Science!

Perun said:
It's days like these when you feel inclined to think that scientific progress is just pearls before swines.
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Writing about it in the tabloid media is throwing pearls before swines, but eventually today's scientific progress may lead to inventions that everyone will benefit from - as it has done before. The discoveries in the period from 1890 up to 1920 alone form a large part of the basis of many of today's household technologies. If some don't appreciate it - their bad, Fortunately these are usually not the ones who sit on the money researchers need.
 
Its interesting that thats how the media in Germany reacted. In Sweden this was on the news and they brought in a Swedish physicist and had her explain in layman's terms for us what this discovery actually might mean. The interviewer did ask if she could explain for the naysayers why we weren't spending the money we'd been spending on this on cancer research instead and the physicist replied what you did Dr. Eddies Wingman; today's scientific progress builds the foundations for tomorrow's technologies. But the interview was very positive and the interviewer congratulated the physicist and there was much smiling and general gaiety. :)
 
I did wait for the Dr. Brian Cox explanation, which made it made sense to me in ways nobody else could. That man is brilliant at explaining science concepts for people like me. But overall? There is a lot of "who cares". It's the same with space exploration. "Why waste money on it?" people type from their computer. Well, hello, the microcomputer was invented because of the space program. Jesus.
 
I can't say it makes me overly excited... but I am certainly not going to call for such things to be put on hold. Such things can lead to more technological advancements that change everyones lives... but I know that me being interested in it won't affect that.

So I'm not "Who cares", I'm more "That's cool... but I wouldn't waste time explaining it!"
 
Natalie said:
Its interesting that thats how the media in Germany reacted.
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Well, it's really mostly the tabloid press. Many of the more serious media are more favourable, and there are enough comments from German bloggers to see that there is some genuine appreciation. It's just that the tabloids and their audiences are... so incredibly loud.
 
Well the tabloid press is absolutely stupid in every country. I don't even pay attention to the Swedish one at all because all they do is scream scandal and rumor. What I find most disturbing is that there is a demand for this kind of drivel. *sigh*
 
Sometimes, here in the States, the tabloids are for going into space: "Elvis living on dark side of moon, NASA asked to reduce space exploration because Elvis' estate is paying them to stay away from him".
 


For your consideration:
Alpha Centauri, Nearest Star, Has Earth-Sized Planet

How many science fiction stories have been written about Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to our own? How many serious scientists, in their quest to determine just how lonely we are in the universe, have wondered whether there are planets there, only four light-years away?
The first results are in — and yes, there is at least one planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, one of the three stars clustered together there. European astronomers, using a 3.6 meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, report it is remarkably small — about as massive as Earth. Worlds that small have been beyond earthlings’ capacity to detect them until just very recently.
Let’s get some details out of the way quickly. The newly found planet is probably hellish, only about 4 million miles from its host star (we’re 93 million miles from ours). It’s also fast, completing one orbit — one “year” — in only 3.2 of our days.
For now, the most remarkable thing about the planet, say the astronomers, is that they found it at all. It is much too distant to be seen directly. Instead, they watched the planet make its star wobble slightly, pulled around by the planet’s gravity as it circled from one side to the other.
Their measurements showed the star moved from side to side at a top speed of 1.8 km (about 1.1 miles) per hour — “about the speed of a baby crawling,” they said.
“It’s an extraordinary discovery and it has pushed our technique to the limit,” said Xavier Dumusque of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, who is lead author of the paper reporting the find in this week’s edition of the journal Nature.
So the astronomers were able to detect the little world over a distance of 25 trillion miles, but just barely. They kept watching for four years until they were sure.
It’s hardly a twin of Earth, but it is a neighbor of sorts, one more sign that the Milky Way galaxy is thick with planets.
 
The United States' National Aeronomics and Space Administration's (NASA) Messenger spacecraft has discovered frozen water near Mercury's north pole. While it may seem counterintuitive, as Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the second-hottest in the solar system with a maximum surface temperature of 700 Kelvins (or 427 degrees Celsius, or 800 degrees Fahrenheit), the planet has a tilt of less than 1 degree on its axis, meaning that the polar areas see little to no sunlight. As a result, Mercury's minimum temperature is around 90 Kelvins (-185 degrees Celsius, -300 degrees Fahrenheit). Therefore, certain polar areas that see very little sunlight are able to contain frozen water. In addition to frozen water, scientists believe that there may be organic compounds in these polar areas as well. This is certainly an exciting development.

Link: MESSENGER Finds New Evidence for Water Ice at Mercury's Poles
 
Fascinating! Don't have the time to comment on this right now either, but still, quite a find.
 
Yaiks
alienskull-jpg_112950.jpg
 
Actually, those types of skulls are not as uncommon as many people would like. The article mentions cranial deformation, a very common practice among many peoples in history. It doesn't have anything to do with aliens: The Huns were famous for it. I didn't know the were doing that thing in Mesoamerica, however.


Onto the next topic, it looks like there are a hundred billion earths in our galaxy alone, and yet our type of earth is atypical:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/billions-and-billions-of-planets
 
Perun said:
Actually, those types of skulls are not as uncommon as many people would like. The article mentions cranial deformation, a very common practice among many peoples in history. It doesn't have anything to do with aliens: The Huns were famous for it. I didn't know the were doing that thing in Mesoamerica, however.


Onto the next topic, it looks like there are a hundred billion earths in our galaxy alone, and yet our type of earth is atypical:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/billions-and-billions-of-planets
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Quite common in the Yucatan peninsula...
 
Is this the right time to mention that my knowledge of Pre-Columbian America is rudimentary, at best? :p
 
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