2003.07.27
A relatively long read --
Jacob D. Bekenstein, Scientific American:
Information
in the Holographic Universe.
"The second law of thermodynamics summarizes the familiar observation that most
processes in nature are irreversible: a teacup falls from the table and shatters,
but no one has ever seen shards jump up of their own accord and assemble into a
teacup. The second law of thermodynamics forbids such inverse processes.... This
law is central to physical chemistry and engineering; it is arguably the physical
law with the greatest impact outside physics."
> The 2nd law of thermodynamics is essentially a statistical rule, not what
most of us would consider fundamental theory. The standard model and the theory
of relativity are ‘fundamentally’ deeper descriptions of nature
that describe matter, energy and their interaction through forces such as
electromagnetism and gravity. But --
> While relativistic theories do account for time, and in some respects even
model it, they don't explain a very fundamental aspect of time: it only goes
one way. The second law of thermodynamics is still the only rule we have in
physics that tries to put an arrow on time.
> Now that I'm forty, this entropy stuff is getting more and more important
to me.
Nature:
Direct evidence found for
dark energy.
"Ryan Scranton of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania and his colleagues
have detected a fingerprint of dark energy in the afterglow of the Big Bang,
radiation called the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The CMB is slightly hotter
where there are more galaxies. Dark energy is the only explanation, the researchers
argue."
Nature:
Stars with metal harbour
planets.
"‘If you look at metal-rich stars, 20% have planets -- that's stunning,’
says astronomer Debra Fischer at the University of California, Berkeley."
Nature:
Top of sky is receding.
We may be pushing the stratosphere away.
"The researchers computer-modelled five possible causes for the shift, three human
and two natural. They looked at changes in greenhouse-gas levels, sunlight
reflected from airborne solid particles, atmospheric ozone concentration, the
Sun's output of heat and light, and dust injected into the atmosphere by volcanoes."
2003.07.20
This one is old, but it's so great I don't mind repeating it --
Objective Creation Education:
2001 Creation Science
Fair.
"Jonathan Goode (grade 7) applied findings from many fields of science to support
his conclusion that God designed women for homemaking: physics shows that women
have a lower center of gravity than men, making them more suited to carrying
groceries and laundry baskets; ... social sciences show that the wages for women
workers are lower than for normal workers, meaning that they are unable to work
as well and thus earn equal pay; and exegetics shows that God created Eve as a
companion for Adam, not as a co-worker."
2003.07.14
Newsweek:
$1 Billion a Week.
"Why did the administration rush into this war so ill prepared for what would
come after? Supposedly there was a clear and present danger from Saddam Hussein's
weapons of mass destruction, but even if it was present, clearly it wasn't
imminent. No such weapons were used and none have been found. While administration
hawks were pushing hard for war, however, they airily dismissed questions about
the long-term cost of occupying post-Saddam Iraq. Some suggested there might not
be a long term."
> Strong words from Newsweek's writers. I would have been much more impressed
if they had made some of these points before the U.S. invasion.
2003.07.13
Agence France-Presse:
Marriage
'tames' geniuses, criminals.
"The data remarkably concur with the brutal observation made by Albert Einstein,
who wrote in 1942: ‘A person who has not made his great contribution to
science before the age of 30 will never do so.’"
Nature:
Scientists, like criminals,
peak at 30.
"‘I don't believe the pattern is inevitable,’ says married octogenarian
evolutionary theorist John Maynard Smith of the University of Sussex, UK. ‘My
productivity went up after 30.’ Maynard Smith, who published his most
influential work at 50, teaches and writes books to this day."
Scientific American:
Gigantic
Jets Connect Thunderclouds to the Ionosphere.
"During a thunderstorm over the South China Sea last summer Han-Tzong Su of the
National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and his colleagues recorded five separate
gigantic jets that attained altitudes of 90 kilometers. Depending on the shape
their upper halves took on, the lightning streaks were classified as tree jets or
carrot jets."
Science News:
Record Breaker: A planet from the
early universe.
"The planet lies near the center of the globular cluster M4, a dense grouping of
stars about 12.5 billion years old. Old stars such as these are metal poor because
they formed before subsequent generations of stars had produced heavy elements in
abundance."
Nature:
Dark matter may be
undetectable. Super-WIMPs might hide ninety percent of the universe.
"Currently, one of the leading suspects for the inexplicable gravitational pull
that stars and galaxies experience are WIMPs -- weakly interacting massive
particles." ...
> Also --
"The super-WIMPs proposal is ... an exploration of the consequences of theories
that try to unite quantum mechanics with gravity -- one of the central challenges
for modern physics."
2003.07.11
Reuters:
Bush team
turns about, encourages conservation.
"Mark Cooper, an economist at the Consumer Federation of America, criticized the new
effort.... ‘They barely even talk the talk, forget walking the walk,’
Cooper said."
Associated Press:
Houston population
hops over 2 million mark.
"It was the fourth U.S. city to hit the milestone, following New York, Los
Angeles and Chicago."
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