General Science Thread

[DZ]

So, here's something that's amusing to me.

God is going through all the mathematical equations. Considering photons, waves, electrons, etc. Decides it's time to put it in practice. "Let there be light". Creates heaven and earth and all that goes with it. Reaches the sixth day and says to himself, "All this stuff is really cool but if I don't put a creature on earth with the capability of seeing it and reasoning what it means, reality will be limited to Me. I'm the only one that knows the answers to trees falling in the woods". So, he creates humanity and the quest for meaning follows.

Kinda shows how my pea brain works. Haha


I believe in the Catholic church. I also believe the Church has stifled scientific inquiry for a long time. The Church is just now coming around to opening hearts and minds to the incredible scientific complexity of our world. Just as the two scientists described the political suppression of scientific views, the Church wittingly or unwittingly did the same. Not so much anymore.


I recently read a book entitled "Would You Baptize an Extraterrestial?" It's written by a couple of Jesuit scientists that are affiliated with the Vatican Observatory. It's fairly light reading but poses some interesting questions.

Thanks for the nice words about the thread, it is my favorite but lots of people contribute to it.

As for having a hard time wrapping the mind around quantum mechanics, famous physicist Richard Fynman once said "If you think you understand Quantum Mechanics, you don't understand it." (Or something to that effect.)

It is interesting, if one reads the Genesis description, it follows awfully close to how things evolved from the Big Bang.

[DZ]

I haven't had time to watch it yet, but this is supposed to be a good 17 minute video on the making of the image: "In the Shadow of a Black Hole"

By the way, one of the things that I missed in all the reporting, the reason they chose THIS black hole in that other galaxy, is that this one makes the massive one in the center of our solar system look puny.

The black hole in the center of our galaxy is 4 million solar masses, the one in the picture is 6.5 BILLION solar masses. I told my daughter: "It is like 6.5 billion suns, stuffed into the size smaller than the dot on this "I" and she got this dazed look in her eyes.

[DZ]

So, here's something that's amusing to me.

God is going through all the mathematical equations. Considering photons, waves, electrons, etc. Decides it's time to put it in practice. "Let there be light". Creates heaven and earth and all that goes with it. Reaches the sixth day and says to himself, "All this stuff is really cool but if I don't put a creature on earth with the capability of seeing it and reasoning what it means, reality will be limited to Me. I'm the only one that knows the answers to trees falling in the woods". So, he creates humanity and the quest for meaning follows.

Kinda shows how my pea brain works. Haha


I believe in the Catholic church. I also believe the Church has stifled scientific inquiry for a long time. The Church is just now coming around to opening hearts and minds to the incredible scientific complexity of our world. Just as the two scientists described the political suppression of scientific views, the Church wittingly or unwittingly did the same. Not so much anymore.


I recently read a book entitled "Would You Baptize an Extraterrestial?" It's written by a couple of Jesuit scientists that are affiliated with the Vatican Observatory. It's fairly light reading but poses some interesting questions.

I found the quote, by one of the greatest physicists of his era, Feynman:

"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Richard_Feynman

[Rangerzag]

Giant Stratolaunch aircraft lifts off from California

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/giant-stratolaunch-aircraft-lifts-off-from-california/

[DZ]

Giant Stratolaunch aircraft lifts off from California

https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...om-california/

Cool article.

I had thought it had flown already.

6 747 engines, wow.

[Jazzgirl_127]

Was your area okay with all the tornados, Dixie?

[DZ]

Yes, but just 30 miles north of us got nailed badly.

I hate tornadoes.

I actually slept right through the big stuff.

[Jazzgirl_127]

Yes, but just 30 miles north of us got nailed badly.

I hate tornadoes.

I actually slept right through the big stuff.

Glad to hear your town was okay, very scary how close it was thought!

[DZ]

Glad to hear your town was okay, very scary how close it was thought!

Yes, I drove to the store Sunday morning - to get provisions for the Masters, and there were branches all over the roads, it was very windy, that's for sure, and then very cold yesterday, didn't get above 60.

Good day to stay in and watch TV all morning.

Meteor showers dig up water on the moon


Can't post pics on this new computer, not sure why: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...ater-moon-nasa

Meteor showers bring moon geysers. A lunar orbiter spotted extra water around the moon when the moon passed through streams of cosmic dust that can cause meteor showers on Earth.

The water was probably released from lunar soil by tiny meteorite impacts, planetary scientist Mehdi Benna of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and colleagues report April 15 in in Nature Geoscience. Those random impacts suggest water is buried all over the moon, rather than isolated in freezing dark craters — and that the moon has been wet for billions of years.

Samples of lunar soil brought back by the Apollo astronauts suggested that the moon is bone dry. But in the last decade or so, several remote missions have found water deposits on the moon, including signs of frozen surface water in regions of permanent shadow near the poles (SN: 10/24/09, p. 10).

Very cool short video on meteorites hitting the moon, 4 minutes.

[Markburn1]

Technology gets in the way of....technology.

It's hard enough to predict the weather. A new obstacle to accuracy is about to go live and it has the potential to be dangerous.

https://hackaday.com/2019/04/16/5g-buildout-likely-to-put-weather-forecasting-at-risk/

[DZ]

Technology gets in the way of....technology.

It's hard enough to predict the weather. A new obstacle to accuracy is about to go live and it has the potential to be dangerous.

https://hackaday.com/2019/04/16/5g-b...sting-at-risk/

I can't get through on that link. Do you have anything else? Highlight some, hit "Control c" and then put your cursor here and hit "control v" and we can at least see some of the concerns.

My initial response is there is far too much money riding on accurate weather forecasting (not to mention, lives, but money moves the world) to let anything be a big detriment.

If it's a satellite issue someone will shoot it down if need be to get it back to at least "before" to ensure the greatest accuracy.

Soooo much money riding on the "3 day heads-up."

[willandi]

I can't get through on that link. Do you have anything else? Highlight some, hit "Control c" and then put your cursor here and hit "control v" and we can at least see some of the concerns.

My initial response is there is far too much money riding on accurate weather forecasting (not to mention, lives, but money moves the world) to let anything be a big detriment.

If it's a satellite issue someone will shoot it down if need be to get it back to at least "before" to ensure the greatest accuracy.

Soooo much money riding on the "3 day heads-up."

'For water vapor, 23.8-GHz turns out to be very useful, and very much in danger of picking up interference from 5G, which will use frequencies very close to that. Since microwave radiometers are passive receivers, they’ll see pretty much everything that emits microwave signals in that range, like the thousands of cell sites that will be needed to support a full 5G rollout. Losing faint but reliable water vapor signals in a sea of 5G noise is the essential problem facing weather forecasters, and it’s one they’ve faced before.'

[willandi]

'At the 2019 annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Sidharth Misra, a research engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, presented data showing how commercial enterprises can have unintended consequences on the scientific community. Between 2004 and 2007, satellite-based microwave radiometers detected an increase in noise in a curious arc across the top of the United States. A similar signal was detected by another satellite, with the addition of huge signals being returned from the waters off each coast and the Great Lakes. The signals turned out to be reflections from geosynchronous direct TV satellites, bouncing off the surface and swamping the water vapor signals the weather satellites were trying to measure.'

[willandi]

But surely the scientists are overreacting, right? Can losing one piece of data from as complex a puzzle as weather prediction really have that much of an impact? Probably yes. The water vapor data returned by microwave radiometers like the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) aboard a number of weather satellites is estimated to reduce the error of weather forecasts by 17%, the largest contributor by far among a group of dozens of other modalities.

The loss of microwave water vapor data could have catastrophic real-world consequences. In late October of 2012, as Hurricane Sandy barreled up the East coast of the United States, forecasts showed that the storm would take a late turn to the northwest and make landfall in New Jersey. An analysis of the forecast if the microwave radiometer data had not been available showed the storm continuing in a wide arc and coming ashore in the Gulf of Maine. The availability of ASMU data five days in advance of the storm’s landfall bought civil authorities the time needed to prepare, and probably reduced the casualties caused by the “Storm of the Century”, still the deadliest storm of the 2012 season.

[willandi]

So exactly where are we with this process? The FCC auction of licenses for the Upper Microwave Flexible Use Service (UMFUS), which offers almost 3000 licenses in the 24-GHz band, began on March 14, 2019, despite a letter from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross requesting that it be delayed. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai rejected the request, stating that there was an “absence of any technical basis for the objection.”

Will the 5G rollout negatively impact weather forecasts? It’s not clear. Licensees are required to limit out-of-band emissions, but with so many 5G sites needed to cover the intended service areas, and with the critical 23.8-GHz water vapor frequency so close to the UMFUS band, there’s not much room for error. And once the 5G cat is out of the bag, it’ll be difficult to protect that crucial slice of the microwave spectrum.

Whatever happens, it doesn’t look good for weather forecasting. The UMFUS auction proceeds apace, and has raised almost $2 billion so far. Companies willing to spend that much on spectrum will certainly do whatever it takes to realize their investment, and in the end, not only will science likely suffer, but lives may be put at risk for the sake of 5G as our toolset for predicting dangerous weather faces this new data-gathering challenge.