Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Citizen Sky
Citizen Sky
I would like you to imagine the unimaginable vastness of space
with its billions of other stars like our sun. Did you know that
light travels so fast that it can go around the earth (all 24
time zones) seven times in just one second?
There is one star in particular I would like to talk to you about,
it is called epsilon Aurigae. It is so far away that it takes the
light from that star two thousand years to reach earth. This star
is what astronomers call a variable star, that means it varies in
brightness over time. Why does it do that? Now that, my friend, is
the mystery.
To unravel this mystery astronomers have called upon anyone with
an interest in science to help them making observations. And so
an army of amateur astronomers has come together to see and report
how this star changes in brightness. This project is called
Citizen Sky. The great thing about this project and others like it
is that it allows anyone to experience what it is like to
participate in cutting edge scientific research. This is important
because today's society relies more and more on science and
technology. If we all want to make smart decisions about how to
deal with both the blessings and the challenges of technology an
understanding of basic scientific principles is essential.
So you can imagine why I was inspired to produce a documentary
about this project. This documentary is called Mystery in the Sky.
You can find out more about it at http://www.mysteryinthesky.com
You can watch the trailer here http://kck.st/d4krd9
And, if this got you really interested you can even pre-order the
DVD at that same site http://kck.st/d4krd9
Thank you so much for reading this and have a wonderful day.
Kind regards,
Guustaaf Damave
http://www.zebramap.com/
Monday, September 6, 2010
TitusOneNine - Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow—Why God Did Not Create the Universe
TitusOneNine - Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow—Why God Did Not Create the Universe
In Western culture the Old Testament contains the idea of providential design, but the traditional Christian viewpoint was also greatly influenced by Aristotle, who believed "in an intelligent natural world that functions according to some deliberate design."
That is not the answer of modern science. As recent advances in cosmology suggest, the laws of gravity and quantum theory allow universes to appear spontaneously from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.
Our universe seems to be one of many, each with different laws. That multiverse idea is not a notion invented to account for the miracle of fine tuning. It is a consequence predicted by many theories in modern cosmology. If it is true it reduces the strong anthropic principle to the weak one, putting the fine tunings of physical law on the same footing as the environmental factors, for it means that our cosmic habitat—now the entire observable universe—is just one of many
In Western culture the Old Testament contains the idea of providential design, but the traditional Christian viewpoint was also greatly influenced by Aristotle, who believed "in an intelligent natural world that functions according to some deliberate design."
That is not the answer of modern science. As recent advances in cosmology suggest, the laws of gravity and quantum theory allow universes to appear spontaneously from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.
Our universe seems to be one of many, each with different laws. That multiverse idea is not a notion invented to account for the miracle of fine tuning. It is a consequence predicted by many theories in modern cosmology. If it is true it reduces the strong anthropic principle to the weak one, putting the fine tunings of physical law on the same footing as the environmental factors, for it means that our cosmic habitat—now the entire observable universe—is just one of many
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Night (Night Trilogy 1) by Elie Wiesel
Night (Night Trilogy 1) by Elie Wiesel: "Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Weisel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in the substantive new preface, Elie Wiesel reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man capacity for inhumanity to man. Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be."
Memorable Quotes
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim”
“Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow”
“"What do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet?" His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily: "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people."”
“From the depths of the mirror,a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.”
“Behind me, I heard the same man asking:'For God's sake, where is God?' And from within me, I heard a voice answer: 'Where he is? This is where- hanging here from this gallows...' That night, the soup tasted of corpses.”
Memorable Quotes
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim”
“Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow”
“"What do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet?" His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily: "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people."”
“From the depths of the mirror,a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.”
“Behind me, I heard the same man asking:'For God's sake, where is God?' And from within me, I heard a voice answer: 'Where he is? This is where- hanging here from this gallows...' That night, the soup tasted of corpses.”
Elusive recognition
Elusive recognition: "Reacting to the statement 'Glauber and others, including E.C.G. Sudarshan,... worked to explain the observations through quantum mechanics' in The New York Times report, Sudarshan said in his letter: 'Actually it is my work, establishing for the first time the (correct) `diagonal representation' of the density operator, that is the basis for all subsequent work in this field. With this diagonal representation not only had I shown the form equivalence between classical and quantum theories of light (all kinds), but it is the only representation from which specifically quantum effects... can be derived.
'The theory referred to as `Glauber's theory' in the report or as `Glauber - Sudarshan' representation in scientific papers is really the Sudarshan `diagonal representation', which was, subsequently, adopted by Glauber and renamed as P-Representation. I would like to assert that literally all the subsequent theoretic developments in the field of Quantum Optics make use of Sudarshan's `diagonal representation', Nobel Prize and citation notwithstanding.'"
'The theory referred to as `Glauber's theory' in the report or as `Glauber - Sudarshan' representation in scientific papers is really the Sudarshan `diagonal representation', which was, subsequently, adopted by Glauber and renamed as P-Representation. I would like to assert that literally all the subsequent theoretic developments in the field of Quantum Optics make use of Sudarshan's `diagonal representation', Nobel Prize and citation notwithstanding.'"
Elusive recognition
New York Times refuses to publish Sudarshan's letter
Reacting to the statement "Glauber and others, including E.C.G. Sudarshan,... worked to explain the observations through quantum mechanics" in The New York Times report, Sudarshan said in his letter: "Actually it is my work, establishing for the first time the (correct) `diagonal representation' of the density operator, that is the basis for all subsequent work in this field. With this diagonal representation not only had I shown the form equivalence between classical and quantum theories of light (all kinds), but it is the only representation from which specifically quantum effects... can be derived.
"The theory referred to as `Glauber's theory' in the report or as `Glauber - Sudarshan' representation in scientific papers is really the Sudarshan `diagonal representation', which was, subsequently, adopted by Glauber and renamed as P-Representation. I would like to assert that literally all the subsequent theoretic developments in the field of Quantum Optics make use of Sudarshan's `diagonal representation', Nobel Prize and citation notwithstanding."
Elusive recognition
Reacting to the statement "Glauber and others, including E.C.G. Sudarshan,... worked to explain the observations through quantum mechanics" in The New York Times report, Sudarshan said in his letter: "Actually it is my work, establishing for the first time the (correct) `diagonal representation' of the density operator, that is the basis for all subsequent work in this field. With this diagonal representation not only had I shown the form equivalence between classical and quantum theories of light (all kinds), but it is the only representation from which specifically quantum effects... can be derived.
"The theory referred to as `Glauber's theory' in the report or as `Glauber - Sudarshan' representation in scientific papers is really the Sudarshan `diagonal representation', which was, subsequently, adopted by Glauber and renamed as P-Representation. I would like to assert that literally all the subsequent theoretic developments in the field of Quantum Optics make use of Sudarshan's `diagonal representation', Nobel Prize and citation notwithstanding."
Elusive recognition
Sudarshan's letter
Sudarshan's letter: "EXCERPTS from E.C.G. Sudarshan's letter to the Nobel Committee on the 2005 Nobel Award in Physics to Roy J. Glauber for Quantum Theory of Optical Coherence:
'In the announcement of the 2005 Physics Nobel Prize, the Swedish Royal Academy has chosen R.J. Glauber to be awarded half of the prize. The prize winners are chosen by the Royal Academy, but no one has the right to take my discoveries and formulations and ascribe them to someone else!
'The correct formulation of the quantum mechanical treatment of optics was carried out by me in my paper in 1963. In that I showed that every state can be represented in the diagonal form... This diagonal representation is valid for all fields.
'... The irony of the situation is that in spite of all these facts being available in print, the diagonal representation instead of being referred to as the Sudarshan representation is dubbed as either the P-Representation (as if Glauber discovered and named it first) or at best as `Glauber-Sudarshan' Representation.
'While the distinction of introducing"
'In the announcement of the 2005 Physics Nobel Prize, the Swedish Royal Academy has chosen R.J. Glauber to be awarded half of the prize. The prize winners are chosen by the Royal Academy, but no one has the right to take my discoveries and formulations and ascribe them to someone else!
'The correct formulation of the quantum mechanical treatment of optics was carried out by me in my paper in 1963. In that I showed that every state can be represented in the diagonal form... This diagonal representation is valid for all fields.
'... The irony of the situation is that in spite of all these facts being available in print, the diagonal representation instead of being referred to as the Sudarshan representation is dubbed as either the P-Representation (as if Glauber discovered and named it first) or at best as `Glauber-Sudarshan' Representation.
'While the distinction of introducing"
George Sudarshan was robbed of his discoveries
George Sudarshan: "One of the greatest scientists India has ever produced; Ennakkal Chandy George Sudarshan reached the edge of winning Nobel Prize for Physics, and is the first Malayalee to reach so far. He was nominated for the coveted Nobel Prize six times.
Dr. Sudarshan is known more for his cracking revelations, which shattered the established wisdom, propounded by Albert Einstein that no particles travel faster than light.
The revelations by Dr. Sudarshan about the possible existence of Tachyons created a furore in the scientific world.
Most of the science journals were hesitant to publish his findings, initially. But later, several research papers were published, based on the findings of Dr. Sudarshan. The scientific world is still researching to find out these particles."
Dr. Sudarshan is known more for his cracking revelations, which shattered the established wisdom, propounded by Albert Einstein that no particles travel faster than light.
The revelations by Dr. Sudarshan about the possible existence of Tachyons created a furore in the scientific world.
Most of the science journals were hesitant to publish his findings, initially. But later, several research papers were published, based on the findings of Dr. Sudarshan. The scientific world is still researching to find out these particles."
E.C.G. Sudarshan shares Dirac Medal with Italian
The Hindu : Front Page : E.C.G. Sudarshan shares Dirac Medal with Italian: "Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan, 78, shares the Dirac 2010 with Italian physicist Nicola Cabibbo.
Professor Sudarshan's contributions to theoretical physics include the discovery of the V-A theory of weak interactions, which opened the way for full description of the unified electroweak theory.
The Dirac Medal of ICTP is awarded by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) on renowned physicist P.A.M Dirac's birthday — August 8. It was first awarded in 1985. The winners also receive a prize of $5,000"
Professor Sudarshan's contributions to theoretical physics include the discovery of the V-A theory of weak interactions, which opened the way for full description of the unified electroweak theory.
The Dirac Medal of ICTP is awarded by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) on renowned physicist P.A.M Dirac's birthday — August 8. It was first awarded in 1985. The winners also receive a prize of $5,000"
Monday, July 5, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Neutrino Search
A hard-to-observe fundamental particle that travels alone, the neutrino has little or no mass, so rarely interacts with other particles.
Neutrinos are ubiquitous throughout our universe. They were produced during the Big Bang, and many of those are still around. New ones are constantly being created too, through natural occurrences like solar fusion in the sun's core, or radioactive elements decaying in the Earth's mantle, as well as when the particle accelerator at Fermilab purposely smashes protons into carbon foils.
Our sun produces so many that hundreds of billions are zinging through our bodies every second, Coan said. It's hoped the new detector can resolve questions surrounding three different kinds of neutrinos — electron, tau and muon — and their "oscillation" from one type to another as they travel, he said.
Scientists at the new detectors will analyze data from Fermilab's neutrino beam to observe evidence of neutrinos when the speedy, lightweight particles occasionally smash into the carbon nuclei in the scintillating oil of the detector, causing a burst of light flashes, Coan said.
NOvA is looking for the most elusive oscillation of the muon type of neutrino to the electron type, Cooper said.
More information: http://www-nova.fnal.gov/
Neutrinos are ubiquitous throughout our universe. They were produced during the Big Bang, and many of those are still around. New ones are constantly being created too, through natural occurrences like solar fusion in the sun's core, or radioactive elements decaying in the Earth's mantle, as well as when the particle accelerator at Fermilab purposely smashes protons into carbon foils.
Our sun produces so many that hundreds of billions are zinging through our bodies every second, Coan said. It's hoped the new detector can resolve questions surrounding three different kinds of neutrinos — electron, tau and muon — and their "oscillation" from one type to another as they travel, he said.
Scientists at the new detectors will analyze data from Fermilab's neutrino beam to observe evidence of neutrinos when the speedy, lightweight particles occasionally smash into the carbon nuclei in the scintillating oil of the detector, causing a burst of light flashes, Coan said.
NOvA is looking for the most elusive oscillation of the muon type of neutrino to the electron type, Cooper said.
More information: http://www-nova.fnal.gov/
Neutrino search
A hard-to-observe fundamental particle that travels alone, the neutrino has little or no mass, so rarely interacts with other particles.
Neutrinos are ubiquitous throughout our universe. They were produced during the Big Bang, and many of those are still around. New ones are constantly being created too, through natural occurrences like solar fusion in the sun's core, or radioactive elements decaying in the Earth's mantle, as well as when the particle accelerator at Fermilab purposely smashes protons into carbon foils.
Our sun produces so many that hundreds of billions are zinging through our bodies every second, Coan said. It's hoped the new detector can resolve questions surrounding three different kinds of neutrinos — electron, tau and muon — and their "oscillation" from one type to another as they travel, he said.
Scientists at the new detectors will analyze data from Fermilab's neutrino beam to observe evidence of neutrinos when the speedy, lightweight particles occasionally smash into the carbon nuclei in the scintillating oil of the detector, causing a burst of light flashes, Coan said.
NOvA is looking for the most elusive oscillation of the muon type of neutrino to the electron type, Cooper said.
More information: http://www-nova.fnal.gov/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)