A hundred million years from now, when we're all dead and gone, a team of geologists will be digging in a field somewhere ...and they will discover, buried in the rocks below, a thin layer of sediment — very thin, about the width of a cigarette paper, says British stratigrapher Jan Zalasiewicz. That skinny strip, when … Continue reading Is Planet Earth Under New Management? : Krulwich Wonders… : NPR
Tag: Earth
Astronomy’s Alpha Male | Seth Shostak
The other day, I asked if the age of science might eventually come to an end, noting that amateur scientific work has become rare. In this post about the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, whose data findings will be made publicly available, Seth Shostak describes a situation that might enable amateur discoveries again, at least for … Continue reading Astronomy’s Alpha Male | Seth Shostak
The faster interstellar travel is, the further away intelligent aliens are
Ethan Siegel has an excellent post up exploring the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations. With hundreds of billions of stars (visible, above, in infrared wavelengths) in our galaxy alone, and literally trillions of planets around them, we have many, many chances for life to have evolved similarly to how it did here on Earth. With at … Continue reading The faster interstellar travel is, the further away intelligent aliens are
Deep history, and deep future?
John Schellenberg has an article up on Aeon noting that, while we seem to have no problem accepting deep time in the past, there isn't much discussion of deep future, that is, the future millions or billions of years in the future. It's an interesting article (aside from an unfortunate plea for us to take Thomas … Continue reading Deep history, and deep future?
Earth life may have started a billion years earlier | Machines Like Us
Provocative new research published this month in the journal Geology suggests that oceanic plate subduction was operating from the earliest times in Earth’s history, meaning conditions for the formation of life may have existed up to a billion years earlier than generally thought. via Earth life may have started a billion years earlier | Machines … Continue reading Earth life may have started a billion years earlier | Machines Like Us
Why is the solar system flat?
Machines Like Us and others linked to this cool video explaining why the solar system is flat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmNXKqeUtJM I'm not entirely sure the four dimensional stuff was necessary, although it was interesting. One thing to realize though, is that while the solar system is flat, it's not flat in the same orientation as other solar systems, … Continue reading Why is the solar system flat?
Time to ditch falsifiability?
Related to my last two posts, and our discussion, Sean Carroll turned in an answer to the "What Scientific Ideas Are Ready for Retirement?" His answer? Falsifiability. Modern physics stretches into realms far removed from everyday experience, and sometimes the connection to experiment becomes tenuous at best. String theory and other approaches to quantum gravity … Continue reading Time to ditch falsifiability?
UChicago researchers use Hubble Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien world | UChicago News
Weather forecasters on exoplanet GJ 1214b would have an easy job. Today’s forecast: cloudy. Tomorrow: overcast. Extended outlook: more clouds. That's the implication of a study led by researchers in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago who have definitively characterized the atmosphere of a super-Earth class planet orbiting another star … Continue reading UChicago researchers use Hubble Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien world | UChicago News
Elysium: a quick review
I saw the movie Elysium this afternoon. It's a tale of a desperately poor population living under the rule of an elite wealthy class. In this case, the poor are living on Earth and the wealthy elite in a space habitat called Elysium. The habitat has technology able to cure any ailment, but this technology … Continue reading Elysium: a quick review
The History and Future of the Everything — Time
Wow! If you enjoyed my little post the other day on perspectives on deep time, you'll definitely want to check this video out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XkV6IpV2Y0 An awesome blog entry with much the same content is at the Wait but why blog. Related articles Time: The History and Future of Everything (milkandcookies.com) [Video] The History and Future … Continue reading The History and Future of the Everything — Time
SelfAwarePatterns 