Amazing facts from the world of science.

[GuyInLyon]

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

That's not a scientific fact, that's a belief.

 

[BiMGuy]

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.

The odds of there being life in the universe are astronomically small. But so are the odds of us being the only life to have existed in the universe.

The universe is so old. Intelligent life could have already evolved and died out in a distant part of the universe, and we will never know.

This planet could have been seeded by one such lifeform.

Who knows?

 

[Foxholer]

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.

Yet all that happened! And we ARE here!
So that demonstrates the power (sic) of tiny chances!

 

[Foxholer]

...
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.
...

I cannot agree with the word 'copies', nor any of the italicised text!

I would substitute 'equivalents' for 'multiple copies' and something like 'we are the equivalents of other "higher" life forms elsewhere'.

 

[JustOne]

The star Betelgeuse visible in the night sky (on the shoulder of Orion) is 800 times the diameter of our Sun.

In volume it would take 250,000 of our Suns to fill it.

If it were centered in the solar system where our Sun is then it would reach past Jupiter


I have a theory about the universe (haven't we all?) but getting laughed off the forum isn't worth sharing

 

[Ser Shankalot]

The star Betelgeuse visible in the night sky (on the shoulder of Orion) is 800 times the diameter of our Sun.

In volume it would take 250,000 of our Suns to fill it.

If it were centered in the solar system where our Sun is then it would reach past Jupiter


I have a theory about the universe (haven't we all?) but getting laughed off the forum isn't worth sharing

Betelgeuese is quite close in astronomical terms (c. 500-600 light years). It is also astronomically speaking very close to the end of its life and will also go supernova sometime within the next 100,000 years. Could be tomorrow, could be millenia from now. But because it's so close it will be as bright as a half-moon. Pretty cool thing to see.

Maybe Rutger Hauer was imagining what will be:
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Betelgeuese is quite close in astronomical terms (c. 500-600 light years). It is also astronomically speaking very close to the end of its life and will also go supernova sometime within the next 100,000 years. Could be tomorrow, could be millenia from now. But because it's so close it will be as bright as a half-moon. Pretty cool thing to see.

Maybe Rutger Hauer was imagining what will be:
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."

And if it did go supernova tomorrow, it actually would have happened 500-600 years ago, so we are looking into the past when we look up into the sky

 

[williamalex1]

The men who wear tin foil hats ?

Hopefully properly fitted

 

[toyboy54]

The odds of there being life in the universe are astronomically small. But so are the odds of us being the only life to have existed in the universe.

The universe is so old. Intelligent life could have already evolved and died out in a distant part of the universe, and we will never know.

This planet could have been seeded by one such lifeform.

Who knows?

This makes sense (to me anyway)!!
Seems entirely feasible!!

 

[williamalex1]

This makes sense (to me anyway)!!
Seems entirely feasible!!

Of course it does, Paisley is in a parallel universe , the 55th parallel actually

 

[Pathetic Shark]

God created the Earth in six days. He woke up with a hangover and created Janet Bloody Street Bloody Porter.

 

[stefanovic]

Yet all that happened! And we ARE here!
So that demonstrates the power (sic) of tiny chances!

Talking of chance, the universe may have started by quantum genesis out of nothing. (A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence Krauss).
Whatever the universe is, it's a mystery and the greatest achievement by humans would be solving it.
That leads to some pretty speculative stuff, like we are holograms (The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot), or it was born inside a black hole from another universe (a few writers have suggested this).
We don't know if it has a purpose or if it is finite or infinite.
We don't know why some settings are so precise (Just Six Numbers by Martin Rees).
We don't know why the laws of nature are fine tuned for life (anthropic principle).
The strong anthropic principle suggests there may be the hand of a designer.
We can rule out the idea that evolution is seen over by a kind creator because evolution lacks direction, and is based on cruelty, suffering, decay and death.

 

[GreiginFife]

Surely the past and the future don't exist. We live in and endless stream of the present. Constantly churning on the point that is "now".

I remember an Alan Watts talk on zen and Buddhists saying that 'being' is linking our memories up in a chain to give ourselves a biography, a history.

Interesting stuff.

 

[Crow]

This thread should have been called:

"Amazing facts from the world of science, and some other theories that have no factual proof.

 

[Jimaroid]

Surely the past and the future don't exist. We live in and endless stream of the present. Constantly churning on the point that is "now".

I remember an Alan Watts talk on zen and Buddhists saying that 'being' is linking our memories up in a chain to give ourselves a biography, a history.

The arrow of time is one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. There is a theory that we only perceive time as flowing due to our formation of memories and that time doesn’t flow at all, it just is.

Another theory that time is heat and progression is our perception of heat decay.

Another theory that there are two universes in which time flows in opposite directions to explain why we only see time flow in one direction in this, our, universe.

And many more that I lack the intelligence to do justice in a single sentence.

It’s all theory, interesting stuff but far from proof as fact.

 

[JustOne]

Whatever the universe is, it's a mystery and the greatest achievement by humans would be solving it.

I'm not sure that is entirely the case.
If you categorically proved there was no maker then our society (well certainly a few billion people) would lose their value, we would have to remake society according to new rules.

I do like conversations pertaining to the universe as there are so many concepts that are just hard/impossible for the brain to comprehend on 'normal' level, a simple one being if you could shrink the universe to the size of a coke can ...... what is on the outside of that coke can? Simple, easy to understand question....a git to answer.


My sentiment is along the lines of the universe is infinite in time SO FAR, it's been around far too long to measure and has been remade potentially billions of times, each one with a bang! However we might be part of the FINAL universe, the BIG bang, whereby the universe created with such force that it will never collapse again, matter was driven apart this time too fast to ever be able to 'repair itself' and as such the 13.6Bn years so far has been enough for life to take hold.

The first 'universe' would potentially have been relatively tiny but big enough that gravity could take hold and take basic building blocks. such as leptons, and collect them together to form (possibly) a single star like body, big enough to force reactions to take place, thereby forming electrons, a few bangs later neutrons etc etc

However for that to happen at all there has to be a mechanism whereby matter (no matter how tiny) is simply created ON ITS OWN, and therefore is still probably happening right now, we just haven't found it yet. So in theory, once upon a time, way back when, there could have been a universe that simply contained leptons or quarks.


Of course this would be my belief and as such is no different/better than someone's belief in God as both are, at present, unproven.

 

[Swinglowandslow]

I'm not sure that is entirely the case.
If you categorically proved there was no maker then our society (well certainly a few billion people) would lose their value, we would have to remake society according to new rules.

I do like conversations pertaining to the universe as there are so many concepts that are just hard/impossible for the brain to comprehend on 'normal' level, a simple one being if you could shrink the universe to the size of a coke can ...... what is on the outside of that coke can? Simple, easy to understand question....a git to answer.


My sentiment is along the lines of the universe is infinite in time SO FAR, it's been around far too long to measure and has been remade potentially billions of times, each one with a bang! However we might be part of the FINAL universe, the BIG bang, whereby the universe created with such force that it will never collapse again, matter was driven apart this time too fast to ever be able to 'repair itself' and as such the 13.6Bn years so far has been enough for life to take hold.

The first 'universe' would potentially have been relatively tiny but big enough that gravity could take hold and take basic building blocks. such as leptons, and collect them together to form (possibly) a single star like body, big enough to force reactions to take place, thereby forming electrons, a few bangs later neutrons etc etc

However for that to happen at all there has to be a mechanism whereby matter (no matter how tiny) is simply created ON ITS OWN, and therefore is still probably happening right now, we just haven't found it yet. So in theory, once upon a time, way back when, there could have been a universe that simply contained leptons or quarks.


Of course this would be my belief and as such is no different/better than someone's belief in God as both are, at present, unproven.

Ref your first paragraph. Some say that such thinking is the reason why offialdom will not admit to the existence of aliens, specifically on the question of UFOs etc, because of the need for continued stability!
All interesting stuff, and not a little speculation.

 

[JustOne]

Ref your first paragraph. Some say that such thinking is the reason why offialdom will not admit to the existence of aliens, specifically on the question of UFOs etc, because of the Ned for continued stability!
All interesting stuff, and not a little speculation.

"You want the truth? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH" springs to mind.

It would be awesome though ala 'Indepedence Day' if a fleet of aliens (not hell-bent on destroying us) just turned up in the sky one day, hopefully with some eternal life serum for me

 

[Foxholer]

Talking of chance, the universe may have started by quantum genesis out of nothing. ..

My belief too - not read your reference though, which is likely simply speculation (as is mine).

...
Whatever the universe is, it's a mystery and the greatest achievement by humans would be solving it.
That leads to some pretty speculative stuff, like we are holograms (The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot), or it was born inside a black hole from another universe (a few writers have suggested this).
We don't know if it has a purpose or if it is finite or infinite.
We don't know why some settings are so precise (Just Six Numbers by Martin Rees).
We don't know why the laws of nature are fine tuned for life (anthropic principle).
...

'We don't know' are the key words!
Though I'll repeat my assertion is that it's the randomness, combined with 'the laws of Nature' that has caused Life as we know it - not the other way around as you seem to be implying! Darwin's voyages/writings proved/demonstrated that!

...
The strong anthropic principle suggests there may be the hand of a designer.
...

I don't believe in one. Who/what created Him/Her/It?

...
We can rule out the idea that evolution is seen over by a kind creator because evolution lacks direction, and is based on cruelty, suffering, decay and death.

H'mm! I'm not sure about the validity of that statement! Devotees (so that does not include me!) would simply state 'He's testing our faith'!

 

[JustOne]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...e-millions-years-discovered-bottom-ocean.html