Clipmarks | invictus's 'science' clips

Astronauts say there must be life in space

Mon, 12 May 2008 14:44:03 GMT

clipped by: invictus

TOKYO (AFP) - The human race will find life elsewhere in the universe as it pushes ahead with space exploration, astronauts back from the latest US space mission said Monday.

"If we push back boundaries far enough, I'm sure eventually we'll find something out there," said Mike Foreman, a mission specialist on the Endeavour, which returned to Earth in March.

"Maybe not as evolved as we are, but it's hard to believe that there is not life somewhere else in this great universe," he told a news conference in Tokyo.

Tags: space, universe, life, science

Hubble telescope captures crashing galaxies

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:20:16 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Images of colliding galaxies show them spinning, sliding and slipping into one another, wreaking stellar destruction that will give birth to new and larger galaxies.

The Maryland-based Space Telescope Science Institute released 59 new images from the Hubble Space Telescope on Thursday to celebrate the 18th anniversary of its launch.

"This new Hubble atlas dramatically illustrates how galaxy collisions produce a remarkable variety of intricate structures in never-before-seen detail," the Institute said in a statement.

"Astronomers observe only one out of a million galaxies in the nearby universe in the act of colliding. However, galaxy mergers were much more common long ago when they were closer together, because the expanding universe was smaller."

The color images, available online at http://hubblesite.org/news/2008/16, are a look back in time.

Tags: hubble, space, galaxies, images, science

Arthur C Clarke never lost his sense of wonder

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:27:06 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Saluting Sir Arthur... We lost one of the most inspiring figures of our time, clippers.

Clip Source: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

His far-sightedness led him to write dozens of science fiction novels, of which perhaps the most famous is 2001: A Space Odyssey — made into a spectacular film by the late director Stanley Kubrick.

Clarke and Kubrick created a vision of outer space that was more than just technology but had a mythic quality that probed the philosophy of the universe.

The original story was a short novella dealing with the idea of Man’s evolution being inspired by the intervention of a distant god-like extra-terrestrial civilisation.

To the end of his life he never lost his sense of wonder, his sense of humour or his strong Somerset accent. While sorely disappointed with the failure of Man’s space flight to achieve the lofty goals that he had foreseen, he always retained an optimism about the Universe and Man’s place in it.

Tags: arthur c clarke, science fiction, science, universe, philosophy, literature

Science and Unobservable Things

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:42:52 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Quite interesting article.

Clip Source: cosmicvariance.com

If you are firmly convinced that talking about the multiverse and other unobservable things is deeply unscientific and a leading indicator of the Decline of the West, nothing I say will change your mind. In particular, you may judge that the question which inflation tries to answer — “Why was the early universe like that?” — is a priori unscientific, and we should just accept the universe as it is. That’s an intellectually consistent position that you are welcome to take. The good news is that the overwhelming majority of interesting science being done today remains closely connected to tangible phenomena just as it (usually!) has been through the history of modern science. But if you instead ask in good faith why sensible people would be led to hypothesize all of this unobservable superstructure, there are perfectly good answers to be had.

Tags: universe, scientific approach, speculation, multiverse, unobservable, science

Skeleton Shows Ancient Brain Surgery

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:12:55 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Archaeologists have unearthed the skull of a young woman in northern Greece who is believed to have undergone head surgery in the third century, Greek news media reported Wednesday.

A Greek team discovered the skeleton at an ancient cemetery in Veria, with the skull including an injury that led them to conclude the surgery had been performed.

"We think that there was a complex surgical intervention that only an experienced doctor could have performed," said Ioannis Graikos, the head of the archaeological dig.

"Medical treatment on the human body in the Roman Veria is part of a long tradition that began with Hippocrates up to Roman doctor Celsus and Galen," he said, cited in the Ta Nea newspaper.

Hippocrates is believed to have lived in the fifth century BC, Celsus between 25 BC to 50 AD, and Galen from 131 to 201.

Tags: archaeology, greece, brain surgery, ancient science, medicine, science

Genes hold the key to how happy we are

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:15:12 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Mmm... I wish I had "better" genes, then.

Clip Source: www.brightsurf.com

Happiness in life is as much down to having the right genetic mix as it is to personal circumstances according to a recent study.

Psychologists at the University of Edinburgh working with researchers at Queensland Institute for Medical Research in Australia found that happiness is partly determined by personality traits and that both personality and happiness are largely hereditary.

Using a framework which psychologists use to rate personalities, called the Five-Factor Model, the researchers found that people who do not excessively worry, and who are sociable and conscientious tend to be happier. They suggested that this personality mix can act as a buffer when bad things happen, according to the study published in the March issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Tags: genetics, genes, happiness, science

Obama on NASA and space program

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:33:04 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: cosmicvariance.com

“I’ve got a strong belief in NASA and the process of space exploration. I do think that our program has been stuck for a while - that the space shuttle mission did not inspire the imagination of the public - that much of the experimentation that was done could have been conducted not necessarily with manned flights. I think that broadening our horizons - and looking at a combination of both unmanned satellites of the sort that we saw with the Jupiter launch - but also looking at where we can start planning for potential manned flights. I think that is something that I’m excited about and could be part of a broader strategy for science and technology investment … The only thing I want to say is that I want to do a thorough review because some of these programs may not be moving in the right direction and I want to make sure that NASA spending is a little more coherent than it has been over the last several years.”

Tags: barack obama, nasa, space program, science

'Hundreds of worlds' in Milky Way

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:52:48 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Scientists say there may be many more worlds in our solar system

Rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found.

New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems.

There may also be hundreds of undiscovered worlds in outer parts of our Solar System, astronomers believe.

Future studies of such worlds will radically alter our understanding of how planets are formed, they say.

New findings about planets were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.

Tags: astronomy, space, milky way, galaxies, life, science

Case builds for water on Saturn moon

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:57:17 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

PARIS (AFP) - Astrophysicists in Germany say they can add evidence to bolster theories that water, one of the precious ingredients for life, exists on the Saturnian moon Enceladus.

Enceladus has a brilliant white shell of ice that is untouched except for some strange-looking grooves and impacts from space rocks.

Heat and water are two of the essentials for life as we know it, although anything that exists in Enceladus's presumed sub-surface ocean is likely to be microbial at best, scientists add.

The new study appears on Thursday in Nature, the weekly British science journal.

Tags: saturn, enceladus, space, science, water, life, solar system

Asteroid flyby today - no impact risk

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:27:52 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

Asteroid 2007 TU24 is flying past Earth today. There's no danger of a collision, but the 250m-wide space rock is close enough (1.4 lunar distances) to photograph through backyard telescopes as it speeds through the constellation Cassiopeia glowing like a 10th magnitude star. NASA radars are monitoring the flyby and may produce new images of the rock by week's end. [ephemeris] [3D orbit]

Tags: astronomy, science, asteroids, space, solar system

The domino effect of extinction

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:08:09 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

SYDNEY: The extinction of large animals such as giraffes and elephants could have knock-on effects that damage entire ecosystems, says a new study.

The research - which looked at the impacts of removing giraffe grazers on Africa's acacia trees and ants that live alongside them - adds to the evidence that the extinction of one species can have a domino effect on many others.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours

"With the human induced decline of big herbivores in Africa, it shows that the generally positive relationship between ants and plants essentially becomes antagonistic when big herbivores are removed," said zoologist Todd Palmer of the University of Florida in Gainesville, USA.

Palmer is the co-author of the study which is published today in the U.S. journal Science.

Tags: animals, life, extinction, biology, genetics, environment, science

Close Encounter with Mars

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:56:56 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: spaceweather.com

Ready your telescopes! On Tuesday evening, Dec. 18th, Mars makes its closest approach to Earth until the year 2016. At a distance of only 55 million miles, Mars outshines every star in the night sky (it is slightly brighter than Sirius) and draws attention to itself with its distinctive red color. Plus, it looks great through a backyard telescope:

Tags: astronomy, planets, backyard astronomy, mars, science

Ancient Flood Triggered Climate Cooling

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:42:11 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Dec. 17, 2007) — As the giant North American ice sheets melted an enormous pool of freshwater, many times larger than all of the Great Lakes, formed behind them. About 8400 years ago this pool of freshwater burst free and flooded the North Atlantic. About the same time, a sharp century long cold spell is observed around the North Atlantic and other areas. Researchers have often speculated that the cooling was the result of changes in ocean circulation triggered by this freshwater flood. The sudden addition of so much freshwater would have curtailed (suppressed) the sinking of deep water in the North Atlantic and as a consequence less warm water would be pulled north in the Gulf stream.

In a new study in Science (published online in Science Express 6 December) Kleiven and co workers confirm that the deep ocean was disturbed in just the way previous workers had speculated.

Tags: oceans, flood, climate change, prehistory, science

Noah's Ark flood spurred European farming

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:34:28 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

"When the Black Sea flooded at end of last ice age some people have suggested it was the origins of the Noah's Ark myth [...] If you lived in that basin it would have seemed like the whole world had flooded."

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

LONDON (Reuters) - An ancient flood some say could be the origin of the story of Noah's Ark may have helped the spread of agriculture in Europe 8,300 years ago by scattering the continent's earliest farmers, researchers said on Sunday.

Using radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence, a British team showed the collapse of the North American ice sheet, which raised global sea levels by as much as 1.4 meters, displaced tens of thousands of people in southeastern Europe who carried farming skills to their new homes.

The researchers said in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews their study provides direct evidence linking the flood that breached a ridge keeping the Mediterranean apart from the Black Sea to the rise of farming in Europe.

The researchers created reconstructions of the Mediterranean and Black Sea shoreline before and after the rise in sea levels. They estimated the flood covered some 73,000 square kilometers over a 34-year period, causing mass displacement of people.

Tags: noah, flood, deluge, agriculture, prehistory, europe, black sea, archaeology, science

Science versus Irrational Scientism

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:47:10 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Great article, difficult to clip.

Clip Source: www.tikkun.org

distinguish between “science” and “scientism. ”Science is value neutral.

Scientism ascribes value to some kinds of knowledge and activity, and withholds legitimacy from other kinds: it is the functional equivalent of a religion, telling us what is and is not sacred. Science can help us. Scientism has failed us.

“Scientism is the worldview held by a majority of people in the western world that claims that all that ‘is’ and all that‘can be known’ is verifiable or falsifiable through the scientific method, and that which cannot be so measured is simply opinion, belief, or fantasy. It cannot be known and sensibly talked about and hence should be relegated to the private sphere.” It is the contention of many spiritual progressives that this scientism has taken over and dominates the world.

If science saves us from religion gone bad, who or what will save us from science gone bad?

affirm science, reject scientism.

Talking in Different Universes of Thought

Tags: science, scientism, discourse universes, spirituality