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CraigD

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Post and discuss interesting articles & videos about science and technology.

You don't need to be an expert - just interested in the wonders of modern science, technology, and the history of these fields.

Please keep it rational, and post articles from reputable sources.
Try not to editorialise headlines and keep the copy to just a paragraph with a link to the original source. When quoting excerpts from articles, I think the best method is to italicise the copy, and include a link to the source.

Have some fun with your comments and discussions... just keep the sources legitimate.

Other threads:
The Break Room has a number of other popular threads, so there is no need to post material here that is better suited to these other threads:

- Covid19-Coronavirus updates and news
- Conspiracy Thread Free For All
- The *religious* discussion thread


Please enjoy!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
The NYTimes retraction was published on 17th July 1969.

Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy on 16th July 1969, and landed on the moon on the 20th.

I wonder if Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were worried that their rocket would not work in space ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11

Proven by Soviet spaceflights from 50s to 60s.

Maybe cold war ego prevented a correction.

Looks like someone in editorial desk-with a sense of humor-just located the old editorial and decided to correct the error. :xf.laugh:
 
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Cats in Zero-G

In the early 1960's NASA and the U.S Air Force experimented with cats in a reduced-gravity aircraft. The cats flail around helplessly, unable to land upright. The lessons learned from the experiment helped NASA set future guidelines to help astronauts move around while in space.

I'm sure these cats weren't feline too good after these experiments.


The video above uses some footage from this Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories film:
BIOASTRONAUTICS RESEARCH


Coverage of research at the Aerospace Medical Division HQ 657Oth Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories including scenes of F-104 seat ejection; drop tests from C-130 and ejection from F-106; effects of weightlessness on cats and pigeons in a C-131; test subjects in water tank, on centrifuge, in heat chamber and on complex coordinator. Also shows scenes of vertical deceleration tower, incline impact test facility, vertical accelerator, equilibrium chair and vibration platform.
 
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I'm an old sci-fi fan who loved reading Verne, Wells, Asimov, Herbert, Clarke as a kid. I never believed that the concepts of time-travel and worm-holes were real science - they were fantasies posed by Jules Verne and Star-Trek.

It concerns me that the pseudoscience posited by sci-fi stories written 50-100 years ago is now driving theorists to formulate the mathematics - is it simply a case of sci-fi reaching critical-mass?
When I said that "it would be like a sci-fi movie" I didn't mean it can be impossible.
Let's say that "it can sound like a sci-fi movie" but scientifically it is totally possible.
This is not pseudiscience, this is pure science.
"Wormholes are consistent with the general theory of relativity by Einstein"
They have never seen, and maybe will never will be seen, but, they are totally possible.

Wormhole theory

https://www.space.com/20881-wormholes.html

(Look at the Wormhole graphic on this page, is very descriptive)

"In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory of general relativity to elaborate on the idea, proposing the existence of "bridges" through space-time."

"The wormhole theory postulates that a theoretical passage through space-time could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with exotic matter."

If you go to the image on the graphic, the curverd "net" that you see, is the "space-time" representation.
A black-hole is a piece of matter so dense and heavy into a so small volume, that it "deforms" the "net", it deforms the space-time.
A balckhole has so much gravity that if you could "enter" into a black hole, the time stops there.

A wormhole would be like two connected black-holes, where each one deforms the space-time and are "connected" forming the wormhole.
So it literally "folds" the space-time and could connect two separated points by thousands of light years in the universe. And so, two separated points in time.

What happens, talking about time travels, is that it could be done to the future, but not to the past.
 
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Also, just to point out that if you could "enter" a black hole, you would never leave it.
A black hole is something so dense, the gravity is so heavy, that nothing can escape, even the light cannot escape from a black hole.
A balckhole literally eats everything that pass around them or too close to them. They eat stars, planets, everything.
If someone or something would try to enter or even approach a blackhole, they would be gradually be converted into a "noodle".

What Is a Black Hole?

https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html

"A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying."

"Because no light can get out, people can't see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. The special tools can see how stars that are very close to black holes act differently than other stars."

Spaghettification

https://www.phenomena.org/space/spaghettification/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghettification

Spaghettification, also known as the “noodle effect,” is the stretching out of an object as it comes into contact with an extreme gravitational field, typically that of a black hole. Black holes have incredibly powerful tidal forces.
 
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Also, just to point out that if you could "enter" a black hole, you would never leave it.
A black hole is something so dense, the gravity is so heavy, that nothing can escape, even the light cannot escape from a black hole.
A balckhole literally eats everything that pass around them or too close to them. They eat stars, planets, everything.
If someone or something would try to enter or even approach a blackhole, they would be gradually be converted into a "noodle".

What Is a Black Hole?

https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html

"A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying."

"Because no light can get out, people can't see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. The special tools can see how stars that are very close to black holes act differently than other stars."

Spaghettification

https://www.phenomena.org/space/spaghettification/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghettification

Spaghettification, also known as the “noodle effect,” is the stretching out of an object as it comes into contact with an extreme gravitational field, typically that of a black hole. Black holes have incredibly powerful tidal forces.

I read a Brief History of Time years ago.
Have you heard about Hawking Radiation?
Hawking predicted that radiation would escape from, and eventually evaporate a black hole.
 
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I read a Brief History of Time years ago.
Have you heard about Hawking Radiation?
Hawking predicted that radiation would escape from, and eventually evaporate a black hole.
I read that book too! Although it was long time ago! Very very interesting one.

Thanks for the reference, it was interesting to read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation

"Hawking radiation is black-body radiation that is predicted to be released by black holes, due to quantum effects near the black hole event horizon."

"Hawking radiation reduces the mass and rotational energy of black holes and is therefore also known as black hole evaporation. Because of this, black holes that do not gain mass through other means are expected to shrink and ultimately vanish."
 
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I read that book too! Although it was long time ago! Very very interesting one.

Thanks for the reference, it was interesting to read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation

"Hawking radiation is black-body radiation that is predicted to be released by black holes, due to quantum effects near the black hole event horizon."

"Hawking radiation reduces the mass and rotational energy of black holes and is therefore also known as black hole evaporation. Because of this, black holes that do not gain mass through other means are expected to shrink and ultimately vanish."

I read it in the 90's must have re-read it a dozen times. It's one of my favourite non-fiction books :)

Anyway, in chapter 10 he mentions that while theoretically possible, wormholes would not allow any material to pass through before turning back into a regular black hole (source).

I realise that this book is now over 30 years old, but do you believe his argument still holds merit today?
His argument confirmed by belief about worm holes being a fantasy as I mentioned earlier.

Thanks :)
 
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His argument confirmed by belief about worm holes being a fantasy as I mentioned earlier.

As my understanding, we have to distinguish here about science and fantasy:
Science: the existence of a wormhole is clearly possible, by physics, by science, by the theory of general relativity.
Fantasy: entering the wormhole, and ending at the other end in one piece :)

As stated at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Brief_History_of_Time#Chapter_10:_Wormholes_and_Time_Travel

"such a wormhole, even if it possible for it to form in the first place, would not allow any material to pass through before turning back into a regular black hole."

"In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory of general relativity to elaborate on the idea, proposing the existence of "bridges" through space-time."

"The wormhole theory postulates that a theoretical passage through space-time could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with exotic matter."
 
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As my understanding, we have to distinguish here about science and fantasy:
Science: the existence of a wormhole is clearly possible, by physics, by science, by the theory of general relativity.
Fantasy: entering the wormhole, and ending at the other end in one piece :)

"In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory of general relativity to elaborate on the idea, proposing the existence of "bridges" through space-time."

"The wormhole theory postulates that a theoretical passage through space-time could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with exotic matter."

Yes - You did mention that earlier. I think I need to be more careful with my semantics ;)
 
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Yes - You did mention that earlier. I think I need to be more careful with my semantics ;)

The black hole itself sounds like a science fiction thing, a place with so much gravity that the space-time deforms itself to the point of stopping the time there.
A place that in fact, breaks Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Einstein's general relativity theory is questioned but still stands for now

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190725150408.htm

"Our observations are consistent with Einstein's theory of general relativity. However, his theory is definitely showing vulnerability. It cannot fully explain gravity inside a black hole, and at some point we will need to move beyond Einstein's theory to a more comprehensive theory of gravity that explains what a black hole is."

"The general theory of relativity has passed every test physicists have devised so far. It underlies our understanding of space, time, and gravity; Global Positioning System satellites even take it into account."

"Relativity treats gravity as a curvature in space-time. (Space-time itself merely adds time as a coordinate to the three normal space coordinates: length, width, and height.) An object bends the fabric of space-time, making a gravitational “well” at the location where a planet, star, black hole — or anything with mass — resides."
 
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Quantum Fields: The Real Building Blocks of the Universe - with David Tong


According to our best theories of physics, the fundamental building blocks of matter are not particles, but continuous fluid-like substances known as 'quantum fields'. David Tong explains what we know about these fields, and how they fit into our understanding of the Universe.

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If you are interested in QFT, QED, particle physics, or science in general, watch some videos and lectures by the late and great Richard Feynman. He was a master at explaining science in layman's terms.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Richard+Feynman
 
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Personally, as a young person I grappled with the contradictions posed by christian theology vs modern science, and it sparked in me the passion for learning fundamental truths - that I discovered in the proofs of science.


Hawkings book is what put me back on my theology/discovery path. As I read (and re-read) what he wrote the curiosity and further discovery it sparked in me led me to conclude that what we are experiencing is not random. Mathematics is in everything from the largest galaxies to the smallest particles. The preciseness of our existence led me to conclude there is a God (creator/highest being) behind the design...determining the purpose of that design is/was the next step,
 
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Hawkings book is what put me back on my theology/discovery path. As I read (and re-read) what he wrote the curiosity and further discovery it sparked in me led me to conclude that what we are experiencing is not random. Mathematics is in everything from the largest galaxies to the smallest particles. The preciseness of our existence led me to conclude there is a God (creator/highest being) behind the design...determining the purpose of that design is/was the next step,


I tutored a foreign doctorate student working on her dissertation in Particle/String theory as she needed to be able to explain to me what she was trying to say (in broken English). It was my job to help her to explain in simple terms, in some cases, even wrap my head around the science so that I could understand (the math and physics were beyond me). We spent hours discussing Hawking, it was fascinating... an education for both of us :xf.wink:

I found this article over morning coffee, problems with quantum computers - decoherence and quantum errors:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-problem-with-quantum-computers?utm_source=pocket-newtab
 
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I'm not good with mathematics, but it gives me comfort knowing that brighter people than myself have worked out the equations that govern physics - excepting what occurs beyond the event horizon of black holes, but hey, I can live with that omission ;)

Edit: Perhaps that is the forbidden fruit!
 
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NASA mission will touch down on asteroid Bennu today

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/20/world/nasa-asteroid-bennu-mission-updates-scn-trnd/index.html

"After orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Bennu for nearly two years, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is ready to reach out its robotic arm and collect a sample from the asteroid's surface on Tuesday. That sample will be returned to Earth in 2023."

"It's a historic first mission for NASA, returning an asteroid sample, and it's hard,"

"Located more than 200 million miles from Earth, Bennu is a boulder-studded asteroid shaped like a spinning top and as tall as the Empire State Building. It's a "rubble pile" asteroid"

"The mission -- which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer -- launched in September 2016."

"Since arriving at Bennu, the spacecraft and its cameras have been collecting and sending back data and images to help the team learn more about the asteroid's composition and map the best potential landing sites to collect samples."

"The main event of the mission is called the Touch-and-Go sample collection event, or TAG."

"Bennu has an orbit that brings it close to Earth, which is why it's considered to be a near-Earth asteroid. One of its future approaches could bring it perilously close to Earth sometime in the next century; it has a one in 2,700 chance of impacting our planet."

"The samples from Bennu could help scientists understand not only more about asteroids that could impact Earth but also about how planets formed and life began."

"Bennu is almost a Rosetta Stone out there, and it tells the history of our Earth and solar system during the last billions of years."

Update:

NASA mission has successfully touched down on asteroid Bennu

"After orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Bennu for nearly two years, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully touched down and reached out its robotic arm to collect a sample from the asteroid's surface on Tuesday. That sample will be returned to Earth in 2023."
 
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Any Cryptologists in the house? “The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World.”

Scientific study and public interest in medieval Voynich text claims to be the manuscript of the thirteenth-century English Franciscan scientist and alchemist Roger Bacon.

Four centuries of attempts to decode, decipher, or translate the text have all ended in bafflement. The finest cryptological minds of the twentieth century and sustained computer analysis alike have drawn a blank; the text refuses to yield meaning. Attempts to find parallels to the text in cabbalistical, hermetic, or alchemical code systems have all thrown up more disparities than resemblances. What if the book’s mysteries are in fact pure mystification that never had any real meaning?

Interesting read, an alchemist trick I say. :cautious:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/secret-knowledge-or-a-hoax?
 
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Doctors May Have Found Secretive New Organs in the Center of Your Head

A team of researchers in the Netherlands has discovered what may be a set of previously unidentified organs: a pair of large salivary glands, lurking in the nook where the nasal cavity meets the throat. If the findings are confirmed, this hidden wellspring of spit could mark the first identification of its kind in about three centuries.
Even without a direct therapeutic application, Dr. Yvonne Mowery, a radiation oncologist at Duke University, said she “was quite shocked that we are in 2020 and have a new structure identified in the human body.”
 
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Doctors May Have Found Secretive New Organs in the Center of Your Head

A team of researchers in the Netherlands has discovered what may be a set of previously unidentified organs: a pair of large salivary glands, lurking in the nook where the nasal cavity meets the throat. If the findings are confirmed, this hidden wellspring of spit could mark the first identification of its kind in about three centuries.
Even without a direct therapeutic application, Dr. Yvonne Mowery, a radiation oncologist at Duke University, said she “was quite shocked that we are in 2020 and have a new structure identified in the human body.”

This reminds me of an article I read last week.

More Humans Are Growing an Extra Artery in Our Arms, Showing We're Still Evolving

Researchers from Flinders University and the University of Adelaide in Australia have noticed an artery that temporarily runs down the centre of our forearms while we're still in the womb isn't vanishing as often as it used to.

https://www.sciencealert.com/more-o...rtery-in-our-arm-showing-we-re-still-evolving
 
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I tutored a foreign doctorate student working on her dissertation in Particle/String theory as she needed to be able to explain to me what she was trying to say (in broken English). It was my job to help her to explain in simple terms, in some cases, even wrap my head around the science so that I could understand (the math and physics were beyond me). We spent hours discussing Hawking, it was fascinating... an education for both of us :xf.wink:

I found this article over morning coffee, problems with quantum computers - decoherence and quantum errors:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-problem-with-quantum-computers?utm_source=pocket-newtab


You must be remarkably patient to understand Hawking via a language barrier. The concepts are hard enough to grasp in english ;)

I first came across Hawking in the late 80's/early 90's via a very strange route.

I was studying Assoc.Diploma in Fine Arts at a Sydney college, and came across some books on M.C.Escher. Further research into impossible objects led me to a book by the mathematician Roger Penrose, who it turned out was Hawking's mentor at college?. He shared the 1988 Wolf Prize in Physics with Stephen Hawking for the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems, and one half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity".
 
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NASA mission will touch down on asteroid Bennu today

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/20/world/nasa-asteroid-bennu-mission-updates-scn-trnd/index.html

"After orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Bennu for nearly two years, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is ready to reach out its robotic arm and collect a sample from the asteroid's surface on Tuesday. That sample will be returned to Earth in 2023."

"It's a historic first mission for NASA, returning an asteroid sample, and it's hard,"

"Located more than 200 million miles from Earth, Bennu is a boulder-studded asteroid shaped like a spinning top and as tall as the Empire State Building. It's a "rubble pile" asteroid"

"The mission -- which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer -- launched in September 2016."

"Since arriving at Bennu, the spacecraft and its cameras have been collecting and sending back data and images to help the team learn more about the asteroid's composition and map the best potential landing sites to collect samples."

"The main event of the mission is called the Touch-and-Go sample collection event, or TAG."

"Bennu has an orbit that brings it close to Earth, which is why it's considered to be a near-Earth asteroid. One of its future approaches could bring it perilously close to Earth sometime in the next century; it has a one in 2,700 chance of impacting our planet."

"The samples from Bennu could help scientists understand not only more about asteroids that could impact Earth but also about how planets formed and life began."

"Bennu is almost a Rosetta Stone out there, and it tells the history of our Earth and solar system during the last billions of years."

Update:

NASA mission has successfully touched down on asteroid Bennu

"After orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Bennu for nearly two years, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully touched down and reached out its robotic arm to collect a sample from the asteroid's surface on Tuesday. That sample will be returned to Earth in 2023."


Any idea when we will see some footage from the OSIRIS-REx mission?
 
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The Speed of Light is NOT About Light

The speed of light is often cited as the fastest anything can travel in our universe. While this might be true, the speed of light is the EFFECT and not the CAUSE of this phenomenon. So what's the cause? Matt helps explain what the speed of light REALLY is and why it’s the cosmic speed limit of our universe!



PBS Spacetime is hosted by Dr. Matthew O'Dowd, an Australian astrophysicist, and is one of my favourite Youtube channels - definitely worth a visit!
 
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Hot-button words trigger conservatives and liberals differently

Researchers from UC Berkeley, Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University scanned the brains of more than three dozen politically left- and right-leaning adults as they viewed short videos involving hot-button immigration policies, such as the building of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, and the granting of protections for undocumented immigrants under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Their findings, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, show that liberals and conservatives respond differently to the same videos, especially when the content being viewed contains vocabulary that frequently pops up in political campaign messaging.

Our study suggests that there is a neural basis to partisan biases, and some language especially drives polarization,” said study lead author Yuan Chang Leong, a postdoctoral scholar in cognitive neuroscience at UC Berkeley. “In particular, the greatest differences in neural activity across ideology occurred when people heard messages that highlight threat, morality and emotions.”


https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/10/19/2008530117
 
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Any idea when we will see some footage from the OSIRIS-REx mission?
I was watching the landing or "touchdown" yerterday live, and the chief project, a University teacher that started the asteroid project with the NASA 16 years ago said it would take 1 day for them to get the data.

As per their twitter:
"Preliminary data show that today's sample collection event went as planned
More details to come once all the data from the event are downlinked to Earth. Thanks, everybody, for following along as we journey."
 
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Roger Penrose - Why Did Our Universe Begin?
That the universe began seems astonishing. What brought it about? What forces were involved? How did the laws of nature generate the vast expanse of billions of galaxies of billions of stars and planets in the structures that we see today? What new physics was involved? What more must we learn?
 
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