Posts Tagged ‘Science’
Moons and Rings of the Cosmos
Posted on: March 3rd, 2015
Other than all the stars, the Moon and the planets classically held attention and commanded wonder, whenever a civilization gazed into the heavens. Of course this was largely because so little was known of outer space, about what else was up there besides what could clearly be seen, but it shouldn’t be denied that the planets of our own solar system are indeed magnificent. And now, while we unfortunately have to rely as yet on artists’ conceptions to visualize them, the recent multitudes of exoplanets found have, along with theoretical considerations, yielded even more diverse and wondrous planets to inspire us. Yet moons and rings are presumably integral parts of planetary systems as well, and while moons at least are virtually certain to exist alongside and beyond many of the planets of our galaxy’s systems, their small sizes have presumably kept them invisible as yet to our instruments and detection methods. Even so, we might hazard that “large” planets nearly always have moons and rings, while “small” ones have them much less so; that most moons are “very small”, except that “large” planets typically have a few “larger” but still non-gaseous ones; that extensive rings are less common, and only ever exist around “large” planets; that most moons lack atmospheres, yet a fair number of systems have at least one atmospheric moon; and that non-unitary planets and moons are comparatively rare, as are moons or rings of moons. To see why these conjectures might be true, let us consider what, in terms of moons, rings, and non-unitary bodies, planetary systems in our galaxy and across all the cosmos might be like.
Cosmic Language
Posted on: July 27th, 2013
By our own standards at least, communication of a high order remains the hallmark of an intelligent, sentient species. The ability to communicate thoughts, feelings, and abstract ideas sets us apart from all other known animals, and is arguably the basis of sentience itself, for to communicate without, one must first think (“communicate”) within. Yet in spite of its magnificence, should it ever come to meeting with intelligent aliens, communication will likely present a great many barriers to be overcome, beyond even “practical” and environmental ones that may hinder mere attempts at it. For different species may communicate through varying physical means, for instance, or else be physiologically incapable of producing or of even perceiving others’ languages. Further, just as two equally-functional computer processors typically can’t understand the other’s “languages”, so too might alien minds be incapable of comprehending languages that developed independently of them. While the use of multiple sign languages though–each species perceiving all others, while producing just their own–could likely be a workaround for the physical and physiological barriers (in fact, given certain characteristics of light versus sound, spoken languages could probably work in this way as well), no such simple workaround exists for the potential comprehension barrier. Indeed, only the rather extreme and questionable approach of creating a new species could seemingly handle it, for “universal translators” could only be built once someone had comprehension of the languages to be interpreted between. Hence inter-species communication may be far trickier than science fiction at least nearly always suggests, and with it, so too may be any true form of a cosmic community; serving as a reminder, perhaps, of the very special bond that we–like all members of any given species–truly share.
Some Surprising Science
Posted on: July 20th, 2009
In science, as with any subject, there’re plenty of things a lot of people don’t know. Then there’re things they think they do know because they seem so intuitive, but which they’re actually wrong about. This is probably so more with physics than anything else, but it’s certainly so with other scientific fields as well. Therefore, in this post, I’d like to recount a few things that really surprised me personally when I first came across them, things that seem almost counter-intuitive at first. Specifically, I’ll discuss the notions of water only freezing at 0 ºC; people freezing in space; and one temperature that’s twice that of another being twice as hot.
Defining Biological Life
Posted on: July 11th, 2009
It is very difficult to permanently yet precisely define what is meant by biological life, at least in such a way so as to encompass all that we recognize as being alive, yet recognize life not yet discovered or even formed. This partly stems from the sheer diversity of life here on Earth. However, it also stems from the fact that we haven’t even seen all life that exists here, much less any that may exist elsewhere in the universe. Hence, in defining life by considering the fundamental commonalities of all known life, we face the drawback of making an induction from a sample. We can define life so as to include all that we are currently aware of as being alive, but any such definition may fail to account for what we may later discover, or even for something which hasn’t yet evolved. However, I believe that by considering a fundamental, chemistry-inspired difference between life and non-life, we may in fact be able to obtain both a more permanent and yet more precise definition. Rather than relying on an induction, we can instead define two single requirements for something to be considered alive based on chemistry. Namely, that living things contain their own descriptions as genetic material within them, and that they propagate through some form of reproduction and transmission of this material.
Assortments of Thought 