Large Hardon Collider

[Waraji]

o0o that is sooo exciting! Can't wait for the day that it does! Here's hoping some time in the couple of months!

Edit: Going back, there seemed to be an update on the page, showing it to be just a rumor. Bummer.

[Max™]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/ba...about-to-blow/

Conclusion:
So my personal opinion is that this is just another breathless rumor of astronomical doomsday that we get every couple of years. Even if any of the science of it is right, it doesn’t mean Betelgeuse is about to explode any day now. And since this is a rumor three times removed, I don’t put any stock in it. I’ll wait until I hear from named scientists with published or publishable data before I start to wonder if the star is about to blow.
And if and when it does explode, it can’t hurt us. Someday it will — maybe not for a hundred thousand years, but someday — and every astronomer on the planet hopes it happens in their lifetime! It will be a scientific bonanza unlike any ever seen.

[Waraji]

Having a fun night tonight re-watching this from last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAD25s53wmE

Favorite line he pitches out:

"I'm very please your all here this evening because, I don't know if you knew the numbers, but there's about 6 thousand astrophysicists in the world, and there's about 6 billion people. If you divide those two numbers, you get 1 in a million. So if you ever have the occasion to be in the company of an astrophysicist, That's The Time To Ask All Your Questions! Cus you never know when that will happen again."

[Scythiroth]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/ba...about-to-blow/

Aww, oh well. This would have been really cool to see.

[Lhyet]

Damn, I was getting so excited scrolling past all these replies, then Max goes and ruins it with debunking proof! How disappointing...

[Cochise]

f'n internets ... sorry guys

[Pirian]

Having a fun night tonight re-watching this from last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAD25s53wmE

Favorite line he pitches out:

"I'm very please your all here this evening because, I don't know if you knew the numbers, but there's about 6 thousand astrophysicists in the world, and there's about 6 billion people. If you divide those two numbers, you get 1 in a million. So if you ever have the occasion to be in the company of an astrophysicist, That's The Time To Ask All Your Questions! Cus you never know when that will happen again."

That was really good, thanks for posting it

[Kryssan]

Morgan Freeman was on the Daily Show last night talking about science... and other stuff. Crazy.

[Chun Liroy]

10 minutes, I am very excite.

[Chun Liroy]

Am I a nerd if I can identify Volvox every time I see these stupid commercials?

(had to memorize like 20 of them in high school)
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/...ll/volvox2.jpg

[Chun Liroy]

Triple post, sorry!

So they just said that religious people were ok with the synthesis of life... but wouldn't that essentially prove their religion false, if "God" is "The Creator" and only he can create life?

Edit: I am so fucking envious of this guy. He's essentially doing everything I ever wanted to do.

[Kaylia]

Triple post, sorry!

So they just said that religious people were ok with the synthesis of life... but wouldn't that essentially prove their religion false, if "God" is "The Creator" and only he can create life?

Edit: I am so fucking envious of this guy. He's essentially doing everything I ever wanted to do.

God created an universe that could host life... -this- life. Problem solved. Unless people have specific moral that goes against creating life, I don't see how it prove a religion false.

Now, I'm sure you could find someone with retarded beliefs, but essentially, religion are designed in a way they can't really be proven wrong (or right for the matter).

[Max™]

That's the "loophole" relied upon.

You can always just adjust your religion into a new shape that complies with the most up to date discoveries.

[Mizango]

Am I a nerd if I can identify Volvox every time I see these stupid commercials?

(had to memorize like 20 of them in high school)
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/...ll/volvox2.jpg

Nope, I used to love the Volvox too! But I have to say that besides planaria, I'd say that the Euglena is my all time favorite. I can still point out every part of it on a chart still lol. I mentioned this to Woozie a few times, but I was super super close to going into microbiology but went the space route.

Way to redeem yourself.

[Chun Liroy]

Had to memorize a shitload of cyanobacteria, now that I think of it. We had to make over 60 species cards.

[Max™]

I can honestly say I recognized Euglena without even having to try to remember what it is...

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb...4-F85E856C.jpg

>.<

Not so much into micro-biology, rather I just spent a lot of time reading random entries in the encyclopedia set I had in my bedroom, instead of sleeping.

Now I read my math books instead of sleeping, or help my gf realize she loves math again, in spite of dyslexia/the horrible way math is taught. Simply crunching numbers to get answers is something a calculator can do, learning how to write good questions, and understanding why you got those answers is math.

http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o...ithcoins75.png

Doesn't help that arabic numerals are shitty as fuck for the one thing they're supposed to be good at: encoding values

[Max™]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ight-test.html

A private company has launched a new rocket that may carry NASA astronauts to orbit after the space shuttle's retirement.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday at 1845 GMT (1445 EDT), reaching orbit 9 minutes later.
The rocket lofted an uncrewed mockup of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which is designed to one day carry both crew and cargo to orbit. "This has been a good day for SpaceX and a promising development for the US human space flight programme," said Robyn Ringuette of SpaceX in a webcast of the launch.
In a teleconference with the media on Thursday, SpaceX's CEO, Paypal co-founder Elon Musk, said he would consider the flight 100 per cent successful if it reached orbit. "Even if we prove out just that the first stage functions correctly, I'd still say that's a good day for a test," he said. "It's a great day if both stages work correctly."
SpaceX hopes to win a NASA contract to launch astronauts to the International Space Station using the Falcon 9. US government space shuttles, which currently make these trips, are scheduled to retire for safety reasons at the end of 2010.

Neat!

Also cool:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...l-our-way.html

AN EXCESS of high-energy particles hitting Earth may be shrapnel from a stellar explosion 800 light years away.
In the 1930s, it was suggested that supernovae can accelerate galactic cosmic rays. The shock waves from such stellar explosions, or the magnetic fields of the superdense neutron stars left behind, were thought to be able to boost particles from the explosion and surrounding region to very high energies. "But there's been absolutely no evidence for it whatsoever," says Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, lead scientist for the IceCube detector at the South Pole.
IceCube detects showers of muon particles that cascade towards the Earth when high-energy cosmic rays hit our atmosphere. After analysing the distribution of around 4.3 billion muons detected between June 2007 and March 2008, the IceCube team has found a small but clear excess of cosmic rays coming from the direction of the constellation Vela, hinting that the relatively close Vela supernova remnant may be responsible (arxiv.org/abs/1005.2960). "This may be the first strong indication we have" in support of this theory, says Halzen.

http://ccapp.osu.edu/images/rabbasi_skymap.gif

[Pirian]

Morgan Freeman is narrating a new series on the Science channel

Through the Wormhole

[Chun Liroy]

ye olde.

[Pirian]

First time I've seen it