1

General Science / What fringe science has become orthodox science?

« on: 10/12/2011 13:36:23 »

Hi all,

Are there any examples of any fringe science that broke through into the mainstream and became the accepted norm?

There must be many.

I'd thought I'd start a thread about the difficulties some scientists had putting their ideas across.

What scientists were the most lambasted and ridiculed for there ideas, then praised for their genius as tides turned in their favour?
Are there any scientists that died before they got the credit they deserved?

Are there any fringe sciences out there today that you support, but everybody else laughs at?

2

Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Evolution, Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics

« on: 08/12/2011 21:04:03 »

Hi

Can someone tell me at what point in evolution did consciousness start effecting the universe that created it? ("created it" in the sense "the place it grew from")

At some point there was the universe without any conscious beings...but I thought quantum physics tells us the universe doesnt exist without a conscious mind aware of it..

If you use an analogy of the universe being an incubator with chicks growing in it, at some the minds of chicks growing in the incubator started effecting the actual incubator itself, what so special about the brains of the chicks?

3

Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / When and where was the original "adam and eve" of the early humans/apes?

« on: 30/08/2011 09:25:06 »

When and where was the original "adam and eve" of the early humans/apes?
Ive always thought of evolution as a gradual thing over millions of years, fine.
But someone pointed out to me the other day, there must have been the original "mum and dad" of us all i.e if we traced back everybody's mums, mums, mums, mums etc it must lead to the same original pair of apes or early primate.

4

Technology / Scientists make teleportation breakthrough... are Quantum computers coming?

« on: 17/04/2011 15:21:29 »

from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/38/20110415/ts ... fda55.html

Scientists make teleportation breakthrough
Friday, April 15 05:46 pm

Boffins from Japan and Australia have made a huge scientific breakthrough by successfully teleporting packets of light from one area to another.
The mind-bending project, led by Noriyuki Lee at the University of Tokyo, could lead to the creation of super-powerful quantum computers and revolutionise the telecommunications industry.

The team managed to teleport wave packets of light by destroying them in one place and re-creating them in another.

It's an incredible process that means transmitting large volumes of complex quantum information could be quicker than is currently possible.

The quantum physics term behind this experiment is 'entanglement'. It means that two particles can be bonded in such a way that even when separated by large distances, they are still linked. So what happens to one affects the other.

The team linked packets of light to half a pair of entangled particles. They destroyed one of the particles and the light itself, leaving just one remaining particle. This particle still contained detailed information about the light which they could then use to rebuild the original particle.

'Schrodinger's cat'

The process involves 'Schrodinger's cat'. Unfortunately it's not a real feline, but a hypothetical experiment first carried out in the 1935.

Schrödinger envisioned in a cat in a sealed box with a small amount of radioactive material and a Geiger counter measuring radiation. If the atom decayed the counter would release cyanide into the box and kill the cat.

According to quantum mechanics, the cat is neither dead nor alive. Until someone opens the box both possibilities exist. It's supposed to illustrate how in quantum mechanics particles can exist in suspended states of multiple possibilities.

The team at the University of Tokyo were able to put the light wave in a 'Schrödinger's cat' state with the help of a machine simply called 'The Teleporter', and make it have two opposite phases at the same time.

Professor Elanor Huntington, who was part of the research team, told ABC News: "What we've done is take a macroscopic beam of light and put it into a quantum superposition, which is extremely fragile, and teleported that from one place to another."

Doing this demonstrates that - for the first time - blocks of complex quantum information can now be carried by light.

"If we can do this, we can do just about any form of communication needed for any quantum technology," she said.

Unfortunately the breakthrough doesn't mean we'll ever be able to transport human beings, Star Trek style. At present even bacteria is far too complex to be transported.

Which leads to 2 questions to you all!
1) What do make of all this?
2) Can Quantum computers ever happen??

5

Technology / Will technology ever replace sniffer dogs?

« on: 07/01/2011 14:59:26 »

Hi

I remember a news story a year or 2 ago that said scientists were working to perfect a new technology in which "living olfactory cells" would be placed on electronic chips, offering an accurate sense of smell as an option for portable devices.

Do you think gadgets will ever replace sniffer dogs?

It would be great for police in regards to detecting bombs and drugs.

thanks