The nearest star system to our Solar System, Alpha Centaurus is reverting to its old name Rigil Kentaurus, which means “foot of the centaur” in Arabic. Let me admit, I had become attached to the name Alpha Centaurus hence this new (old by the way) is difficult to swallow.
Alpha Centaurus ( OK, Rigil Kentaurus) is 4.3 light-years away from the earth. A light-year is the distance travelled by light in one year.
The periodic table now has new elements. Read the following article below for greater insights:
Last December, four new elements—with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118—earned their spots on the periodic table. They were temporarily named ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium, and ununoctium until the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry revealed their “unofficial” names in June. Now that the period for public comment is over,those names arefinally official,The New York Times reports. Three of the elements were named after locations of scientists’ institutions: Tennessine (Tennessee), Nihonium (Japan) and Moscovium (Moscow). Yuri Oganessian, a nuclear physics professor at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, inspired the fourth, Oganesson. The four elements, synthetically created in labs, round out the seventh row of the table.
NASA has trialled an engine that would take us to Mars in 10 weeks. Though the results have not been peer-reviewed, either way it is mind blowing nonetheless. Recently estimates of the time to travel to Mars were about 2 years. Hence 70 days would be a great step forward. This article explains the whole mechanism involved. It's a good read.
Sometime in October, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize for physics: half went to David J. Thouless at the University of Washington, Seattle and half to F. Duncan M. Haldane of Princeton University and J. Michael Kosterlitz of Brown University for, in the Academy’s words, “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”
Here is an article explaining the concepts clearly and in depth.
Here is some 'crazy' quote:
"A topologist is a person who doesn't know the difference between a coffee cup and a doughnut.” (Anonymous)
Some time ago Pluto was declade not a planet qfter so many years being recognisef as one. The reasons proffered were that
But new evidence seems to turn the tide again suggesting Pluto could be a planet after all. A
Freezing is the change in state from liquid to solid by reducing its temperature. The Freezing point or Melting point of a substance is the temperature at which a material changes from a solid to a liquid (or vice versa). The temperature remains constant until all of the substance has changed its state.
The Freezing point of nearly all liquids is lowered by adding another substance.
For example if you add an equal amount of antifreeze containing ethanediol (ethylene glycol) to an equal amount of water, the water which normally freezes at 0°C will now freeze at -37°C (the ethandiol freezes at -13°C).
In 1936 Russian Andrei Nikolaevich isolated pure DNA for the first time
In 1936 Robert R Williams synthesizes vitamin B
In 1701 John Sauveur introduced the term acoustics when talking about the tones of a musical scale
In 1663 Blaise Pascal published a book that suggested that, in a fluid, pressure is exerted equally in all directions.
In 1935 Charles Richter developed a scale for measuring the strength of earthquakes based on seismograms. It's still known as the Richter scale.
In 46 BC Julius Caesar, that Roman dictator, acting on the advice of the Greek astronomer Sosigenes, introduced the Julian calender of three 365-day years, followed by one of 366 days.
In order to get the seasons straightened out, they gave the year 46 BC an extra 67 days. This was the longest year ever. It was 532 days long
The perspective in which you look at some issues, sometimes makes any conclusion you make biased. Because of the perspective you are in, you end up ignoring some facts and realities at hand. These scenarios happen in most facets of life (science included). The list of examples is endless but that is not the focus of this post.
To develop your thinking at times it is vital to question the circumstances and assumptions underpinning your thinking processes. The problem starts when you do not know these circumstances and assumptions. This is because your mistakes won't be ubiquitous to you. Sometimes to notice one's mistakes you have to analyse the foundation of your thought. Looking at the outcomes is not enough. You have to be comprehensive at times. The novelty of human ideas has gone back and forth across time and in any age a lot of infallibility is assumed in the mainstream way of thinking.
To fight any inconsitensies and impersectness in ideas across time the development of an across the bode model sometimes referred to as a 'standard model' is sought after to channel any emerging idea into a uniform path. The 'standard model' now becomes the decider of true or false ideas which hence cometh. Many at times the 'standard model' is fraught with limitations and cannot seem to explain every issue, something expected of it. Think about the standard models in economics and physics. The 'standard model' suddenly becomes 'unstandard' after all.
I am not saying the exercise of searching for and using 'standard models' is futile. Developing human thought is a work in progress. Considering where we come, scholarly effort should be applauded. What I find fault in is being unreasonable with the truth, that is, refusing to relook at your assumptions and circumstances and having a biased assessment of the outcomes at hand.
Many areas of what people refer to as science today are fraught with issues raised above. At times this inhibits to enrichment of thought because people what others to view their faulty ideas as the truth when they are just nothing but tje truth.
I mentioned above that at times some are unable to decifer the assumptions and circumstances underpinning their ideas. How can one overcome that? My suggestion is that read widely to obtain varied perspectives, be analytic and try to separate (in your mind) your ideas and what you perceive as your 'greatness.' If you view yourself as a very 'great person' (interpreted in a subjective sense!), you equate anything you do with that greatness especially if there are others around to review your ideas in your presence. Such scenarios happen to many of us but what's important going forward is to become a better person (in living by and discovering the truth). We can improve ourselves and our minds are more than willing to assist and permit such improvements because they are very adaptive. Hence don't inhibit that potential adaptibility.
The time is nigh again. The Nobel Week is upon us. I will soon post my thoughts on the Nobel Prizes and to what extant they should be considered as important. Meanwhile congratulations to those being awarded Nobel Prizes in their respective fields.
Interesting read on the effects of a 1851 solar storm and how it might affect today's world if it repeats itself (The so-called Carrington Event). Is the world ready and aware of the possibilities of such an event? I don't think so!
The aurora australis or the 'southern lights', and the aurora borealis or the 'northern lights', are a 'curtain' of spectacular lights which are seen in the sky. The former are seen in the northern hemisphere (north pole to be precise) and the latter are seen in the southern hemisphere (south pole to be precise).
They are caused by the collision of the solar wind with the Earth's atmosphere.
In 1744 Mikhael Lomonosov published a paper on what causes heat and cold. He correctly concluded that heat must be a form of motion.
In 1828 Herr Wohler proved that organic compouds can be got from inorganic compounds.
In 1841 Johan Berzelius became the first person to convert charcoal to graphite.
In 1882 John Milne invented a modern seismograph to measure earthquake waves.
In 1862 Jimmy Joule and William Thomson established that as gas expands, it gets cooler.
Ready for some mind games...
Here we go -
Bring out your
calculator and do this:
1. Take the last digit of your
phone number.
2. Multiply by 2
3. Add 5
4. Multiply by 50
5. Add 1766
6. Subtract your year of birth
7. You will get three digits
8. The first digit is the last digit
of your phone number
9. The remaining digits are your
actual age...
Any objection?
Below are some solutions to the problem I posted in a previous post.
The solutions:
The answer is 96
The first solution is
(1×4+1=5)
(2×5+2=12)
(3×6+3=21)
(8×11+8=96)
The second solution is
1st term (5=5)
2nd term (5+7=12)
3rd term (5+7+9=21)
Hence the 8th term is
(5+7+9+11+13+15+17+19=96)
The third solution is
1st term (3×3-4=5)
2nd term (4×4-4=12)
3rd term (5×5-4=21)
8th term (10×10-4=96)
These are the answers to a quiz I posted sometime last year. The quiz was on Flora and Fauna.
1. According to scietists, which is the firdt 4-legged animal to invade the land?
Ans: Icthyostega
2. According to scientists which is the first ever bird?
Ans: Archeopteryx
3. Which is the fastest insect?
Ans: Dragon Fly
4. Which is the tallest grass?
Ans: Bambo
5. Which is the largest amphibian?
Ans: Giant Salamander
6. Which is the largest lizard?
Ans: Komodo Dragon
7. Which is the biggest bird in the world?
Ans: Ostrich
8. The hardest wood is from which tree?
Ans: Ironwood tree
9. What is the study of prehistoric animal and plant life through the analysis of fossil remains called?
Ans: Paleontology
10. The study of plants is called what?
Ans: Botany
With the last flight of the Anglo-French concorde more than a decade ago, civil supersonic flights have only been a dream but could that come to an end. "Yes!," I think so, and I am not the only one with such thoughts. NASA thinks it is on the right trajectory in respect of that. Maybe so but imagine flying not only under supersonic speeds (mach 2-5) but hypersonic speeds (mach 5 and above). Is it a distant reality? No, if the revolution in technological advancement catches up with the civil aviational industry, the impossible becomes possible!
Scientific discoveries wait for no man. Come 2016 and there is talk of a new discovery of a planet by scientists from Caltech. Mind you, Pluto had been degraded as a planet way back in 2006. So its still the magic 9 planets in our solar system. Lets watch the developments as they unravel because I sense something big coming up. Maybe its a hunch. Time will tell.
