I recently finished reading Max Tegmark’s latest book, ‘Our Mathematical Universe‘, about his views on multiverses and the ultimate nature of reality. This is the second in a series of posts on the concepts and views he covers in the book. Tegmark postulates four levels of multiverse. In the first post of this series, I described Termark's Level I … Continue reading Tegmark’s Level II Multiverse: bubble universes
Tag: Science
Visualization of ancient cosmological models
Just to keep the discussion of the posts I'm doing on cosmology in context: As part of Topoi 1, Group-D, Sebastian Szczepanski and I developed software for the visualization of ancient cosmological theories. These included the 4th cent. BCE planetary models of Eudoxus, Aristotle, and Calippus, as well as the basic planetary models of Ptolemy’s Almagest. … Continue reading Visualization of ancient cosmological models
Language structure: You’re born with it — ScienceDaily
More evidence that we are not born blank slates, and that language is probably very ancient, developing over hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years. Humans are unique in their ability to acquire language. But how? A new study shows that we are in fact born with the basic fundamental knowledge of language, thus shedding … Continue reading Language structure: You’re born with it — ScienceDaily
Humans and Neandertals interbred, new method confirms — ScienceDaily
Technical objections to the idea that Neandertals interbred with the ancestors of Eurasians have been overcome, thanks to a new genome analysis method. The technique can more confidently detect the genetic signatures of interbreeding than previous approaches and will be useful for evolutionary studies of other ancient or rare DNA samples. via Humans and … Continue reading Humans and Neandertals interbred, new method confirms — ScienceDaily
The value of history
Tom Chivers has a particularly misguided post up The Telegraph arguing that science is better than history. Given how under siege many in the humanities feel themselves to be today, this post is unnecessarily adversarial. Chivers does claim to recognize that history is a valuable endeavor (albeit limited in his view), but argues that if you … Continue reading The value of history
How a Medieval Philosopher Dreamed Up the ‘Multiverse’ | Space.com
The idea that our universe may be just one among many out there has intrigued modern cosmologists for some time. But it looks like this "multiverse" concept might actually have appeared, albeit unintentionally, back in the Middle Ages. When scientists analyzed a 13th-century Latin text and applied modern mathematics to it, they found hints that … Continue reading How a Medieval Philosopher Dreamed Up the ‘Multiverse’ | Space.com
Microbes May Have Fueled Permian Extinction, Earth’s Biggest
A microbial feeding frenzy may have fueled the biggest mass extinction in Earth's history, new research suggests. The findings suggest that bacteria, with a little help from massive volcanism, produced large quantities of methane, thereby killing 90 percent of life on the planet. more at Microbes May Have Fueled Permian Extinction, Earth's Biggest. I've often wondered … Continue reading Microbes May Have Fueled Permian Extinction, Earth’s Biggest
Does anyone have a link to a detailed description of the cosmological horizon problem?
So, I'm trying to understand cosmic inflation a bit better, and I've concluded that I don't understand one of the chief itches that it scratches. I know the standard explanation about regions of space being too far apart to have ever interacted, but I don't get why they couldn't have interacted when the universe was … Continue reading Does anyone have a link to a detailed description of the cosmological horizon problem?
Religion is natural, science is hard
Conner Wood takes a look at Robert McCauley's book, 'Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not'. Robert McCauley, a philosopher and cognitive scientist at Emory University, thinks that religion is natural, but science isn’t. Such a claim could easily inspire all manner of outrage and uproar from both offended believers and irked scientists alike. But what … Continue reading Religion is natural, science is hard
PHD Comics: Cosmic Inflation Explained
So, even though I already linked to two sources about cosmic inflation this week, this is good enough that I'm also going to throw it in. It's fascinating to me that the large scale structure of our universe is ultimately caused by quantum fluctuations in the earliest moments of the big bang. Click through for … Continue reading PHD Comics: Cosmic Inflation Explained
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