
only a tad larger than K+ and substitutes quite well for Potassium.
Sr+2 is also just a little larger than Ca+2 and substitutes nicely for
Calcium in calcite, plagioclase and apatite.
Typical Concentrations in Minerals & Rocks
Rb (ppm) Sr (ppm)
Biotite- 100-1000 @ 1
Phlogopite
K-feldspar 100-1000 <2000
Muscovite 500-2000 <30
Ultramafic Rx @ 0.1- 0.3 @ 1
Basalt 20-50 400-600
Granodiorite 10-200 400-2000
Granite 100-200 50-100
Carbonate 1-5 500-1000
==
Tiny bubbles of ancient air are locked in the ice
Global climate patterns stretching back 740,000 years have been confirmed by a
three-kilometre-long ice core drilled from the Antarctic.
==
Modern scientific cosmology may be considered to begin in 1915 with Albert
Einstein's publication of his general theory of relativity and the growing
ability of astronomers to study very distant objects. Prior to this, physicists
had assumed that the Universe was static and unchanging. However, the general
theory of relativity was not amenable to a static Universe. Thus the big bang
theory was proposed by the Belgian priest Georges Lemaitre in 1927 and rapidly
confirmed by Edwin Hubble's discovery of the red shift in 1929 and later by the
discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Arno Penzias and
Robert Woodrow Wilson in 1964.
==
Type "O" stars are 30 and 70 times the mass of the sun.

The suns luminosity has steadily increased over the history of the Earth, from
about 70% of its present value at the beginning of Earthly time 4.5 billion
years ago.
==
Planck energy
An energy of 1.22 * 10^19 GeV (billion electron volts), at which the strength
of the gravitational interactions of fundamental particles becomes comparable
to that of the other interactions. It is believed that the quantum effects of
gravity become important at approximately this energy.
It has definition About 1000 kilowatt hours. The energy necessary to probe to
distances as small as the Planck length. The typical energy of a vibrating
string in string theory.
==
Two new studies by a University of Rochester researcher show that mountain
ranges rise to their height in as little as two million years--several times
faster than geologists have always thought. Each of the findings came from two
pioneering methods of measuring ancient mountain elevations, and the results
are in tight agreement.
==
Liger Father = lion Mother = tiger
Tigon Father = tiger Mother = lion
Tiger Father = tiger Mother = tiger
===
The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if
any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents
as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.
- Saint Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274
==
Daniel Dennett's new book, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural
Phenomenon
==
"The Map that changed the World" by Simon Winchester early geology map
A biography of William Smith 1769-1839
A copy of the map on the internet
http://www.unh.edu/esci/greatmap.html
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/smith.html
==
Enthalpy which is defined to be the sum of the internal energy E
plus the product of the pressure p and volume V
==
Starting in 1992, astronomers have become aware of a vast
population of small bodies orbiting the sun beyond Neptune. There
are at least 70,000 trans-Neptunians with diameters larger than
100 km in the radial zone extending outwards from the orbit of
Neptune (at 30 AU) to 50 AU. Observations show that the
trans-Neptunians are mostly confined within a thick band around
the ecliptic, leading to the realization that they occupy a ring
or belt surrounding the sun. This ring is generally referred to as
the Kuiper Belt.
The Kuiper Belt holds significance for the study of the planetary
system on at least two levels. First, it is likely that the Kuiper
Belt objects are extremely primitive remnants from the early
accretional phases of the solar system. The inner, dense parts of
the pre-planetary disk condensed into the major planets, probably
within a few millions to tens of millions of years. The outer
parts were less dense, and accretion progressed slowly. Evidently,
a great many small objects were formed. Second, it is widely
believed that the Kuiper Belt is the source of the short-period
comets. It acts as a reservoir for these bodies in the same way
that the Oort Cloud acts as a reservoir for the long-period comets.
==
Magnetic Field Reversal

The Earths magnetic field is thought to be generated by a dynamo effect that
is, the movement of charged particles in its huge iron and nickel core as it
spins. Other planets have magnetic fields also, and there seems to be some
relationship between the strength of the magnetic field with the size and spin
rate of the magnetic core. Jupiter, with a huge core and a 10-day rotation
period, generates a massive magnetic field, for example, and spacecraft sent
there have to be specially built to withstand this intense field. You may
remember the science fiction movie Outland with Sean Connery stranded in a
mining colony on Io, one of Jupiters moons. However, Io would be uninhabitable
since the magnetic field of Jupiter causes a 5 million ampere electric current
to flow through it.

However, magnetic fields can also be helpful. They can protect the inhabitants
of the planet from high energy particles from, for example, the solar wind.
(Yes, the Sun has a wind component, one that can be used to power solar-sail
spacecraft in the near future.) When the high energy particles from the Sun
encounter the Earth's magnetic field, they are deflected toward the poles,
causing beautiful auroral "curtains" of color as they hit the atmosphere.
Without the magnetic field of the Earth, these high energy particles could do
damage to biology on Earth.

When rocks containing magnetite cool from volcanoes or are baked (as in clay
pottery), they record the direction of the magnetic field of the Earth at the
time of cooling. It turns out, from examining rocks of various ages, that the
Earth has reversed its magnetic field many times the last about 750,000 years
ago (the average being about every few hundred thousand years). Recent
measurements of ancient pottery and other evidence suggest that the Earths
magnetic field may be declining perhaps getting ready for an overdue
reversal. This could take place within the next couple of thousand years. If
the Earths magnetic field is just beginning to reverse, it would certainly be
important for us to protect ourselves from the high energy particles of the
solar wind and of space. It would not be as devastating an event as, for
example, a comet impact, but it does indicate that we do not have the luxury
of indulging in another Dark Age over the next thousand years or so. If
civilization is to maintain itself, we need to be on our technological "toes"
pretty much from now on.

The Earth's magnetic field underwent a polarity reversal 780,000 years ago.
===
Moon Stabilizes Earths Rotation

The most popular theory for the origin of the moon is that it came from the
Earth. We can calculate evolutionary histories of the moons orbit as it moved
away from the Earth after formation. (It is still moving away due to the
Earths tidal pull at about one inch per year. The majority of the tidal
dragging comes from Earths rotational slowdown, with most being caused by
waters dragging over the fairly shallow Bering Sea.) In doing some of these
kinds of calculations for Mars, it was discovered that the direction of Mars
rotational axis could flip rather suddenly. Now this is not the normal
"precession" (as it is called) of a few degrees that changes, for example, our
north star though the millennia. Mars was calculated to have flipped its
rotation axis up to 90 degrees in as little as a couple of million years. This
was a result of the orbital angular momentum, under certain circumstances,
being transferred to the rotational angular momentum and causing a coupling
that led to such a flip in rotation axis direction.

So why has this not occurred on Earth, whose axis has seemingly not flipped by
more than a few degrees? The apparent explanation is that the Moon absorbs any
transfer of orbital to rotational angular moment, preventing the flip.

Would such a flip be important? It could get very serious like the time a
couple of hundred million years ago when all the continents were combined into
one big continent called "Pangaea"if the Earths rotation axis flipped such that
this one big continent became a polar continent like Antarctica. So, it would
appear that a moon is required for a stable planet with life.

This was perhaps surprising news to folks that would like to see habitable
planets widespread in the galaxy requiring, as it does, both an earthlike
planet in the circumstellar habitable zone as well as a fairly large
satellite. This would seem to rule out habitable planets being very common.
However, additional research into the rotational histories of the planets
shows that the Earth used to spin a lot faster. If the earth spins faster,
that also acts as a protection against flipping of the rotation axis. So,
perhaps if the moon had not come off the Earth, our world would still be
spinning fast enough to stabilize itself against flipping. Thus there may be
many other habitable planets without a large moon, but the inhabitants will
have even fewer hours in their day than we do.

The moon, of course, is now perfectly placed to exactly cover the solar disk
during eclipses. This perfect fit has allowed, for example, a test of General
Relativity, the uncovering of the element helium, and the discovery of the
solar corona. And clearly the moon has been a great stimulus and practice
ground for our first efforts at space travel. However, moving out at an inch a
year, in about 1.6 billion years the moon will no longer be able to stabilize
our planets spin. Well have to be ready for a climatologically wild ride by
then unless we figure out what to do. Eventually the Earth will have the same
rotation period as the moons orbit (i.e., the day will equal the month) and
then the moon may be expected to fall back toward the Earth, forming a ring
perhaps not dissimilar to those around Saturn. It will, no doubt, be a great
show.
===
Total Water of the World
Location Percentage of Total
Surface water
Oceans 97.39
Glaciers and polar ice caps 1.83
Lakes and streams 0.0219
Subsurface water 0.76
Atmospheric water 0.0011
==
Composition of sea salts
Sodium Chloride 77.758%
Magnesium Chloride 10.878%
Magnesium sulphate 4.737%
Calcium sulphate 3.600%
Potassium sulphate 2.465%
Calcium carbonate 0.345%
Magnesium bromide 0.217%
==
The earliest recorded solar eclipse is 2250 B.C.
==
May 2004 Revision 4
Beginning Date (millions of years ago) Period Era Eon
0
23.03 Neogene Cenozoic Phanerozoic
65.5 Paleogene
145.5 Cretaceous Mesozoic
199.6 Jurassic
251.0 Triassic
299.0 Permian Paleozoic
359.2 Carboniferous
416.0 Devonian
443.7 Silurian
488.3 Ordovician
542.0 Cambrian
600 Ediacaran Neoproterozoic Proterozoic
850 Cryogenian
1,000 Tonian
1,200 Stenian Mesoproterozoic
1,400 Ectasian
1,600 Calymmian
1,800 Statherian Paleoproterozoic
2,050 Orosirian
2,300 Rhyacian
2,500 Siderian
2,800 ? Neoarchaean Archaean Eon
3,200 ? Mesoarchaean
3,600 ? Paleoarchaean
3,800 ? ? Eoarchaean
? ? ? Hadean ?
==
Geological Periods
Precambrian ->
-
Paleozoic Era
Cambrian -> Ordovician -> Silurian -> Devonian ->
Mississippian -> Pennsylvanian -> Permian ->
-
Mesozoic Era
Triassic -> Jurassic ->
Cretaceous ->
Cenozoic Era
Tertiary -> Quaternary -> Recent
--
Tertiary Period Epochs
Paleocene
Eocene
Ologocene
Mioicene
Pliocene
--
Precambrian
Archean 4.55 BY-2.5 Billion Years
Proterozoic 2.5 BY-540 Million Years
--
Phanerozoic 540 Million Years-Present
==
So far, oldest dated Earth rocks are 3.96 billion years.
Older rocks include meteorites and moon rocks with dates on the order of 4.6
billion years.
Moon rocks, highland ~ 4.5 by, mare basalt ~ 3.2 - 3.8 by
Meteorites - older than 4.5 by

Where do we find the oldest rocks on Earth?
Canadian Shield. (NW Territories near Great Slave Lake, 3.96 by).
Gneiss.
Narrows the gap between origin of Earth and first rocks to 640 million years.
(Geotimes 12/1989).

Before this, oldest rocks known were from Isukasia region of Greenland (3.8
by).
==
K40 has a half life of 1.28 billion years
==
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
|Wisconsinan / |glacial | 15 -70 |
|Weichsel or Vistula / |period | |
|Wurm | | |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
|Sangamon / Eemian |interglacial | 70 - 130|
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
| Illinoian / Saale / Riss |glacial |130 - 180 |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
| Yarmouth / Holstein |interglacial | 180- 230 |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
| Kansan / Elster / Mindel|glacial |230 - 300 |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
| Aftonian / Cromer |interglacial |300 - 330 |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
| Nebraskan / Elbe / Gunz |glacial |330 - 470 |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
| Waalian |interglacial |470 - 540 |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
| Donau II |glacial |540 - 550 |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
| Tiglian |interglacial |550 - 585 |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|
| Donau I |glacial |585 - 600 |
|-------------------------+-------------+----------|

==
Variation in Orbit Period

Tilt
40,000 yr

Wobble
20,000 yr

Eccentricity
100,000 yr
==
The academic, peer-reviewed literature documenting
the entire geologic column.

For the Williston Basin:
Haimla, N. E., et al, 1990, The Geology of North America, Vol. L,
DNAG volumes.

For the Essaouira Basin in Morocco:
Broughton, Paul, and Trepanier, Andre, 1993. "Hydrocarbon Generation
in the Essaouira Basin of Western Morocco," AAPG Bulletin, June, p.
1002.

For the Parana Basin North, Paraguay and Brazil:
Wiens F., 1995, "Phanerozoic Tectonics and Sedimentation in the
Chaco Basin of Paraguay," in A. J. Tankard, et al, editors,
Petroleum Basins of South America, AAPG Memoir 62, 1995, pp 185-205

For the Cape Karroo Basin:
Tankard, A. J. et al, (1995), "Structural and Tectonic Controls of
Basin Evolution in Southwestern Gondwana During the Phanerozoic," in
A. J. Tankard, et al, editors, Petroleum Basins of South America,
AAPG Memoir 62, 1995

For the Argentina Precordillera Basin:
Franca, A. B. et al, 1995, "Phanerozoic Correlation in Southern
South America, " in A. J. Tankard, et al, editors, Petroleum Basins
of South America, AAPG Memoir 62, 1995

The Chilean Antofagosta Basin:
Ibid; (I presume you know what that means)

For the Pricaspian Basin:
Volozh Y. et al. 2003, "Salt Structures and Hydrocarbons in the
Pricaspian Basin," AAPG Bulletin, 87(2003):2:313-334
==
Robert Todd Carroll - Becoming a Critical Thinker.
Carl Sagan - Demon Haunted world.
Micheal Shermer - The Baloney Detection Kit.
Michael Shermer - Science Friction.
==
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
==
Science and Sanity is Korzybski

"Galileo's Finger" (Peter Atkins)
==
'Frames of Mind' by Howard Gardner.
==
Aristotle's Topics
==
Principles of Geology, Charles Lyell
==
There is no vitamin B12 in plants. It occurs in yeast.
==
Humans in nearly every culture originally assigned supernatural explanations
for things that they didn't initially understand. In EVERY case to this point
where a final explanation has been found that explanation is naturalistic
rather than supernaturalistic. Based on that track record, why would anyone
expect anything other than a definitive naturalistic explanation for the
beginning of life and anything else?
==
The Chesapeake Bay Bolide Impact: A New View of Coastal Plain Evolution
A spectacular geological event took place on the Atlantic margin of
North America about 35 million years ago in the late part of the
Eocene Epoch. Sea level was unusually high everywhere on Earth, and
the ancient shoreline of the Virginia region was somewhere in the
vicinity of where Richmond is today (fig. 1). Tropical rain forests
covered the slopes of the Appalachians. To the east of a narrow
coastal plain, a broad, lime (calcium carbonate)-covered continental
shelf lay beneath the ocean. Suddenly, with an intense flash of light,
that tranquil scene was transformed into a hellish cauldron of mass
asteroid), 3-5 kilometers in diameter, swooped through the Earth's
atmosphere and blasted an enormous crater into the continental shelf.
The crater is now approximately 200 km southeast of Washington, D.C.,
and is buried 300-500 meters beneath the southern part of Chesapeake
Bay and the peninsulas of southeastern Virginia (fig. 1).
The entire bolide event, from initial impact to the termination of
breccia deposition, lasted only a few hours or days. The crater was
then buried by additional sedimentary beds, which accumulated during
the following 35 million years.
http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/fs49-98/
==
To shut our eyes against facts, and to take from nature no response
but such as suits our fanatical belief of what nature ought to be . . .
must do deadly mischief to the causes of inductive truth.
- Adam Sedgwick - English Geologist
==
John Bell proposed an experiment that could measure if a given elementary
particle could "communicate" with another elementary particle farther away
faster than any light could have traveled between them. In 1984 a team led by
Alain Aspect in Paris did this experiment and indeed, this was undeniably the
apparent result. The experiment had to do with polarized light. For
illustrative purposes, lets say that you have a container of light, and the
light is waving all over the place and -- if the container is coated with a
reflective substance, except for the ends -- the light is bouncing off the
walls. (One might picture a can of spaghetti with noodles at all orientations
as the directions of random light waves.) At the ends we place polarizing
filters. This means that only light with a given orientation (say like noodles
that are oriented up-and-down) can get out, while back-and-forth light waves
(noodles) cannot get out. If we rotate the polarizers at both ends by 90
degrees we would then let out back-and-forth light waves, but now not
up-and-down light.
It turns out that if we were to rotate the ends so that they were at an angle
of 30 degrees to each other, about half of the total light could get out of the
container -- one-fourth from one side of the bottle and one-fourth through the
other side. This is (close enough to) what John Bell proposed and Alain Aspect
demonstrated. When the "bottle" was rotated at one end, making a 30-degree
angle with the other side so that only half the light could escape, a
surprising thing happened. Before any light could have had time to travel from
the rotated side of the "bottle" (actually a long tube) to the other side, the
light coming out of the opposite side from the one that was rotated changed to
one-fourth instantaneously (or as close to instantaneous as anyone could
measure). Somehow that side of the "bottle" had gotten the message that the
other side had been rotated faster than the speed of light. Since then this
experiment has been confirmed many times.
John Bells formulation of the fundamental ideas in this experiment have been
called "Bells Theorem" and can be stated most succinctly in his own words
"Reality is non-local." In other words, not only do the elementary particles
that make up the things we see around us not exist until they are observed
(Copenhagen Interpretation), but they are not, at the most essential level,
even identifiably separable from other such particles arbitrarily far away.
==
238U ---> 206Pb + 8 4He with T1/2 = 4.51 x 10^9 years

235U ---> 207Pb + 7 4He with T1/2 = 7.1 x 10^8 years

232Th ---> 208Pb + 6 4He (a branching ratio) with T1/2 = 1.41 x 10^10 years

==
"The Magic Furnace" by Marcus Chown. A brilliant exposition of both
the science behind the theories of stellar nucleosynthesis and also a
historical account of their derivation.
==
A pascal of pressure is 0.2 inches of water column.
==
Considering metaphysical solutions doesn't really qualify as science. There
are an infinite number of non-testable metaphysical solutions to any science
question. Invisible elves can explain gravity, for instance. Without an
actual test for invisible elves (as opposed to some other theory), there can be
no science of invisible elves.
==
"Galileo's Finger", by Peter Atkins
==
http://www.grisda.org/origins/10066.htm paleomagnetism

An Introduction to Plate Tectonics, by Ludwig Combrinck
http://www.hartrao.ac.za/geodesy/tectonics.html (a nice little
overview of plate tectonics)

This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics, by W. Jacquelyne
Kious and Robert I. Tilling
http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html (online book by
the U.S. Geological Survey)

A Plate Tectonic Primer, by Lynn S. Fichter (James Madison
University, Dept. of Geology and Environmental Science)
http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/Fichter/Wilson/Wilson.html (this
website provides a much more detailed look at plate tectonics; dozens
of pages on various aspects of the subject; lots of detailed
information and diagrams)

GPS Time Series (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of
Technology) http://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/mbh/series.html "The Global
Positioning System (GPS) is a constellation of 24 satellites which is
used for navigation and precise geodetic position measurements. Daily
position estimates are determined from satellite signals which are
recorded by GPS receivers on the ground. Data from the IGS, SCIGN,
BARD, CORS, BARGEN, and PANGA networks have been analyzed at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under
contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Horizontal velocities, mostly due to motion of the Earth's tectonic
plates and deformation in plate boundary zones, are represented on
the maps by arrows extending from each site." <-- young earth
creationism cannot account for any of this stuff, as to why it should
be

----------------

Science magazine special issue:

see "Mantle Convection and Plate Tectonics: Toward an Integrated
Physical and Chemical Theory" by Paul J. Tackley
Science Jun 16 2000: 2002-2007
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol288/issue5473/

The Mantle and Plate Tectonics
http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/earthdynamics/mantle_papers.shl

Core and Mantle Dynamics
http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/earthdynamics/links.shl#core

----------------

New Departures in Structural Geology and Tectonics
http://pangea.stanford.edu/~dpollard/NSF/content.html

----------------

Is the Earth's Magnetic Field Young? (paleomagnetism)
by Joe Meert
http://gondwanaresearch.com/hp/magfield.htm

----------------

Fluids and Fluid Flow in Faults and Shear Zones: An Episodically
Evolving Bibliography
originally compiled by Laurel Goodwin
http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geol/Faults/Faultsflow/FaultBibliography.html

This contains literally hundreds of references to articles in the
professional literature on geophysics research relevant to plate
tectonics.

----------------

Bibliography of New York City/Appalachian Geology
compiled by Charles Merguerian and John E. Sanders
http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/HCLAS/Geology/GEO_bibliography.cfm

This has several hundred references (over a thousand?) to articles
about the geology of this region in general. It is a subset of this
list that is about geophysics research relevant to plate tectonics,
but a very large subset. I started to go through and capture these
but after going through so many I grew weary and stopped. But I have
copied below the results of my search (at the very end of this post).
Note that the list I've posted is sorted by year, and then last name
within year.

----------------

A links page you can dig through to find more resources online:

Structural Geology - Course Resources on the Internet
http://www.uh.edu/~jbutler/anon/anoncoursestructure.html

---
The web site
http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=65&l=&c3=
describes the mechanism in this way:

"Today, much of the evidence the plate tectonics is acquired with satellite
technology. Through use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other
satellite-based data collection techniques, scientists can directly measure
the movement and speed of plates on the surface of the earth. Speeds range
from 10-100 mm per year, confirming the long-held belief that plates move
at a slow but constant rate."
---
http://www.etsu.edu/biology/friendsofnature/Species/BMP_chronology.htm
THE GEOLOGY OF BUFFALO MOUNTAIN PARK JOHNSON CITY, TENNESSEE
A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY
The North American continent and another continent -- we arena?t sure which
one -- were firmly welded together, probably as part of the pre-Pangeaen
supercontinent of Rodinia, in a collision and mountain-building event known
as the Grenville Orogeny. Together, these joined land masses drifted
somewhere near the equator...........These early continents were apparently
very mobile. Driven by heat rising from the Eartha?s interior, they would
first collide, than they would push apart, sometimes giving up territory
and at other times gaining in size. Besides this, curved rows of islands
formed by oceanic volcanos (island arcs) would also collide, adding to the
land mass.
--
In Tennessee and Georgia a great "fault" running for hundreds of miles
consists of Cambrian deposits resting quite normally on Carboniferous. The
whole Appalachian region consists of great thicknesses of Paleozoic rocks
on top of much "younger" beds. In the Rockies there are the extensive
Bannock, Heart Mountain, and other low-angle thrust faults. Much of the
Swiss Alpine region, including the Matterhorn is in this upside-down
position. The same is true of the Scottish Highlands and the mountains of
India. One of the "displacements" in China has been followed for more than
500 miles! A similar area of 85,000 square miles is known in Scandinavia.
Every part of the world yields other examples.
==
The First Law
Since the controversy between evolutionists and thermodynamics
involves mainly the second law, we will only briefly look at
the first law, sometimes referred to as the law of conservation,
which tells us essentially that
Nothing is now coming into existence or going out of existence;
matter and energy may be converted into one another, but there
is no net increase in the combined total of what exists.
Regarding this first law, Isaac Asimov offers this noteworthy
comment:
This law is considered the most powerful and most fundamental
generalization about the universe that scientists have ever been
able to make. No one knows why energy is conserved... All that
anyone can say is that in over a century and a quarter of careful
measurement scientists have never been able to point to a definite
violation of energy conservation, either in the familiar everyday
surroundings about us, or in the heavens above or in the atoms
within.a
[Smithsonian Institution Journal, 1970, p.6]
[end of discussion of the First Law]
==
Why are supernovas important?
All stars make heavy chemical elements like carbon and oxygen through a process
called nuclear fusion, where lighter elements are fused together to make
heavier elements. Many chemical elements heavier than iron, such as gold and
uranium, are produced in the heat and pressure of supernova explosions. These
heavy elements enrich the interstellar medium, providing the building blocks
for stars and planets, like Earth.
What kind of star produces a supernova?
Two types of stars generate supernovas. The first type, called a type Ia
supernova is produced by a star's burned-out core. This stellar relic, called
a white dwarf, siphons hydrogen from a companion star, thereby making it 1.4
times more massive than our Sun [called the Chandrasekhar limit]. This excess
bulk leads to explosive burning of carbon and other chemical elements that
make up the white dwarf.
A star that is more than eight times as massive as our Sun generates the
second type, called type II. When the star runs out of nuclear fuel, the core
collapses. Then the surrounding layers crash onto the core and bounce back,
ripping apart the outer layers.
==
*Structural Geology of Rocks and Regions, 2nd Ed.* (1996)
by George H. Davis and Stephen J. Reynolds
Continental drift data

An Introduction to Plate Tectonics
by Ludwig Combrinck
http://www.hartrao.ac.za/geodesy/tectonics.html
(a nice little overview of plate tectonics)

This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics
by W. Jacquelyne Kious and Robert I. Tilling
http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html
(online book by the U.S. Geological Survey)

A Plate Tectonic Primer
by Lynn S. Fichter
(James Madison University, Dept. of Geology and Environmental Science)
http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/Fichter/Wilson/Wilson.html
(this website provides a much more detailed look at plate tectonics;
dozens of pages on various aspects of the subject; lots of detailed

GPS Time Series
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
http://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/mbh/series.html
"The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a constellation of 24
satellites which is used for navigation and precise geodetic position
measurements. Daily position estimates are determined from satellite
signals which are recorded by GPS receivers on the ground. Data from
the IGS, SCIGN, BARD, CORS, BARGEN, and PANGA networks have been
analyzed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of
Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration. Horizontal velocities, mostly due to motion of the
Earth's tectonic plates and deformation in plate boundary zones, are
represented on the maps by arrows extending from each site."
information and diagrams)

All the geological research in the intervening
time showed that it had to be the case. Seafloor spreading,
seismic and volcanic activity zones, corresponding orogenic zones
(and other kinds of strata) across continents, similar
paleontological fauna across continents, paleomagnetic analyses of
minerals in various strata, and so on.
==
The so-called "fine structure constant", alpha = 1/137.03599958, a combination
of electrical charge of the electron, the Planck constant and the speed of
light. The fine structure constant describes how electromagnetic forces hold
atoms together and the way light interacts with atoms.
==
There are only 0.015 helium atoms per cubic centimeter.
of Earth's atmosphere at sea level,
==
-Heisenberg, uncertainty paper, 1927
==
Absolute certainty is an illusion. Even repeatable experiments cannot
absolutely guarantee that absolute truth has been arrived at. However, if one
makes the basic assumption that our physical world exists as we observe it, and
our observations are accurate to within their stated resolution, then the
observational sciences are indeed sciences, and do not require faith for one to
provisionally ascent to their conclusions based on overwhelming evidence.
==
From the very deepest ice cores reaching depths of more than three kilometers
in the Antarctic ice sheet, we can clearly see the steady pulsing of the ice
ages on a period of about 100,000 years. From a site called Dome C in
Antarctica, we have recently reconstructed the climate spanning the last three
quarters of a million years, and have shown seven ice ages, each interspersed
with a warm interglacial climate such as the one we are living in today.
Scientists have successfully drilled through an Antarctic ice sheet to
extract the longest ice core ever recovered, according to a report published
today in the journal Nature. The cylinder of ice dates back nearly three
quarters of a million years and will help researchers better understand our
planets history of cyclical climate variation. "This has the potential to
separate the human-caused impacts from the natural and place it in a much
clearer context," explains James White of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine
Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who was not involved in the
research but penned a commentary on the find for this weeks issue of the
journal Science.
An international collaboration known as the European Project for Ice Coring in
Antarctica (EPICA) recovered the nearly three-kilometer-long core from a region
of the East Antarctic ice sheet known as Dome C. The bottom of the
10-centimeter-wide cylinder dates to some 740,000 years ago and nearly doubles
the reach of the next-longest ice core, which was drilled at Vostok,
Antarctica, in the late 1990s and spanned the past 420,000 years. Temperature
records for eight ice ages are documented in the new core. Of particular
interest to climatologists is the complete record of the interglacial time
period known as Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS11), which occurred around 400,000
years ago, a time when our planet's positioning was similar to its current
orbital configuration. MIS11 lasted 28,000 years--considerably longer than the
next three interglacial periods before present--and understanding its
progression may help scientists better predict whats in store for the earths
future climate.

North Greenland Ice Core Project members

Two deep ice cores from central Greenland,
drilled in the 1990s, have played a key role in
climate reconstructions of the Northern
Hemisphere, but the oldest sections of the cores
were disturbed in chronology owing to ice folding
near the bedrock. Here we present an undisturbed
climate record from a North Greenland ice core,
which extends back to 123,000 years before the
present, within the last interglacial period. The
oxygen isotopes in the ice imply that climate was
stable during the last interglacial period, with
temperatures 5 C warmer than today. We find
unexpectedly large temperature differences
between our new record from northern Greenland
and the undisturbed sections of the cores from
central Greenland, suggesting that the extent of
ice in the Northern Hemisphere modulated the
latitudinal temperature gradients in Greenland.
This record shows a slow decline in temperatures
that marked the initiation of the last glacial
period. Our record reveals a hitherto
unrecognized warm period initiated by an abrupt
climate warming about 115,000 years ago, before
glacial conditions were fully developed. This
event does not appear to have an immediate
Antarctic counterpart, suggesting that the
climate see-saw between the hemispheres (which
dominated the last glacial period) was not
operating at this time.

Milankovitch insolation changes are due to cyclic changes in the orientation
and orbit of the earth.
--
The ice core is believed to contain ice that is 120,000 years old at
the bottom.1 This date was obtained by matching the oxygen isotope
ratio down this core with other ice cores in Greenland. The oxygen
isotope ratio is a general measure of temperature, but many other
variables can affect the ratio. All deep cores drilled into
Greenland have a similar broad-scale oxygen isotope pattern. These
cores show three parts: a post-ice age climate with temperatures
similar to today, an ice-age climate with temperatures colder than
today, and a warmer interval near the bottom of the core. So the
dates of the NorthGRIP core depend upon the dates previously obtained
in other Greenland ice cores.
==
The Earth Machine
Edmond Mathez & James Webster
Columbia University Press
61 West 62nd St., NY, NY 10023-7015
www.columbia.edu/cu/cup
023112578X $35.00 1-800-944-8648

Evolution vs. Creationism
Eugenie C. Scott
Greenwood Press
88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
0313321221 $49.95 www.greenwood.com

Roger Penrose "The Road to Reality"
==
CAN CHEMICAL ENVIRONMENT AFFECT NUCLEAR PROPERTIES? A new experiment shows
that the decay lifetime of radioactive beryllium-7 changes by almost 1% when
placed inside a carbon-60 molecule. This is perhaps the largest shift yet seen
in a chemically induced modification of a nuclear lifetime. The Be-7 is
unstable and one way for it to decay is for the nucleus to capture one of its
own electrons, process in which a proton is turned into a neutron. Now if the
Be atom lies in the cavity within a C60 molecule (in which case it is referred
to as endohedral Be, or abbreviated further, BeC60) the surrounding halo of
carbon-based electrons apparently modifies the wave-functions of the
beryllium-associated electrons and the associated "phase space" so that the
rate at which electrons are captured by the Be nucleus is speeded up.
Previous attempts to modify nuclear lifetimes through chemical means
have resulted in shifts that were at the 0.15% level.
==
According to Earth's geologic record, our planet's magnetic field flips, on
average, about once every 200,000 years. The time between reversals varies
widely, however. The last time Earth's magnetic field flipped was about
780,000 years ago.
==
Brown dwarfs win star status
Brown dwarfs can form in the same way as stars, say astronomers conducting a
search for the mysterious objects. The findings may settle a debate about
whether brown dwarfs form like stars or are remnants of a violent ejection from
a dense cloud of gas.
Brown dwarfs have been an enigma ever since they were discovered in the
mid-1990s. The dim bodies are too massive to be called planets - about 10 to 75
times the mass of Jupiter - yet not big enough to ignite hydrogen fusion and
glow like a star.
Some astronomers put the upper limit for planetary mass at 13 times
what's in Jupiter.
===
http://deschutes.gso.uri.edu/~rutherfo/milankovitch.html
Milankovitch Cycles in Paleoclimate
Milankovich cycles are cycles in the Earth's orbit that influence the amount of
solar radiation striking different parts of the Earth at different times of
year. They are named after a Serbian mathematician, Milutin Milankovitch, who
explained how these orbital cycles cause the advance and retreat of the polar
ice caps. Although they are named after Milankovitch, he was not the first to
link orbital cycles to climate. Adhemar (1842) and Croll (1875) were two of the
earliest.
==
How would you like to have a time machine that could take you back anywhere
over the past 300,000 years? You could see what the world was like when ice
sheets a thousand feet thick blanketed Canada and northern Europe, or when the
Indonesian volcano Toba blew its top in the largest volcanic eruption of the
last half million years.
Well, scientists have such a time machine. It's called an ice core. Scientists
collect ice cores by driving a hollow tube deep into the miles-thick ice sheets
of Antarctica and Greenland (and in glaciers elsewhere). The long cylinders of
ancient ice that they retrieve provide a dazzlingly detailed record of what was
happening in the world over the past several ice ages. That's because each
layer of ice in a core corresponds to a single year--or sometimes even a single
season--and most everything that fell in the snow that year remains behind,
including wind-blown dust, ash, atmospheric gases, even radioactivity.
==
"The Second Law", by P. W. Atkins.
==
The world was not a great place to be 250 million years ago. Thats because
some 90 percent of the planets marine life and 80 percent of life on land had
gone extinct at the end of the Permian period. Exactly what caused the mass
extinction is a matter of debate, with the two leading theories positing
massive volcanism in Siberia or a collision with a meteor much like the one
that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. New findings published online
today by the journal Science bolster the impact hypothesis and argue that the
resulting crater lies buried off the coast of northwest Australia.
Luann Becker of the University of California at Santa Barbara and her
colleagues studied two cores drilled by oil companies in the 1970s and 1980s
into a geologic structure off the Australian coast known as the Bedout High.
"The moment we saw the cores we thought it looked like an impact breccia,"
Becker says. Specifically, the team found what they say is evidence of a
telltale melt layer that formed when a meteor crashed into the earth and
created the 125-mile-wide Bedout. Additional support for their contention that
Bedout is an impact crater comes from the fact that material from the cores
dates to 250 million years ago, give or take 4.5 million years. Together with
earlier evidence that Becker and her team collected in Antarctica and
Australia--including shocked quartz and molecules called fullerenes containing
extraterrestrial helium and argon--the new results provide further evidence
that a massive impact brought about the Great Dying, the scientists say. "We
think that mass extinctions may be defined by catastrophes like impact and
volcanism occurring synchronously in time," Becker remarks. "This is what
happened 65 million years ago at Chicxulub but was largely dismissed by
scientists as merely a coincidence. With the discovery of Bedout I don't think
we can call such catastrophes occurring together a coincidence anymore."
The findings do not close the case of exactly what caused the Permian-Triassic
(P-T) extinction, however. Some scientists remain unconvinced that Bedout is in
fact an impact crater. In addition, although the date given in the new paper is
consistent with the timing of the P-T dieout, it is not yet exact enough to be
considered simultaneous with the extinction. Becker notes that the team plans
to pursue more precise dating. Evidence for an impact [at the end of the
Permian era] has been growing over the last few years, notes Doug Erwin of the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Its not yet a slam dunk, but [the
new work] makes it a more plausible contender.
==
June 10, 2004
Scientists have successfully drilled through an Antarctic ice sheet to extract
the longest ice core ever recovered, according to a report published today in
the journal Nature. The cylinder of ice dates back nearly three quarters of a
million years and will help researchers better understand our planets history
of cyclical climate variation. "This has the potential to separate the
human-caused impacts from the natural and place it in a much clearer context,"
explains James White of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the
University of Colorado at Boulder, who was not involved in the research but
penned a commentary on the find for this weeks issue of the journal Science.
An international collaboration known as the European Project for Ice Coring in
Antarctica (EPICA) recovered the nearly three-kilometer-long core from a region
of the East Antarctic ice sheet known as Dome C. The bottom of the
10-centimeter-wide cylinder dates to some 740,000 years ago and nearly doubles
the reach of the next-longest ice core, which was drilled at Vostok,
Antarctica,
in the late 1990s and spanned the past 420,000 years. Temperature
records for eight ice ages are documented in the new core. Of particular
interest to climatologists is the complete record of the interglacial time
period known as Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS11), which occurred around 400,000
years ago, a time when our planet's positioning was similar to its current
orbital configuration. MIS11 lasted 28,000 years--considerably longer than the
next three interglacial periods before present--and understanding its
progression may help scientists better predict whats in store for the
earths future climate.
The new ice data suggests that the current period may mirror a warm period
of prolonged duration that occurred around 430,000 years ago and that lasted
28,000 years, according to researchers with the European Project for Ice
Coring in Antarctica. Not everyone agrees, however, that finding one historical
precedent--in which both the earth's atmospheric conditions and its orbit
match--weaves together a full enough pattern to refute the theory behind a
coming ice age.
The research team mined the evidence from layers of compressed snow that had
fallen as much as 740,000 years ago and was buried 10,000 feet deep in the
Antarctic ice.
==
Most of the 6 billion humans on the planet who believe in a Supreme Being
never considered an alternative. In other words, they did not actually
"choose" to believe in God at all.
Whether they desire a Supreme Being or not, they do believe, and they
continue to believe in the complete absence of any physical evidence
whatsoever.
Lots of religious people do very good science. They simply keep the two
separate.
==
The Rocky Mountains began to be formed 70 million years ago and formation was
finished 40 million years ago.The Appalachians were formed around 480 million
years ago by plate collisions during the formation of Pangea.

==
The universe is at least 156 billion light-years wide.
==
"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not
certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to
reality."
--Albert Einstein

If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs
it would be Buddhism. (Albert Einstein)
==
Diamonds form about 100 miles (161 km) below the Earth's surface, in the molten
rock of the Earth's mantle, which provides the right amounts of pressure and
heat to transform carbon into a diamond. In order for a diamond to be created,
carbon must be placed under at least 435,113 pounds per square inch (psi or
30 kilobars) of pressure at a temperature of at least 752 degrees Fahrenheit
(400 Celsius). If conditions drop below either of these two points, graphite
will be created. At depths of 93 miles (150 km) or more, pressure builds to
about 725,189 psi (50 kilobars) and heat can exceed 2,192 F (1,200 C).
==
The human mind seems to be so hungry for information that it will accept
anything as truth until proven otherwise. However, once it has reached a point
of development it can no longer alter what it has accepted. Some learn
skepticism early and can continue being skeptical. If skepticism is not learned
early, it seems it is lost for ever. Those who learn to be skeptical seem to
have a nearly 'religious' need for it.
==
Once you leave the scientific method, everything you run into is
subjective. There is no way to arrive at a "right" answer to any
non-scientific subjective question of ethics, mnorality, religion or
values, other than what you yourself subjectively decide is "right"
-- and your subjective decision doesn't mean diddley doo to anybody
but you. You have your opinions, I have mine. And there is no way at
all to tell which of them is "right". The question simply cannot be
answered. At all. Using any method. NO SUBJECTIVE QUESTION CAN BE
ANSWERED OTHER THAN BY SUBJECTIVE OPINION, and there is NO WAY TO KNOW
==
Scientists think they may have found a large impact site that
could have something to do with the mass extinction that
occurred 250 million years ago. The site is underwater off the
coast of Australia and is about the same size as the Chicxulub
crater in Mexico. The Chicxulub crater was caused by an asteroid
that hit 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs.
==
The pygmy shrew, for instance, hunts constantly and must devour the equivalent
of its body weight every 24 hours just to survive. It moves so quickly to hunt
food that its heart rate can go as high as 1,000 beats per minute
==
The aptly named Asian Vampire Moth. This strange insect pierces the skin of
animals with its sharp proboscis and drinks the animals' blood. Think that's
disgusting? Some moths feed on nothing but the eye fluids of cattle and deer
MOST moths and butterflies, on the other hand, feed on nectar and pollen from
flowers or on a variety of moist, rotting matter such as fruit, sap, and animal
spans.
==
The second law of thermodynamics does apply only to isolated
systems. The Clausius statement says, It is impossible to construct
a device that operates in a cycle and produces no effect other than
the transfer of heat from a cooler body to a hotter body. Notice
that it must produce no other effect. This indicates an isolated
system. A refrigerator can transfer heat from a cooler to a hotter
body, but it does this only in an open system. That is, it must
produce some other effect.
==
ILLUMINATING THE DARK AGES. In the very early universe the so called
"dark age" comes after the time of the first atoms---a moment when
suddenly neutral atoms, mostly hydrogen, could form, allowing
photons to stream freely, photons we now see as the microwave
background---but before the first stars formed. But maybe this era
needn't be so dark. Just as numerous finds of arts and crafts from
the European dark ages have helped to enlighten us on what the sixth
to the eleventh centuries were like, so too some bits of light from
the cosmic dark ages might illuminate that epoch. The early, cold,
neutral hydrogen can be made to speak, as it were. These atoms, in a
redshift window of about 30 to 100, would be colder than the
background radiation. The atoms would absorb photons and cause a
deficit in the microwave background at cold hydrogen's
characteristic wavelength of 21 centimeters. This absorption
wavelength, in turn, would be stretched out, courtesy of the
universal expansion of the universe, to a wavelength of 6-21 meters
or so. Because the cosmic hydrogen is not uniform, the level of
absorption varies across the sky and the microwave background would
show anisotropies at these long wavelengths. These anisotropies
could be sought using special radio interferometers. (Some efforts
are already underway to see this kind of light: see
http://www.lofar.org/ or www.skatelescope.org.) Just as microwave
telescopes mapping the early sky see minute temperature variations,
so the primordial hydrogen could also be mapped. This map might
well show the influence of dark matter through its influence in
shepherding early hydrogen. Interest in this hydrogen has been
expressed before, but the Harvard proposal is the first to be
specific about how to search for information imprinted in the
dark-age atom distribution.
==
Science contains two core ideas or approaches:
1. The primacy of observation. Our ideas must be subordinate to
observations.
2. Shared observation is required. Scientists check and enhance each
others work, and in the process reduce errors and correct for individual
biases.
3. Science is systematic (organized).

It is easier to list the hallmarks of pseudo-science.
1) Everybody else is wrong.
2) There is a conspiracy to suppress the "discovery."
3) The evidence is hearsay and or haphazard (unsystematic).
4) The discoverer worked in isolation. [Science is fundamentally
cooperative].
5) The discoverer is unwilling to allow other scientists to critique his
work. (Often announcing the discovery directly to the media).
==
Biology without evolution is just a collection of
disconnected and probably boring facts.
==
The number of stars in the visible universe is estimated to be or 7*10^22
==
How old are the Alps?
The African and Eurasian plates have been pushing up against each other for
more than 100 million years, but the mountains they produced that long ago have
nearly eroded away. The Alps began pushing up just 3 million years ago.
==
Revadim, located some 60 km from Tel Aviv in the southern part of the
coastal plain, is one of the most important and well preserved Acheulian
(Lower Paleolithic, ca. 400,000 BP) sites in the Near East.
==
The earliest estimate that Dalrymple ("The Age of the Earth", Stanford
University Press, 1991) gives in table 2.1 (estimates before 1950) of
the age of the Earth using radiometric dating methods was by H.N.
Russell, ("A Superior Limit to the Age of the Earth's Crust", Proc.
Royal Soc. London, series A, vol 99, pp 84-86). It's pretty likely
that this is the first such estimate that was published. He estimated
2 to 8 billion years old with a most likely value of 4 billion.
However, the _ real_ earliest estimate based on radiometric dating
bracketed the current value nicely, and the most likely value has
changed only 12% (from 4 to 4.55 billion years). The original
estimate was a tremendous feat, to come so close with the relatively
primitive methods and instrumentation available.
==
The Fabric of the Cosmos : Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
Brian Greene
==
Dr. Christof Koch, a professor
of computation and neural systems at the California Institute of Technology.
Dr. Koch has his new book,
"The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach."

The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size
by Tor Norretranders

The Illusion of Conscious Will
by Daniel M. Wegner

The Fabric of the Cosmos (Allen Lane, 2004)

Bowler, Peter
The Role of the History of Science in the Understanding of Social
Darwinism and Eugenics, 1990
Impact of Science on Society; v40 n3 p273-78 1990

The link between science and society is examined by studying the
application of evolution theories and genetics to human affairs. Described
are the ways in which biological theories have been applied to social
issues.
===
In the twentieth century, there was a need to make ideas of information
mathematical, so that engineers could employ the results in the design
and use of, first, communications systems, and later, computers. This
resulted in what is usually called Communications Theory (a good name
for it), or Information Theory (a miselading name for it) by Claude
Shannon in 1948. A later version, called Algorithmic Information Theory
(AIT) was based on the idea of the compression of signals, by the
Russian mathematician ? Kolmogorov, revised and extended by the American
Gregory Chaitin at IBM.
A third form of information theory underlies statistics and the theory
of measurement, and was developed initially by Ronald Fisher. This is
quite different from the other two, so we'll talk about that
differently.
The final version is not really a mathematical version. It is the kind
of information most people think of by the word: meaning. This is
referred to as "semantic information", or more technically, "
"Semiotics".
Each of the mathematical theories has a symbol that is defined by that
theory. For Shannon Communication theory, it is entropy (H). For AIT, it
is the minimum length of a message (Omega). For Fisher Information, it
is the error or uncertainty of a message (I). Semiotic information has
no symbol, because it lacks an agreed mathematical formalism, so perhaps
we can use S (for semantic, semiotic, or, if you like German words,
Sinn, for meaning).
These symbols will help us make sure we aren't illicitly moving from one
to the other when we talk about evolution and information.
1. Shannon entropy (H)
------------------
The story goes that Claude Shannon, a mathematician working at the Bell
Labs, asked John von Neumann (perhaps the greatest mathematician of the
century) what he should call his newly developed measure of information
content. "Call it entropy," said von Neumann, "for then nobody will know
what you are talking about." He did, and nobody does; well, nearly
nobody.
Shannon's entropy is not directly related to the entropy of
thermodynamics. It is a measure of the probability that, in a stream of
symbols such as a telegram, the next symbol will be a particular symbol.
That is, what is the probability that the next letter will be, say, an
"E" or a "Z"?
Shannon calculated from some sample texts the frequency of the letters
of the English language, and assigned each of them a probability - the
letter "E" is much more common than the letter "Z" in English. So the
information contained in "E" is lower than in "Z". In English, anyway.
He was mainly interested in making sure that errors did not creep into
the messages of telegrams and teletypes, and created an entire maths to
do so. This is now known as Communication Theory, or more commonly,
Shannon Information Theory. It was revised later by Wheeler, which is
known as Shannon-Weaver Information Theory, or more properly,
Communication Theory (because it is about communicating systems). This
work is crucial to the electronics age.
Shannon devised ameasure of entropy - the "bit", or "binary digit".
Since any symbol can be expressed in binary code - on modern computers,
for example, the letter E is expressed as 65, or 2^8 +1 (1000001) - it
was convenient to use base 2 arithmetic. But the entropy of a bit can be
in a decimal number. We therefore can speak of a symbol having 1.6 bits
of information.
Shannon calculated the entropy of a whole message as the sum of the
probabilities of each letter or symbol in sequence. The equation, which
need not concern us here, is
H = -log2pi

Shannon stated that H is not necessarily *meaningful* information:
The fundamental problem of communication is that of
reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a
message selected at another point. Frequently the messages
have _meaning_; that is they refer to or are correlated
according to some system with certain physical or conceptual
entities. These semantic aspects of communication are
irrelevant to the engineering problem. The significant aspect
is that the actual message is one _selected from a set_ of
possible messages. The system must be designed to operate for
each possible selection, not just the one which will actually
be chosen since this is unknown at the time of design.
It is an odd feature of Shannon entropy that the message with the most
information is one in which the probability of the next symbol is
roughly equal. This has the counterintuitive result that the most
information-laden message is a random sequence. Clearly meaning and
Shannon entropy are unconnected. We'll get back to meaning later.
Here is a sketch of a general Shannon Communication System:
--
A Shannon communication system consists of a source, or transmitter, a
sink or receiver, connected by a channel. The channel is affected by
noise, which tends to lessen the amount of information that makes it to
the receiver. It might help to think of a couple of computers connected
by a modem. Shannon used the example of two operators of telegraphs,
connected by a wire. Noise creeps in due to heat in the amplifiers,
interference, poor connections, and operator error. Any physical
communication system suffers from noise. Perfect communication occurs
when the states of the sequence of symbols at the sender end matches
those at the receiver end. But since in communication the receiver
doesn't *know* what the message was, the receiver cannot know that the
message has been perfectly received.
So, a protocol for the coding and decoding is required at each end,
which is shared. This matters, because the information content of a
message changes as the protocol changes. Our final technical term has
been added since Shannon: surprisal. This is the *expected* value of a
symbol at the receiver. Fred Dretske has a nice illustration of this to
finish our discussion of Shannon entropy on: suppose a manager has eight
staff, and one of them must be let go due to hard times at the company.
has a probability of 1/8. Its entropy is thus 3 bits. But suppose the
employees have decided that Fred, with six kids and 2 years from
retirement with a pension, should stay, and that they will draw lots if
his number comes up. In effect, they have nullified his number, and so
now the probability of the remaining symbols is 1/7, with an entropy of
around 2.8 bits. [Note that the entropy gets smaller as the probability
rises - this is because H is a measure of uncertainty and as the
likelihood rises the uncertainty reduces.]
So if the receiver and the sender have different protocols, the
information of the identical sequence will vary. A single symbol can be
very informative if the protocols are preset, as it were: Paul Revere
and the candles is a case in point (one lamp if by land, two if by sea -
a lot of information is included in that signal if you knew what it
conveyed). Or imagine that I have a single symbol in a file on my
computer - but if I feed it through a special program, it might give me
a picture of my kids, my wife or my pets. Shannon information is
*entirely* relative to the protocols used to encode and decode a
message.
1a. Shannon entropy and biology
---------------------------
In a groundbreaking book, Lila Gatlin argued that molecular sequences of
genes, which were just then becoming accessible, could be analysed in
terms of Shannon entropy. Gatlin argued that the significant patterns in
DNA would work out as having a lower entropy than the meaningless ones.
Unfortunately, this turned out not to be true (Harari, et al. 1990).
This is perhaps not surprising, because in its functioning, DNA does not
*communicate* with anything. Instead, it acts as a template against
which some RNA is made and fed into a molecular "machine" that
constructs proteins piece by piece from the soup of molecular bits in
which it floats. So the function of genes is not a matter of
"information", transmitted from anything to anything in cells. An
exception might be when cells divide and DNA is copied. We'll look at
that a bit later.
2. Algorithmic Information Theory (Omega)
-----------------------------------------
With the rise of computers at the end of the second world war,
algorithms - sequences of instructions that formally indicate how to
proceed in steps - came to prominence in mathematics, giving rise to
cybernetics (the science and engineering of control systems) in the work
of Norbert Weiner (1948) and of course to computer programming. After
some work by Kolmogorov and others filtered out of the USSR, it was
taken up by IBM mathematician Gregory Chaitin, and developed into
Algorithmic Information Theory (AIT, which he explains in relatively
nontechnical terms in his 1999).
AIT is basically the theory that the information content of any string
of symbols (or stream of symbols - in computer science, a file or input
from the keyboard or any information is thought of as a stream of
symbols) is the minimum length of a compressed version that is not
"lossy". This measure he called Omega. Now there are many lossy
compression techniques - a photo in JPG format is lossy, for example,
and has to be decompressed to display onscreen, leaving artifacts in
some cases (mainly along straight lines). But a photo can be compressed
without loss, so that when expanded, it is exactly as it was before
compression.
Now any string has a minimum length, called "minimum message length" by
mathematicians. But it is not always possible to calculate it exactly,
because we can never know if we really have found the smallest
compression. Moreover, we need to have some ideal general language in
which to represent the algorithm that's going to expand into the
original string. Chaitin uses LISP, a language devised for this sort of
freeform programming. But LISP is not a universal language - and so we
can at best approach Omega by approximation.
The basics of Omega, then, are an ideal general logical language, a way
to encode the message as a string, and a value that we can only estimate
incrementally, not exactly calculate.
2a. Omega and biology
-----------------
Because people use the metaphor of genes as the "program" or "plan" by
which bodies are built, AIT is often thought of as the foundation for
information in biology. However, this metaphor has been attacked on a
number of grounds, by various people (Oyama 2000, Oyama et al. 2000).
They reject the idea that genes are any kind of primary cause, but
rather that genes are just one of many causes, of the final states of
organisms (the phenotype, as it is called). Genes are not "run", they
are "expressed", and the expression of genes is a kind of complex
interaction between the products of individual genes - the proteins they
"code for".
Genes can often only work to jointly cause a trait if another gene is
working. If one is deleted or silenced, the trait will not be expressed,
or will be incomplete. But sometimes, if *both* genes are deleted, a
"normal" phenotype results. This does not match the notion of a
"program" well, and certainly implies that the length of the gene
sequence is not the information content it contains.
Recently, some have attempted to discover what the minimum genome size
of an organism is. This suggests that there is, after all, an omega
value for a genome. However, this is going to depend on things not
internal to the organism - in short, it will depend on the environment.
A microorganism that lives in the hot volcanic water of a deep sea vent
will need a set of genes that allows it to metabolise the sulphides and
other molecules it encounters there and uses for energy. It might have a
smallest number of genes in order to do that metabolising; suppose it is
M. But take that organism into an environment that *lacks* these
metabolites, and it must, if it is to live, find another source of
energy - most organisms use the citric acid, or Krebs, cycle. Let us
suppose the number of genes for that environment is N. There is no
reason to think that M and N will be identical for similar organisms in
different environments. So there is no absolute minimum number of genes
for even simple bacteria. The environment must contain some of the
"information" needed for a viable organism.
This is, in fact, well known in biology - genes have a "norm of
reaction" that means that the environment determines how the phenotype
is expressed (Schlichting and Pigliucci 1998). The norm of reaction
means that a plant in Hawai'i grows like a flower at low altitudes, and
like a cactus at high altitudes, although it is not related to the
ordinary cactus. Humans have the same ranges - an ill-nourished child
will grow up short and a well-fed child will grow up tall - the genes
determine the ranges. But what, at an individual level, is a set range,
at the level of populations is a range of ranges, and what these are,
are not just the average of all the genetic alternatives (alleles) in
the population, for the gene products as we noted interact in complex
ways. So an Omega measure of genomic sequence will not give you a good
correlation with the organism's phenotype.
The developmental sequence itself, however, might very well be
susceptible to the AIT concept. But how could we find it out? The only
way one can formalise the developmental sequence is to study a large
number of the organisms and work out the "typical" sequence, and even so
that is still environment-sensitive. In the absence of folic acid in the
maternal diet, children will develop spina bifida (an incompletely
enclosed vertebral column). Suppose that humans lived in a folate-poor
environment, and spina bifidal humans were able to flourish relatively
well. Would we say that spina bifida was part of "the" developmental
sequence of humans (or other mammals)? So even that is not amenable to
an AIT analysis in any objective sense.
I therefore don't think that information resides "in" any aspect of the
organism.
3. Interlude: Where *is* information in biology?
---------------------------------------------
There is a tendency to talk about the world as if it must be exactly
mappable to some abstract idea we have of it. This is a temptation that
scientists and philosophers fall prey to no less than anyone else. So a
distinction must be made between concrete things *in* the world, and
abstract things that exist, so far as they exist at all, only in
conceptions. One metaphysician (a specialist in metaphysics, the study
in philosophy of the *sorts* of things that *can* exist, opposed to
ontology, which is the study of the things that *do* exist), Edward
Zalta (1988), has summarised it well - abstract things do not have a
time and place "stamp" on them, while concrete things are bounded in
time and space.
Information, in the Shannon and AIT senses, is an abstract thing. The
entropy measured by Shannon's H, and the minimum sequence length
measured by Chaitin's Omega, applies to *symbols*. That is, it applies
to the types of the things that occur, not the printed letters on a
stream of tape, but the types the tokens stand for. The word "red" is
not the letters "R", "E" and "D", but a symbol. The colour it "
represents
or names is something else again. An influential philosopher of the 19th
century, C. S. Peirce referred to this as a triad:
===
The symbol A (type) is represented by this typed letter here on your
screen (token), and it "refers" to a sound (or a number of sounds) which
is the "thing" in the world. Types and tokens occur in a formalised,
logical or semantic "world". Peirce called this the "mind" of course,
but it need not be in someone's head, it is just the abstract realm
whatever that may be.
Mistaking the abstract world for the concrete world is a fallacy Alfred
North Whitehead called the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness. It is the
mistake of not distinguishing between a noun that refers to some general
property, and the things in the world it refers to. "Information" is a
word of that kind.
Generally, information is the sequence of abstract symbols, not the
things the symbols represent. The letters G, T, A and C (which represent
the four nucleic acid types, guanine, thymine, adenine and cystine) are
not the same thing as the molecules in a cell that act as the catalysts
for the production of other molecules known as amino acids. The
"information" in a sequence of a gene is "in" the abstract symbols. We
can work it out and write it down *even if there are no such genes* as
the symbols represent. Likewise, in a nucleic acid molecule in which the
sequence is present, but which is not in a cell, there is no *genetic*
information, because there is nothing about that nucleic acid molecule
that makes it a gene until it is in a cell, with the appropriate
transcription and replication machinery.
Information is a formal and abstract property. It exists only in
abstractions. What exists in *cells* is *structure*. And any structure
can be described or represented by symbols in many different ways;
indeed John Locke long ago noted that there are an infinity of true
things that can be said about anything. Information resides in how we
decide to *talk about* things, not in the things themselves.
Almost. There is one kind of information that does exist "in the world":
4. Fisher Information (I)
-------------------------
R. A. Fisher was a founding father of modern statistics. He proposed a
measure of information as the accuracy of a measurement. Although this
was intended to be a statement about data sets (large numbers of data
from an experiment or observations collected by a scientist), it can
also be understood as the correlation of a measuring device, such as a
thermometer, to some physical property, such as heat. If a thermometer
shows that the temperature is 100C, and the temperature is "
100C in
terms of the heat energy of the molecules, then the thermometer has the
maximum amount of information it can have - its state and the state of
the thing "observed" match. But measurements are almost always wrong, in
that they will scatter around the "true" value. That scatter will follow
the law of errors and form a bell curve around the true value. Fisher
defined information (I) at the maximum as the point on that curve at
which the tangent to the curve is exactly level (or, if you like
technical definitions, at which the second derivative is zero). This is
called the Cramer-Rao Bound in statistics (and that is all I need to, or
can, say about that).

Fisher information: The quantity being measured (M)
is most closely approached when the curve of the estimate
of the error is flat.

Fisher information is the *physical* relation between an observer
system, and the thing being observed. But it is worth noting that what
it measures is the accuracy of the *observation*, not anything about the
thing observed. It tells us we have an accurate thermometer, but the
thermometer is what tells us the state of the boiling water. The
information exists as a property of the observer-observed pair. In
Pierce's terms, it would be the relation between the token and the
object.
4a. Fisher's I and biology
--------------------------
Intriguingly, Fisher developed statistics in order to measure and
understand biological objects. In fact, he used it to do what was then
called "biometrics" - measuring the ranges of values of traits in
populations. The reason why he wanted to do this was that he wanted to
be able to asses how populations changed under natural selection (Fisher
developed the basic mathematics of what came to be known as population
biology, and defined the "fundamental theorem of natural selection"). So
I is directly relevant to biological, as well as any physical, system.
However, it is not, as we said, a property of the observed organisms or
populations themselves so much as a measure of how accurately we can
measure facts about them. In short, it is not something that can play a
role in evolution or biological systems on its own.
But organisms can have a kind of Fisher information themselves - that
is, they can track the state of their environment. Most organisms have a
range of reaction to stimuli like heat, light, water and food, and they
have to accurately respond. A frog that sees a moving fly must be able
to plug the fly with its tongue, or it will go hungry. So we can say
there is Fisher information in its capacity to do this, and of course
that is due to natural selection. Frogs that mis-aim, are dead.
This does not mean that this is information in the genes. While genes
are crucially involved in the development of these capacities, and
selection occurs on genes for these abilities in frogs (and flies), the
capacity of a frog to mark and catch a fly (and of the fly to avoid
being caught) is due to the action of genes *and* of the environment.
But that is an argument for another time (Schlichting and Pigliucci
5. Semantic information
-----------------------
Recently, there have been a number of attempts to formulate a
"biosemiotics" or "biosemantics" [to be completed]
References
----------
Chaitin, Gregory J. 1999. The unknowable, Springer series in discrete
mathematics and theoretical computer science. Singapore; New York:
Springer.
Dretske, Fred I. 1981. Knowledge and the flow of information. Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press.
Gatlin, Lila L. 1972. Information theory and the living system. New
York: Columbia University Press.
Hariri, Ali, Bruce Weber, and John Olmsted III. 1990. On the validity of
Shannon-information calculations for molecular biological sequences. J.
Theoretical Biology 147:235-254.
Kaplan, Basic bioethics. Cambridge MA: Bradford Book, MIT Press.
Oyama, Susan, Paul E. Griffiths, and Russell D. Gray, eds. 2000. Cycles
of contingency: Developmental systems and evolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Oyama, Susan. 2000. The ontogeny of information: developmental systems
and evolution. 2nd rev. and enl. ed, Science and cultural theory.
Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Schlichting, Carl D., and Massimo Pigliucci. 1998. Phenotypic Evolution:
A Reaction Norm Perspective. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.
Shannon, Claude E. 1948. A mathematical theory of communication. The
Bell System Technical Journal 27:379-423, 623-656.
Wiener, Norbert. 1948. Cybernetics, or, Control and communication in the
animal and the machine. Cambridge, Mass: Technology Press.
Zalta, Edward N. 1988. Abstract Objects: An Introduction to Axiomatic

Much "junk" DNA is highly ordered since it consists of large numbers
of repeated imprints of the footprints of retrotransposons - LINE-1
and the like - rather than because it serves any purpose to the host.
But notice the variations within the single bibliography at
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/References/Kolmogorov.html)
H = - ""sum_i p_i log_2 p_i
===
Zeroing in on the Milky Way's Black Hole
A new look deep into the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy comes closer to the
central supermassive black hole than ever before, promising a way to see the
very shadow of the mysterious object in coming years.
In the study, radio telescopes provided the best measurement yet of the
diameter of a chaotic region of emissions surrounding the supermassive object.
The black hole, which holds a mass equal to nearly 4 million suns, was
previously estimated to be about 14 million miles (23 million kilometers)
across, much smaller than the orbit of Mercury around the Sun. It can't be
seen, because everything that approaches it, including light, is swallowed. But
on the way in, matter is superheated to millions of degrees, generating
emissions in many wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves
to X-rays.
Astronomers have for 30 years sought to learn exactly what causes the radio
emissions and how near to the black hole they originate. The radio-emitting
region is no more than 186 million miles (300 million kilometers) across, or
less than the diameter of Earth's orbit, the researchers reported Thursday in
the online edition of the journal Science.
Mysteries remain
"We don't know yet the complete nature of the radio emitting region, but as a
result of our measurement we now have a tight constraint on its size," said
Geoffrey Bower of the University of California-Berkeley. "We are much closer to
seeing the effects of a black hole on its environment here than anywhere else."
The radio emissions might originate from material that is falling onto the
black hole, or perhaps they are spawned by a jet of stuff flowing away from the
black hole at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
Further observations may solve that remaining mystery, he said.
For now, the new observations come closer to a black hole -- as measured in
relation to the presumed size of the given black hole -- than any previous,
Bower said. The primary work was done with the National Science Foundation's
Very Long Baseline Array of telescopes.
Blurry vision
The radio-emitting region is called Sagittarius A* (meaning A-star). It was
discovered in 1974 and later determined to be associated with a central,
supermassive black hole. The whole setup is about 26,000 light-years from
Earth.
The area is shrouded in dust, so visible-light telescopes can't study
Sagittarius A*. Radio waves penetrate the dust but are scattered by the
turbulent, hot gas in the area. The astronomers said this scattering had
frustrated previous attempts to peer into the very core of the action. Bower
likened the task to trying to spot a yellow rubber duck through the frosted
glass of a shower stall.
To cut through the cosmic fog, the team employed higher radio frequencies,
which correspond to shorter wavelengths. They also used longer wavelength
observations to determine the effects of the scattering, then removed those
effects from the short-wavelength data.
"After 30 years, radio telescopes finally have lifted the fog and we can see
what is going on," said fellow investigator Heino Falcke of the Westerbork
Radio Observatory in the Netherlands.
And there is room for improvement, Falcke and Bower say, by using even shorter
wavelengths to drill down to the cutoff point -- the outer sphere of the black
hole -- and essentially see a shadow of the immense dark object. Such an
observation was proposed, based solely on theory, by Falcke and other
colleagues more than four years ago.
==
Direct methods of measuring the age of the Earth include Pb/Pb, Rb/Sr, Ar/Ar
etc. isochrons. The data is pretty clear. It is a fact: the Earth is
approximately 4.5 billion years old.

The only assumption necessary to isochrons (aside from ensuring that the rock
crystals formed during the event we want to date) is that the decay rate of
Rubidium-87 does not change drastically under conditions that would preserve
an isochron.
==
Stegosaurus had no upper front teeth, whereas Huayangosaurus
did. Also, the plates along Huayangosaurus's back were more spike-like
than those of Stegasaurus. Huayangosaurus also had armored scutes down
it's sides, and a pair of spines on its shoulders, where as Segosaurus
didn't. Also, in Stegosaurus the sacral ribs are fused into a nearly
solid plate, unlike those in Huayangosaurus.
==
Arrhenius kinetics is
V(T) = A exp(-u/RT)
so that the log of rate varies inversely with absolute temp.
===
H. Arp claims some red shifted galaxies are observed associated with
quasars of a differeent value of red shift. He has clear cut photographs
of high and low redshift objects in the same line of sight - he hypothesises
that they are physically connected. Others point out that his statistics
are seriously flawed and that there are no more apparent associations than one
would expect; and would also point out that if he is correct, it is absolutely
amazing that every single quasar ever observed was shot out of its host galaxy
away from us. Not a single quasar is blueshifted with respect to its (in his
view) parent galaxy.
===
One should be aware that there are two different notions of normality,
which correspond to Shannon randomness (all finite substrings of a
given length occur with equal probability) and Kolmogorov-Chaitin
randomness (non-compressibility).
Even if pi is Shannon-normal, it is not KC-normal, since
algorithms of fixed length exist which will deliver the decimal
expansion of pi to any desired accuracy.
An actual example of a transcendental number which is provably SN but
not KCN is:
1.23456789101112131415 ....
==
Scientists are constantly criticising one another.
Operating in the scientific community is like operating in a critical
shark tank. Everything one does is up for scrutiny and criticism,
especially by rival research groups. Sometimes the criticism is as
much as decades in coming, but it usually comes along as we learn more.
When people say evolution has been tested more than gravity, they're
not guilty of hyperbole. There's a lot of data.
==
Students should be taught that any
theory, even supposedly established fact, can be proven wrong, and
that science is constantly in the process of tearing itself down and
rebuilding from the ground up. A true scientific outlook accepts that
we know nothing for certain. Science is an orderly process of
explaining what we see in the best terms we can. There is ALWAYS a
better way to explain the universe than the one in currency. As I see
it, Darwinian evolution based on a multi-billion year old universe is
the clear conclusion of the evidence, and every student should be
taught that. But every class, from history to science to art, should
come with the caveat "you'll do well to accept this - but we could be
wrong. We can do what comes most easily, and try to shout the
fundamentalists off the stage, or we can take what they're saying and
learn from it. After all, learning is what science is all about.
Science cannot solve all problems at once. We encounter
an anomaly, and we tolerate it unless it is too great until we have the
conceptual, observational and manipulative tools to address the problem.
Until then, it is just an anomaly.
==
Many myths have some basis in fact, and I find it plausible that the story
of Atlantis may be a garbled account of the demise of the Minoans after the
explosive eruption of Thera and the resultant tidal waves, ash rain, and
subsidance.Thera is in the Mediterranean near Greece
==
The space-time singularity associated with the big
bang differs in two important ways from the singularity
associated with a black hole. First of all, a black
hole has an 'outside.' That is, we assume that at large
distances from the black hole space-time is essentially
flat and defines a background against which we observe the
black hole. This is not true in the case of the big bang,
because we are all participants.
The second difference is critical to this question: one of
the initial conditions of the big bang is expansion of the
matter, whereas a Schwarzschild black hole is associated
with a static gravitational field. One might think motion
would not make a difference, because no velocity is great
enough to escape from a black hole, but that is only
the stationary black hole. In the case of the big bang,
everything is moving, with the result that the solution to
the gravitational-field equations is fundamentally altered.
==
The most important line of evidence for the big bang is probably
the microwave background radiation, with angular distribution and
polarization..
Other evidence is the distributions of light elements (Hydrogen
and Helium) which matches early Big Bang nucleosynthesis.
Another line of evidence shown up last year is polarization
of the background radiation.
Another line of evidence is study of the very distance parts
of the universe, which show that the universe changes over time.
==
Science can overcome human bias, but testing and experiment can't
overcome failures of imagination.
Just like we'd have to get in our space ship and fly to Polaris or
Barnard's Star to verify that their surface temperatures are the
expected values predicted by quantum physics. So is the hypothesis
that the surface temp. of Barnard's Star is X degrees unscientific
because we can't actually get there to take a temparature reading?
So, as an example of a macro-evolutionary event, take the exinction of
T-Rex. You are saying that this hypothesised macroevolutionary event
cannot be falsified? Wouldn't the discovery of a living T-Rex falsify
that hypothesis? Or do you question whether T-Rex ever existed? How
about the supposed close evolutionary relationship between, say,
arctic foxes and timber wolves (i.e. the two species result from a
speciation event within the last X million years)? DNA sequencing of
the two species might show that arctic foxes and timber wolves are not
closely related, thus falsifying the time frame of the supposed
macroevolutionary event. Certainly, there are macro-evolutionary
events that we will never know about with any precision. We may never
know closer than +/- several million years when the speciation event
which produced the 'mammal' clade occured, and we may never know
assertions about when and where it occured may in fact be
unfalsifiable (although some may not -- the assertion that the mammal
clade arose three weeks ago on the moon is falsifiable). But that
doesn't mean that all macroevolutionary claims are unfalsifiable, as
demonstrated above.
This simply does not follow. All historical events are unrepeatable.
This does not imply that all historical claims are unfalsifiable. It
doesn't make sense to say that the theory of common descent is 'not
repeatable' any more than it makes sense to say that the theory of
General Relativity is 'not repeatable'. Experiments to confirm
aspects of both theories *can* be set up today. We can confirm that
atomic clocks run more slowly at the bottom of a deep well than they
do at the top of a high mountain. Likewise, we can confirm that
speciation occurs. We can also make *repeatable* observations today
to confirm that Mercury conforms to an orbit predicted by general
relativity; we can also make repeatable observations today that the
DNA of various organisms conform to a pattern predicted by common
descent.
If the orbit of Mercury began to deviate from the orbital behaviour
predicted by G.R., planetary astronomers and physicists would be
scratching their heads and searching for an explanation. If organisms
were discovered whose DNA deviates from what is predicted from common
descent, biologists would be scratching their heads and searching for
an explanation. Common descent is in exactly the same boat re
falsifiability, testability, etc. as is general relativity, the germ
theory of disease, and so on.
It would be ironic if it did in fact follow, I suppose, but as it does
not follow, it is perhaps only ironic that you think it does.
Utter incompatibility? It is testable and empirical. None of its
claims are based on anything but observation, all its claims make
predictions that can be confirmed. This is utter compatibility not
utter incompatibility. Dembski's 'design inference', on the other
hand, makes no testable predictions. There are no observations that
are incompatible with Dembski's design inference. For a design
inference to be falsifiable, we must ascribe motive and mechanism to a
designer; as Dembski won't do that, his 'Design Inference' is
philosophically and scientifically vapid (as well as mathematically
obfuscatory).
Or doing normal, everyday science. The formulas of quantum mechanics
(such as Schroedinger's wave equation) define a mathematical model
model and the potential energy function of an electron bound to a
nucleus, numerous predictions can be made. The fact that observations
of electron behaviour matches the predictions confirms the model.
This is exactly the same way in which common descent is confirmed.
..or other repeatable observation, which common descent is subject to.
So Galileo and modern evolutionary biolists are in the same company.
The process of common descent is demonstrable, subject to more than
thought experiment, and it is a process that can be observed in areas
beyond evolutionary biology.
Strike 'unfortunately' and 'of taxonomic interpretation' and perhaps I
would agree. The static pattern observed *is* compelling evidence,
though not the only evidence. It would be perplexing, of course, if
the 'branching with modification' pattern of common descent which will
lead to a nested hierarchy such as we see in extant species were not
seen to be occuring today. If we didn't see it happening now, then
that would be powerfully suggestive that there *is* another process at
work that we are unaware of. But we do see exactly the same
branchingg and modification process occuring today.
If it is obvious to you, then why did you say but a perfectly nested
hierarchy can also be arranged consisting of strictly *extant* living
organisms -- 'but... can also' leads me to belive you were trying to
make some distinction between what you were saying and what I was
saying... but *I* was saying that a nested hierarchy an be arranged
consisting of strictly extant organisms (and that this is a prediction
of common descent).
The distribution of characters to species is non-random -- of all the
possible body plans which could be viable, of all the possible
encodings for identical proteins, of all the possible encodings for
proteins with identical functions, of all the possible 'encodings'
for non-coding regions, the actual distribution of morphological and
genetic characteristics is decidedly non-random. If no process was at
work, the distribution would be random. Because there is a non-random
distribution, a process is strongly indicated. There might be a
distribution of characteristics which indicates 'design'. But the
actual distribution of characteristics indicates a bifurcating pattern
of splitting and modification.
You are suggesting that the creator created the existing organisms,
and they just happened to fall into this nested hierarchy. This is
similar to suggesting that God controls the orbit of electrons, and he
just happens to do it in a way that conforms to the predictions of the
Schroedinger wave equation. It is philosophically possible, but
simpler to assume that the pattern we see is there for a natural
reason.
A scientific explanation of the construction of your house would
probably take the position that the foundation was laid, then the
framing was done. It's possible that it was done in another way, and
science would of course leave that possibility open as a less likely
scenario. Science is always open to alternative explanations that
have empirical support.
But when they do come up with good solutions to the universes
mysteries, it generally only those with religious or emotional bias
who reject them for long.
It isn't extraneous -- the tree itself *isn't* an explanation. If we
interpret the internal nodes in the tree as hypothetical ancestors, we
now understand why there *is* atree.
You are merely either digging your heels in and refusing to understand
how inference works in science, or still not understanding how the
process of common descent leads to a nested hierarchy. Do you
understand that splitting and modification lead to a nested hierarchy?
This is demonstrable 'in real time' with simulations, with real
organisms like bacteria, or with other types of experiment. If you
understand this, then do you accept that organisms, when classified
objectively by their characteristics, conform to a nested hierarchy?
If you accept both these things, then it is clear you don't understand
how inference works in science. The inference of common descent is no
different than the inference that craters on the moon were cause by
meteor impacts, or that the scattering pattern of hydrogen atoms
exposed to a magnetic field is due to electron 'spin'.
Rather, because the only design processes we are aware of will not
produce a nested hierarchy, the nested hierarchy is not evidence for
design, whereas it is evidence for common descent.
Again, I still don't understand -- are you saying that humans have
been trying to engineer self-replicating organisms, biological
complexity, or perfectly nested hierarchies? I don't think there have
been any serious attempts to do so. There have been successful
attempts to put together viruses from scratch, but no serious attempt
to put together self-replicating biological complexity. And certainly
no attempt to create a perfectly nested hierarchy in any sort of
design. There may be a time in the future in which we create (from
scratch) self-replicating organisms (or other entities) for some human
purpose, but 'nested-hierarchy' as a design goal is not something we
have any reason to strive for.
There has generally not been any intelligent determination to produce
self-replication and nested hierarchy. That said, humans have
produced successful 'designs' by using common descent (by using
evolutionary algorithms).
Common descent is a known process -- it can be seen in real time in
other phenomena besides evolutionary biology. It is an example of
what is known as a 'Markov Process', which has well known
implications.
As noted above, the inference is not circular: the 'known process' of
common descent can be both simulated and observed in 'real time'.
Yes, it requires a certain amount of investigation and knowledge to
understand how and why it is the best explanation. 'Inextricable
chaos' certainly is not a prediction of common descent, but if all
theories and processes of nature were self-evident, then we would have
known about common descent, general relativity, Schroedinger's wave
equations, and so on, centuries ago.
But one hypothesis is falsifiable, the other isn't. One has a model
which predicts specific observations, the other does not. Further, it
*is* known that the current DNA mechanism *isn't* the only one which
would work -- other coding schemes are known to be possible. There's
no reason to suspect that they shouldn't occur in nature, other than
the theory of common descent.
So you *still* don't understand the nature of the nested hierarchy.
Any conceivable set of organisms produced by any conceivable means
will *not* conform to a nested hierarchy. Common descent predicts
which sorts of creatures *will* be found, and which *will not*. It
predicts what genetic characteristics they *will* have, and which the
*will not* have, for both known and yet-to-be-discovered species.
During this century, we will discover many new species of organisms,
both macroscopic and microscopic, both on the land and in the seas.
Common descent doesn't predict that some sorts of creatures will be
found and some sorts won't -- it predicts specifically what sorts of
creatures will not be found.
There's no evident reason why, if separately designed, the creatures
listed below wouldn't exist. But if they evolved, the theory of
common descent precludes their existence.
Which has nothing to do with my point.
The nested hierarchy is concrete evidence, as much as the crater in
Arizona is of an ancient meteor impact, or the Grand Canyon is of
erosion, or Stonehenge is of prehistoric humans in Great Britain.
There is further concrete evidence for common descent of course --
from the things we see happening in 'real time', to the geographic
distribution of species, to the fossils, etc.
On what basis do you estimate this likelihood?
The evidence may be the same, but the creationists make no 'inference'
that is based on any model which predicts the evidence. So the
evidence supports the evolutionary inference, but it can't support the
creationist inference, because it makes no predictions. Will we ever
find an ocean dwelling, scaly creature with gills and a backbone in
which all the proteins it shares in common with both monkfish and
monkeys are closer in sequence to monkeys than monkfish? Common
descent makes a clear prediction: no. What prediction do creationists
make, and, more importantly, why? Creationism has no model which
would preclude such a discovery -- it makes no prediction.
You must recognize that 'seemingly designed' is an unsupportable,
unfalsifiable assertion.
It has never been shown that 'functional irreducible complexity' is
any barrier to evolution, and we have plenty of evidence that it is
not.
Okay -- by that logic, it is more parsimonious to ascribe the
cratering of the lunar surface to a single act of divine creation than
to innumerable meteor impacts. Or the innumerable fish in the sea to
a single act of divine creation, rather than innumerable hatching
events (after all, we can't observe all fish births). But this isn't
what the law of parsimony means. With common descent we have a single
process which explains innumerable observations. With the 'meteor
theory' of cratering we have a single process which explains
innumerable observations. With the 'fish hatch from eggs theory' we
have single process that explains innumerable fish. With a divine
creation theory, we've added an entity (God) and yet are no closer to
understanding why there are craters on the moon, fish in the sea, or
innumerable species which conform to a nested hierarchy
===
Science does not need to be done in a laboratory. There are many, many
ways of putting a theory to the test. It's wonderful if you can
isolate variables and control the behaviour of a system, but it's not
necessary. What is necessary is that you can make observations, that
the theory fits the observations, that you can make predictions from
the theory, and that you can make new observations that either confirm
or reject that prediction. We can't make stars in a lab, can't control
the variables associated with them, can't isolate them or repeat the
process of their formation, but astrophysics is still science. The
observations don't need to be direct, either. No one has ever seen an
electron, but we know they are there by the traces they leave behind.
That is still a valid observation, and still science.
It's only one way that theories are confirmed or
falsified, not the only way. The fact that we can't recreate the
entire history of life in a lab does not make common descent
unfalsifiable in any way.
We have observed speciation events. Many of them. The events in the
past are not imagined, they are observed through the fossil record
(remember, indirect observation is still observation.) That you don't
wish to acknowledge them does not make them go away. Even if we
hadn't, the fossil evidence, the nested hierarchy, DNA evidence and
all of the other evidence we have would be more than sufficient.
Once again, repeatability is not required. We can't repeat the
formation of a star in the lab. The theories about this process are
still science. You have very badly misunderstood the nature of science
and what is meant by testable and falsifiable.
==
Atomic dating
Isochrons have a built in test to see if there the system
has been closed. If the system was was significantly open then
the isochron graph will not have a line when the data is ploted.
Ar-Ar can also discover whether or not a the system was open or not.
U-Pb concordia-discordia not only can tell that a system
is been desturbed, but can still give a date even if the
system was open. Under certain circumstance it can even
say _when_ the system lost lead to the outside world.
Scientists have also subjected materials to some very extreme conditions
in order to find out what will change these rates. No conditions that
leave rocks in any state where an isochron would be preserved have been
observed to change decay rates. Indeed, no terrestrial conditions
could possibly maccount for a six-magnitude error in dates.
This is only correct for K-Ar dates. It is measured in the isochron
method. You have not read the primary literature on the subject.
Actually, great care is taken to assure that the sample is undisturbed
and that all samples for a given isochron are cogenetic. If this care
fails egregiously, then no isochron will form.
No physical phenomena have been recorded that could change radioactive decay.
Nucleii have been subjected to incredibly heat, cold, high pressure,
low pressure, electric and magnetic fields -- to no avail, no
measurable difference in the speed of alpha & beta decay.
Radioactive decay is governed by strong and weak interactions or
nuclear forces. Please explain how forces such as the orientation of
Earth's magnetic field, air temperature, and biblical disasters could
affect these forces. In many cases a good date can be derived from samples
that have not been closed.
A large percentage (about 55%) of dates derived today are done by U-Pb
concordia-discordia dating. If the system has been closed the samples
are concordant and plot on (or incredibly near to) a curve called
system has not been closed the samples are discordant and do not
fall on concordia ... but if they lie on a straight line the upper
intersection of that line with concordia gives the age of the samples.
Much effort is expended to get concordant samples, and I don't know
what percentage of dates are concordant and what percentage are
discordant, except a large percentage are concordant. But discordant
dates are perfectly good for demonstrating the age of the Earth.
Since the discovery of radioactivity the rates have been
studied and have been shown to be constant for immense periods of time.
The light curves from supernova explosions hundreds of thousands of
light years away for example, show radioactive decay rates that are the
same as measured on earth today. The lack of natural plutonium, and other
short half life isotopes, on earth is what one would expect based on the known
decay rate and the age of the earth.
==
Thomas Aquinas claimed to prove that God cannot... make a triangle
whose interior angles do not equal 180 degrees. But Bolyai
and Lobachevsky were able to accomplish this last feat (on a curved
surface) in the nineteenth century, and they were not even
approximately gods. --Carl Sagan, _Broca's Brain_
==
Current theories maintain that the first matter formed shortly after the
Big Bang. Between time(0) and 10 (-43) [i.e., ten to the minus 43] seconds,
the universe was in the so-called Planck era about which modern physics has
almost nothing to say. The Planck era led to the Grand Unification Theory
Epoch in which matter beat out antimatter to dominate the universe. The
first stable atomic nuclei composed of protons and neutrons were evident by
time(0) + about 1 second. (S. Hawking, 2001, The Universe in a nutshell.
Weinberg, S.
The first three minutes

Hogan, C. J., 1998,
The Little Book of the Big Bang,
Springer-Verlag, New York

Coles, P., 2001,
Cosmology: A very short introduction,
Oxford University Press
===
Glacial theory does account for both drumlins and eskers. Drumlins
are form while the ice is in motion - just as you stated above. Kames
and eskers are formed by flowing waters on stagnant glacier, ie ones
that are no longer moving.
Current dates for the last Ice Age show that it started some
36,000 years ago and peaked 21,000 years ago.
===
If the sun collapsed into a singularity, its event horizon would measure
approximately 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) across. If Earth followed suit, its
event horizon would only measure 1 centimeter (0.4 inches).
==
Einstein commenting on the probabilities of Quantum Mechanics: "God does not
play dice with the universe."
Neils Bohr's response to Einstein: "Don't tell God what to do."
==
Average Life Expectancy
1850 - 38.3 years
2000 - 74.8 years
Did they pray more in 2000?
==
Einsteins "Greatest Blunder" Redeemed By Steadily Spreading Supernovae
Continuing the age of unprecedented cosmological discovery, scientists believe
the Hubble Space Telescope has recorded the effects of what Einstein once
called "my greatest blunder": the cosmological constant. Nothing else readily
explains the steadiness with which dark energy appears to be pushing the
universe apart, according to a team led by Adam Riess of the Space Telescope
Science Institute.
Measurements of exploding distant stars taken over time by Hubble showed what
are more likely to be the effects of a constant antigravity force than a more
turbulent energy predicted by other theories. The energys steadiness,
said Riess, could mean the universe is likely to glide to its end through a
gradual expansion and cooling down. Thats opposed to the future that theorists
redicted would be wrought by a less stable version of dark energy:
A strengthening antigravity force would end the universe violently via
"the big rip"; a degenerating version of the energy would cause the universes
chaotic collapse in the form of "the big crunch."
As for Einsteins seeming mistake, "his greatest blunders are our greatest
ideas," said University of Chicago cosmologist Sean Carroll, who called the
finding "a triumph of general relativity." But Carroll said the validation of
the cosmological constant still does not explain why dark energy occupies
space in the first place. For that, the field of string theory advances its
cosmic "landscapes," while others put
forward the possibility of parallel universes.
==
In Viennese Lab, Carbon-70 Shows Spooky, So-Far Subatomic Properties
The weird, wavelike reality of subatomic matter may obtain for larger
particles, too, based on studies of giant molecules of carbon done by
scientists at the University of Vienna. Quantum physics holds that subatomic
particles inhabit a spooky realm, popping up at different points in spacetime,
their location predictable only via a wavelike "probability distribution." That
couldnt be the case for items larger than atoms, physicists have agreed.
But Anton Zeilinger and his Austrian colleagues challenge that notion.
They shot beams of carbon-70 molecules, each made up of 70 carbon atoms, at
a "diffraction grating" and observed the mysterious results as individual
molecules fanned out along a wavelike "interference pattern." So even dense
molecules like carbon-70 can exist in multiple places at one time.
==
The scientists involved in the beryllium experiment required 200 000
atmospheres of pressure in order to create the change in decay rates.
they produced a change in the decay rate constant of 0.2%. at a pressure
of 200 000 atmospheres?
==
Pseudosciences work from the top down. Observed evidence is filtered,
and thrown out if it does not fit the decreed conclusion. Scientific
method must be rewritten to fit the pseudoscience, so they don't have to
bother to meet the standards. Standards have to be lowered. Rejection
of results by the scientific community is seen as a 'conspiracy', or
actions of 'gatekeepers'.
==
Most Distant Galaxy Hints at Dark Ages 16 February 2004
Astronomers seeking to glimpse the very beginnings of the universe announced
this weekend they may have spotted the most distant galaxy yet, one that could
shed light on the end of the so-called Dark Ages of cosmology that preceded the
well-lit universe we know today.
Nearby galaxy cluster Abell 2218 acts as a powerful lens, magnifying galaxies
beyond it. The lensed galaxies are all stretched along the cluster's center and
some of them are multiply imaged. The new apparent record-setter shows up as a
faint red pair of images, encircled in the larger version of this image.
The scientists are unsure of the exact distance to the galaxy but know it is
near the limit of what can be found with current telescopes. It is estimated to
be 13 billion light-years away, seen at a time when the universe was just 700
million to 750 million years old.
Unlike other distance records in recent years, mostly coming out of the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey, this one was a product of the Hubble Space Telescope and
the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
The distance to faraway galaxies is measured by noting how rapidly they are
moving away from our own. Because the universe is expanding at an
ever-increasing pace, all widely dispersed galaxies retreat from each other at
greater speeds the farther apart they are.
Scientists measure all this by noting a galaxy's redshift, the extent to which
the wavelengths of its light have been stretched toward the red end of the
spectrum during its long travels across the cosmos.
The previous record holder, a Sloan galaxy, is at redshift 6.4.
The newfound galaxy has a redshift of at least 6.6, based on the Hubble
imaging, and may be near 7.0 according to a less firm analysis of the Keck
observations.
The universe is now about 13.7 billion years old.
Unusual properties of the galaxy could shed light on the end of a theorized era
of cosmic time called the Dark Ages. During the Dark Ages, shortly after the
Big Bang, hydrogen atoms had gathered to form the first stars, but they had yet
to condense and ignite into the thermonuclear furnaces that create light.
Scientists don't yet know how long the era lasted.
The newly spotted galaxy appears not to have a bright emission from hydrogen
that is seen in many other faraway galaxies. Further, its intense ultraviolet
signal is much stronger than what's seen in more modern galaxies that are
undergoing rapid star formation. That suggests the most distant known galaxy
may contain mostly massive stars, which is in line with what theorists expect
from the first galaxies.
"The unusual properties of this distant source are very tantalizing because,
if verified by further study, they could represent those expected for young
stellar systems that ended the dark ages," said Richard Ellis, a Caltech
astronomer and coauthor of an article on the discovery that will be published
in the Astrophysical Journal. He presented the finding today at a meeting in
Seattle of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The discovery was not routine. It involved a trick of light provided by a
natural magnifying glass in the heavens.
The primeval galaxy is situated behind a more nearby cluster of galaxies,
called Abell 2218. The tremendous gravity of the galaxy grouping bends and
amplifies light from the more distant object as it passes through the cluster.
The technique, known as gravitational lensing, has been used to spot other
object in the early universe.
"We are looking at the first evidence of our ancestors on the evolutionary tree
of the entire universe," said Frederic Chaffee, director of the Keck
Observatory.
Scientists have been saying for a few years now that they are closing in on the
Big Bang with each record-setter. But each new benchmark is now an incremental
improvement and increasingly difficult to top.
In a separate talk at the meeting, Xiaohui Fan of the University of Arizona's
Steward Observatory in Tucson, discussed the limits of today's telescopes in
spotting objects in the primordial universe. Fan was part of the Sloan team
that found the previous record-holder.
These distant galaxies are called quasars, short for quasi-stellar radio
sources. They were first noticed in the 1950s and '60s and were thought to be
nearby stars that behaved strangely.
Current telescopes cannot routinely find quasars beyond redshift 6.5, Fan said.
To reach redshift 10 or greater, and peer into the Dark Ages, will require the
power of the James Web Space Telescope,due to launch early in the next decade.
When it was born, the universe contained only hydrogen and helium. All other
elements were forged inside stars and in the explosive deaths of the most
massive stars, known as supernovas.
"But we see a lot of other elements around those early quasars," Fan said. "We
see evidence of carbon, nitrogen, iron and other elements, and it's not clear
how these elements got there. There is as much iron, proportionate to the
population of those early systems, as there is in mature galaxies nearby."
Theorists have become increasingly impressed with how rapidly stars must have
formed as the Dark Ages ended.
==
How was Avogadro's number determined?
Contrary to the beliefs of generations of chemistry students, Avogadros
number--the number of particles in a unit known as a mole--was not discovered
by Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1856). Avogadro was a lawyer who became interested in
mathematics and physics, and in 1820 he became the first professor of physics
in Italy. Avogadro is most famous for his hypothesis that equal volumes of
different gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number
of particles.
The first person to estimate the actual number of particles in a given amount
of a substance was Josef Loschmidt, an Austrian high school teacher who later
became a professor at the University of Vienna. In 1865 Loschmidt used kinetic
molecular theory to estimate the number of particles in one cubic centimeter
of gas at standard conditions. This quantity is now known as the Loschmidt
constant, and the accepted value of this constant is 2.6867773 x 1025 m-3.
The term "Avogadros number" was first used by French physicist Jean Baptiste
Perrin. In 1909 Perrin reported an estimate of Avogadros number based on his
work on Brownian motion--the random movement of microscopic particles
suspended in a liquid or gas. In the years since then, a variety of techniques
have been used to estimate the magnitude of this fundamental constant.
Accurate determinations of Avogadros number require the measurement of a
single quantity on both the atomic and macroscopic scales using the same unit
of measurement. This became possible for the first time when American
physicist Robert Millikan measured the charge on an electron. The charge on a
mole of electrons had been known for some time and is the constant called the
Faraday. The best estimate of the value of a Faraday, according to the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is 96,485.3383 coulombs
per mole of electrons. The best estimate of the charge on an electron based on
modern experiments is 1.60217653 x 10-19 coulombs per electron. If you
divide the charge on a mole of electrons by the charge on a single electron
you obtain a value of Avogadros number of 6.02214154 x1023 particles per mole.
Another approach to determining Avogadros number starts with careful
measurements of the density of an ultrapure sample of a material on the
macroscopic scale. The density of this material on the atomic scale is then
measured by using x-ray diffraction techniques to determine the number of
atoms per unit cell in the crystal and the distance between the equivalent
points that define the unit cell (see Physical Review Letters, 1974, 33, 464)

==
Julian Day calendar

Julian Day calendar, system of astronomical dating that allows the difference
between two dates to be calculated more easily than conventional civil
calendars with their uneven months. It was devised by Joseph Scaliger in 1582
and named in honor of his father, Julius Caesar Scaliger. The Julian period. of
7,980 years is a product of the solar cycle, the lunar cycle, and the Roman
indiction cycle and begins on Jan. 1, 4713 B.C., that being the nearest past
year in which the three cycles coincided. Dates are numbered consecutively from
that day, regardless of the various changes made in civil calendars based on
changing definitions of the year. The Julian Day number for Dec. 31, 1999, is
2,451,544; for Jan. 1, 2000, is 2,451,545; for Jan. 2, 2000, is 2,451,546; and
so on. The Julian Day is from noon, universal time, on the given date to noon
of the following date.
==
Moron
This word was actually voted into the English language. It dates back to
1910, when a convention was held for the American Association for the Study of
the Feeble Minded. While trying to come up with a a name for the people they
were studying, one of the delegates suggested the word moron. Moron was a
dim-witted, central character in a famous play (at the time) by the playwright
Moliere.

Idiot
Dates back to 1378. It comes from the Old French word idiote, which was an
uneducated or ignorant person. Idiote gets its roots from the Greek word
idiotes, which was an ordinary person without any professional skills or
knowledge,
==
QED: Quod erat demonstrandum
A Latin expression used to indicate that a formal proof in math, geometry or
logic is formally valid and complete. It translates roughly to "Thus it has
been demonstrated".
==
Science will always be materialistic. Any theory that
steps outside the materialism of science without rigorous justification
for doing so is unscientific. So far, such a theory has yet to be presented.
==
A tsunami, or tidal wave, is a huge wave caused by seismic movements, or
earthquakes, in the ocean. The waves can reach heights of more than 100 feet,
destroying whole villages and thousands of people. Some historians believe that
a tidal wave destroyed the Minoan culture in Crete in about 1450 BC. A 200-foot
wave is believed to have demolished the island.
==
"The Magic Furnace" by Marcus Chown star element synthesis

Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism,
Matt Young and Taner Edis, eds., Rutgers University Press, 2004, in press.

No Sense of Obligation: Science and Religion in an Impersonal Universe,
1st Books Library, 2001, www.1stBooks.com/bookview/5559.
==
Science rules
Those steps are:
1. Observe some aspect of the universe.
2. Invent a tentative description, called a hypothesis,
that is consistent with what you have observed.
3. Use the hypothesis to make predictions.
4. Test those predictions by experiments or further
observations and modify the hypothesis in the light
of your results.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until there are no
discrepancies between theory and experiment
and/or observation.
==
Bosons are seen in photons, and subatomic particles called W and Z particles.
==
I fail to see a universe displaying a sophisticated level of
design. I supect that believing is seeing.
==
Roderick Chisholm "The Problem Of The Criterion."

"Consilience", by Edward O. Wilson -- the
subtitle is "The Unity of Knowledge".
==
Sun surface temperature is 5,777 degrees K

The Sun is scheduled to die. Experts give it some 7 billion years, when it will
turn into a bloated red giant. As the name implies, a red giant is a star
swelled to huge proportions. Earth would be first engulfed in heat and light,
then vaporized.
Before then, things will turn real nasty. In just a billion years, the Sun
could be 11-percent brighter, scientists say, rendering Earth an inhospitable
greenhouse. In 3.5 billion years, the Sun could be 40-percent brighter than it
is today.
==
The first stars after the Big Bang were immense, superhot
giants that lived briefly and then exploded as brilliant supernovae, but
they seeded the universe with basic elements that were the building blocks
for the sun and the Earth, and for life itself, according to a new study.
Current theory holds that the universe began with the Big Bang, an event
that caused space to expand in a fraction of a second from a tiny speck to
an immensity bathed in heat and radiation. It took an estimated 300 million
years for the universe to cool and for the first stars to form from hydrogen
and helium.
But those were far different from the Earth's star, the sun, and most other
stars in the universe now.
"The stars were simple, pure hydrogen and helium," said Volker Bromm, an
astronomer for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. And the
universe was "smooth and boring." The vital ingredients that eventually
turned the universe into a complex and lively place did not then exist.
Scientists used supercomputers to
model the cycles of star formation that occurred after the Big Bang.
Those early stars were immense, extremely hot and very short-lived. After
just a few million years, they collapsed and exploded as supernovae.
In that violence were created the heavier elements "that completely changed
the universe. Elements from oxygen to carbon to iron were
blasted into space where they eventually became part of a new generation of
stars.
The next generation of stars were rich in carbon and oxygen, but had little
iron. These stars shone longer than the first generation, but spent a long,
lonely existence, with no planets.
"These stars were like the sun, but a very lonely sun. There
was still not enough heavy metals to form planets, he said, and those stars
"would live and die in solitude."
Supernovae continued to explode, seeding the universe with more and more
heavy metals. Eventually, there were enough of these metals to create
long-lived stars and for planets to accrete into their orbits. On at least
one planet, the Earth, all the ingredients came together in the right place
and time for life to evolve.
"The window for life opened sometime between 500 and 2 billion years after
Big Bang. Precisely when conditions were right for planets is still a mystery.
"The threshold for planet formation is still a question and we don't know
the answer as yet. But what is clear is the role those very early stars played
in the universe of today.
"We owe our existence in a very direct way to all the stars whose life and
death preceded the formation of our sun. "And this process started
right after the Big Bang with the very first stars."
The solar system may not be the only place it happened. More than 100
extra-solar planets - planets orbiting stars other than the sun - have been
discovered. All of these planets orbit stars that are rich in heavy metals,
supporting the idea that stars with heavy elements are more likely to have
families of planets.
==
Science says nothing about God because it doesnt need to. Nowhere has
any science had a problem to which 'X+God' is the answer.
Never.
==
One pascal is a force which would accelerate a mass of 1 kilogram at
a rate of one meter per second per second, applied over an area of
a square meter?
==
Starting from the time of our picture we can ask: "What must have happened
later?"
We have compared and combined the new WMAP data with other diverse cosmic
measurements (galaxy clustering, Lyman-alpha cloud clustering, supernovae,
etc.), and we have found a new unified understanding of universe:

* Universe is 13.7 billion years old with a margin of error of close to 1%.
* First stars ignited 200 million years after the Big Bang.
* Light in WMAP picture from 379,000 years after the Big Bang.
* Content of the Universe:
* 4% Atoms, 23% Cold Dark Matter, 73% Dark energy.
* The data places new constraints on the dark energy. It seems more like
a "cosmological constant" than a negative-pressure energy field called
quintessence". But quintessence is not ruled out.
* Fast moving neutrinos do not play any major role in the evolution of
structure in the universe. They would have prevented the early clumping of
gas in the universe, delaying the emergence of the first stars, in conflict
with the new WMAP data.
* Expansion rate (Hubble constant) value: Ho= 71 km/sec/Mpc (with a margin
of error of about 5%)
* New evidence for Inflation (in polarized signal)
* For the theory that fits our data, the Universe will expand forever. (The
nature of the dark energy is still a mystery. If it changes with time, or if
other unknown and unexpected things happen in the universe, this conclusion
could change.)

==
Math isn't evidence, "logical" or otherwise. It's a formal system with
wonderful capabilities of modeling the patterns we see in the evidence,
but it isn't evidence for anything of itself
===
Time periods (such as the
Cretaceous or the Triassic) are divided into Epochs (for instance, the
Late Jurassic), which are further subdivided into Ages (as an example,
the Late Jurassic is made up of the Tithonian, the Kimmeridgian, and the
Oxfordian).
==
"In my opinion, the greatest creative geniuses are Galileo and
Newton, whom I regard in a certain sense as forming a unity. And in
this unity Newton is [the one] who has achieved the most imposing feat
in the realm of science."
A. Einstein (quoted in Moszkowski, Conversations with Einstein)
==
Science methods
1. Observe some aspect of the universe.
2. Invent a tentative description, called a hypothesis, that is
consistent with what you have observed.
3. Use the hypothesis to make predictions.
4. Test those predictions by experiments or further observations and
modify the hypothesis in the light of your results.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until there are no discrepancies between
theory and experiment and/or observation.
6. Keep in mind that all science models are approximate and tentative.
==
Scientists have subjected materials to some very extreme conditions
in order to find out what will change atomic decay rates. No conditions that
leave rocks in any state where an isochron would be preserved have been
observed to change decay rates.
A large percentage (about 55%) of dates derived today are done by U-Pb
concordia-discordia dating. If the system has been closed the samples
are "concordant" and plot on (or incredibly near to) a curve called
system has not been closed the samples are "discordant" and do not
fall on concordia ... but if they lie on a straight line the upper
intersection of that line with concordia gives the age of the samples.
Radioactive decay measures are done as isochrons.
Initial amounts are irrelevant to the measurements.
If you do not get an isochron you know it was contaminated
==
'Frames of Mind' by Howard Gardner
==
The first two are in relation
to Earth.
Planet Mass Radius Density (grams/cubic centimeter)
Sun 332,946 109 1.41
Mercury .05 .39 5.42
Venus .81 .95 5.25
Earth 1 1 5.54
Mars 11 .53 3.94
Jupiter 318 11 1.31
Saturn 95 9.5 0.70
Uranus 14.5 4.0 1.29
Neptune 17 3.9 1.64
Pluto .002 .18 2.03
==
See Popper, _The Logic of Scientific Discovery_, Chapter 1, Section 8,
[Beliefs (personal subjective convictions) have no bearing on scientific
discovery.]
"Only when certain events recur in accordance with rules or regularities, as
is the case with repeatable experiments, can our observations be tested - in
principle - by anyone. We do not take even our own observations quite
seriously, or accept them as scientific observations, until we have repeated
and tested them. Only by such repetitions can we convince ourselves that we
are not dealing with a mere isolated 'coincidence', but with events which,
on account of their regularity and reproducibility, are in principle
inter-subjectively testable." --Popper
==
The cartoons activated the same reward circuits in the brain that are
tickled by cocaine, money or a pretty face, the neuroscientists found1. One
brain region in particular, the nucleus accumbens, lit up seconds after a
rib-tickler but remained listless after a lacklustre cartoon.
The nucleus accumbens is awash with the feelgood chemical dopamine. The
region's buzz may explain the euphoria that follows a good joke
==
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really
good argument; my position is mistaken,and then they would actually change
their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do
it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and
change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the
last time someting like that happened in politics or religion. The method of
science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have.
And to abandon it, with its skeptical protocols, is the pathway to a dark age.
- Carl Sagan
==
The supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is heftier
than thought and rotates at an amazing clip, new research shows.
For years scientists said the black hole contained about 2.6 million times the
mass of the Sun. They now believe the figure is somewhere between 3.2 million
and 4 million solar masses.
And a new study suggests all that mass, confined to an area about 10 times
smaller than Earth's orbit around the Sun, spins around about once every
11 minutes. The Sun, for comparison, takes about a month to make a revolution
on its axis. Earth spins once every 24 hours.
Black holes can't be seen or measured directly, because light passing near
them gets trapped. So astronomers measure a black hole's mass by observing the
orbital speed of nearby stars.
The orbit of a particle near a black hole depends on the curvature of space
around the black hole, which also depends on how fast the black hole is
spinning. A spinning black hole drags space around with it and allows atoms to
orbit nearer to the black hole than is possible for a non-spinning black hole,
as seen in the right-hand artist's rendering of a stellar black hole. In the
left one, no evidence for spin was found.
The new mass estimate was made by two separate groups, one at the University
of California, Berkeley, and another at the University of California, Los
Angeles, UC Berkeley physicist Reinhard Genzel told SPACE.com.
More interesting, perhaps, is what appears to be a precise measurement of the
supermassive black hole's spin rate made by Genzel's group.
Other studies have shown compelling evidence for the rotation of less massive
black holes, formed when stars collapse. That's no surprise to astronomers,
since these stellar black holes would logically retain the rotation of their
progenitor stars. The first solid evidence for a spinning stellar black hole
emerged more than two years ago.
Only hints of spin have been noted from supermassive black holes, each of
which is thought to form and evolve hand-in-hand with the development of the
galaxy in which it sits.
The location of the Milky Way's central black hole is well known. Called
Sagitarrius A*, or Sgr A*, it sits about 26,000 light-years away, at the heart
of the galaxy. It is surrounded by intense radio waves, X-rays and other
radiation. Astronomers know the black hole is smaller than the diameter of
Earth's orbit; they suspect it is about 10 times smaller but have not been
able to measure it with enough precision to know for sure.
Genzel's team saw a flickering of near-infrared light they presume is
generated by hot gas falling into the black hole, just before the gas
disappears beyond the "event horizon," a point of no return for light and
matter.
"If our interpretation is right, this is the first solid evidence for a
spin of a massive black hole," Genzel said in an e-mail interview.
The black hole spins once every 11 minutes or so, Genzel estimates, though an
exact figure is difficult to pin down. The estimate represents a pace equal
to about 30 percent of the speed of light.
The data were collected by the 8.2-meter Kueyen telescope at the
EuropeanSouthern Observatory in Chile and detailed in a recent issue of
the journal Nature.
"These observations, reflecting similar patterns seen earlier in X-rays,
open a new window on this enigmatic source," said Ramesh Narayan of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in an analysis of the work for
the journal.
Theorists suspect other supermassive black holes, some containing as much
matter as a billion Suns, should also spin.
Smaller scale
Not all black holes spin at the same rate, other investigations indicate.
In fact, some may not spin at all.
Another recent study pinned down how X-ray emissions from fast-moving iron
atoms near a stellar black hole can be used to determine whether or not the
unseen central object is rotating.
The iron produces a distinct X-ray signature. The orbit of the atoms depends
on the extent to which space around a black hole is curved. That mind-bending
warpage, in turn, is determined by how much the black hole spins.
A spinning black hole drags space with it, allowing atoms to orbit closer to
the black hole than if it were not spinning.
Observations by the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite of a stellar
black hole named XTE J1650-500 reveal some iron-generated X-rays just 20 miles
from the event horizon. This black hole must be spinning rapidly, researchers
say.
Data collected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, on a stellar black hole
called Cygnus X-1, finds atoms no closer than 100 miles from the event
horizon, providing no evidence that it spins.
Meanwhile, efforts to understand whether and why lightweights and
heavyweights rotate are converging.
Jon Miller, who worked on the recent stellar black hole research,
said there is a high degree of correspondence between what happens to space
around a spinning stellar black hole and its supermassive brethren.
"Because stellar black holes are smaller, everything happens about a million
times faster, so they can be used as a test-bed for theories of how spinning
black holes affect the space and matter around them."
The longest X-ray look yet at the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's
center has given astronomers unprecedented access to its life and times. The
new data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed that our galaxy's
central black hole is a frequent bad actor, prone to numerous outbursts and
occasional large explosions.
The observations of the black hole, a.k.a. Sagittarius A* or Sgr A*, occurred
over a two-week period for a total exposure time of 164 hours. During this
time Sgr A* flared up in X-ray intensity half a dozen or more times.
Astronomers also found evidence that suggests it had an even more boisterous
past. These discoveries will help to unlock the secrets of how Sgr A* grows
and how it interacts with its environment.
This Chandra image of the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center,
a.k.a. Sagittarius A* or Sgr A*, was made from the longest X-ray exposure of
that region to date. In addition to Sgr A* more than two thousand other X-ray
sources were detected in the region, making this one of the richest fields
ever observed.
This annotated Chandra image marks the location of the X-ray source associated
with the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), at the center of
the Milky Way galaxy. Also marked on this image are newly discovered large
lobes of multimillion-degree gas that extend for dozens of light years on
either side of the black hole.
"We are getting a look at the everyday life of a supermassive black hole like
never before," said Frederick K. Baganoff of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge, who presented these new results on behalf of an
international team at a press conference today at the American Astronomical
Society meeting in Seattle. "We see it flaring on an almost daily basis."
The cause of the flares is not understood, but the rapidity with which they
rise and fall indicates that they are occurring near the event horizon, or
point of no return, around the black hole. Even when it flares, the intensity
of the X-ray emission from the vicinity of the black hole is relatively weak,
which suggests that Sgr A*, weighing in at 3 million times the mass of the
Sun, is a starved black hole.
"Although it appears to snack often, this black hole is definitely on a severe
diet," says Baganoff. "This could be because explosive events in the past blew
away much of the gas from the neighborhood of the black hole."
Indeed, evidence for such events - which astronomers are viewing 26,000 years
later due to the time it takes light to travel to Earth from the center of the
Galaxy - can be found in the image. A faint streak of X-rays about 1 light-year
long has been discovered 1.5 light-years from Sgr A*. The streak points at Sgr
A*, suggesting that it may be a jet of particles expelled at nearly the speed
of light from just outside the event horizon of the black hole. The intensity
and size of this jet indicate that the flaring activity has been occurring for
many years.
On a much larger scale, huge lobes of 20-million-degree-Centigrade gas
extending over dozens of light years on either side of the black hole have
also been discovered. "These lobes show that enormous explosions have occurred
several times over the last ten thousand years," said Mark Morris of UCLA,
lead author of a second paper on Sgr A*,
==
We've known for a long time that about 20 new stars are produced per year in
our galaxy,
==
The radio astronomers measured a distance of 23.5 million light-years
to a galaxy called NGC 4258 in Ursa Major. "Ours is a direct
measurement, using geometry, and is independent of all other methods
of determining cosmic distances," said Jim Herrnstein, of the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Socorro, NM. The team
says their measurement is accurate to within less than a million
light-years, or four percent. The galaxy is also known as Messier 106
and is visible with amateur telescopes.
==
The standard model of particle physics says that in the early moments of the
universe many of the particles we know, such as the electron and the quark,
were endowed with mass in a process called the Higgs mechanism (named for
physicist Peter Higgs). Indeed the process is implicitly still at work, behind
the scenes, and an associated particle for this purpose, the Higgs boson,
should be lurking in the vacuum. By adding a lot of energy to a small volume of
space, one should be able to make the Higgs show itself.
==
How the brain reacts to romance
The study looked at the brains of people in love
Scientists say they have discovered what happens in the brain when someone
falls in love.
They studied chemical reactions in men and women who were all in the early
stages of relationships.
Research, published by the Society for Neuroscience, found activity in areas
of the brain which are linked to energy and elation.
But scans found women's brains showed emotional responses, while men's
showed activity linked to sexual arousal.
Researchers took functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of the
brains of 17 young men and women to see what was happening in the brain of
someone in love.
They were alternately shown a photo of someone they loved and one of someone
they knew, but were emotionally neutral towards.
In between, they were given a task to distract them from their emotional
responses to the photos.
They found that feelings of intensive romantic love were linked to activity
in the right caudate nucleus and right ventral tegmental areadopamine, which
have high levels of dopamine activity.
==
Epistemology is a branch of philosophy uniquely devoted to the study of
knowledge. Many great philosophers considered problems of human knowledge.
Plato wrote Theaetetus, one of the first specialized studies on knowledge
(Plato).Following the ideas of Aristotle, Aquinas defined knowledge using
the idea of intentionality (Aquinas), which is probably the most
sophisticated treatment of the origin of knowledge. The scope of
philosophical theories of cognition is very wide (Bieri, 1992). A theory of
knowledge from the traditional point of view is presented by Chisholm
(Chisholm, 1996). Epistemology should be an important source of facts to
ground the fundamental ideas for the study of meaning, knowledge and their
interrelation. Alternatively,
you may consider the entire problem. Then you will lose in depth.
Considering the interrelations of knowledge, meaning, mind, and information
we have chosen the second alternative. We tried to solve the problem in
width. The reader will determine which aspects we have failed to reveal. We
can only hope that this deficit is not too significant.

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==
Drake equation for probability of intelligent civilizations
N * s * p *h *i * c * l
N = stars in Galaxy
s = fraction of sun like stars
p = fraction of stars with planets
Most star systems are binary, not necessarily planet friendly)
h = fraction of stars in habitable zone
i = fraction of planets with life
c = fraction of planets with intelligent life
l = % of civilization life time
==
CMB was formed at z (redshift) ~1000 and that therefore the comoving Hubble
horizon would be 300 million light years across today(WMAP measures, more
accurately, decoupling at 379,000 years after Big Bang, at z = 1089 (10)).
z is the redshift of light arriving from a distant source. The CMB has a
blackbody temperature of 2.75K and a redshift of 1089. Space has expanded by a
factor of z+1 since the light was emitted froman object at redshift, z.
Re-ionisation occurred and the first stars formed at z = 20 and at 180 Myr
after Big Bang (10). At that time everything was 20 times closer together, so
conglomerations of matter would have to move 20 times less far to achieve the
same clustering. In fact, as we will see below, the fluctuations that would
seed the structure were already present with the predicted fluctuation power
spectrum at z=1000, when the structure that would have seeded the Great Wall
would have had linear dimensions of 1/1000th its current dimensions.
==
Convection in the mantle of the Earth is time-dependent. We already knew
this before. The convective vigor is measure by a "Rayleigh number." Below a
certain critical value, no thermal convection occurs, and heat conduction
dominates. Just above this value, "steady" convection develops into regular
cells that eventually develop a stable geometric pattern. Another transition
occurs at even higher Rayleigh number, where the convection becomes vigorous
enough that the regular cellular pattern can no longer be sustained and the
positions of upwellings and downwellings begin to shift in a chaotic manner.
This is called the "transition to time-dependent convection." The critical
Rayleigh number for onset of convection is on the order of 1,000. The
transition to time dependence occurs when the Rayleigh number is on the
order of 100,000. Based on study of Earth's interior, we can estimate that
the Rayleigh number of the mantle is on the order of 10,000,000, which is
well above the transition to time-dependence.
Additional evidence of the time-dependence of mantle convection is readily
apparent in the geologic record. If mantle convection were in the steady
cellular regime, plate boundaries would never change location relative to
one another, and continents would be in a fixed formation and couldn't
collide or separate. But they do. That's a fact. This is more readily
apparent evidence that convection is time-dependent.
All that the new studies show is that assuming steady convective features in
an inherently time-dependent system was a bad assumption. Not surprising at
all, and in particular this observation has no bearing on the formation
mechanism of hotspots.
==
Isaac Newton served as the master of the Mint from 1699 to 1727.
==
The etymology of "nickel" from the German "Kupfernickel", meaning "devil
copper" because the ore is green like copper ore but no copper can be
extracted.
==
Earliest Star Formation Detected

Astronomers have found signs of star formation in the most distant object
known, confirming other evidence showing that the first stars began developing
rapidly after the birth of the universe.
A study found carbon monoxide in an object called J1148+5251, a "quasar" that
is seen when the universe was just 800 million years old (it is now about 13.7
billion years old). Quasars are thought to represent stages in the formation of
galaxies, and stars are to be expected. But scientists had not previously seen
signs of stellar birth in such a distant object. Quasars are bright because of
interactions between gas and a supermassive black hole that anchors each one.
The carbon monoxide indicates a generation of short-lived stars has already
come and gone in the galaxy presumed to surround the quasar, named J1148+5251,
a team led by Fabian Walter of National Radio Astronomy Observatory report in
the July 24 issue of the journal Nature. Those first stars may have been formed
as early as 650 million years after the Big Bang, the results show.
A separate study earlier this year of cosmic background radiation found
evidence that the first stars in the universe could have formed 200 million
years after the Big Bang. Astronomers are now working to stretch technology to
actually see firm signs of star birth closer to that early time.
"The galaxy hosting J1148+5251 is the most distant and the earliest
example of a star-forming region," said Philip Solomon of the
State University of New York, in analyzing the discovery for Nature.
Increasingly, astronomers believe that black holes, stars and galaxies develop
together, an idea further supported with this new study.
As far as scientists can tell, omega is equal to 1; it is exactly at the
critical density that balances on the knife edge between an indefinite
expansion and collapse. (In such a universe, the ultimate end is also ice
death.) The components of omega are baryonic matter, which equals 0.04; exotic
matter, which equals 0.23; and dark energy, which equals 0.73.
The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) predicts the existence of spin
1/2 fermions called neutralinos that are the fermionic superpartners of the
neutral gauge bosons and Higgs scalars. Neutralinos would have a high mass but
interact very weakly with other particles. They could make up a significant
portion of the mass density of the Universe without emitting light, so that
makes them good candidates for the mysterious source of
==
Stars have a mass of 75 Jupiters or greater, brown dwarfs have a mass between
13 and 75 Jupiters, and sub-brown dwarfs are less than 13 Jupiter masses.
==
Snake birth
1. oviparous---Egg-laying. (Anoles are oviparous.)
2. ovoviviparous--- Retains unshelled eggs until ready to hatch;
young appear as if by viviparity.(Some snake species are ovovivparous
3. viviparous Live-bearing. (Many viperid species are viviparous.)
==
Brain tumour found in 365,000-year-old skull
Scientists claim to have discovered rare evidence of a brain tumour
in a fossilised skull dating back to the Stone Age.
Based on measurements of the 365,000-year-old early human skull
excavated at Steinheim an der Murr in south-western Germany, three
scientists concluded it is a rare example of a meningioma tumour, the
University of Tuebingen said.
The scientists inspected the skull by macroscopy, endoscopy, three-
dimensional CT scan and radiography and found a lump-sized formation
in the bone that they say supports their theory.
Because skulls of Stone Age people were smaller than human skulls
today, the researchers believe the person may have suffered chronic
severe headaches and partial paralysis, and likely died from the
tumour.
==
Supernova 1987A
The distance to SN 1987A is quite well known, and is around 169,000
light years, and lies in the satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic
Cloud (LMC). The distance to the LMC has been determined using around
a dozen or so independent methods, and they all agree to within
observational error. Moreover, the distance to SN 1987A was also
determined from the light echo, which agrees with these other
measurements. The light echo was caused by the exploding star
illuminating the gas and dust surrenounding it, and as the expanding
shell of light expanded at the speed of light, from the increase in
the angular size of this shell as seen from the earth, the distance
could be found.
However, not only has the light taken about 169,000 years to reach us,
a burst of neutrinos was detected, so these also took the same time to
reach us. Neutrinos are sub-atomic particles similar to electrons but
carry no electric charge, interact very weakly with matter, have a
very small mass and travel very close to the speed of light.
Supernova theory predicted that neutrinos would be created in the core
of a supernova, and this was spectacularly confirmed in February 1987.
This was the first time neutrinos were known to have been detected
from coming from outside the solar system, and in fact also from
outside our galaxy.
1987A was generated by a star 20 times more massive than the Sun
==
In the Dakotas, there is a spot where 15,000 turbidite layers alternate with
solid shales with fossil burrower colonies in them?
==
Glaciers
Eskers are liquid-water-transported sediments
formed in glacial tunnels and running roughly parallel to glacial flow.
Moraines are ice-transported sediments:
_Terminal_moraines_ form at the end of the glacier, perpendicular
to glacial flow. _Lateral_moraines_ form along the sides of the glacier.
_Medial_moraines_ form from material pinched into
the middle of the flow when multiple glaciers have joined together.
Still, for glacier sedimentologists, it is trivial to distinguish between
eskers and lateral/medial moraines. Eskers would consist almost
entirely of smaller, better-sorted and smoother material. Moraines
typically include a greater range of sizes of striated rocks, up to
some huge craggy ones.
Drumlins are form while the ice is in motion.
Kames and eskers are formed by flowing waters on stagnant glacier, ie ones
that are no longer moving. Since the glacier is stagnant, there is no
reason for ice to override and obliterate the features.
==
Upper Proterozoic species
Synodophycus euthemos(probable cyanobacterium)
Polybessurus bipartitus(cyanobacterium)
Hyella dichotoma(cyanobacterium)
Trachyhystrichosphaera vidalii(large unicellular alga)
Dickinsonia costata(Macroscopic animal)
Origin and Early Evolution of the Metazoa,
Plenum Press), Edited by J.H. Lipps and P.W. Signor

Scientific American "End of the Proterozoic Eon" p64 Oct 1991
==
The Wopmay Orogen (of the Slave Province in Canada), which are about
2,000,000,000 years old, are the *oldest* visible mountain roots.
==
You cannot use radioactive dating to assign an age to fossils if the half
life of isotopes varies daily according to the number of prayers offered to
the Virgin Mary in Notre Dame.
==
At one point in time there were many knowledgeable people who did not believe
the Earth orbited the sun. Fortunately science is not about belief, it is
about theories and evidence.
==
A recent poll of scientists elected to the American National Academy of
Sciences (equivalent to fellows of the Royal Society) revealed that 93
per cent are atheists. That figure drops to 60 per cent if you include
scientists not elected to the National Academy. It would be absurdly
arrogant for me to claim that the 7 per cent of academicians who believe
in God are not true scientists.
Richard Dawkins
==
Einstein said in 1950 :
"The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of
empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of
hypotheses or axioms."
==
http://www.antiquityofman.com/ Ancient history
==
Shermer, M., Ed. (2002). The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience. Santa
Barbara, ABC-Clio.
==
A team led used the HST to observe three of the most distant quasars known. The
light from them had travelled for 12.8 thousand million years before reaching
Hubble's detector, having left the quasars 900 million years after the Big
Bang.
The spectra show clear signs of the large amounts of iron. This is the first
time that elements created in the first generation of stars have been found.
=
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) defines brown dwarfs as objects
that are at least 13 times the mass of Jupiter, since that is the mass
required to ignite the fusion of deuterium. Once an object reaches 75 Jupiter
masses -- the mass required to fuse hydrogen -- it becomes a typically luminous
star.
==
A dialectic is the art of science of examining ideas logically, or any
method of logical argument,
==
In geology, the
International Stratigraphic Commission determines the boundaries
between the various units of geological time, defining, for example,
exactly when the start of the Cambrian occurred. In biology and
paleontology, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
determines the rules for naming animal species, while the
International Association for Plant Taxonomy sets the rules for,
among other things, plants and fungi. In all of these cases, the
rules of the commissions are considered to be binding, and scientists
are expected to follow those rules.
==
It was "scientific" long ago to think earth to be central in universe, until
this view allowed to see "errors" (incompatible data) and change it :
we need a view, to see errors, and it allows to subsequently find
better and better theories, always allowing to see the previous theory
it was similarly. Science insights are by definition "temporary" until
the next better theory is available. That itself demonstrates that the
basic axioms are "beliefs" that can be improved/refined.
Concluding, for practical reasons, science is the most justified
belief system we have.
==
In studying history, Science has rolled back the supernatural as a possible
explanation for observed events. What at one time was considered miraculous
is now generally explanable. Eclipses aren't monsters eating the sun.
Belief in demonic possession has been replaced by diagnosis of
schizophrenia or other mental illness. Bleeding to release the bad humors
has been replaced by modern medicine. Epidemics can't be blamed on curses
or the bad temper of God or sins of individuals or groups.
Making accurate predictions of future events is actually a hallmark of good
science, not religion. If you think the bible has accurately predicted
anything, you need to check this site:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/prophecy.html
The predictions that science makes, however, are generally pretty mundane
and always general.
==
Ice Age and Climage changes.
An analysis of sediments from the subtropical Atlantic Ocean deposited
during Earths last glacial period indicate sudden temperature fluctuations,
raising concerns about future climate change. The study indicated the
temperature of the Sargasso Sea between the West Indies and the Azores
fluctuated repeatedly by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit from 60,000 to 30,000
years ago.
The warming at the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago was
supported by the disappearance of enormous ice sheets, a one-third
increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and changes in the seasonal
distribution of the suns energy, Lehman said. But the abrupt changes
we documented during the last ice age seem to be almost entirely ocean
driven. Freshening of Earths oceans is believed to have the ability to
trigger abrupt and long-lasting cooling events, including ice ages, by
interfering with the conveyor belt of water carrying heat from the tropics
to temperate regions. Numerical modeling studies show that similar changes
can be triggered by warming associated with human emissions as well,
Lehman said. Trapping more heat in the atmosphere has the potential to
kill major parts of ocean circulation, with the effects reverberating
throughout the world. A 1999 study by INSTAARs Don Barber and colleagues
showed the collapse of two gigantic glacial lakes near Hudson Bay about
8,000 years ago poured enough fresh water into the Northern Atlantic to
shut down the ocean circulation for several centuries, cooling Europe
and Greenland by some 6 degrees F. The last 8,000 years have been remarkably
stable in terms of climate, considering the large temperature fluctuations,
said Lehman.By altering the environment through greenhouse gas emissions,
we will likely find out how fragile the stability of Earths climate really
is. We may well find out we are dealing with a hair trigger

The temperature can rise about 20 F in a decade.

Between 1.5 and 0.6 Million years ago, the period of the Earth's glacial cycles
changed from 41 thousand years, the period of the Earth's obliquity cycles, to
100 thousand years, the period of the Earth's orbital eccentricity, which has
a much smaller effect on global insolation. The timing of this transition and
its causes pose one of the most perplexing problems in palaeoclimate research.

While it's true that the climate has thawed since
the frigid cold of 18,000 years ago, and the thick ice sheets
that reached as far south as Illinois are gone, the Ice Age is
not really over. The mild climate that has been around for about
11 thousand years is merely the latest in a series of temporary
respites from ice known as "interglacials." Frigid cold and
warmth have alternated as many as 20 times since the Ice Age
began 2.5 million years ago. Scientists believe our current
interglacial period is half over and that the ice will one day
return. Of course, the issue of global warming and its impact on
the ice age are still being debated.
==
Strata of the John Day Country in the Blue Mountain region of northeastern U.S.
show a cumulative thickness of over 7,000 feet, consist primarily of numerous
terrestrial lava flows, gigantic ashflow tuff beds (each extruded in a single
explosive event as a huge cloud of incandescent ash), boulder breccia layers
(presumably deposited from enormous mud flows), tuff-breccia beds (representing
very explosive stages in volcanism), and volcanic siltstone and sandstone
(deposited as each explosive episode subsided). The area covers about 5,000
square miles and lies southwest of the Columbia Plateau, which consists of a
basaltic lava flow covering 100,000 square miles
==
The San Andreas fault is a slip-strike
fault, marking a boundary where two mobile sections of the earth's crust,
the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, meet in Western North
America. Before the San Andreas fault was formed, there was a subduction
zone off Western North America, and a piece of the earth's crust called the
Farallon plate went underneath N. America.
==
The temperature gradient is 1 C for every 30 m
Temperature Gradient is from O. M. Phillips' The Heart of the Earth,
San Francisco: Freeman & Cooper, 1968, p. 138.
==
The Journal of Geological Education is (since 1996)
published as the Journal of Geoscience Education.
==
The solar constant f, the average flux of solar energy arriving at the top of
the Earth's atmosphere, has been measured to be f = 1.36X10^3 Watts/m^2
==
And Tay-Sechs disease, by the way, is not a "Jewish" disease, but is
a dysfunction of chromosome 15.
==
When two elements form a compound in a chemical system,
the amount of heat liberated is a measure of the stability of
the compound. The greater this heat of formation (enthalpy,dH)
the greater the stability of the compound. When carbon is
combined with oxygen to form CO2, it is found experimentally
that 393kJ of heat is evolved per mole of CO2 formed. If
we use the Einstein relationship, we can calculate that this
would correpsond to a total mass loss of 4.4x10^-9 g for
each mole of CO2 formed (44g.
==
Somewhere between 300 million and 800 million years after the Big Bang,
the first black holes were born and managed to each gulp down a mass
of more than 1 billion suns.
The early history of black holes -- what went on in the 500 million years
leading up to objects observable with current technology -- is tied back
to the development of the very first stars. Speculating about it requires
first rewinding to the very beginning.
When the universe was born, there was nothing but hydrogen, helium and a
little lithium. All this raced outward for about 300,000 years before anything
significant happened. The gas was too compacted and therefore too hot to be
stable. Gradually, the stuff of space expanded and cooled enough for gas to
"recombine and stabilize to neutral states," as scientists put it.
The hydrogen was still too hot to form stars, so more expansion was needed.
A long stretch of boring darkness ensued, during which some ripples began
to ruffle the otherwise smooth fabric of space.
"For 300 million years, nothing happened. "The universe is just sitting there.
Then all of a sudden the first stars began to shine."
The exact timing for first light is not known. But the ensuing 500 million
years are the so-called dark ages of cosmology. Or more precisely, they
represent the illuminations of the universe and the elimination of the dark
ages.
==
Physicists calculate that the Planck length is slightly more than one trillion
trillion trillionth of a metre. This is the distance that a photon, moving at
the speed of light, can travel during the Planck time: 5x10-44 seconds.
==
Aluminun 26 is produced in supernovas.
Its half life is 709,833 years and helped make the early solar
hot and radioactive.
It makes Mg26 by positron emission.
This is found in meteorites.
==
Source: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics; 61st Edition
At.Wgt./Element Likelihood Energy (MeV) Decay type Time involved
238Uranium 99% 4.20 alpha 4.5 gigayears
234Thorium 77% beta 24 days
234Protactinium beta 6.7 hours
234Uranium 72% 4.77 alpha 247,000 years
230Thorium 76% 4.68 alpha 80,000 years
226Radium 95% 4.78 alpha 1600 years
222Radon 100% 5.49 alpha 3.83 days
218Polonium 99.9% 6.00 alpha 3 minutes
214Lead(Pb) beta 20 minutes
214Bismuth beta 27 minutes
214Polonium 99% 7.69 alpha 16 microseconds
210Lead beta 21 years
210Bismuth beta 5 days
210Polonium 100% 5.30 alpha 138 days
206Lead No decay None(stable) None(st) (forever)
==
Stalagmite stopwatch
Living organisms and some geological features absorb stable carbon-12 and
radioactive carbon-14, which are present in the air in a well-known ratio.
This is part of the carbon cycle - the recirculation of carbon through the
oceans, atmosphere, plants and animals. Scientists use carbon dating to
determine when objects ceased to absorb carbon by measuring how much of the
carbon-14 - which has a half-life of 5730 years - has decayed. But Beck and
colleagues believe that the ratio of stable and radioactive carbon in the
atmosphere may have changed considerably over the last 50 thousand years. This
raises questions about the accuracy of carbon dating for very old objects.
Beck and colleagues tested slices of a half-metre long stalagmite that grew
between 45 000 and 11 000 years ago in a cave in the Bahamas. Stalagmites are
calcium carbonate deposits left behind when carbon dioxide evaporates out of
cave seepage water. They found that carbon-14 concentrations were twice their
modern level during that period. Current records of the levels of carbon-14 in
the atmosphere only cover the last 16 thousand years, and this discovery
extends those records a further 30 thousand years.

The amount of carbon 14 in the atmosphere today (about .0000765%), is assumed
there would be the same amount found in living plants or animals since the
plants breath CO2 and animals eat plants.
==
One of atomic dating methods is potassium 40 which swallows
one of its own electrons to become Argon 40. The half life of this decay is
1.277 billion years, which makes it a bit difficult to measure close in
(under 500,000 years) but very useful for old rocks because the half life
is a significant fraction of the earth's actual age. Now the nice thing
about this clock is that 40Ar has no business being in a rock crystal.
Zircons are particularly good for atomic dating using uranium and potassium 40.
Any complete melt will drive it right out of the resulting liquid so that
when a complete melt recrystallizes, the 40Ar:40K ratio can be used to
estimate the time since the melt occurred. Of course you have to be
careful to get a COMPLETE melt because if any argon from former decay is
in the mix, you'll get a date that's too old for the melt.
==
Richard Feynman said, "Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself."
==
It wasn't until sometime in the 1960s that the five kingdom system was
sanctioned. All scientists _classify_ lichen as part of the Kingdom Fungi.
"Scientists divide all living things into five main groups called
kingdoms. These kingdoms are (1) plants, (2) animals, (3) fungi,
(4) protists, and (5) prokaryotes.
All plants develop from a tiny form of the plant called an embryo.
Prokaryotes, protists and fungi -- such as molds and mushrooms --
do not develop from embryos.
==
Here are places where the Geological Column is entirely present in its
standard order:

1 Ghadames Basin in Libya
2 The Beni Mellal Basin in Morrocco
3 The Tunisian Basin in Tunisia
4 The Oman Interior Basin in Oman
5 The Western Desert Basin in Egypt
6 The Adana Basin in Turkey
7 The Iskenderun Basin in Turkey
8 The Moesian Platform in Bulgaria
9 The Carpathian Basin in Poland
10 The Baltic Basin in the USSR
11 The Yeniseiy-Khatanga Basin in the USSR
12 The Farah Basin in Afghanistan
13 The Helmand Basin in Afghanistan
14 The Yazd-Kerman-Tabas Basin in Iran
15 The Manhai-Subei Basin in China
16 The Jiuxi Basin China
17 The Tung tin - Yuan Shui Basin China
18 The Tarim Basin China
19 The Szechwan Basin China
20 The Yukon-Porcupine Province Alaska
21 The Williston Basin in North Dakota
22 The Tampico Embayment Mexico
23 The Bogata Basin Colombia
Robertson Group, 1989. Stratigraphic Database of Major
Sedimentary Basins of the World,(Llandudno Gwynedd, England)
==
The law simply states that entropy in a closed system can never decrease.
This is a good page on the second law:
http://www.panspermia.org/seconlaw.htm
==
Here is a mathematical description of entropy:
At constant T,
dE = wmax + qrev (for a "reversible" process)
dE = dA + TdS (dS = qrev/T , Entropy change; TdS is the reversible
heat)
dA = dE - TdS (Helmholtz free energy change, or maximal work)
dG = dE - (-PdV) - TdS (Gibbs free energy change, or useful work)
dG = dH - TdS (dH = dE - (-PdV) , Enthalpy change)
dG = dA - (-PdV) (Useful work is maximal work minus the work done
against the atmosphere)
dG (represents that net useful energy of a chemical system)
The Gibbs free energy differs from the Helmholtz free energy by the
work (-PdV) performed against the atmosphere, which is not regarded as
"useful". The Gibbs free energy is sometimes called the "useful" work.
For most biochemical processes, no significant change in volume
occurs, and dA and dG have the same value.
The actual work obtained when a system changes state at finite rate is
always less than the maximal work, since some extra heat is generated
by "friction", which is transferred to the surroundings as an entropy
increase.
Anytime energy interacts with matter, some of that energy is
transferred to the matter, and some of that energy becomes disordered.
The order of the energy delivery is itself vital the energy's ability
to interact with matter in a "useful" or "beneficial" way.
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/crofts/bioph354/thermo_lesson.html
http://ibc.wsu.edu/faculty/dkother/course2000/021000/G_S.htm
http://www.holysmoke.org/thermo.htm
This is the very reason why it is impossible for a perpetual motion
machine to work. The energy used by the machine to produce a
particular motion is disorganized over time so that less and less
"useful" energy (useful to keeping the system in motion) is left to
produce this same motion again the next time. Eventually, all the
useful energy is exhausted (although the energy itself has not been
destroyed - only disordered) and the machine stops moving. You see,
the simple presence of energy is not enough. The order of the energy
itself is important to the level of ordered complexity that can be
achieved. For example, if you spin a top in the dark and then in the
sunshine, it will still stop spinning just as fast in both cases.
Why? Because the extra energy that is being supplied by the heat of
the sun is not ordered in a way that helps it perform its specified
function (i.e., spinning).
When random heat or energy is applied to a system, there has to be
something in that system that knows how to direct that energy in a
specified way in order for "useful" work to be realized. The mindless
delivery of energy itself does not order a system in any specified way
since a great number of orders are equally probable. Because of this
fact of nature (that a great number of potential orders of a given
collections of parts in a defined space exist), a non-directed force
will not select or move the parts to form one specified potential
arrangement over any other potential arrangement. The only thing that
will happen is that more potential arrangements will be realized in a
shorter span of time. But without an advantage to one particular
arrangement over any other, no particular arrangement will be
maintained for very long. It is basically the movement of random
parts in a random way. If the process of random movement is stopped
at any one point in time, the parts will still be randomly organized -
or at best organized in such a way that is consistent with the
internal information of the parts themselves (their order is not
greater than the sum of their parts - as in crystal formation).
For example, if I had a thousand red and white pool balls on a very
large pool table and I deliberately ordered them with all the white
balls on one side and all the red balls on the other, the likelihood
of this particular order could be calculated by comparing this
arrangement with all the other potential arrangements. If this
particular arrangement was determined by me to be "useful" over all
the other arrangements, I could also calculate the average time
required for this arrangement to appear with the random application of
energy or force to each one of the balls (via table vibration etc).
The faster the Brownian motion of the pool balls, the more
possibilities would be covered. However, given that the total number
of possibilities is somewhere in the zillions, it would take a vast
span of time for my "useful" configuration to be realized. However,
with an intelligent mind directing the process, very specific forces
could be applied to the pool balls so that the useful configuration
could be realized in short order.
==
Within a magma chamber, you should think about convection and
volatiles. Lava is extruded out of the magma chamber.
Here are some interesting links.
http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/glossary/l_n/magma_chamber.html
http://gfd.gly.bris.ac.uk/gfd-people/heidy.mader/studentships/rheology.html
http://soconnell.web.wesleyan.edu/courses/ees106/lecture_notes/lecture
==
To assume the existence of an unperceivable being ... does not facilitate "
understanding the orderliness we find in the perceivable world.
- Letter to an Iowa student who asked, What is God? July, 1953; Einstein "
Archive 59-085
==

_The Variety of Life_ Colin Tudge

A. A. Grib & W. A. Rodrigues, Jr "Nonlocality in Quantum Physics"

Stapp "Matter, Mind and Quantum Mechanics

[Harry Clemmey and Nick Badham, "Oxygen in the Precambrian Atmosphere:
An Evaluation of the Geological Evidence," Geology, Vol. 10 (March 1982),
p. 141]
["Smaller Planets Began with Oxidized Atmospheres," New Scientist, Vol. 87,
No. 1209 (July 10, 1980), p. 112.]

[John Gribbin, "Carbon Dioxide, Ammonia and Life," New Scientist, Vol. 94,
No. 1305 (May 13, 1982), pp. 413-416.]

A.I. Oparin, The Origin of Life (New York: Academic Press, 1957).

Sidney W. Fox, editor, The Origin of Prebiological Systems and of Their
Molecular Matrices (New York: Academic Press, 1965).

Stanley L. Miller and H.C. Urey, "Organic Compound Synthesis On the Primitive
Earth," Science, Vol. 130 (1959).

Stanley L. Miller, "A Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth
Conditions," Science, Vol. 117, No. 3046 (1953), pp. 528-529.

Sidney W. Fox and K. Baal, Molecular Evolution and the Origin of Life
(New York: Dover Publishing, 1953).

[Paul Erbrich, "On the Probability of the Emergence of a Protein with a
Particular Function," Acta Biotheoretica, Vol. 34 (1985)

[Klause Dose, "Book Review of Clay Minerals and the Origin of Life by
A.G. Cairns-Smith and H. Hartman," Biosystems, Vol. 22, No. 1 (1988), p. 89

Robert F. Weaver, "ATGC: A Simple Code of Four Parts Spells Out Life,"
National Geographic, Vol. 166, No. 6 (December 1984), p. 822.

[Miroslav Radman and Robert Wagner, "The High Fidelity of DNA Duplication,"
Scientific American, Vol. 259, No. 2 (August 1988), pp. 40-46

Don Thomas Dugi, Great Thinkers of the Western World,

[Ashley Montagu, Human Heredity (NYC: The New American Library, 1963), p. 25.]

[Michael Polanyi, "Life's Irreducible Structure," Science, Vol. 160, No. 3834
(June 21, 1968), p. 1309 (emphasis added).]

[Hubert P. Yockey, "A Calculation of the Probability of Spontaneous Biogenesis
by Information Theory," Journal of Theoretical Biology, Vol. 67 (1977), p. 398

D.E. Hull, "Thermodynamics and Genetics of Spontaneous Generation," Nature,
Vol. 186 (1955), pp. 693-694.

Stephen Toulmin, _Human Understanding_ in 1972
David Hull, 1989 Science as a Process, 2001 _Science and Selection_).
==
The black hole in MCG-6-30-15, over 100 million light-years from
Earth, has the mass of about 100 million Suns.
==
Former director of the Geological Survey of Egypt
W.F. Hume, The Geology of Egypt (1925)
==
The temperature of an ideal gas, in equilibrium,
wherein E is the average kinetic energy of the gas
molecules. Each degree of freedom, including
rotational and vibrational modes of the molecules,
get average energy < E > = (1 / 2) kT. The center of
mass of the gas is assumed stationary, and the gas is
contained and in equilibrium with it's container.
==
The existence of quantum vacuum fluctuations, verified through the detecion of
the Casimir-Polder force (Crabb, 1994, 102) and the measurement of the Lamb
shift in hydrogen (Barrow, 1983, 65-66), have demonstrated a loophole by which
matter (and perhaps even universes embedded within a larger spacetime) can
exist in violation of classical conservation of energy for some time (th
energy level ultimately balances, but need not do so immediately).
==
At many locations, large, thick layers of salt are buried up to several miles
below the earths surface. These salt deposits are sometimes 100,000 square
miles in area and a mile in thickness.
==
The Egyptian Khufu boat dates to about 2650 BC.

Imhotep, inspired by the ziggurats of Babylon, built the Step Pyramid
around 2680 _BC_, passing through some intermediate step pyramids to the Bent
Pyramid of Snofru, then the first true pyramid, and finally the masterpiece at
Cheop (Stewart, pp.35-39).
==
There is a point in physics where it makes no sense to look for smaller
details. At some point you wind up with quantum foam which is chaotic and
indeterminate.
==
The human genome contains about 3.3 billion base pairs.
The proportion of encoding DNA is around 3%.
====
The Accelerating Universe by Mario Livio
==
The geologic history of Mars has been divided into three broad time periods,
or Epochs. From oldest to youngest, these are Noachian, Hesperian, and
Amazonian Epochs (named after places on Mars). These Epochs are defined by the
number of meteorite impact craters on the ground surface; older surfaces show
the scars of more impact craters. The actual timing of the Epochs is not known.
The Noachian extends back in time to the beginnings of the planet, and ended
sometime between 3.8 and 3.5 billion years ago (according to accepted models).
Noachian age surfaces are scarred by many large impact craters. Next in time
was the Hesperian period, a time of extensive lava plains. The Hesperian Epoch
ended sometime between 3.55 and 1.8 billion years ago; the range here reflects
different models of the rate of meteorite falls onto Mars. Finally, the
Amazonian Epoch extends to the present day. Ground surfaces of Amazonian age
have few meteorite impact craters, but otherwise are quite varied. The
Amazonian Epoch has seen the formation of the huge volcano Olympus Mons, lava
flows elsewhere on Mars, formation of the landslides in Valles Marineris (like
these in Gangis Chasma), and formation of the broad plains and sand dunes near
Mars' poles.
==
Solving the time independent Schrodinger Equation for the H atom depends for
solution on use of the error function, which is only soluble numerically.
==
About 70 million years ago, when dinosaurs were still walking on the Earth, a
series of violent thermo-nuclear explosions took place in a distant galaxy.

The Stella Nova phenomenon
A stellar outburst of the type now observed with the VLT is referred to as a
Stella Nova (new star in Latin), or just Nova. Novae caused by
explosions in binary stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way system, are
relatively frequent and about every second or third year one of them is bright
enough to be easily visible with the
naked eye. For our ancestors, who had no means to see the faint binary star
before the explosion, it looked as if a new star had been born in the sky,
hence the name.
The most common nova explosion occurs in a binary stellar system in which a
white dwarf (a very dense and hot, compact star with a mass comparable to that
of the Sun and a size like the Earth) accretes hydrogen from a cooler and
larger red dwarf star.
As the hydrogen collects on the surface of the white dwarf star, it becomes
progressively hotter until a thermonuclear explosion is ignited at the bottom
of the collected gas. A huge amount of energy is released and causes a
million-fold increase in the brightness of the binary system within a few
hours. After reaching maximum light within some days or weeks, it begins to
fade as the hydrogen supply is exhausted and blown into space. The processed
material is ejected at high speeds, up to about 1000 km/sec, and may later be
visible as an expanding shell of emitting gas. Altogether, the tremendous
flash of light involves the release of about 10^45 ergs in a few weeks, or
about as much energy as our Sun produces in 10,000 years.
Supernovae explosions that completely destroy heavier stars at the end of their
lives are even more powerful. However, in contrast to supernovae and despite
the colossal energy production, the progenitor of a nova is not destroyed
during the explosion. Some time after an outburst, transfer of hydrogen from
the companion star begins anew, and the process repeats itself with explosions
taking place about once every 100,000 years.
The nova star will finally die of old age when the cool companion has been
completely cannibalized.
Novae as distance indicators
Due to their exceptional luminosity, novae can be used as powerful beacons that
allow relative distances to different types of galaxies to be measured. The
measurement is based on the assumption that novae of the same type are
intrinsically equally bright, together with the physical law that states that
an objects observed
brightness decreases with the square of the distance to the observer.
Thus, if we observe that a nova in a certain galaxy is one million times
fainter than a nearby one, we know that it must be one thousand times more
distant. In addition, observations of novae in other galaxies shed light on
the history of formation of their stars.

Sun's Surface
The upper half of the sun consists of three major areas: the core, the
radiative zone and the convective zone.

Core
The core starts from the center and extends to 25 percent of the sun's radius
Here, gravity pulls all of the mass inward and creates an intense pressure. The
pressure is high enough to force atoms of hydrogen to come together in nuclear
fusion reactions. Two atoms of hydrogen are combined to create helium-4 and
energy in several steps:

1.Two protons combine to form a deuterium (hydrogen atom with one neutron), a
positron (similar to electron, but with a positive charge) and a neutrino
2.A proton and a deuterium atom combine to form a helium-3 atom (two protons
with one neutron) and a gamma ray.
3.Two helium-3 atoms combine to form a helium-4 (two protons and two
neutrons) and two protons.
These reactions account for 85 percent of the sun's energy. The remaining 15
percent comes from the following reactions:

1.A helium-3 and a helium-4 combine to form a beryllium-7 (four protons and
three neutrons) and a gamma ray.
2.A beryllium-7 captures an electron to become lithium-7 (three protons and
four neutrons) and a neutrino.
3.The lithium-7 combines with a proton to form two helium-4 atoms.
The helium-4 atoms are less massive than the two hydrogen atoms that started
the process, so the difference in mass was converted to energy as described by
Einstein's theory of relativity (E=mc2).
With so many interactions occurring between photons and gas molecules in the
radiative and convection zones, it takes a photon approximately 100,000 to
200,000 years to reach the surface!

Stefan-Boltzmann Law
This is the relationship between luminosity (L), radius (R) and temperature
(T):
L = (7.125 x 10-7) R2 T4

Units: L - watts, R - meters, T - degrees Kelvin
==
Dark energy controls the density of nature. It's the key to understanding how
all of nature's particles and forces fit together. It causes acceleration
of the galaxies away from each other.
==
About 4.6 billion years ago, the Earth was created by the convergence of giant
rock and ice pieces, along with dust and gas. As these fragments collided, they
released tremendous amounts of energy, heating the new planet to 9,000 degrees
Fahrenheit. This meltdown lasted over 100 million years, leading to an outer
surface that became the continental crust. It would be another 500 million
years before this crust would cool enough for microscopic life to appear.
=
The Pb isotopic ratios of meteorites with varying U/Pb ratios _and_ the Earth
fall on a Pb/Pb isochron of about 4.5 billion years. That's where the age
for the Solar System (and the Earth) comes from.
It is _also_ true that the oldest Moon rocks and the oldest meteorites are
themselves that same age, which is further corroborating evidence that the
Pb/Pb calculation gives the formation time of the Solar System.
However, without the Pb/Pb isochron (and in particular the terrestrial
measurements being colinear with the meteoritic isochron) there would really be
nothing to tie the Earth itself in with that same formation time.
Using the Pb-Pb isochron for meteorites, and noting the ratios for
radiogenic/stable lead on earth, we find these ratios fall squarely on the
meteorite Pb-Pb isochrons. So technically you are correct, in the sense
that without primordial (have not experience any planetary differentiation)
objects like carbonaceous chondritic meteorites we would not be able to assess
the Earth's true age.
The oldest rocks are actually 4 billion years old and are found in the
Northwest Territories of Canada. The oldest terrestrial materials are
zircons (tough stuff) that have ages of 4.2 billion years. Rocks from the lunar
highlands are 4.4- 4.6 billion years old, and obtained from Rb-Sr, Nd-Sm
isochrons. Again this indicates that that accretion occurred quickly,
geologically speaking, and these ages are an excellent approximation to the
elsapsed time since the solar system's bodies achieved their current mass.

By the way, the oldest rocks on Earth are just a shade under
four billion years in age (3.8-3.9). Some of
these are sediments which contain mineral grains that are up
to just a shade _over_ four billion years in age.
=
Among the components of the vacuum -- are virtual waves. In 1948, a Dutch
physicist, Hendrick B. G. Casimir, predicted that a pair of metal plates held
very close together in a vacuum would exclude any virtual waves with
wavelengths longer than the width of the gap between the plates. There being
fewer waves between the plates than in the normal vacuum environment outside
the plates, a small force from the outside should push the plates together.
For nearly half a century no one got around to testing this prediction,
although physicists considered the outcome a foregone conclusion. But in
1996, Dr. Steve K. Lamoreaux, then at the University of Washington in Seattle
built an exquisitely sensitive apparatus containing two Casimir plates and
a balance, and performed the difficult experiment. The attractive force he
measured between the plates was within 5 percent of the force predicted by
quantum electrodynamic theory -- a tremendous success.
In November, two other physicists, Dr. Umar Mohideen and Anushree Roy at the
University of California at Riverside performed a more refined version of
the plate experiment, for which their result was within 1 percent of the
value predicted by theory.

Scientific American 1998 or 1999 article
==
Astrology is a
perfect example of something that has lasted since antiquity, even in
the face of the challenges of the enlightenment and the scientific
revolution. Is this because it reflects some inherent human elements?
I'm sure that a case could be made that it does: it reflects our
hopefulness, our anxieties (especially about the future), and our
desire to know that which is beyond knowing. In spite of this,
astrology is pure superstition and its existence is decidedly not a
good thing. Simply because religion persists does not suffice as
evidence, in of itself, that religion is necessarily a good thing.
Again, I'm hesitant to deem that a good, in and of itself. The Soviet
Union (to cite an off-hand example) accomplished the same thing, but I
would certainly not qualify the USSR as an obvious good.
The capacity for religion to organize I would take as a given, but
organization, itself, is a means. Whether that organization is a good
or a bad depends very much on what ends that means is being directed
to accomplish. To trot out to hoary examples, the Inquisition and the
Crusades were definitely cases of large scale organization
accomplished under the aegis of religion, but the ends to which they
were directed were abominable.
I would also note that organizing antagonistic people to a common end
often only serves to create a pressure-cooker environment such that
when the organization eventually lapses, the antagonisms only
reemerge, intensified. Consider the explosion of ethnic strive that
followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, or the intense and prolong
period of war that followed the Protestant Reformation.
That depends very much on the relationship between those within a
group and those outside of it. Amnesty International constitutes a
group, but its relationship to those outside of it is mainly positive.
I think that problems start when there grows a conviction that those
within a group are "right" about some vital issue, and that those who
are not are wrong. It reaches its flashpoint when then view of right
and wrong assumes moral dimensions such that those who are percieved
to be outside of the group are not only seen to be factually wrong,
to seeing them as evil and believing that opposing them, even to the
point of violence and death, is righteous.
This is something that religion has a very hard time doing because
there are barely any religions in the world that don't assume a
perspective of moral authority.
Only is we assume that logic and reason cannot inspire. And yet, when
I look at the humanity behind the sciences -- that is, the people
actually doing the science -- I am struck by how imaginitive,
creative, speculative, and beautifully high minded so many of them
I seem to find a dozen Oppenheimers, Einsteins, Feynmans, and Sagans.
I will agree that there's nothing in the scientific methodology that
compells people to be generous or compassionate, and yet it is the
gruits of science tha has offered the most effective shield against
those natural evils which have plagued us (often literally) since the
dawn of our existence. Too often, in the history of our species, the
cold facts of our existence have reduced us to a pragmatism that views
compassion, and all those high-minded sentiments, as a luxury that
most people can't afford. As they say, civilization is only three
meals away from anarchy.
While religion can, indeed, given comfort to those who have no hope,
it is, more often than not, our skill and our intelligence that gives
us actual fulfillment of our hopes and dreams (and, yes, sometimes our
nightmares). As such, I believe that one of our goals as a species
should be to make religion as redundant and unnecessary as we possibly can.
===
Geoff Irwin _The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonization of the Pacific_
==
There have been at least five evolving supercontinents identified by
geologists. The last two were labelled Pangea.
The supercontinent Kenora was 2300 Myrs ago which refers to the
Kenoran mountain building event in N. America.
The supercontinent Amazonia was 1500 Myrs ago which refers to the
Amazonian shield (Guayana and Guapore cratons).
The supercontinent Baikalia was 800 Myrs ago which refers to the mountain
building event in eastern Asia.
Pangea B which was complete by 260 Myr ago and Pangea A which wasnt
complete until Africa abutted North America 220 Myr ago.
==
Goldbach's Conjecture (made in a letter by C Goldbach to Euler in 1742) :
Every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two primes.
==
The temperature at which the weak and electromagnetic forces fuse together
is 10^2 GeV, expressed in energy units and the temperature at which gravity
joins up with the other forces is 10^18 GeV, a temperature so hot, an energy
so high, that such conditions have not prevailed since a tiny moment after
the big bang.

PARTICLE PHYSICS AND INFLATIONARY COSMOLOGY. Andrei Linde in "Physics Today,"
Vol. 40, No. 9, pages 61-68; September 1987.
THE FRACTAL DIMENSION OF THE INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE. M. Aryal and A. Vilenkin
in "Physics Letters B," Vol. 199, No. 3, pages 351-357; December 24, 1987.
INFLATION AND QUANTUM COSMOLOGY. Andrei Linde. Academic Press, 1990.
PARTICLE PHYSICS AND INFLATIONARY COSMOLOGY. Andrei Linde. Harwood Academic
Publishers, 1990.
FROM THE BIG BANG THEORY TO THE THEORY OF A STATIONARY UNIVERSE. A. Linde, D.
Linde and A. Mezhlumian in "Physical Review D," Vol. 49, No. 4,
pages 1783-1826; February 1994.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN November 1994 Volume 271 Number 5 Pages 48-55
==
MAJOR NEW COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND
(CMB) measurements uphold the idea of an early "inflationary"
era during which the observable universe expanded with
superluminal speed and tiny quantum fluctuations in the density of
matter were amplified into much larger structures. These
structures are imprinted in the CMB as faint variations in the
temperature across the microwave sky. The CMB, the curtain of
photons set free when the expanding universe became cool enough
to permit the existence of neutral atoms, is the earliest, largest,
and
furthest observable thing in all of science. The best way to extract
cosmological information from the CMB is to plot the observed
microwave power as a function of the angular size of regions
contributing to the CMB. The inflation model predicts that this
spectrum should feature a number of peaks. The first peak, at an
angular size of about 1 degree (about twice the angular size of the
Moon), corresponds to the largest blobs of matter in the primordial
plasma at the time of the CMB (about 400,000 years after the big
bang). Subsequent peaks should correspond to blobs that had
come together under the action of gravity but had then rebounded
outward because of radiation pressure, and later still had
condensed for a second or third time, etc. A year ago the
Boomerang collaboration, which used a balloon-based detector
floating over Antarctica, provided a detailed map (Update 481) of
the first peak which, besides falling at the 1-degree size predicted
by inflation, also determined that the overall curvature of the
universe was zero. But Boomerang, and another detector group,
Maxima, saw scant evidence of any other peaks, and this puzzled
astronomers.
All this changed earlier in the week at the American Physical
Society (APS) meeting in Washington, DC, where the Degree
Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI) collaboration, which parks
its microwave detector on the roof of NSF's South Pole station,
presented solid evidence for a second and third peak.
Boomerang used a new type of analysis and reported 14 times
more data than last year. The microwave spectra for the two
groups were similar (see figures at
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/01/dasi/index-embargoed.shtml;
http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~boomerang/press_images) as were
the values of various cosmological parameters. For example, the
position of the first peak yields the total energy of the universe (a
parameter, denoted by the letter omega, expressed as a fraction of
the critical density needed for halting the cosmological expansion).
Boomerang and DASI found values of 1.03 and 1.04, respectively,
with about a 6% uncertainty.
Comparing the height of the first and second peaks, one can
calculate the expected percentage of all energy in the universe that
exists in the form of ordinary matter (baryons). This turns out to
be about 5% for both groups, a fact that agrees well with
predictions made by the independent "big bang nucleosynthesis"
theory. It is harder to nail down other cosmological parameters,
such as the percentage of energy in the form of dark matter or dark
energy (energy lurking in the vacuum and responsible for the
newly discovered net acceleration in the cosmological expansion).
The new CMB measurements suggest values of about 30% and
65%, respectively, again in keeping with recent expectations. New
Maxima results
presented at the meeting did not have nearly the statistical weight
of the other two groups, but were generally consistent; the three-
way agreement brought a great round of applause from the
audience of astronomers eager to unravel the mysteries of the early
universe.
==
Prothero, D.R. 1994. The Eocene-Oligocene Transition: Paradise Lost.
Columbia University Press, NY, 291.
==
The fine structure constant--formed by dividing the square of the electric
charge on a single electron (e^2) by the product of the speed of light (c)
and Max Planck's quantum constant (h/(2 PI)). e=electron charge, h= Planck's
constant,
==
Blaise Pascal (1623-62) Science and math.
==
1 C =1000 c = 1 kilocalorie = 4185.5 joules
==
"Revolution in Science" by Cohen. (1985)
==
What is not well known is that the electron density between two atoms is not a
maximum, but a minimum (along the bond). It is just that bonding increases the
electron density between the atoms to be greater than it would otherwise be.
Also, when a bond is formed, the electron density around the *nuclei* becomes
more compact, lowering the potential energy (Coulomb's Law). This contraction
actually means that the electron density in the bond is decreased more than the
enhancement due to constructive interference.
==
Voodoo Science : The Road from Foolishness to Fraud Robert L. Park
Physics as Metaphor, by Roger S. Jones
DL Hull_Science as a Process_
The philosopher of science Mario Bunge wrote _Causality and Modern Science_,
which is well worth reading for sorting out all kinds of issues about
causation and determinism.

"Scientific Blunders" by Robert Youngson
==
During EXOCYTOSIS, vesicles fuse with the plasma membrane and dump their
contents to the outside of the cell.The cell blocks out the large molecules and
keeps them from crossing the plasma membrane.
During ENDOCYTOSIS, extracellular substances are incorporated into
the cell in vesicles formed by an inward budding of the plasma membrane.
Biology, Campbell
==
Stochastic programs are mathematical programs where some of the data
incorporated into the objective or constraints is uncertain. Uncertainty is
usually characterized by a probability distribution on the parameters. Although
the uncertainty is rigorously defined, in practice it can range in detail from
a few scenarios (possible outcomes of the data) to specific and precise joint
probability distributions. The outcomes are generally described in terms of
elements w of a set W. W can be, for example, the set of possible demands over
the next few months.
==
Occams razor was formulated by William of Occam (1285-1349) and says:
Non est ponenda pluralites sive necessitate or in English:
Do not multiply entities unless necessarily. It is a principle for scientific
labour which means that one should use a simple explanation with a few
explanatory premises before a more complex one.
==
Bertrand Russell-One of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century,
Russell wrote widely, covering topics including epistemology, psychology,
morals, education, and political and social reform. He believed that logic was
capable of untangling many of the problems that have vexed philosophers
throughout history. Russell was a defender of the humanist outlook and believed
that despite mankinds possible extinction by nuclear warfare, we must confront
the indifferent or hostile universe and stand for our ideals. He received the
Nobel prize for literature in 1950. His writings include The Problems of
Philosophy, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, Principia Mathematica,
Logic and Knowledge, Sceptical Essays,and Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays.

Russell's paradox arose because a proposed collection of axioms for
set theory were internally inconsistent. He found a way to modify
those axioms to get rid of the inconsistency.
==
Gerard Diamond wrote the book, Guns, Germs, and Steel about conquest of the
Indians
==
In the ocean, when youre really far from land, the sedimentation rate, or the
rate of burial, is very slow. In fact, in the deep sea its about a
centimeter, which is less than a half an inch per thousand years.
==
The speed of light in a vacuum, 299,792.458 km per second, is defined as
the rate of propagation of all electromagnetic waves. This number is fixed and
any future changes will be in the distance standards.
==
Tarlike macro-molecules detected instardust
The first in-situ chemical analysis of interstellar dust particles produces a
puzzling result: These cosmic particles consist mostly of 3-dimensionally
cross-linked organic macro-molecules, so-called
polymeric-heterocyclic-aromates.
They rather resemble tar-like substances than minerals.
==
A telescope lofted by balloon over Antarctica has
captured the most detailed snapshot ever of the early universe, revealing an
underlying cosmic geometry and structures that predate the oldest stars and
galaxies. The first observations largely match theorists predictions and
suggest scientists are on the right track in their understanding of the
earliest moments of the cosmos, its composition and ultimate fate.
It is an incredible triumph of modern cosmology to have predicted their basic
form so accurately, The sensitive telescope carried aloft for nearly 11 days
in late 1998 measured minute variations in the cosmic microwave background
radiation, a faint glow that fills the sky in all directions and is believed to
be the fading remnants of the Big Bang 12 billion to 15 billion years ago.
A flat universe
Were looking at the universe in its embryonic form, when it looked vastly
different than it did today and well before when the first star or galaxy
formed. Measurements of the small ripples indicate the large-scale geometry of
the universe, which the general theory of relativity says is determined
by the total amount of matter and energy in the cosmos.
The Boomerang data also reveal hundreds of complex structures that represent
the effects of the density variations in the early universe. They are the seeds
in which clusters of galaxies would form. In the first results, scientists said
the ripple patterns precisely match the scenario of a flat universe in which
parallel lines never cross. The findings rule out the possibility that the
fabric of space-time is curved onto itself like a sphere or bent outward like a
saddle. It also means that the universe will not someday collapse onto itself
in a big crunch. We are really demonstrating that its flat, and we are
demonstrating that it will expand forever.
Taking a census of the cosmos
The flat universe also fits the so-called inflationary theory that the universe
underwent a rapid expansion in a fraction of a second after its birth.
Its confirmation of the prediction of our best theory of what caused the
structure of the universe, said Alan Guth, a Massachusetts Institute of
Technology physicist who first proposed the theory in 1980. It means that
theres a very good chance that were on the right track.
Shortly after the Big Bang, the universe was made of a fog of subatomic
particles and radiation hotter than the surface of the sun. It was so dense
that photons -- the smallest units of energy --bounced off the primordial soup.
As the universe expanded and cooled, normal matter formed and the photons no
longer scattered but moved freely through space. Boomerang analyzes variations
that echo the final scattering, roughly 300,000 years after the Big Bang.
The background radiation, which contributes to snow on earthly television sets,
was first detected in 1965. But the tiny ripples or variations were not found
until 1991, by NASAs Cosmic Background Explorer satellite.
Penzias & Wilson first noted the radiation.
==
George Smoots 'Wrinkles In Time'

_After The Funeral: The Posthumous Adventures
of Famous Corpses_, by Edwin Murphy (Barnes and Noble, 1995)

The Self-Aware Universe by Amit Goswami

Gospels by Feynman
Richard P. Feynman, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
Richard P. Feynman, "What Do _You_ Care What Other People Think"
Ehrlich "Human Natures".

Victor Stengers >_The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern >
Physics and Cosmology

_The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics_, bu Gary Zukav,

Zehs book _The Physical Basis of the Direction of Time_.
==
Here is a fascinating article from NEW SCIENTIST. There is some evidence
the Earth totally froze over a couple of times between 700 and 575
million years ago...a global ice age. The oceans were covered by
kilometers of ice, global temperatures fell to -40 degrees C and there
was no weathering or rainfall. Life only survived around volcanoes.
http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19991106/snowballea.html
Snowball Earth Deposits The Manganese In Kalahari
For the primitive organisms unlucky enough to be around 2.4 billion years ago,
the first global freeze was a real wipeout, likely the worst in the history of
life on Earth. Few of the organisms escaped extinction, and those that did were
forced into an evolutionary bottleneck that altered the diversity of life for
eons.
But 2.4 billion years later, an unlikely winner has emerged from that first
planetary deep-freeze, and its none other than us modern industrial humans.
New research reveals that the worlds largest deposit of manganese (a component
of steel)was formed by the cascade of chemical reactions caused when the planet
got so cold that even the equators were icy -- a condition now known as
Snowball Earth.
Scientists show that the huge Kalahari Manganese Field in southern Africa was a
The new study explains how the drastic climatic changes in a Snowball Earth
episode can alter the course of biological evolution, and can also account
for a huge economic resource.
The planet froze over for tens of millions of years, but eventually thawed when
a greenhouse-induced effect kicked in.
This warming episode led to the deposit of iron formations and carbonates,
providing nutrients to the blue-green algae that were waiting in the wings
for a good feeding.
The algae bloom during the melting period resulted in an oxygen spike, which
in turn led to a rusting of the iron and manganese. This caused the manganese
to be laid down in a huge 45-meter-thick deposit in the Kalahari to await
future human mining and metallurgy.
Today, about 80 percent of the entire worlds known manganese reserves are
found in that one field, and it is a major economic resource for the Republic
of South Africa. The Snowball Earths cascade of climatic chemical reactions
also probably forced the living organisms of the time to mutate in such a way
that they were protected from the excess oxygen.
Because free radicals can cause DNA damage, the organisms adapted an enzyme
known as the superoxide dismutase to compensate. The enzyme and its
evolutionary history are well known to biologists, but that a global climate
change apparently has never been suggested as a cause of the enzymes
diversification. This is the first biochemical evidence for this adaptation
that the data shows that the adaptation can be traced back to the Snowball
Earth episode 2.4 billion years ago.
Their evidence for the freeze of 2.4 billion years ago was based on their
finding evidence of glacial deposits in a place in southern Africa that in
ancient times was within 11 degrees of the equator, according to magnetic
samples also gathered there.
==
The end of our foundation is knowledge of causes,
and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds
of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.
- Francis Bacon, New Atlantis.
==
2^6,972,593-1 is the 38th known Mersenne prime.
==
Next Space Telescopes Will Unveil The Universes Dark Ages
For current astronomers, the darkest epoch of the universe is the time when
the first galaxies started to form and evolve: no instrument today can peer
into that era, showing the galactic collisions that produced the first
stellar baby boom in the history of the Universe.
Firstly, the epoch when the first galaxies formed was most likely already dusty
and current telescopes get confused by the dust; secondly, todays instruments
are simply not sensitive enough - in the meantime, cosmologists can use other
techniques to study the Big Bang. The epoch of galaxy formation has therefore
so far remained a true dark age. However, a brief and unproven chronological
report of the events at that time could be the following. Sometime after the
Big Bang the first stars formed, possibly in small clusters; with time they
started to merge and grow, and the mere accumulation of matter triggered the
formation of more stars;these stars produced dust, which in turn was recycled
to make more stars. By then the first galaxies would already be in place, and
they would also merge to form larger systems. These galactic collisions
triggered an intense formation of stars in the Universe.
FIRST will actually be able to observe light re-emitted by the dust, which is
illuminated by the intense star-formation, and hence can be used to measure the
total amount of energy produced by the new-born stars. This will help us to
understand how some primeval galaxies formed. FIRST will be located
approximately 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth and will have a
3.5 metre telescope, the largest ever sent to space.
==
Cosmology
Problem 1 - Vacuum Energy and Dark Matter in Cosmology. Everything we
thought we knew about the universe is wrong! In the past year
astronomical observations of type Ia supernovas have led to the
conclusion that the universe is not only eexpanding and will expand
forever, but also that it is accelerating as it expands, with a long-
range antigravity repulsive force driving its expansion.
(See my column in the 5/99 Analog). The current explanation for this
observation is that about 3/4 of the energy from the Big Bang is not in
the form of matter but in the vacuum itself and that this vacuum energy
is creating a negative pressure that accelerates the expansion of the
universe. So the book-keeping seems to be that about 70% of the energy
in the universe is in the vacuum, about 5% is in the form of normal
matter (protons, planets, stars,galaxies, etc.), and the remaining 25%
is dark matter, mysterious invisible particles that inhabit the
haloes of galaxies.
This new understanding raises far more questions then it answers. Why
and how does the vacuum store energy? What is the dark matter? Why is
the energy from the Big Bang distributed in this particular way? Is the
energy in the vacuum constant with time, or is it changing? Could the
vacuum suddenly decide to dump its energy and restart the Big Bang? And
so on. The universe is a stranger place than we had imagined.
http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw96.html
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/113099sci-space-galaxies.html
==
Narlikar Introduction to Cosmology
--
Irritatingly, science claims to set limits on what
we can do, even in principle. Carl Sagan
==
After the Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago, the Suns energy
output was only 70 percent of what it is today. According to current estimates,
it takes about 10 million years for a planet to form.
==
Aristarchus of Samos (310?-250? BC), Greek astronomer,
was the first to assert that the earth revolves around the
sun. His belief that the earth revolves around the sun is
known only through the writings of Greek mathematician and
inventor Archimedes; none of the works written by
Aristarchus on the subject have survived.
==
Dionysius Exiguus
Died about 545, Roman monk, chronologist, and scholar, a transmitter of Greek
thought to the Middle Ages. He made collections of 5th-century papal
decretals and the canons of the early church councils. Dionysius, in
an attempt to improve the reckoning of the date of Easter, was
the first (525) to use our present system of reckoning a date from
the time of the birth of Christ .
==
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/andrew_white/Andrew_White.html
book about science vs. creationism
==
Robert Wrights _The Moral Animal_, Pantheon, 1994

_Introducing Einsteins Relativity_, by Ray DInverno

Deception and Self-deception by Richard Wiseman.

- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in
arithmetic.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our
inclinations or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the
state of facts and evidence.
-- John Adams (in 1770)
==
The definitions of length and time are not changing in
the standard model. The second is still 9192631770 cycles of a Cesium
atomic clock and the meter is still the distance light travels in
9192631770/299792458 cycles of a Cesium atomic clock.
==
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Philosophy/Philosophers/
William_of_Ockham__1280__1347__/
==
http://www.wired.com/wired/3.05/features/paine.html
==
HELIUM ESCAPE FROM THE TERRESTRIAL ATMOSPHERE - THE ION OUTFLOW MECHANISM
Article (Refs:26)
by Liesvendsen-O (*R) Rees-MH
Norwegian Def Res Estab,Div Electr,Pob 25/N-2007 Kjeller//NORWAY/ JOURNAL
OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH SPACE PHYSICS v101 (A2) : pp2435-2443 (1996 Feb 1)
-----
PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
Number 461 December 10, 1999 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein

NATURALLY OCCURRING RADIATION LEVELS ARE MUCH
LOWER TODAY on Earth than when life first appeared, a new
analysis has shown (Andrew Karam,716-275-1473,
Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu), suggesting that all living
organisms--which have mutation-repair mechanisms very similar to
those first developed by primordial life forms were once equipped to
handle larger doses of background nuclear radiation than modern life
forms. Presently, humans receive a dose of about 360 millirems per
year of radiation from natural sources, plus typically about 63 mrem/yr
from anthropogenic sources. Perhaps surprisingly, a major source
(about 40 mrem/yr) of naturally occurring radiation is inside our
bodies--in the form of potassium, a nutrient essential for many things
such as generating signals between cells. All natural sources of
potassium contain some radioactive potassium-40 (K-40). But life first
began about 4 billion years ago--about 3 K-40 half-lives ago--meaning
that the radiation dose from potassium today is about one-eighth of
what it was 4 billion years ago. Geologic sources of radiation (about
28 mrem/yr) include uranium, thorium, and potassium present in rocks
and minerals in the earths crust. Studying published data of 1100
rocks, and assuming that the continental crust had formed early (a
scenario favored by the rock record), the researchers estimated that
radiation from these sources is now about one-half of what it was 4
billion years ago, because many of these radioisotopes decayed in the
intervening time. Not considered in the present study were cosmic
sources (about 27 mrem/yr) and radon (typically about 200 mrem/yr);
the authors are making these the subject of ongoing research. (Karam
and Leslie, Health Physics, December 1999.)
==
Ignorance can be cured. The way you tell ignorance which results
from inability to learn, or lack or opportunity to learn, vs true
madness, is by seeing what happens when you try to teach. The stupid
try to learn but dont get it. Quite often this can be remedied by
repetition and patience and kindness. Eventually, nearly everyone can
grasp any concept at some level (certainly if possessing enough mental
power to be able to use usenet). Those who are ignorant as a result of
lack of opportunity, but who are intelligent, learn fast when they want
to. People who are intelligent but seem to be having problems
learning, sometimes have a mental block, or prior psychological problem
with new information which implies that which they would rather not
believe for other reasons. They get around this-- usually.

People who never do get around this, when the information and data
are very clear, are mad. They may not be globally insane. They may be
able to function fine in the world and have only this one delusion.
But regarding the particular delusion, they are quite nuts. You find
this out when you confront them with the observational facts, and they
find increasingly clever and bizarre ways of explaining them, or else
deny them, and then when given many references, postulate a giant
conspiracy to explain why everybody thinks these observations have been
made, when they really havent. At that point, you realize youre
dealing with a crank, and give up.
==
We have computed global He+ escape fluxes for a range and a variety of
diurnal, seasonal, universal time, and solar activity geophysical conditions.
We average over the short-term variables and compute the globally averaged
escape flux for a range of cutoff latitudes, which separate regions of open
and closed field lines, during one solar cycle. The global escape flux
averaged over a solar cycle was computed, and we find that a cutoff latitude
of about 60 degrees or lower is sufficient to balance the outgassing from
the Earths crust.

Calculations on the Composition of the terrestrial Planets
Reynolds & Summers, Journal of Geophysical Research vol 74, no 10 May
15, 1969 p 2494
The formation of the Earth from Planetesimals
Wetherill, Scientific American June 1981
Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Evolution on the Primitive Earth
Cloud, Preston E., Jr., Science 160, (17 May 1968), pp 729 - 736
The Effect of a Planets Size on the Evolution of its Atmosphere
Mart, Michael H, published in some conference or another;
the author. (ave Allen

Our Evolving Atmosphere
Is Anyone There? by Isacc Asimov
The Evolution of the Atmosphere of the Earth
Hart, Icarus, 33, 23-39, 1978
Evolution of the Atmosphere and Oceans
Holland, Lazar & McCaffery, Nature vol 320, 6 mar 1986
Heat and Helium in the Earth
ONions & Oxburgh, Nature, vol 306, 1 Dec 1983
The Atmosphere
Ingersoll, Scientific American, Sept 1983
==
The mass of Jupiter is slightly less than 0.001 solar masses. In order
to sustain nuclear fusion, a mass of approx. 0.08 solar masses is
required, thus Jupiter would need to be approx. eighty times its
present mass for it to become a Sun
If one considers Brown Dwarves to be stars (even thought they dont
sustain nuclear fusion) the somewhat arbitrary distinction between
Brown Dwarves and Planets is 0.002 solar masses, so Jupiter would need to be
twice its present size even to be considered a Brown Dwarf

==
The Death of Common Sense by Phillip Howard
Guns, Germs, and Steel- Jared Diamond
Human Diversity by Richard Lewontin
The History and Geography of Human Genes by L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza,
Paolo Menozzi, Alberto Piazza
The Great Human Diasporas : The History of Diversity and Evolution
by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Francesco Cavalli-Sforza (Contributor),
Sarah Thorne, Heather Mimnaugh (Editor)
Genes, Peoples and Languages by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Mark
Seietstad (Translator), Mark Seielstad (Translator)

In their summary trees, the African genetic diversity exceeds that of
each of Caucasians, Northeast Asians(incl. Eskimos), Amerindians (less
Eskimos) and Southeast Asians (orientals) separately. The pooled NE
Asian + Amerindians show about the same genetic diversity, and the
Australoids (incl. New Guinea) show greater genetic diversity, as do the
*pooled* Asians+Europeans+Amerindians.

So in a sense there are three great groups: Africans, Australoids, and
everybody else.
---------
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/magfields.html
http://www2.uic.edu/~vuletic/cefec.html#1.6

http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-youngearth.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/moon-dust.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/debate-age-of-earth.html#dust
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/old-earth.html#s10
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/old-earth.html#l10
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html#dust
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/old-earth.html#l16
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-meritt/age.html#dust
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/old-earth.html#s7
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/old-earth.html#s8
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/old-earth.html#l9
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/debate-age-of-earth.html#comets
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-meritt/age.html#comets
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jewitt/kb.html comets
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/old-earth.html#s9
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/old-earth.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/8851/

==
Rats, Lice, and History
==
Two global glaciations occurred at 600 and 750 million years ago, but the
earliest occurred at 2.3 billion years ago.
==
DNA is a continuous string of nucleotides that has
the information of genes imbedded in it. mRNA are gene sized chunks of
information that are copies of the DNA information (there are exceptions
of multi-gene mRNAs - called polycistronic operons - in bacteria and, of
course, eucaryotic mRNA starts out with unreadable chunks of sequence
interspersed among the readable segments - these are clipped out in the
nucleus to produce the final mRNA).

The mRNA is indeed read by ribosome translation factories. But to
translate the mRNA into protein, one needs an adapter molecule, the
tRNA. There are typically about 40-60 different tRNAs in a cell. Each
tRNA is charged with a specific aa at one end by enzymes. The anticodon
loop is the part of the tRNA that recognizes the three letter code of
the mRNA on the ribosome. The ribosome has two sites that can hold
tRNAs, the P site (for peptidyl) and the A site (acceptor). Initiation
of protein synthesis almost always starts at an AUG three-letter
string. A special Met tRNA (the initiator tRNA) binds here, and unlike
others, can shift unchanged to the P site. At this point, we have a
Met-tRNA bound to the mRNAs AUG, and the next three letters of the mRNA
are open for binding an aa-bound tRNA with the appropriate anticodon.
So now we have a Met-tRNA at the P site and the next aa-tRNA in the A
site. At this point, the Met bound to the initiator tRNA reacts with
the aa-tRNA in position 2, releasing from the initiator tRNA and forming
a dipeptide Met-aa2-tRNA chain which is still bound to the anticodon of
the mRNA. Then the ribosome moves down, kicking out the now uncharged
initiator tRNA out of the P site and shifting the *peptidyl*-tRNA to the
P site, leaving the next three letters of the mRNA open in the A site.

The above is repeated with a continual lengthening of the polypeptide
chain on the peptidyl-tRNA until a stop codon is encountered. At this
point, a releasing factor enters and clips off the peptide from the last
tRNA.
==
The 100 Most Important Science Books of the 2nd Millennium

1999 CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 80th Edition
(for its extensive summary of physics and chemistry)

1999 The Bible According to Einstein
(for its comprehensive presentation of current scientific knowledge
for the lay person)

1988 A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
by Stephen Hawking (for its presentation of cosmology and
astrophysics for the lay person)

1985 QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
by Richard P. Feynman (for the authors contribution
to the quantum theory of electromagnetism)

1982 Subtle is the Lord
by Abraham Pais (as a tribute to Albert Einstein)

1981 The Mismeasure of Man
by Stephen Jay Gould (as a tribute to the author
for presenting paleontology to the lay person)

Rocks of Ages by Stephen Gould

1978 On Human Nature
by Edward O. Wilson (for its popularization of sociobiology)

1977 The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the
Evolution of Human Intelligence
by Carl Sagan (for presenting science to the general public)

1968 The Double Helix
by James Dewey Watson (as a tribute to the author
for his contribution to microbiology)

1965 The Feynman Lectures on Physics
(as a tribute to the author and his service as an educator)

1953-1979 The Collected Works
of C.G. Jung (for their contribution to psychology)

1947 One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science
by George Gamow (for its popularization of science)

1939 The Nature of the Chemical Bond
by Linus Carl Pauling (for its contribution to chemistry)

1937 Madame Curie
by Eve Curie (as a tribute to the woman who won the Nobel prize twice)

1937 La physique nouvelle et les quanta (The New Physics and Quanta)
by Louis de Broglie (for its contribution to quantum mechanics)

1937 Genetics and the Origin of Species
by Theodosius Dobzhansky (for its contribution
to genetics and evolution)

1936 The Realm of the Nebulae
by Edwin Powell Hubble (for its contribution to astronomy)

1933 The Expanding Universe
by Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (for its presentation of
astrophysics to the lay person)

1932-1933 Introduction to Theoretical Physics
by Max Planck (as a tribute to the author
for his contributions to physics)

1932 The Causes of Evolution by
J.B.S. Haldane (for its contribution to genetics and evolution)

1930 The Principles of Quantum Mechanics
by Paul Dirac (for its contribution to quantum mechanics)

1929 The Universe Around Us
by Sir James Jeans (for its popularization of cosmology)

1928 Principien der Quantentheorie (Principles of the Quantum Theory)
by Werner Karl Heisenberg (for its contribution to quantum mechanics)

1927 Abhandlungen zur Wellenmechanik
(Collected Papers on Wave Mechanics)
by Erwin Schrodinger (for their contribution to quantum mechanics)

1922 Theory of Spectra and Atomic Constitution
by Niels Bohr (for its contribution to quantum mechanics)

1922 The Meaning of Relativity
by Albert Einstein (for popularizing relativity)

1915 Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane
(The Origin of Continents and Oceans) by Alfred Wegener
(for its contribution to geology)

1910 Vorlesungen zur Einfhrung in die Psychoanalyse
(A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis) by Sigmund Freud
(for its contribution to psychoanalysis)

1904 Radio-activity
by Ernest Rutherford (for its contribution to nuclear physics)

1900 Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams)
by Sigmund Freud (for its contribution to psychoanalysis)

1899 Principles of Mechanics
by Heinrich R. Hertz (for its contribution to mechanics)

1893 Electric Waves
by Heinrich R. Hertz (for its contribution to electromagnetic waves)

1892-1899 Les mEthods nouvelle de la mEchanique celeste
(New Methods for Celestial Mechanics) by Henri Poincare
(for its contribution to classical mechanics)

1890 The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell
(for Maxwells contribution to physics)

1885-1909 Das Antlitz der Erde (The Face of Earth)
by Eduard Suess (for its contribution to geology)

1884-1887 The Scientific Papers of James Prescott Joule
(for Joules contribution to physics)

1882-1911 Mathematical and Physical Papers
by Baron William Thomson Kelvin (for Kelvins contribution to physics)

1876-1894 Vorlesungen ber mathematische Physik
(Lectures on Mathematical Physics) by Gustav Robert Kirchhoff
(for its contribution to physics)

1873 Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
by James Clerk Maxwell (for its contribution to electromagnetism)

1871 The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
by Charles Darwin (for its contribution to the theory of evolution)

1868-1870 The Principles of Chemistry
by Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev (for its contribution to chemistry)

1868 Lehrbuch der Botanik (Textbook of Botany)
by Julius von Sachs (for its contribution to botany)

1867 Handbuch der physiologischen optik
(Handbook of Physiological Optics) by Hermann von Helmholtz
(for its contribution to biophysics)

1866 Versuche Uber Pflanzenhybriden
(Experiments in Plant Hybridization) by Gregor Johann Mendel
(for its contribution to genetics)

1863 Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man
by Sir Charles Lyell (for its contribution to evolution)

1863 Evidence as to Mans Place in Nature
by Thomas Henry Huxley (for its contribution to evolution)

1859 On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
by Charles Darwin (for its contribution to the theory of evolution)

1859 Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics
by Michael Faraday (for its contributions to physics and chemistry)

1845-1862 Kosmos (Cosmos)
by Alexander von Humboldt (for its contribution to natural science)

1839-1855 Experimental Researches in Electricity
by Michael Faraday (for Faradays contributions to electromagnetism)

1839 Mikroskopische untersuchungen Uber die Ubereinstimmung in der
struktur und dem wachstume der tiere und pflanzen
(Microscopic Researches into Accordance in the Structure and
Growth of Animals and Plants) by Theodor Schwann
(for its contribution to biology)

1833-1846 Lectures on Comparative Anatomy and
Physiology of the Vertebrate Animals
by Sir Richard Owen (for its contribution to paleontology)

1830-1833 Principles of Geology
by Sir Charles Lyell (for its contribution to geology)

1824 Reflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu
(Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire)
by Sadi Nicolas LEonard Carnot (for its contribution to thermodynamics)

1822 Recueil dobservations Electro-dynamiques
(Memoir on the Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena)
by AndrE Marie AmpEre (for its contribution to electromagnetism)

1817 Le REgne animal distribuE daprEs son organisation
(The Animal Kingdom, Distributed According to Its Organization)
by Georges Cuvier (for its contribution to paleontology)

1815-1822 Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertEbres
(Natural History of Invertebrate Animals) by
Jean-Baptiste de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck
(for its contribution to paleontology)

1811 TraitE de mecanique (Treatise on Mechanics)
by SimEon Denis Poisson (for its contribution to classical mechanics)

1810 Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen
by Robert Brown (contribution to botany)

1809 Philosophie zoologique (Zoological Philosophy)
by Jean-Baptiste de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck
(for its contribution to paleontology)

1808-1827 A New System of Chemical Philosophy
by John Dalton (for its contributions to chemistry and atomic theory)

1802 Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth
by John Playfair (for its clarification of Huttons work on geology)

1801-1805 LeAons danatomie comparEe (Lessons on Comparative Anatomy)
by Georges Cuvier (for its contribution to natural history)

1801 SystEme des animaux sans vertEbres, ou table gEnEral des classes
(System of Invertebrate Animals, or General Table of Classes)
by Jean-Baptiste de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck
(for its contribution to evolution and paleontology)

1799-1825 Trait de mecanique celeste (Celestial Mechanics)
by Marquis Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827))
(for its contribution to solar system astronomy)

1795 Theory of the Earth
by James Hutton (for its contribution to geology)

1794-1976 Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life
by Robert Waring Darwin (for its contribution to evolution)

1793 Meteorological Observations and Essays
by John Dalton (for its contribution to physics and chemistry)

1789 TraitE ElEmentaire de chimie (Elementary Treatise on Chemistry)
by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (for its contribution to chemistry)

1788 Mecanique analytique (Analytical Mechanics)
by Joseph Louis Lagrange (for its contribution to classical mechanics)

1777 Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer
(Chemical Observations and Experiments on Air and Fire)
by Carl Wilhelm Scheele (for its contribution to chemistry)

1774-1786 Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
by Joseph Priestley (for its contribution to chemistry)

1753 Species Plantarum
by Carolus Linnaeus (for its contribution to taxonomy)

1751 Experiments and Observations on Electricity
by Benjamin Franklin (for its contribution to
the understanding of electricity)

1738 Hydrodynamica (Hydrodynamics)
by Daniel Bernoulli (for its contribution to fluid dynamics)

1736-1737 Mechanica (Mechanics)
by Leonhard Euler (for its contribution to classical mechanics)

1735-1758 Systema Naturae by Carolus Linnaeus
(for its contribution to taxonomy)

1705 A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets by Edmond Halley
(for its contribution to the solar system)

1704 Opticks (Optics) by Isaac Newton
(for its contribution to the understanding of light)
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

1687 Philosohiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy)
by Isaac Newton (for its contribution to classical mechanics)

1682 Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus
(On the Movement of the Heart and Blood in Animals)
by William Harvey (for its contribution to biology)

1678-1690 TraitE de la LumiEre (Treatise on Light)
by Christiaan Huygens (for its contribution to optics)

1673 Horologium Oscillatorium
by Christiaan Huygens (for its contribution to mechanics)

1665 Micrographia
by Robert Hooke (for its contribution to microbiology)

1661 The Sceptical Chymist
by Robert Boyle (for its contribution to chemistry)

1638 Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
by Galileo Galilei (for its contributions to physics)

1632 Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo,
tolemaico e copernicano
(Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and
Copernican)
by Galileo Galilei (for popularizing the truths about the solar system)

1620 Novum Organum (also known as Instauratio Magna)
(The New Tool) by Francis Bacon
(for its contribution to the scientific method)

1619 Concerning the Harmonies of the World
by Johannes Kepler (for its contributions to solar system astronomy)

1610 Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger)
by Galileo Galilei (for its contributions to
the understanding of the solar system)

1609 Astronomia Nova
by Johannes Kepler (for its contributions to solar system astronomy)

1602 Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata
(Exercises Toward a Restored Astronomy)
by Tycho Brahe (for its contributions to astronomy)

1600 De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus et de Magno Magnete Tellure
(On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth)
by William Gilbert (for its contribution to magnetism)

1598 Astronomiae instauratae mechanica
by Tycho Brahe (for its contributions to experimental astronomy)

1543 De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi
(Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs)
by Nicolaus Copernicus
(for its contributions to solar system astronomy)

1543 De humani corporis fabrica libri septem
(also known as Fabrica) (On the Structure of the Human Body)
by Andreas Vesalius (for its contribution to biology)

1482-1519 Notebooks
by Leonardo da Vinci (for their contribution to science)

13th Century De luce
(On light) by Robert Grosseteste
(for its contribution to the understanding of light)

1269 Epistola Petri Peregrini de Maricourt ad Sygerum de Foucaucourt,
militem, de magnete
(Letter on the Magnet of Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt to Sygerus of
Foucaucourt, Soldier)
by Petrus Peregrinus (for its contribution to magnetism)

1268(?) Communia naturalium
(General Principles of Natural Philosophy)
by Roger Bacon (for its contribution to science)
==
In quantum mechanics, the energy is defined via the Hamiltonian.
In particular, the eigenvalues of this operator are the allowed
energies. The expansion of a solution to the Schrodinger equation
(at a given time) in the basis of energy eigenvectors defines
the probabilities for these energies to occur (at the given time). So, if
you follow the rules of quantum mechanics, the ground state energy
of hydrogen is the lowest energy available.
---
THE FOUNDING FATHERS
Unlike other physical theories, quantum mechanics was not the the
invention of one or two scientists. Those who took part in its discovery
are collectively called the founding fathers. Planck, Einstein, Bohr,
Heisenberg, Born, Jordan, Pauli, Fermi, Schrodinger, Dirac, de Broglie,
Bose all made notable contributions. During the first part of this
century scientists were faced with a range of extraordinary physical
phenomena showing the effects of quantum mechanics. They wondered
whether the universe could really be as strange a place as their
laboratory experiments appeared to show. Bit by bit they pieced together
the results of experiments and found rules obeyed by matter. In 1936
Birkhoff and Von Neumann collected the rules together into the accepted
axioms of quantum mechanics.

Birkhoff and Von Neumann showed that the axioms of quantum mechanics
provide a consistent framework in which it is once again possible to
predict the results of experiment, at least statistically. But, although
these laws are mathematically consistent, most scientists agree that
they are counter intuitive, and do not have any satisfactory known
physical interpretation.

THE COPENHAGEN INTERPRETATION
Almost every text book on quantum mechanics claims to adopt the
orthodox Copenhagen interpretation, developed largely in a series of
papers and lectures by Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, but it has
never been entirely accepted. Its fundamental features are that a
property does not exist unless it is measured, and that indeterminacy is
a fundamental property of the universe. It side steps the issue of the
collapse of the wave function by saying that it cannot be measured.
The Copenhagen interpretation distinguishes between microscopic quantum
systems, described by wave functions, and macroscopic measuring
instruments, described by definite values. The quantum system triggers
the measuring apparatus and, somewhere in the chain of events, the wave
function collapses. It does not answer the question of how to interpret
the wave function, but says it is actually wrong to try; the world
cannot be understood and the sole function of physics is to make
experimentally verifiable predictions.
It is easy to pick holes in the Copenhagen interpretation, and I do not
believe that many first rank physicists find it convincing, though most
try not to worry about it. First the distinction between microscopic and
macroscopic systems is artificial. An objective description of nature
should describe both systems as matter obeying the same laws of physics.
Many physicists see the conflict between the probabilistic nature of
microscopic physics and the determinist nature of macroscopic systems as
the fundamental paradox of modern science. Second, by attributing the
collapse of the wave function to measurement, or to observation, the
Copenhagen interpretation becomes embroiled in philosophical knots. In
quantum mechanics these problems have been nicely illustrated by the
examples of Shrodingers cat and Wigners friend.
Schrodinger and Wigner produced these examples to show that it has to be
nonsense to attribute the collapse of the wave function to observation.
The problem is that, until now, no one has come up with a better
explanation. And yet, there is a huge body of experimental and
mathematical evidence that the laws of quantum mechanics are obeyed,
showing that quantum states have to be described by mixing the possible
outcomes in a form of wave function, which only collapses into a
definite outcome when the observation takes place.
SCHRODINGERS CAT
Schrodinger put a cat in a box with a capsule of cyanide which would be
triggered to break with a 50% chance by a quantum mechanical process,
killing the cat. Oh, all right, he didnt actually do it, but he thought
about it. A physicist looking at the box does not know whether the
quantum process has broken the capsule or not, so he describes it with a
quantum state, that is to say a wave function in which the process has
part broken the cyanide capsule, and part not. If the wave function
collapses when the observation takes place, then he should describe the
cat with a quantum state as well, in which the cat is part alive and
desperately trying to get out of the box before the cyanide gets him,
and part dead and lying in a heap on the floor.

THE EINSTEIN-PODOLSKY-ROSEN PARADOX (EPR)
Although I have heard it said that the EPR paradox has been resolved by
experiment in favour of quantum mechanics, and against Einstein, it is
actually a far more serious a paradox than Schrodingers cat. It cannot
be regarded as solved, because it apparently demonstrates a very deep
conflict between relativity and quantum mechanics.

Einstein, Rosen and Podolsky imagined that a quantum mechanical process
generates two particles flying in opposite directions with equal
momenta. The momenta of the particles is not known, so the rules of
quantum mechanics dictate that it is governed by a wave function. The
two particles become separated and then an experiment is done to
determine the momentum of one particle. According to conservation of
momentum, the momentum of the other also becomes known at that precise
point in time, so its state has been changed. Yet the separation between
the particles implies that no influence can pass from one to the other.
Einstein felt that No reasonable definition of reality can permit
this.
The reason the EPR paradox is so severe is that the predictions of
quantum mechanics fly in flat contradiction to the laws of relativity,
which are so solidly established and so successfully built into the
deepest form of quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics. Nonetheless
recent experiments based on Bells inequality support these predictions.

Instantaneous action at a distance is prohibited by relativity because
if anything were to travel faster than the speed of light, then it would
also have to be able to travel backwards in time. If two physicists each
measure the momentum of one of the particle, then the one who measures
his particle first causes the other physicists results to change. But
relativity tells us that, according to a moving observer, it was the
second physicist who affected the results of the first.

Einstein believed that some other process, such as a hidden variable,
must dictate the experimental result. A hidden variable is an unknown
quantity which is defined but which cannot be known, and which affects
the results of the experiment without revealing its own value. Although
David Bohm has produced a hidden variables theory based on a form of
hidden variable, it is also non-relativistic, non-local, and can hardly
be taken seriously as an interpretation of quantum mechanics.

For practical reasons, the EPR paradox cannot be tested in exactly the
experiment suggested by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen, but resolving it
is of such importance that it has been developed, especially by John
Bell, and tested experimentally a number of times, most significantly by
Alain Aspect.


BELLS INEQUALITY
John Bell imagined that instead of measuring equal and opposite momenta,
a process emits two particles with equal and opposite spin. Initially
spin is not aligned, but it can be measured in each of the x, y and z
directions. If the spin of a particle is measured, it aligns with the
axis chosen for the measurement. This implies that the other particle
must be aligned on the same axis, with opposite spin. Thus, the fact of
a measurement of spin of one particle, will affect the results of a
measurement spin of the other.

Bell established a mathematical inequality which showed a bit more than
this. If each particle can be regarded as a system in its own right, Bell
showed that the laws of quantum mechanics would be violated in experiments
measuring the spin of each particle on different axes. Quantum mechanics
predicts that the choice of the axis for the first measurement of spin
will alter the results of measurement of spin of the second particle,
in a manner which is not consistent with the notion that the two particles
have separated and become independent.

The ASPECT EXPERIMENT
The experiment had been carried out a number of times and it has been
found that Bells inequality is violated, and the predictions of quantum
mechanics supported. It still left the possibility that the wave
functions for both particles collapsed at the time of the decision of
which axis to use, and that as this took place before the experiment,
nothing need to travel faster than the speed of light.
Alain Aspect and his colleagues in Paris set up the experiment in such a
way that the decision on which direction to measure spin was made by a
pseudorandom generator, after the particles were emitted. They still
found that Bells inequality was violated and that the decision on which
direction to measure spin of one particle changed the results of the
measurement of the other, even though a message from the point where the
decision was made to the second particle would have to travel faster
than the speed of light.
The paradox only occurs when two particles are connected by a causal
event; here they are emitted by a process which dictates that they have
opposite spin. The measurement of the spin of A affects the measurement
of the spin of B., even though a message from A to B would have to
travel faster than light. A curious feature of the correlation is that
no information travels from the results of one measurement to the other.
You have to bring both sets of results together and compare the
correlations between the results and the directions chosen to establish
that Bells inequality is violated. The question really is, if nothing
travels faster than light, how can the correlation come about?
CHALLENGING REALITY
The issues involved in the paradoxes centre on the collapse of the wave
function, and the statement that a property does not exist unless it is
measured. This has been taken to imply that there is no physical
reality, or that consciousness is responsible for the physical
properties of matter, and even to suggest that electrons could not have
existed before Thomson discovered them. Ultimately one might conclude
that the world was flat until the discovery of America. The issue then
would be whether it was Columbus who was responsible for the change, or
whether it was the American Indians, or even whether they lived in the
same universe.
ACCEPT IT PHILOSOPHICALLY?
In the current state of philosophy of science, it seems that most
philosophers maintain that it is not possible for science to deliver
truth. I think they would say that the paradoxes do not need resolution
because, as a matter of principle, the universe cannot be understood.
I take an opposite view. In my Quantum Mechanics Primer I will show that
these paradoxes are not evidence that the universe behaves in an
incomprehensible manner, but are the inevitable, if unexpected,
consequence of a true understanding of the nature of science and
measurement.
WAVE PARTICLE DUALITY
According to the usual interpretation of quantum mechanics, the
fundamental building blocks of matter are neither wave nor particle, but
some inexplicable combination of wave and particle. Whenever we measure
the position of a particle it appears as a hard point-like object with a
precise position in space. But when left to its own devices, the
evolution of the particle is described by the laws of wave mechanics.
Quantum mechanics seems to contradict the idea that, prior to
measurement, a particle is a point-like object with an unknown position,
and appears to say that the particle is actually a wave spread over
space.

Polarization correlation
A pair of quantum-entangled or conjugate particles are created.
Polarization is typically assayed (the particles must possess
orthogonal polarizations, but which is which?). It is the Bell
Inequality applied to the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox. If
you measure one particles polarization the other particles
polarization is fixed, yet neither particle has any polarization until
you look (superposition of states). So you measure a sparse stream of
entangled photons at widely separated points (your measurement
interval being less than the distance divided by lightspeed) then get
together and compare notes.

> 2. Has this phenomena ever been proven in an experiment?

Many, many times, including one lovely test in Europe where a new
fiberoptic cable was used before it was commissioned for a phone
company to separate entangled photons by some 30 km before their
wavefunction was collapsed by observation. Quantum mechanics won -
instantaneous correlation when the datasets were later compared.

Quantum eraser experiments do a similar trick: the effect (classical
or non-classical behavior at a double slit or equivalent) preceeds the
cause (look or dont look behind the slit). Even more disturbing, you
can look and get classical results, then lose the data and the pattern
reverts to the usual double slit one. How do the particles know?

> 3. If was possible to create stable particles such as these couldnt
> these particles be used in some kind of a device for faster than light
> communications?

Absolutey not. It can be shown that no information is transferred,
nor can it be.

> 4. How could #3 above be possible and not violate the laws of
> relativity?

No superluminal information can be transferred. There is no
contradiction.
==
Quantum Field Theory In Curved Space by Brink and Satchwell
derives Hawking radiation.

Wald General Relativity, University of Chicago Press, 1984

Hawking & Ellis, The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime,
==
According to: Space, Time, and Gravity
The Theory of the Big Bang and Black Holes.
Author: R.M. Wald Second Edition
ISBN 0-226-87028-6 (1992)

......Gravitational collapse to black holes.......
The region of space-time within the Schwarzschild radius Rs
will appear completely black. An outside observer could, if
he wishes, go back to this black appearing region and determine
for himself what is happening there. If he begins his journey
too late, he can never catch up with the collapsing body; it
will have disappeared into the infinite curvature space-time
singularity before he arrives. However, the gravitational field
of this collapsing body persist forever. In particular if our
observer is foolish enough to cross into the region R < Rs, he
will never be able to escape from this region. No matter how
powerful a rocket ship he may have, he will get pulled into
the central singularity within a finite time after crossing
the Schwarzschild radius.

Hubble has photographed
these toroidal shaped dust clouds and accretion disks and from
spectroscopic measurements of the motion of stars near the object at the
center, we know that the object has a mass in the range 100,000 to
10,000,000 solar masses. At the same time, variations in the light curve
and other evidence shows that this object can be no larger in diameter
than the size of our solar system. The only objects which can be so
compact are black holes.
==
Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Raymond Serway
==
There are no proofs outside of mathematics. Science deals
with compelling evidence. A proposition is accepted as true if
there is so much evidence in support of it that to withhold
assent would be bizarre. This acceptance can [must!] be withdrawn, of
course, if compelling contrary evidence is found.
==
The force between the Earth and the Moon is not exactly along the line
between their centers producing a torque on the Earth and an accelerating
force on the Moon. This causes a net transfer of rotational energy from the
Earth to the Moon, slowing down the Earths rotation by about 1.48
milliseconds/century and raising the Moon into a higher orbit by about 3.8
centimeters per year. The interaction of the Earth and the Moon slows the
Earths rotation.Current research indicates that about 900 million years ago
there were 481 18-hour days in a year.
The rate of energy transfer is sensitive to the geography of the earth and
tidal flow patterns over the ages.

Studies of the moon's orbital distance show that it increases by a
variable amount and is, right at this point in time experiencing a peak
due to the fact that North and South America form an effective barrier to
the tides. About 3.5 mya the two continents joined, blocking the low-
latitude passage between Atlantic and Pacific

The present rate of tidal dissipation is anomalously high because the
tidal force is close to a resonance in the response function of the
oceans; a more realistic calculation shows that dissipation must have
been much smaller in the past and that 4.5 billion years ago the moon was
well outside the Roche limit, at a distance of at least thirty-eight
earth radii (Hansen 1982; see also Finch 1982).Brush, 1983, p.78)
Professor Raymond A. Lyttleton, F.R.S.
Our moon was probably never closer than 151,000 miles. A modern astronomy
text gives an estimate of 250,000 kilometers (155,000 miles), which agrees
very closely with Brushs figure (Chaisson and McMillan, 1993, p.173).

Astronomy Today by Chaisson and McMillan (1999) give the following: The day
is lengthening by about 1.5 milliseconds every century. At that rate the day
was just over 22 hours long about half a billion years ago.

The Roche is the minimum distance that a moon can orbit a planet and
not be broken up by the tidal forces. For the Earth and the Moon,
this minimum distance, or Roche limit, is approximately 32,000 miles

DAYS WERE ONLY 18 HOURS LONG back in the Proterozoic era, some 900 million
years ago. Charles Sonett of the University of Arizona has studied records
of ancient tidal deposits preserved in rock strata. Like tree rings, the
periodicity of tidal sediments, or tidalites, provide an accounting of
ancient times. Sonetts data, collected in Utah, Indiana, Alabama, and
Australia, shows that long ago the day was shorter, the year longer, and
the moon much closer. Indeed, as the moon recedes from the Earth (at a rate
of 3.8 cm/year) it continues to slow Earths rotation, thus extending the day
further. (C.P. Sonett et al., Nature, 5 July.)
http://rumba.ics.uci.edu:8080/ for evolution material

Tidal rhythmites say the recession rate of the Moon from the Earth is 2.2
cm/year (estimating +/- 0.2 cm/year error), and has been for the last 650
million years. (search "tidal rhythmites"). This is a center to center
measurement. The lunar ranging data, obtained by bouncing a laser off of the
equipment left on the moon by Apollo, provides a recession rate of 3.82 cm/year
(+/- 0.07 cm/year error). This is a surface to surface measurement.

2 milliseconds per _century_ is the current secular trend in lengyh of the day.
For various geophysical reasons currently observable, this is a high value
relative to what it can be expected (and observed) to be in earth history.
For a nice survey, see
http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/~wu/TUDelft/RotationJn-dotNL.pdf
Of course it's also in the FAQs at http://www.talkorigins.org/
The 2 millisecond per century change, maintained indefinitely, means that "

6000 years ago, the day was 0.120 seconds shorter.
6 million ya 120 seconds shorter (2 whole minutes, wow)
60 Mya 20 minutes (must be why the dinosaurs died out,
days got too long).
600 Mya 3 hours 20 minutes

http://nvl.nist.gov/pub/nistpubs/jres/104/3/html/j43bee.htm
http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/dendro.html
http://lasvegas.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=
http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/dendro.html
http://tree.ltrr.arizona.edu/dendrochronology.html
http://www.coralreefalliance.org/aboutcoralreefs/howold.html

Ehlers, Todd A., Marjorie A. Chan, Allen W. Archer, and Erik P. Kvale, 1996.
Tidal cyclicities and estuarine deposition of the Proterozoic Big
Cottonwood Formation, north-central Utah: Tidalites '96, International
Conference on Tidal Sedimentology, Savannah, Georgia, May 12, 1996,
Abstracts Volume, p.27.
quote from abstract: "Harmonic analysis of rhythmite thicknesses provide
constraints on lunar recession rates over the past 900 Ma.
Notice that it does not say just at 900Ma, or before and including 900Ma,
it says "over the past 900 Ma".

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/moonrec.html
(Williams, 1997)" where the author of the page stated, in part:Williams
reananlyzed the same data set later (Williams, 1997), showing a mean
recession rate of 2.16 cm/year in the period between now and 650 million
years ago. That these kinds of data are reliable is demonstrated by
Archer (1996). Note again it says in the period between now and
650 million years ago. Note also that it does not state error 'bars'.
I estimated them from Williams earlier work, where his stated error
(at 650 Ma) was +/- 0.16 cm/year.

At the moment, on average, the Earths spin slows down because of tidal
friction with the moon, at a rate of about 1.5 milliseconds (0.0015 seconds)
per day per century. In 100 years, the days will be (on average) 0.0015
seconds longer, 100 years ago the days were 0.0015 seconds shorter. If we
assume that this rate of change is constant over a billion years, then the
days that long ago were a tad over 4 hours shorter, or about 20 hours long,
in theory. In practice, tidal rhythmite data indicates that the day was
about 22 hours long at 650 million years ago [Precambrian tidal and glacial
elastic deposits: Implications for Precambrian Earth-Moon dynamics and
paleoclimate, G.E. Williams, Sedimentary Geology 120(1-4): pp55-74, September
1998], and about 19 hours long at 900 million years ago [Neoproterozoic
Earth-Moon dynamics - rework of the 900 Ma Big Cottonwood Canyon
tidal laminae, C.P. Sonett & M.A. Chan, Geophysical Research Letters 25(4):
pp539-542, February 15, 1998]. So even though the assumption of constancy
for the 0.0015 second rate is not perfect, its not all that bad either.
These observations also show that there is no reason to be concerned over
the Earths rapid rotation in the distant past.
First, we know that the current rate of recession is 3.820.07 cm/year
[Lunar laser Ranging: A Continuing Legacy of the Apollo Program, G.O.
Dickey, Science 265: pp482-490, July 22, 1994]. At 2.54 cm/inch
(exactly).
The current average Earth-moon distance is 384,400 km (38,440,000,000 cm).
If we cover 3.82 cm for 2,000,000,000 years, we get 7,640,000,000 cm.
That would put the Earth-moon separation, 2 billion years ago, at
38,400,000,000 - 7,640,000,000 = 30,760,000,000 cm. But the radius
of the moon is about 1,738.2 km (173,820,000 cm), and the radius of
the Earth is about 6371.0 km (637,100,000 cm).
The current 3.82 cm, for at least a few billion years,
and paleontological evidence supports that conclusion [Tidal Rhythmites -
Key To the History of the Earths Rotation and the Lunar Orbit, G.E.
Williams, Journal of Physics of the Earth 38(6): pp475-491, 1990].

Hansen, Kirk S. Secular Effects of Oceanic Tidal Dissipation on the Moons
Orbit and the Earths Rotation
Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics 20(3): 457-480, August 1982
(journal title has since then changed to Reviews of Geophysics)

Kagan, B.A. & Maslova, N.B. A stochastic model of the Earth-moon tidal
evolution accounting for cyclic variations of resonant properties of the ocean:
An asymptotic solution Earth, Moon and Planets 66: 173-188, 1994

Ray R.D., Bills B.G., Chao B.F. Lunar and solar torques on the oceanic tides
Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth 104(B8): 17653-17659, August 10,
1999

Slichter, Louis B.Secular Effects of Tidal Friction upon the Earths Rotation
Journal of Geophysical Research 68(14), July 15, 1963 (JGR has since broken
into 5 separate journals published by the American Geophysical Union)

Over the course of its 28-day trip around the Earth,
its distance varies from 406,700 km to 356,400.

Angular Momentum (A.M.) analysis showed the Earth's day to be increasing
by .0018 seconds/century, in order to conserve Earth-moon system A.M.

The Earth's rotation is slowing down by 1.5ms/day/century. Thus, in one
century the Earth's rotation has slowed by 1.5ms/day. This is a considerably
slower rate than 1ms/day.
There is some confusion caused by the fact that leap seconds (adjusting "
atomic
clocks to the Earth's spin) occur much more often than once every 600 "
years.
The reason for this is that the second was defined around the Earth's "
rotation
in 1900, and it is now a century later and that 1900 definition of a second "
(and
a day) disagrees with what the Earth is doing now by 1.5ms/day. Thus, every "
600
days or so we have to adjust by a second. As has been pointed out, even if "
the
Earth stopped slowing its rotation right now, we would still need leap "
seconds.

The Earth has an axial tilt of 23.45.
The Earth's axial tilt varies between 21.5 and 24.5 with a 41,000 year
periodicity (currently decreasing: 24.049 in 3300 BC, 23.443 in 1973, 23.439 in
2000) while the direction of the tilt gradually undergoes precession, moving in
a slow circle over a period of about 25,800 years.
==
Radiometric dating--the process of determining the age of rocks from the decay
of their radioactive elements--has been in widespread use for over half a
century. There are over forty such techniques, each using a different
radioactive element or a different way of measuring them. It has become
increasingly clear that these radiometric dating techniques agree with each
other and as a whole, present a coherent picture in which the earth was formed
a very long time ago
==
Pineal eye
In the tuatara lizard. it actually has a lens and a retina, although lacks
the nerves needed to serve as an actual eye. It is hidden under a membrane
on the top of the head, which becomes scaled over as an adult.
==
Are you looking for metaphysical certainty? You wont get it from physics.
Are you looking for answer which will last a millinium?
You (probably) wont get it from physics. Are you looking for good
approximation to experimental data and accurate predictions? That you
will get from physics.
==
Advances in Genetic Programming_ ed. kinnear (pub. mit press)
The Origin of Order
==
http://www.geo.lsa.umich.edu/~crlb/COURSES/270/Lec13/Lec13.html
This one deals with the creation of the Caribbean islands as the result
of subduction:
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/west_indies.html
The same thing relating to the Solomon islands:
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/news/papers/solomon/fig1.html
A gravity anomaly map that shows the trenches and accumulating arcs as
low and high gravity zones around North America:
http://www.geo.wvu.edu/~geol351/Spring98/Remo/gravity.htm
==
DNA is a double stranded helix of information , specifically encoding
data by combinations of four different sub molicules (adenine,guanine,
cytosine, thymine). The two strands are always linked ( an adenine always
links to a thymine and a guanine always links to a cytosine).
==
Scientists, to make any sense at all in their explanations of natural
phenomena, must have at least a provisional commitment to two principles,
one metaphysical, one epistemic: first, that there is an external world of
phenomena and objects the basic existence of which is independent of human
cognition; and second that our senses are roughly accurate in letting us
experience features of this external world.
==
Beyond the Quantum by Michael Talbot
==
Virtual particles come from nothing as pairs of particles-antiparticles.
The probability of such occurence depends on the field energies in the
volume it happens. Virtual particles cant be directly observed, but
they modify the fields of true particles (shadowing) and influence
their behavior in interactions.
==
Hugh Ross comments
The 8Be, 12C, and 16O nuclear energy levels affect the manufacture and
abundances of elements essential to life. Atomic nuclei exist in various
discrete energy levels. A transition from one level to another occurs
through the emission or capture of a photon that possesses precisely the
energy difference between the two levels. The first coincidence here is that
5Be decays in just 10 -15 seconds. Because 8Be is so highly unstable, it
slows down the fusion process. If it were more stable, fusion of heavier
elements would proceed so readily that catastrophic stellar explosions would
result. Such explosions would prevent the formation of many heavy elements
essential for life. On the other hand, if 8Be were even more
The second coincidence is that 12C happens to have a nuclear energy level
very slightly above the sum of the energy levels for 8Be and 4He. Anything
other than this precise nuclear energy level for 12C would guarantee
insufficient carbon production for life. The third coincidence is that 16O
has exactly the right nuclear energy level either to prevent all the carbon
from turning into oxygen or to facilitate sufficient production of 16O for
life. The strong nuclear force is actually much more delicately balanced. An
increase as small as two percent means that protons would never form from
quarks (particles that form the building blocks of baryons and mesons). A
similar decrease means that certain heavy elements essential for life would
be unstable.

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36. Jaki, Stanley L. Cosmos and Creator. (Edinburgh, U. K.: Scottish
Academic Press, 1980), pp. 96-98.

41. Gardner, Martin. WAP, SAP, PAP, and FAP. in The New York Review of
Books, 23, May 8, No. 8. (1986), pp. 22-25.

43. Yockey, Hubert P. On the Information Content of Cytochrome c, in
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 67. (1977), pp.345-376.

44. Yockey, Hubert P. An Application of Information Theory to the Central
Dogma and Sequence Hypothesis, in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 46.
(1974), pp. 369-406.

45. Yockey, Hubert P. Self Organization Origin of Life Scenarios and
Information Theory, in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 91(1981), pp.
13-31.

46. Lake, James A. Evolving Ribosome Structure: Domains in Archaebacteria,
Eubacteria, Eocytes, and Eukaryotes, in
Annual Review of Biochemistry, 54. (1985), pp. 507-530.

47. Dufton, M. J. Genetic Code Redundancy and the Evolutionary Stability
of Protein Secondary Structure, in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 116.
(1985), pp. 343-348.

48. Yockey, Hubert P. Do Overlapping Genes Violate Molecular Biology and
the Theory of Evolution, in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 80. (1979),
pp. 21-26.

49. Abelson, John RNA Processing and the Intervening Sequence Problem, in
Annual Review of Biochemistry, 48. (1979), pp. 1035-1069.

50. Hinegardner, Ralph T. and Engleberg, Joseph. Rationale for a Universal
Genetic Code, in Science, 142. (1963), pp. 1083-1085.

51. Neurath, Hans. Protein Structure and Enzyme Action, in Reviews of
Modern Physics, 31. (1959), pp.185-190.

52. Hoyle, Fred and Wickramasinghe. Evolution From Space: A Theory of
Cosmic Creationism. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981), 14-97.

53. Thaxton, Charles B., Bradley, Walter L., and Olsen, Roger. The Mystery
of Lifes Origin: Reassessing Current Theories. (New York: Philosophical
Library, 1984).

54. Shapiro, Robert. Origins: A Skeptics Guide to the Creation of Life on
Earth. (New York: Summit Books, 1986), 117-131.

56. Yockey, Hubert P. A Calculation of the Probability of Spontaneous
Biogenesis by Information Theory, in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 67.
(1977), pp. 377-398.

57. Duley, W. W. Evidence Against Biological Grains in the Interstellar
Medium, in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 25.
(1984), pp. 109-113.

58. Kok, Randall A., Taylor, John A., and Bradley, Walter L. A Statistical
Examination of Self-Ordering of Amino Acids in Proteins, in Origins of
Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, 18. (1988), pp. 135-142.

7. Davies, Paul. Superforce: The Search for a Grand Unified Theory of
Nature (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984). p.243

10. Gott, J. Richard, III. Creation of Open Universes from de Sifler
Space, in Nature, 295 (1982), p. 306.

11. Pagels, Heinz R., Perfect Symmetry The Search for the Beginning of
Time. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), p.244.

12. Tryon, Edward P. Is the Universe a vacuum Fluctuation, in Nature, 246
(1973), pp. 396~397.

13. Atkatz, David and Pagels, Heinz. Origin of the Universe as a Quantum
Tunneling Event, in Physical Review D,25(1982), PP 2065-2073.

14. Vilenkin, Alexander. Creation of Universes from Nothing, in Physical
Letters B, 117 (1982), pp. 25-28.

15. Zeldovich, Yakob B. and Grishchuk, L. P. Structure and Future of the
New Universe, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 207
(1984), pp. 23P-28P

16. Vilenkin, Alexander. Birth of Inflationary Universes, in Physical
Review D, 27(1983). pp. 2848-2855.

17. Vilenkin, Alexander. Quantum Creation of Universes, in Physical Review
D, 30 (1984). pp.509-511.

18. Hartle, James B. and Hawking, Steven W. Wave Function of the
Universe, in Physical Review D, 28(1983), pp.2960-2975.

19. Hawking, Steven W. The Quantum State of the Universe, in Nuclear
Physics B, 239 (1984), pp.257-276.

21. Hawking, Stephen W. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black
Holes. (New York: Bantam Books, 1988),p. 139.
==
Pressure
1 Atmosphere=
760 mm Hg or 101.25 kPa(Kilopascals).
==
Basic assumptions of the scientific system of thought.
The universe exists and so do intelligent observers(us).
The universe is comprehensible.
The laws of nature are constant since the Big Bang.
The simplest explanation that covers the facts is the correct one
(Occams razor)
The universe is explainable by naturalistic processes.
They are assumptions are few, simple and
pretty reasonable,. The most important point is that it works!
How many new scientific discoveries have come out of the ICR?
What predictions can be made from an assumed supernatural process?
==
One commits the straw man fallacy when you ignore your opponents argument.
1. attack a weaker sub argument
2. attack a distorted version of your opponents argument
3. attack a complete fabrication that you claim is your opponents argument
The goal is to attack one of these pretend arguments (or straw men),
refute it and then claim victory.
References:
Ewbank, H. L. Discussion and Debate. 2nd ed., New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.,, 1951.
Fogelin, Robert J. Understanding Arguments. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc., 1978.
Johannesen, Richard L. Ethics and Persuasion. First ed., New York: Random
House, 1967.
Kahane, Howard. Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric. New York: Wadsworth,
1974.
Lazarus, Arnold. A Glossary of Literature and Composition. Vol.I. 1973.
Martin, Harold C. The Logic & Rhetoric of Exposition. 2nd ed., New York:
Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1958.
Messner, Nancy. Patterns in Thinking. 1st ed., Vol. I. Belmont, CA.:
Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1968.
Munson, Ronald. The Way of Words. 1st ed., Atlanta: Houghton Mifflin,
1976.
Capaldi, Nicholas. The Art of Deception. 2nd ed., Buffalo: Prometheus
Books, 1979.
==
The universes size was about 10^(-33) cm across at Planck time, t=10^(-43)
seconds after the Big Bang. 10^(-33) is called the Planck width; some say
Planck length or Planck distance, and some say its 10^(-32) cm across.
American astrophysicist Richard Gott has taken advantage of this infinitesimal
period about which we know nothing. He proposes that there is an infinite
loss of information about events before 10^(-43) seconds. With this total
loss of information, he says, anything becomes possible, including the
ability to make an infinite number of universes. Quantum tunneling is the
process by which quantum mechanical particles penetrate barriers that would
be insurmountable to classical objects. Since we lack thorough understanding
about anything that occurs in that instant before the universe was 10-43 sec.
Davies, Paul. Superforce: The Searcb for a Grand Unified Theory of Nature
(New York: Simon and Schuster,1984). p.243.

Jaki, Stanley L. Cosmos and Creator (Edinburgh, U. K.: Scottish
Academic Press, 1980), pp.49-54.
==
Plancks Constant = 6.6260744 *10^(-34) Joule*Seconds.
==
The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earths surface and contain 97 percent
of the Earths water. Less than 1 percent is fresh water, and 2-3 percent
is contained in glaciers and ice caps. Antarctica contains 5.3 million
cubic miles of ice. This calculates out to 2.43 X 10~16 tons. Furthermore,
melting of all of the worlds ice, of which Antarctic ice cap is 90 percent
of the total, would raise sea level by about 80 meters (260 feet)(Drewry
1983, sheet 6).

Drewry, D. J. (ed.), 1983, Antarctica: Glaciological and Geophysical Folio.
Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge.

Although Mount Everest, at 29,028 feet, is often called the tallest
mountain on Earth, Mauna Kea, an inactive volcano on the island of Hawaii,
is actually taller. Only 13,796 feet of Mauna Kea stands above sea level,
yet it is 33,465 feet tall if measured from the ocean floor to its summit.

If the oceans total salt content were dried, it would cover the continents
to a depth of 5 feet.

Here a rough breakdown of all available water on the planet.

97.2% is in the Oceans.
2.2% is in the form of Ice (i.e. Antartica, Greenland, Glaciars)
0.6% is in the form of Ground Water.
this comes to approx. 100%, but:
Less than 1/10 of 1% of available water is present in the following
forms. They are ranked from largest to smallest amounts:
Lakes
Atmosphere (in the form of water vapor, water droplets, and snow)
Rivers
Biomass (all living things that contain water, i.e. animals and plants)

Essentially all the water on the planet is already in the ocean. Youd need
a lot more than the available 2.8% to raise the water level 28,000 feet above
sea level to leave only the tops of mountains like Everest and K2. So where
did the water come from and where did it go?
Volume of the ocean = 3.22E+08 cubic miles
Great Ararat = 16,854 feet, and Little Ararat 12,840 feet.
---------
Oconnor, J.E., and R. B. Waitt (1995) Beyond the Channeled Scabland--A field
trip to Missoula flood features in the Columbia, Yakima, and Walla Walla
valleys of Washington and Oregon--Part 1: Oregon Geology, vol. 57, no. 3,
pp. 51-60. (May, 1995)

There are also additional parts to this field trip in the July issue, no. 4,
of Oregon Geology concerning the Channeled scablands.

Oregon Geology is produced by:
Oregon Dept. of Geology and Mineral Industries
Suite 965
800 NE. Oregon St. #28
Portland, Oregon 97232
(503) 731-4300

2. Allen, John A. and Marjorie Burns (1994) Cataclysms on the Columbia.
Timber Press, Inc., 1994, ISBN: 0-88192-215-3, 213 pp

Suggested technical refrences are:

Baker, V.R. (1973) Paleohydrology and sedimentology of Lake
Missoula flooding in eastern Washington: Geological Society of
America Special Paper no. 144, 79 p.

Baker, V.R., and eight others (1991) Chapter 8, Quaternary
geology of the Columbia Plateau. The Geology of North America,
vol. K-2, Quatemary nonglacial geology, contemlinous U.S.,
Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.

Baker, V. R., and R. C. Bunker (1985) Cataclysmic late Pleistocene
flooding from glacial Lake Missoula--a review. Quaternary Science
Reviews. vol. 4, pp. 1-41.

Baker, V. R., and D. Nummedal (1978) The Channeled Scabland -
A Guide to the Geomorphology of the Columbia Basin, Washington
prepared by the Comparative Planetary Geology Field Conference
held in the Columbia Basin June 5-8, 1978, Washington D.C.,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Kiver, E.P., and D. F. Stradling (1989) Chapter 4, the Spokane
Valley and Columbia Plateau: American Geophysical Union, 28th
International Geological Congress Field Trip Guidebook T310,
Glacial Lake Missoula and the Channeled Scabland.
--------
At the end of the last glaciation, the Ottawa and St. Lawrence River
Valleys were depressed below sea level, but eventually they rebounded
after the ice retreated. A similar pattern is seen around Hudsons Bay.

Bloom, A. L., 1977, An Atlas of Sea Level Curves. International Geological
Correlation Programme no. 61, Cornell University, Ithica, New York.

Daly, R. A., 1934, The Changing World of the Ice Age. Hafer, New York.

Newman, W. S., Fairbridge, R. W., and March. S., 1971, Marginal subsidence
of glaciated areas: United States, Baltic, and North Seas. In M. Ters
(ed.), Etude sur le Quaternaire dans le Monde, VIII Congress INQUA,Paris,
pp. 795-801.

Pirazzoui, P. A.and Pluet, J., 1991, World Atlas of Sea Level
Changes. Elservier Oceanography Series No. 58., Elseiver. New York.

Stright, M. J., 1995, Archaic Period sites on the continental shelf of
North America: the effect of relative sea level change on archaeological
site locations. In E. A. Bettis III, Archaeological Geology of the Archaic
Period in North America. Geological Society of America Special Paper 297.
pp. 131-148.
==

==
_Seven Clues to the Origin of Life_ by A.G. Cairns-Smith
==
In _Science and Creationism_ (ed. A. Montagu, Oxford University Press,
1984) the chapter by K.E.Boulding on Towards an evolutionary theology
==
The End of the Dinosaurs : Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions

Lockley, M. and A. P. Hunt (1995) Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints
of the Western United States. Columbis University Press, New York.

Decay of feathers can create fossils of them, see:
Viohl, G. (1990) Sohnhofen lithographic limestone. In D. E. G. Briggs and
P. R. Crowther (ed.), Palaeobiology: A Synthesis. Oxford Blackwell Scientific
Publications, London, pp. 285-289

Gastaldo, R. A. (1986) Land Plants: Notes for a Short Course. University of
Tennessee, Department of Geological Sciences Studies in Geology, No. 15,
Knoxville, Tennessee.

Briggs, D. E. K., and P. R. Crowther (1993) Paleobiology
A Synthesis. Oxford Blackwell Scientific Publciations,
New York.

Kaufman, Erie G. (1981) Ecological reappraisal of the German
Posidonienschiefer. in J. Gray, A. J. Boucot, W. B. N. Berry, eds.,
Communities of the Past. Huthchinson Ross Publishing Company. Strousburg, PA.
==
Science does have a set of assumptions. For example, science assumes
the existence of a world outside of the individual scientists sensorium that
includes objects of study and other minds with which one communicates
findings. Science assumes that processes are uniform over time, and thus
that predictions can be meaningfully made. Science also assumes that
humans are capable of manipulating (part of) the universe. Scientists also
accept that the universe is at least partially causal and that
subject to human manipulation.
==
Science demands that one question everything and accept nothing without
evidence. Religions demand the exact opposite.
==
Hoffers The True Believer is about the psychology of religious people.
==
Origins from Harvard Press. The Big Bang by Silk. cosmology sources
Carl Sagans book A Demon Haunted World
SCIENCE AND EARTH HISTORY by A. N. Strahler.
A HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM by Andrew
D. White(1896).
THE DAY THE UNIVERSE CHANGED by James Burke
Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig (Crossway)
Stephen Jay Gould, _Eight Little Piggies_ (1993)
See Richard Sorabji, _Time, Creation, and the Continuum_.
Published by Oxford University Press, around 1989.

_The Copernican Revolution_,Kuhn

Kuhn, Thomas S. The essential tension: selected studies in scientific
tradition and change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.

Williamss great book _Adaptation and Natural Selection_.

Collier J 1988 Supervenience and reduction in biological
hierarchies, Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary volume 14

Dawkins R 1977 _The selfish gene_ Oxford U P (1989 edition)

Dawkins R 1982 _The extended phenotype: The long reach of the gene_
Oxford U P, revised 1989

Dawkins R 1986 _The blind watchmaker_ Longman Scientific and
Technical

Eldredge N 1989 _Macroevolutionary dynamics: Species, niches, and
adaptive peaks_ McGraw-Hill

Evolution and the Myth of Creationism by Tim M. Berra

The Pandas Thumb, by Stephen J. Gould.
1995 _Reinventing Darwin_ Weidenfeld and Nicholson

Hull D L 1988 Science as a process: An evolutionary account of
the social and conceptual development of science U Chicago P

Sober E 1984 _The nature of selection_,MIT Press(1985 reprint with amendments)

Dalrymple. The Age of the Earth. 1990

Toulmin S 1970 Does the distinction between normal and revolutionary science
hold water? in Lakatos I and A Musgrave (eds) 1970 _Criticism and the growth
of knowledge_ Cambridge U P, reprinted 1972 with corrections

Williams G C 1966 Adaptation and natural selection: a critique
of some current evolutionary thought Princeton U P

George C. Williamss _Natural Selection_ (Oxford, 1992).

COSMIC RELIGION, WITH OTHER OPINIONS AND APHORISMS, Albert
Einstein,(Covici-Friede, New York; 1931)

Martin Heidegger, On the Essence of Truth, [Vom Wesen der Wahrheit]
translated by John Sallis, in Basic Writings, (old version, 1977)

Kripke Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.

_River_Out_of_Eden, Richard Dawkins

Dr. Hugh Ross book The Creator and the Cosmos and the secular books
Origins from Harvard Press and The Big Bang by Joseph Silk.

The Final Superstition(Christianity)

Voices for Evolution, edited by Betty McCollister, National Center for
Science Education, Berkeley, CA, 1989. ISBN 0-939873-51-6.

-- Richard D. Alexander, _The Biology of Moral Systems_, 1987, Aldine de
Gruyter, New York; ISBN: 0-20200173-9 (library binding),0-202-00174-7
(paperback).

Gladman, B.J.; Burns, J.A.; Duncan, M.; Lee, P.; and Levison, J.F., 1996
(March 8). The exchange of impact ejecta between terrestrial planets.
Science, v.271, p.1387-1392.

==
In a discussion with a young-earth creationist, I was given the following
evidence that the earth could indeed be young. I would appreciate it very
much if some of the more knowledgeable readers of this newsgroup could
comment on this.

(quote)
For other geological evidence, you need look no further than Mt. St. Helens.
On three separate days, 5/18/80, 6/12/80, and 3/19/82, almost 600 feet of
solid rock formed from the silt, ash, and water generated by the eruption.

This statement is extremely misleading. The deposits left by the eruption
of Mt. St. Helens do Not consist of solid rock. Rather, they consist of a
pile of loosely consolidated volcanic ash, blocks, and highly fragmented
avalanche deposits. Their nature of the sediments which the valleys at
Mt. St. Helens are cut into is documented by excerpts from S. Brantley,
and H. Glicken, 1986,
Volcanic Debris Avalanches in Earthquakes & Volcanoes<, vol. 18, no. 5,
p.195-197 at:

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/DebrisAval/msh_debris_aval.html

There they state that:
The debris-avalanche deposit at Mount St. Helens covers about 60 square km of
the North Fork Toutle River valley with about 2.5 cubic km of unconsolidated
rock debris.

First, it should be noted that only a very small area was buried by the
avalanche. Also, this debris consists of thoroughly shattered blocks that
slid down from Mt. St. Helens as part of the avalanche and a matrix facies
consisting of various rock types blended together in an unsorted mixture of
clay, silt, sand, to boulder size material. All of this material is very
loose and easily eroded. The solid rock< that is claimed to have been
deposited and later eroded in a brief period of time is o
debris that lacks the coherence to be considered rock.

Had geologists not seen the origins of these cliffs with their own eyes,
they would have assumed thousands of years of formation, and looked at other
similar evolutionary geologic formations to back their claims.

This is a scientifically false statement. Volcanologists and sedimentologists
are quite aware that a volcanic eruptions can produce immense quantities of
debris that can overwhelm individual stream systems. It is well documented
that many meters of valley-filling can result from a single volcanic eruptions
Such deposits have been recognized and documented within the basins of such
streams and rivers. However, these deposits are separated by unconformities
in which fossil soils are developed. These soils indicate that hundreds and
thousands of years passed between the rapid, but periodic deposition of such
deposits. These deposits are easily recognizable in the geological record
as documented by;

There was an eruption that resulted in the creation of a massive mudflow on
March 19, 1982. The eruption occurred at 9:27 PM PST on March 19, 1982.
This dome-building eruption created a blast that dislodged a large volume
of snow and volcanic rocks from the 500 m high the south wall of the crater.
This snow and debris avalanched down into the crater, around the lava down,
out the crater breach, and down the north flank of Mt. St. Helens where it
deposited 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 cubic meters of snow and rock in the
crater, the mountain slopes, and onto the pumice plain.
As the hot pumice and gas was vented from the volcanic dome, some
10,000,000 cubic meters of snow was melted in the crater behind the dome.
This created a flood of water that cascade about 400 m down steep gullies
on the steep north flank of the mountain. As the water cascaded down the
mountain, it eroded the avalanche deposits, the mountain side, and deeply
eroded the crater floor. The material eroded by the flood was mixed it into
it to create debris flows. There were two debris flows, not just one
mud/debris flow. From the pumice plain, part of the two debris flows moved
into Spirit Lake and most of them flowed into the North Fork of the Toutle
River Valley. About 27 km (43 miles) from the debris flow, technically
ceased to be a debris flow and became hypoconcentrated streamflow.
Considerable deepening of gullies occurred locally, but surficial
erosion by the lahars, on the east side of the plain at least, did not
exceed 2 m. A review of the information, data, and figures in the papers
of Pierson and Scott and Wiatt, Pierson, and others (given below) clearly
demonstrate that your claim that:
flooding. Engineers Canyon was formed in one day,
Some of the cliffs of that canyon approach 100 feet high.
This is pure folklore. Engineers Canyon is a deeply incised valley on the
north edge of the Toutle River valley just west of Spirit Lake.
As documented in the next paragraph, the volcanic eruption and mudflow of
March 19, 1982 had nothing to do with the formation of Engineer Canyon.
This valley was created by outflow from the pumping station that controlled
the level of Spirit Lake in the early 1980s. The outflow excavated this
canyon relatively quickly because of the incoherent, loose, unstable, and
highly fragmented nature of the volcanic debris that it cut. The origin of
this valley was confirmed by contacting US Army Corps of Engineers in
Portland, Oregon.

flooding. Engineers Canyon was formed in one day,
Some of the cliffs of that canyon approach 100 feet high.

On the pumice plain between Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake and
the headwaters of North Fork of the Toutle River Valley very
little erosion occurred. As far downstream as 27 km (43 miles)
from the crater lobate deposits of unsorted, unstratified muddy,
sandy gravel and mud coatings were deposited. Within the
pumice plain between Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake, the
erosion was, as Pierson and Scott (see below) stated;

Considerable deepening of gullies occurred locally, but
surficial erosion by the lahars, on the east side of the plain
at least, did not exceed 2 m...

It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that 2 m (6 feet) is far from
being 30 to 45 m (100 to 140 feet) even if the fact that the deposition of
sandy gravel deposits occurred over large parts of the pumice plain is
ignored.

From the pumice plain, part of the two debris flows moved into Spirit Lake
and most of them flowed into the North Fork of the Toutle River Valley.
About 27 km (43 miles) from the debris flow, technically ceased to be a
debris flow and became hypoconcentrated streamflow.

Concerning erosion, Pierson and Scott clearly stated about the headwaters of
the North Fork of the Toutle River Valley: surfaces, with sheets of slurry
being 0.2 to 0.4 m (0.6 to 1.2 feet) being deposited. Channel thalwegs,
incised from 5 to 11 m (Figure 7),< (5 to 11 m is 15 to 34 feet)

The depth and distribution of erosion is clearly documented by topographic
profiles that were measured on February 24, 1982 and on March 20, 1982
immediately after the debris flows came through. As a result, the changes
in elevation resulting from the debris flows is precisely known and
documented. The changes in channel morphology are shown by these topographic
profiles in Figure 7 of Pierson and Scott. The changes in elevation are
nowhere near the 30 to 45 m (100 to 140 feet) claimed by the different
creationists. The 5 to 11 m (15 to 34 feet) incisions observed, although
large, are well within the amount of incision observed in major floods along
other upland streams. Thus, there exists nothing unusual or spectacular about
the erosion associated with the debris flows. It is noteworthy that the
incision was confined to the channel of the North Fork of the Toutle River
Valley and that its terraces were unaffected. Figure 7 clearly shows that
the valley (canyon or whatever a person wants to call it) predated the two
1982 debris flows and that they failed to modify the valley in which the North
Fork of the Toutle River.

For documentation, a person should read,

1. T. C. Pierson and K. M. Scott, 1983, Downstream dilution of a lahar:
transition from debris flow to hyperconcentrated streamflow. Water
Resource Research. vol. 21, no. 10, pp. 1511-1524 and

2. R. B. Wiatt, T. C. Pierson, and others, 1983, Eruption-triggered avalanche,
flood, and lahar at Mount St. Helens - effects of winter snowpack.
Science. vol. 221, no. 4618, pp. 1394-1396.

It has always been known that rocks can form quickly. However, any
knowledgeable geologist also knows that sedimentary rocks can form slowly
and such rocks also constitute a considerable part of the rock record. Also,
beds of sediments that are deposited quickly, i.e. crevasse splays, debris
flows, and so forth often have an upper surface from which a fossil soil has
developed into such sediments. Thus, although they represent a period of
rapid deposition, sets of these beds are separated by each other by bedding
surfaces associated with fossil soils that represent tens to hundreds, even
thousands, of years of peaceful nondeposition between the rapid deposition of
individual sets of beds. The fact that some sediments can be deposited
rapidly needs to tempered by the typical presence of fossil soils between sets
of such beds. In such cases, fossil soils disprove the creationist myths
concerning the significance of rapid deposition.
==
http://earth.ics.uci.edu:8080/faqs/polystrate.html
http://www.glue.umd.edu/~legion
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1761
==
Origins Answer Book, Paul S. Taylor.
In The Beginning, Walter T. Brown.
Origins Creation or Evolution, Richard B. Bliss.
Creation and Evolution, Alan Hayward.
It couldnt just happen. Lawrence Richards
==
Radiohalos in a Radiochronological and Cosmological Perspective,
Science _184_ pp62-66 (1974).
The Sixth Extinction by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin
The End of Evolution by Peter Ward
The Diversity of Life by E. O. Wilson
==
We no longer have to resort to superstition when faced with the deep problems:
Is there a meaning to life? What are we for? What is man? After posing the
last of these questions, the eminent zoologist G.G.Simpson put it thus: The
point I want to make now is that all attempts to answer that question before
1859 are worthless and that we will be better off if we ignore them
completely.

-- Richard Dawkins, _The Selfish Gene_. The Simpson quotation is from The
Biological Nature of Man, _Science_ 152:472-8 (1966).
==
Polystrate Trees

The root systems and fossil soils, called paleosols are real. They are both
documented in Rettalack (1985, page 280 and Retallack (1981, p 97-98).

Retallack, Greg. (1981) Comment on Reinterpretation of Depositional
Environment of the Yellowstone Fossil Forests. Geology. vol. 9, no. 2,
pp. 52-53.

Retallack, Greg (1985) Laboratory Exercises in Palepedology. University of
Oregon, Eugene. 74 pp.

For a modern example of identical forests, see:

1. Cameron, Kenneth A., and Patrick T. Pringle. (1991)
Prehistoric buried forests of Mount Hood. Oregon Geology.
vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 34-43.,

and 2. Karowe, Amy L., and Timothy H. Jefferson. (1987)
Burial of Trees by Eruptions of Mount St. Helens,
Washington: Implications for the Interpretation of Fossil
Forests. Geological Magazine. vol. 124, no. 3, pp. 191-204.

They would have new trees growing followed by flooding and burial etc, up to
**18** times at Specimen Ridge for a height of approximately 2000 ft.

The Yellowstone deposits accumulated within a deep valley
(fault graben? = downthrust block) lying between ranges of volcanos. As a
result, there was large hole that was filled up by mudflows and fluvial
deposits washed down from the sides of these volcanos down into it. As a
result, there was more than enough space for which sediments to accumulate.
For details, see

Fritz, W. J., 1980, Stratigraphic Framework of the Lamar River Formation in
Yellowstone National Park. Northeast Geology. vol. 8, pp. 586-588.

From specific details and claims, I suspect that the source of your
information is Morris, John D. (1995) The Yellowstone Petrified Forests,
Impact no. 268, Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, CA. Some of
your stuff might be coming from Coffin, H. A. (1983) Origin by Design.
Review and Herald Publishing Association, 494 pp.

How do you tell a fossil root ball from a root system?
What is this distinction supposed to indicate?
A root ball consists of stumps of trees that have been ripped or otherwise
eroded from their site of original growth. The process of eroding the tree
stump breaks off all of the roots outside the immediate vicinity of the
stump leaving a rounded ball of roots and earth attached to the stump.
Examples of such roots balls are clearly shown by Fritz, W. J. (1980) Stumps
transported and deposited upright by Mount St. Helens mud flows. Geology.
vol. 8, no. 12, pp. 586-588.

In case of an in situ tree with an intact root system, the network of
roots that any normal tree has, which is called the root system, extends
far beyond the stump and is intimately associated with a fossil soil.
Pictures of a complete root system can be found in Retallack (1988, Figure 1).

Retallack, Greg (1988) Field recognition of paleosols. In J. Reinhardt and
W. R. Sigleo (editors), pp. 1-19, Paleosols and Weathering Through geologic
Time: Principle and Applications. Geological Society of America Special
Publication no. 216.

Specimen Ridge does not have a root system.
That is a false statement. Within the debris flows, there are many
transported stumps (root system), but there are also many stumps that
have intact root systems that are imbedded in well- defined paleosols. For
the evidence, see Retallack (1981, 1985)
above along:

1. Yuretich, R. F. (1984a) Yellowstone Fossil Forests: New
Evidence for Burial in Place. Geology. vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 159-162.

and 2. Yuretich, R. F. (1984b) Reply on Yellowstone Fossil
Forests: New Evidence for Burial in Place. Geology. vol. 12.
no. 10, pp. 639.

In fact there are no complete trees present, most are stumps about
10 to 12 feet tall. As one would expect of the remains of standing trees
that were buried about 10 to 12 feet by a local flood. The exposed parts
would decay and break off.

Mudflows also would snap off protruding trunks. Again for modern
documentation of how all of this happens during floods and mudflows see:

1. Karowe, Amy L., and Timothy H. Jefferson. (1987) above, and

2. Yamaguchi, D. K., and Hoblitt (1995) Tree-ring dating of pre-1980
volcanic flowage deposits at Mount St. Helens, Washington. Geological
Society of America Bulletin, vol. 107, no. 9, pp. 1077-1093.

Dendroecology in the fossil forest of the Specimen Ridge creek area,
Yellowstone National Park, Ph.D. Dissertation, Loma Linda University,
CA, 1991 See also his M.S. Thesis, Dendrochronology in Tellowstone Fossil
forest, 1985

The other reference is: Arct, M. J. (1979). Dendrochronology in the
Yellowstone Fossil Forests. unpublished M.S. thesis.
Loma Linda University. California. 65 pp.

Unfortunately, that is difficult to determine because the geologist that I
know tried to borrow or obtain copies of the thesis and dissertation. In
both cases, Loma Linda University refused the interlibrary loan request.

However, Ammons et al. (1987) have studied the tree rings of petrified
trees from the Yellowstone Forest. They obtained a copy of the M.S. thesis
and found that Arct failed to prove his claims. According to Ammon et al.
(1987), the trees with similar to identical tree rings occur only with a
several meter interval that can represent the deposits of one period of
mudflow and flood activity. In fact Ammon et al. (1987) concluded from
their studies that the tree ring data clearly showed that ...

REFERENCES - Creationists

Arct, M. J. (1979) Dendrochronology in the Yellowstone Fossil Forests. M.S.
thesis. Loma Linda University. California. 65 pp.

Arct, M. J. (1979) Dendroecology in the fossil forest of the Specimen Creek
area, Yellowstone National Park, unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Loma Linda
University, CA, 1991

Arct, M. J., and A. V. Chadwick. (1983) Dendrochronology in the Yellowstone
Fossil Forest. Geological Society of America
Abstract With Programs. vol. 15, no. 5, p. 408.

Austin, Steven A. (1986) Impact No. 157 - Mount St. Helens and Catastrophism.
Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, California, 4 pp.(Fundie)

Austin, S. A., (1992) Floating logs and log deposits of Spirit
Lake, Mount St. Helens Volcano National Monument,
Eashington. Geological Society of America Abstract With
Programs. vol. 23, no. 5. pp. A85.(Fundie)

Coffin, Harold G. (1969) Vertical Floatation of Horsetails
(Equisetum): Geological Implications. Geological Society
of America Bulletin. vol. 82, no. 7, pp. 2019-2022.

Coffin, Harold G. (1976) Orientation of Trees in the Yellowstone Petrified
Forests. Journal of Paleontology. vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 539-543.

Coffin, Harold G. (1979a) The Yellowstone Petrified Forests.
Spectrum. vol. 9. pp. 42-43.

Coffin, Harold G. (1979b) The Organic Levels of the
Yellowstone Petrified Forests. Origins. vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 71-82.

Coffin, Harold G. (1983a) Mount St. Helens and Spirit Lake.
Origins. vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 9-17.

Coffin, Harold G. (1983b) Erect Floating Stumps in Spirit
Lake, Washington. Geology. vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 298-299.

Coffin, Harold G. (1983b) Erect Floating Stumps in Spirit
Lake, Washington; Reply. Geology. vol. 11, no. 11, pp. 734.

Coffin, Harold G. (1987) Sonar and Scuba Survey of a
Submerged Allochthonous Forest in Spirit Lake.
Palaios. vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 178-180.

Coffin, Harold G. (1981) Origin by Design. Review and
Herald Publishing Association. 494 pp.

Coffin, Harold G. (nd) The Yellowstone Petrified Forests.
The Dalles, Oregon.

Debord, P. L. (1977) Gallatin Mountain Petrified Forests;
A Palynological Investigation of the In Situ Model. M.S.
thesis, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California. 98 pp.

Fisk, L. H. (1976) Palynology of the Amethyst Mountain
Fossil Forest, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Ph.D. dissertation, Andrews University, Berrien Springs,
Michigan.

Lugenbeal, M. P. (1968) Evidences Bearing on the Time
Involved in the Deposition of the Fossil Forests of the
Specimen Creek Area, Yellowstone National Park, Montana.
M.S. thesis, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
85 pp.

Morris, John D. (1995) The Yellowstone Petrified Forests,
Impact no. 268, Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, CA.

Ritland, J. H. (1968) Fossil Forests of the Specimen Creek
Area, Yellowstone National Park, Montana. M.S. thesis,
Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan. 62 pp.

Voss, Charles H. (1993) Did God Direct Evolution? Dr. Charles
H. Voss, 5823 Clematis Drive, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808.

Whitcomb, John C., and Henry M. Morris. (1961) The Genesis
Flood. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company,
Phillipsburg, New Jersey. 518 pp. (p. 418-421)

NOTE: Dr. Harold G. Coffin was professor at Andrews
University and Loma Linda and possibly on the committee
on most, if not all, of the above theses.

REFERENCES - Noncreationists

Ammons, Richard, William J. Fritz, R. B. Ammons, and
Ailsa Ammons. (1987) Cross Identification of Ring Signatures
in Eocene Trees (Sequoia Magnifica) from the Specimen Ridge
Locality of the Yellowstone Fossil Forests. Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. vol. 60, no. 1/2, pp. 97-108.

Cameron, Kenneth A., and Patrick T. Pringle. (1991) Prehistoric
buried forests of Mount Hood. Oregon Geology. vol. 53, no. 2,
pp. 34-43.

Chadwick, A. V., and T. Yamamoto. (1984) A Paleoecological
Analysis of the Petrified Trees in the Specimen Creek Area
of Yellowstone National Park, Montana, U.S.A. Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 39-48.

Dorf, Erling. (1964) The Petrified Forests of Yellowstone
National Park. Scientific American. vol. 210, no. 4, pp. 106-114.

Dorf, Erling. (1960) Tertiary Fossil Forests of Yellowstone
National Park, Wyoming. Billings Geological Society 11th
Annual Field Conference, September 7-10, 1960, West
Yellowstone-Earthquake Area. D. E. Campau and H. W.
Anisgard, eds. Billings Geological Society, Billings, Montana. pp. 253-260.

Fritz, William J. (1980a) Reinterpretation of Depositional
Environment of the Yellowstone Fossil Forests.
Geology. vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 309-313.

Fritz, William J. (1980b) Stumps Transported and Deposited
Upright by Mount St. Helens Mud Flows. Geology.
vol. 8, no. 12, pp. 586-588.

Fritz, William J. (1981a) Reply on Rein