Amazing facts from the world of science.

[toyboy54]

If you want some science facts(and maybe some suppositions too), then check out The Royal Institute site and catch up with the lectures on their channel.
Yes, some are beyond us-but others are easily understandable (may even make you wish you'd stuck in at school-instead of sex and drugs and rock & roll)!!
Jimbo

 

[ForeRight]

Yep. Avi Loeb chief astronomer at Harvard recently published a book called Extraterrestrial.

Harvard’s Avi Loeb Argues That ‘Oumuamua’ Was Really An Interstellar Alien Probe (forbes.com)

And those that disagree with that view

Oumuamua is not Artificial -

Aliens? Or a chunk of solid hydrogen? Which idea makes less sense?

Scientists push back against Harvard 'alien spacecraft' theory

To take just three

 

[JustOne]

Space.
Everything in the cosmos is nothing but empty curved space, including the world we inhabit.
What we see and touch are only manifestations of the curvature of space.

Don't believe it,.. space is not empty. How can you go on to discuss atoms if space is empty?


Time.
There is no such thing as present and future. Everything is in the past with no way of predicting the future.

Don't believe it. The past is not a real thing (that you can touch) therefore it doesn't exist for the same reasons that the future doesn't. Therefore they both equally exist.
If you cannot predict the future then how do we know that stars will become red giants?


Unproven but probably true.
The Universe is not all there is. There are infinite copies of it.
There are multiple copies in parallel worlds of each of us and we are an average of the set of copies in nearby parallel worlds.

Don't believe it. Don't see why it's probably true at all. Certainly don't believe in parallel worlds, just mankind wanting his image to be slapped somewhere else in the universe... just like heaven. We die, we are gone, simples. Unless of course heaven is full of T Rex's

 

[Cherry13]

Unproven but probably true.
The Universe is not all there is. There are infinite copies of it.
There are multiple copies in parallel worlds of each of us and we are an average of the set of copies in nearby parallel worlds.

Don't believe it. Don't see why it's probably true at all. Certainly don't believe in parallel worlds, just mankind wanting his image to be slapped somewhere else in the universe... just like heaven. We die, we are gone, simples. Unless of course heaven is full of T Rex's

When are the copies taken? Is it periodic? Random? Continuous? Key life decisions etc? Surely with this one, if as you say there are multiple copies throughout the entire existence of the universe then there will be divergence in each ‘copy’ therefore that billion - one chance of you existing doesn’t happen in all of them, but likely only this one... then as far as you are concerned, there is only one universe! Unless they are like for like copies, which just seems pointless.

As for alien life, I like the Fermi paradox. Or Dan Akroyds theory which is (loosely), ET came in the 50s after we split the atom... watched what we were up to, and realised we were a bunch of harmless idiots intent on killing each other and left to observe at edge of the solar system.

 

[Ser Shankalot]

The day we find other advanced intelligent life in the galaxy - one of the greatest discoveries of all time
Somehow proving we are the only advanced intelligent life in the galaxy and there’s nobody else there - also would be one of the greatest discoveries of all time.

I would romantically much prefer the former. But I sadly think the Fermi Paradox might be a strong suggestion for the latter.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

My MIL still is.

And there was me thinking that Trex was just vegetable fat...?

 

[Jimaroid]

Some dubious conversion of theories into facts going on here.

 

[Fade and Die]

The day we find other advanced intelligent life in the galaxy - one of the greatest discoveries of all time
Somehow proving we are the only advanced intelligent life in the galaxy and there’s nobody else there - also would be one of the greatest discoveries of all time.

I would romantically much prefer the former. But I sadly think the Fermi Paradox might be a strong suggestion for the latter.

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” - Arthur C. Clarke

 

[bobmac]

How did we get here? no-one really knows and probably never will know.
I guess that's why the idea that a creator put us here was so popular thousands of years ago.
But that then begs the question....where did the creator come from.

 

[stefanovic]

But that then begs the question....where did the creator come from.

Too many possible answers and only one correct.
We need to know more about dark energy and matter.
However the supreme physical law of the universe is what we call entropy (disorder).
I doubt if an intelligent creator would make chaos, and a creator would need to be more complex than his creation.
We can imagine that entropy spun out the molecules of life (RNA and DNA).

So what is the world?
A geological junkyard after so many impacts and earth movements.
Life is a DNA junkyard, there being no such thing as good DNA and junk DNA because all of it is junk.
I'm afraid to say we are the merely the children of chaos which is entropy.

 

[stefanovic]

How fast are you travelling?
70mph on the motorway, perhaps.
But the earth is moving at over 60,000 mph on its elliptical orbit of the sun which itself is in motion around the rim of our galaxy.
This great spinning wheel we call the Milky Way is also moving fast within the universe.
Conclusion: We are all space travellers.

How is the earth suspended in space?
Nobody knew for sure until explained by Einstein and it's highly complicated because of gravitational pull of so many objects.
The earth follows a line of least resistance along the curvature defined mainly by the sun.
Think of it moving in a straight line, but remember that space is curved.
Gravity is not really a force. What pulls us down to earth is the warping of space and time.

 

[Foxholer]

Too many possible answers and only one correct.
We need to know more about dark energy and matter.
However the supreme physical law of the universe is what we call entropy (disorder).
I doubt if an intelligent creator would make chaos, and a creator would need to be more complex than his creation.
We can imagine that entropy spun out the molecules of life (RNA and DNA).

So what is the world?
A geological junkyard after so many impacts and earth movements.
Life is a DNA junkyard, there being no such thing as good DNA and junk DNA because all of it is junk.
I'm afraid to say we are the merely the children of chaos which is entropy.

Rather than 'disorder', I'd use the word 'randomness'!
In spite of the serious progress mankind has made about 'knowledge' over the centuries - in spite of the efforts of several, but not all, religions - there are so many proselytising groups that I have become seriously atheistic! Genesis for example, is - for me - simply unbelievable!
As for our (and other) universe(s)...I'm quite happy with the concept of multiple universes, based on the ideas/predictions/discoveries of quantum mechanics.

Oh! And FWIW, there's always the question...'Who/What created The Creator'?'!!

 

[Italian outcast]

Did you know that when Tasmanian Devils bite each other they can transmit and pass on a cancer which started in one devil 25 years ago and has spread through much of the population

One of our Forum may have written about this



https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijc.25374

 

[Swinglowandslow]

The day we find other advanced intelligent life in the galaxy - one of the greatest discoveries of all time
Somehow proving we are the only advanced intelligent life in the galaxy and there’s nobody else there - also would be one of the greatest discoveries of all time.

I would romantically much prefer the former. But I sadly think the Fermi Paradox might be a strong suggestion for the latter.

"But where are they?" When he asked the question, the notion that they hadn't been or were not about ,was considered not only ridiculous to question, but quite obviously fact.
Nowadays there are many many reports from serious observers like pilots, or reported observations by many people together, about UFOs etc.
Many are hoax, mistakes etc, but there are many unexplained where Holmes's quote may have some bearing.
Of course, there is no widespread acceptance of proof of alien visitation, and no objective proof. But, do you think if it were to happen, or was happening, that there really would be some form of ceremonial broadcasting or recording of the event? (Of course not.)
Or do you think there may be surreptitious visitations to study us, or to initiate our species into gradual acceptance of the concept being a reality.
With our history of trying to destroy that which alarms us ,or is conceived as being a threat, how else would they deal with us?
I know there is no proof of alien existence, but I know which way I would bet on the possibility. It would be nice to know finally that we were not alone, even if to just prove poor old Bruno right.?

 

[stefanovic]

While there is zero proof of alien existence, there could still be a cover up.
In the case of Oumuamua, the object flying through our solar system with no known natural expanation, we have to accept that alien technology would not be obvious to us.
We can only be sceptical of any claim that looks like our technology such as a saucer shaped craft.
Oumuamua looks like a rock, but consider the cave man analogy:
A time traveller meets a cave man and shows him a mobile phone and tells him it's a communication device from the the future.
No, no says the cave man, it's a rock!

 

[bobmac]

While there is zero proof of alien existence, there could still be a cover up.

A cover up by who?

 

[Beezerk]

A cover up by who?

The men who wear tin foil hats ?

 

[stefanovic]

What are the odds of you being here?

Your parents had to meet and so did their parents, going back through the generations to when you were a fish and right back to the beginning of time.
The forces of nature had to form after the genesis of the universe.
Our star had to form. Our planet had to be stabilised by the moon.
A planet like Jupiter had to deflect possible impacts away from earth.
The large dinosaurs which ruled earth for 100 million years had to become extinct so that mammals like us could evolve.
As the number of potential people (the unborn ghosts allowed by our genes) is greater than the grains of sand in the desert, the overwhelming probability should be we are not here.

 

[stefanovic]

A cover up by who?

Orson Welles.

 

[Foxholer]

A cover up by who?

If that was known - or even seriously postulated - it would almost certainly result in the 'cover-up' eventually being shown to be exactly that!
Instead, we are gradually, but relentlessly, moving from a position of ignorance/guesswork/supposition to one of greater awareness of Nature and The Universe(s)!