http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/tech/innovation/big-bang-gravitational-waves/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Quote :

"If the discovery holds up to scrutiny, it's evidence of how the universe rapidly expanded less than a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang... ...What's more, researchers discovered direct evidence for the first time of what Albert Einstein predicted in his general theory of relativity: Gravitational waves. These are essentially ripples in space-time, which have been thought of as the "first tremors of the Big Bang," according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics."

[Edited on March 18, 2014 at 10:32 AM. Reason : V it was announced yesterday, weirdo]

3/18/2014 10:29:03 AM

^old

3/18/2014 10:29:55 AM

only about 13.7 billion years old

3/18/2014 10:33:42 AM

^^^and i posted it in this thread yesterday

^13.8

[Edited on March 18, 2014 at 10:39 AM. Reason : ]

3/18/2014 10:38:32 AM

^it wasn't obvious what the link was and you didn't explain what the link was, so i didn't click.

3/18/2014 10:41:44 AM

Quote :

"...What's more, researchers discovered direct evidence for the first time of what Albert Einstein predicted in his general theory of relativity: Gravitational waves. These are essentially ripples in space-time, which have been thought of as the "first tremors of the Big Bang," according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics."

There's a bit of a disservice in the reporting of this event. If the gravity waves were nothing more than echoes of the tremors of the big bang, this would be big... but it wouldn't be that big. This isn't just a Nobel Prize, this is an absolute shoe-in for the Nobel Prize, because the mechanism is novel.

The gravitational waves don't come from some noise of the big bang. They come from the quantum uncertainty of the gravitational field itself at the energies of the inflation period. Because of that, we didn't know for sure that those waves would be there in the first place.

This is madness.

3/18/2014 12:49:05 PM

I thought we knew about gravitational waves via satellites and the moon and stuff...

3/19/2014 1:23:42 AM

I still haven't heard a competent explanation of the goddamned discovery, despite reading several articles.

Although ^^ comes close.

3/19/2014 1:34:07 AM

What I read was that when the universe was the size of a marble, the quantum fluctuations helped smooth things out. Without the fluctuations, the cmb should have less uniformity.

It also puts limits, and outright eliminates, some theories related to unifying gravity and qm.

Doesn't do anything to explain dark matter though, to my knowledge...

3/19/2014 1:42:47 AM

I have trouble saying quantum fluctuations "smoothed things out". I don't think that makes any sense. All else being equal, the universe should have started totally uniform. The quantum fluctuations created lumps that later grew and turned into galaxies. Although, the quantum lumps might have been galaxy-sized in the first place if measured by mass.

I've also read many people say that the gravity waves were "caused by inflation". I don't think this is correct either. Not if I have the slightest shred of an idea what I'm talking about. I blame the graviton for those waves. The graviton is the "force particle" associated with gravity, like the photon is associated with electromagnetism. Some how (I don't know how), but quantum field theory people have a list of properties that the graviton must have. Then, those properties imply that at the big-bang energy scale, the graviton's uncertainty will create waves.

Inflation, as I understand, only smoothed out the gravity waves. This makes sense. The universe was a tiny pool with really big waves. As you make the pool wider and more shallow, those waves are spread over a larger area, and they're not as big.

This also explains the talk about the energy scale. The CMB was created at a known time, which is due to plasma (ionization) physics. Some time before that, all hell broke lose due to the unification of the 4-forces. The inflation was dampening gravity waves between that time and the genesis of the CMB, so the strength of those waves is an indicator of how long that was. Presumably, because we know how strong the waves were when they were produced, because we know about the graviton.

3/19/2014 12:52:03 PM

That's just what i read somewhere...


This has more detailed, specific info: http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2014/03/16/gravitational-waves-in-the-cosmic-microwave-background/


[Edited on March 19, 2014 at 1:11 PM. Reason : ]

3/19/2014 1:11:09 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/professor-learns-of-big-bang-theory-s-new-evidence--celebrates-with-champagne-140544322.html?vp=1

3/19/2014 2:13:32 PM

^^ I believe that doesn't include the recent BICEP2 result. Mentally combine this to get the full effect:

3/19/2014 2:34:01 PM

interesting

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140321-orgasms-at-the-push-of-a-button

3/24/2014 9:51:28 PM

this is way cool

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc.com/future/bespoke/20140304-how-big-is-space-interactive/index.html

3/27/2014 12:05:44 PM

the first one blew my mind

http://www.policymic.com/articles/86377/two-amazing-space-discoveries-could-radically-rethink-how-we-view-our-solar-system

3/27/2014 11:25:44 PM

pretty cool, but still far away from commercial use

http://www.policymic.com/articles/87137/scientists-have-invented-a-way-to-survive-without-breathing for 15 minutes

4/9/2014 9:26:14 AM

Lunar eclipse early tomorrow morning.

http://io9.com/how-to-watch-this-weeks-total-lunar-eclipse-1562849145

4/14/2014 9:54:12 AM

this is interesting from many angles, even if it is mostly a useless study

http://www.policymic.com/articles/87759/there-s-some-pretty-bad-news-for-men-with-beards

4/16/2014 2:35:13 PM

4/21/2014 11:15:30 AM

^ neat.

4/21/2014 7:49:54 PM

^^ I love his videos.

4/21/2014 8:34:33 PM

You should probably start reading Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal if you don't already. It has a lot of similarities to XKCD, but it's even sillier.

4/28/2014 2:00:32 PM

Quote :

"Drink water, eat the bottle Last updated: Monday, April 28, 2014 6:35 PM LONDON — Finished drinking your bottle of water? Now eat it! A design student in UK has developed an edible 'bottle' of water that could rid the world of excess plastic waste. Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez along with fellow Imperial College London students has been working on the Ooho water bottle for the past few years. The bottle is made out of edible materials, looks like a jellyfish, and has the potential to put an end to the bottled water industry, 'Smithsonian.com' reported. Inspired by the juice-filled pearls added to bubble tea and the creations of legendary Spanish chef Ferran Adria, who uses a technique of encasing liquid into edible membranes known as sheperification. Gonzalez and his team first took a frozen ball of water and dipped it into a calcium chloride solution, which formed a gelatinous layer. The ball was then soaked in another solution made from brown algae extract, which encapsulated the ice in a second squishy membrane to reinforce the structure. Keeping the water in the algae solution for long periods of time allows the mold to become thicker and stronger. — PTI"

4/29/2014 1:33:45 PM

ew.

4/29/2014 2:12:45 PM

The dude with in the balloon is probably Wraith's friend. He's lives here in Huntsville, AL.

4/29/2014 4:45:23 PM

http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2014/04/scienceshot-thats-mite-speedy

Quote :

"the predatory mite Paratarsotomus macropalpis, a little-studied desert species first described almost a century ago, scampered as many as 322 body lengths in 1 second. That peak speed, as well as an average speed of 192 body lengths per second, handily tops the previous speed champ (the Australian tiger beetle, clocking in at a mere 171 body lengths per second), the researchers report today at the Experimental Biology 2014 meeting in San Diego, California. For comparison, a cheetah running about 96 kilometers per hour moves about 16 body lengths per second—and humans covering ground as fast as this mite does could run more than 2000 km/hr."

4/30/2014 10:57:48 PM

Several things today!

Why is the "nails on a chalkboard" noise so terrible?

http://gizmodo.com/why-fingernails-down-a-chalkboard-makes-you-cringe-1572285258

Quote :

"After examining the results of a 2011 study, researchers have theorized that the human ear is specifically built so that: Sounds in [a certain] range are amplified due to the anatomy of the ear canal; they are literally louder to us than other sounds are. Experts have opined that in particular, the ear: May have evolved to amplify frequencies that are important for communication . . . [which] could have been advantageous for survival, allowing people to come to the rescue of their screaming infants quicker, and thus improve their offspring's chance of survival, or coordinate more effectively during a hunt."

________________________________________________

How big is the moon? (As someone without a great perception of astronomical sizes, I find stuff like this fascinating)



________________________________________________

A really fascinating piece about hibernation science, and its benefits for our species. I'd heard the stuff about slowed heart rates and lowered core temperatures before, but a lot of the tangential stuff is really interesting too.

http://gizmodo.com/the-big-sleep-how-hibernation-could-overcome-life-thre-1572294234

Quote :

"Lowering your body temperature slows your metabolic activity, about 5–7 per cent for every degree dropped. This in turn reduces the rate at which you consume essential nutrients such as oxygen. Tissues that might become starved of oxygen due to blood loss or cardiac arrest are thus protected. In theory, if we were to keep reducing your temperature, eventually your biological processes would come to a standstill. You would exist in a state of suspended animation. Like a stopped clock, there'd be nothing physically wrong with you – all the components inside would still be intact, simply stationary. All it would take would be a little heat to set you in motion again. Of course, it's not that simple. Hypothermia is dangerous. Your body wants to be warm and will fight to remain that way. Throughout your life, it will maintain a fairly constant temperature of around 37°C. This requires great effort. Your body must perform countless constant adjustments to balance heat production with heat lost to the environment, working to keep your temperature within a narrow band. If it drops too low, your blood is shunted away from the exposed skin and gathers in your central torso while you shiver and huddle under blankets. The effects of more severe cold are disastrous. At a body temperature of around 33°C – just four degrees below normal – your heartbeat begins to flutter. At 25°C, there's a risk it will stop altogether. And even if you survive hypothermia, warming you up again can cause extensive kidney damage."

5/6/2014 12:18:48 PM

this is really cool

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140303-last-place-on-earth-without-life

it explores the extremes of heat, cold, radiation, toxic chemicals, salinity, etc, needed to make sure no life grows.

5/6/2014 11:24:22 PM

Mathematical exploration of sneezing and coughing!

http://www.policymic.com/articles/89189/mit-scientists-reveal-a-simple-sneeze-is-far-more-dangerous-than-you-think

Paper, for those who are interested: http://math.mit.edu/~bush/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Sneezing-JFM.pdf

Make sure to watch the video with the slow motion sneezes!

5/13/2014 3:23:56 AM

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/182236-nasa-creates-star-dust-here-on-earth-for-the-first-time-carl-sagan-would-be-proud


NASA created stardust

5/14/2014 8:59:16 AM

Piss isn't sterile
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/05/23/confirmed-urine-is-not-sterile/

5/23/2014 2:02:31 PM

http://wraltechwire.com/rtp-is-one-of-7-winners-in-1m-stem-education-program/13676999/

5/27/2014 11:14:21 AM

http://boingboing.net/2014/05/29/the-science-of-faceplanting.html

Quote :

"Shortly after World War II, Stapp began a series of tests aimed at designing ejection seats that wouldn’t hurt the pilots they were meant to save. To understand how the seats were injuring people, Stapp ran experiments on living humans — frequently himself — subjecting them to high speeds followed by sudden stops. Just sitting at the computer, reading this story, you’re experiencing a g-force of 1. On December 10, 1954, Stapp strapped himself into a rocket sled, set a land-speed record, and then set a record for the greatest g-force ever experienced by a human when the brakes kicked in. He broke almost all the capillaries in his eyes, but by surviving 46.2 g’s of force, Stapp proved that pilots could eject from a supersonic aircraft — experiencing the massive deceleration that happens when a not-very-aerodynamic human body hits the relatively slow air after leaving a superfast jet. All they needed was the right safety equipment."

For the record, there is a human that ejected from a supersonic flight and survived...but it wasn't pretty.

6/2/2014 12:59:04 PM

New hubble composite image shows 10,000 galaxies

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/june/hubble-team-unveils-most-colorful-view-of-universe-captured-by-space-telescope/

See video here http://www.policymic.com/articles/90463/this-is-the-absolute-best-image-of-the-universe-we-ve-ever-taken



[Edited on June 4, 2014 at 10:49 PM. Reason : ]

6/4/2014 10:49:13 PM

7/7/2014 12:43:47 PM

^they used red x's. cool

7/7/2014 6:08:08 PM

this is kinda [old], but nobody's posted it, and it's bad ass

obscure mathematician proves that there are infinitely many pairs of prime numbers separated by a finite distance (70 million). they've since gotten it down to 246

http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20131119-together-and-alone-closing-the-prime-gap/

7/7/2014 9:08:12 PM

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/blackest-is-the-new-black-scientists-have-developed-a-material-so-dark-that-you-cant-see-it-9602504.html

7/14/2014 12:46:39 PM

Just looked up this thread to see if ^ had been posted. So cool.

7/15/2014 11:19:36 AM

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/huge-crater-mysteriously-appears-siberia

7/17/2014 12:41:18 PM

^similar: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/07/140716-door-to-hell-darvaza-crater-george-kourounis-expedition/

7/17/2014 12:44:41 PM

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/07/detailed-imaging-of-mount-rainier-shows-subduction-zone-in-glorious-detail/

7/17/2014 7:11:41 PM

^ Saw that, thats pretty cool now they can show it like that.

Now waiting for them to do it on a near-active volcano and predict it.

7/17/2014 9:23:40 PM

Mount Rainier is an active volcano. In fact, it is one of the most potentially hazardous volcanoes in the world. (and probably THE most dangerous in the US)... with all the snow/ice on the summit, when it erupts it could produce massive mudflows (lahars) from the runoff.

7/17/2014 9:36:43 PM

Pendulum Waves: http://youtu.be/yVkdfJ9PkRQ

[Edited on July 18, 2014 at 8:30 PM. Reason : artisinal coding did not work]

7/18/2014 8:28:33 PM

http://mic.com/articles/95726/scientists-have-figured-out-how-to-make-water-do-the-impossible

8/8/2014 1:05:37 AM

water has never been able to move up. [/capillary action]

8/8/2014 12:56:45 PM

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/09/04/laniakea_our_local_supercluster.html

Quote :

"They found that the Virgo Supercluster, our old home, is actually part of a bigger structure they named Lanikea, which apparently is Hawaiian for “immense heaven”. No arguments here*! Laniakea is about 500 million light years across, a staggering size, and contains the mass of 100 quadrillion Suns — one hundred million billion times the mass of our star. That’s a lot of mass."

1,000,000,000,000,000 suns

9/4/2014 8:42:39 AM

Yet millions of people still think we are alone in the universe.

9/4/2014 8:56:43 AM