1

General Science / Re: Is cold fusion possible?

« on: 16/12/2006 23:11:55 »

Yes, quite exciting but best not hold your breathe. According to the register it won't be up and running till 2015 and they're unlikely to have worked out the design for an actual power plant till 2035! http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/29/france_fusion_win/

Cold fusion would be the business but, AIUI, the problem is getting the nucelei close enought together against charge repulsion unless they collide at fantastic speeds (ie high temperature)  []

2

New Theories / Re: Creationism and death

« on: 17/09/2006 15:10:10 »

quote:Originally posted by thebrain13


This is what I assume. Time cant end, there can always be a next year, even if the earth explodes, the universe stops moving, all the energy is used up, there will always be a next thousand, million, billion, trillion on and on and on years. Time is infinite. So given that time is infinite, what are the chances that we exist at only this one specific point in time? I guess the equation would be our lifespan divided by infinity, in otherwords that chance is infinantly small, or that thought (which is assumed by everyone) is impossible........

...... eventually the right amounts of carbon nitrogen oxygen hydrogen etc will collect on earth, the sun will burn just hot enough and you will exist once again, even if it takes a trillion trillion trillion trillion years.

So thats how I know einstein, me, you, and george washington cant truely die. They existed once, and they will exist again......

Interesting argument but IMO it falls down by assuming too many infinites.  

I'm not sure whether time will end or not but I do think there is a finite amount of energy/matter in an expanding universe.  Therefore eventually, in fact quite soon by your timescales, there will be no suns and therefore no life as we know it (Jim).  

Probably no matter either in the 10^48 years you estimate this might take to come about, the half life of the atomic neutron is thought to be less than a trillionth of that! http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/proton.html

3

General Science / Re: falling off my bike

« on: 16/09/2006 20:29:14 »

Momentum!

4

General Science / Re: Help required from scientists please!

« on: 16/09/2006 20:18:06 »

I feel that it is worse but that is just a personal impression based on stories like falling applications for science courses, the closure of university science departments, shortages of funding for space research and so on.

How much of that is down to the government and how much to other agencies or just fashion is hard to say.  Certainly the higher top-up fees for science courses can't be helping, nor the ever increasing disparity with salaries paid to lawyers, financiers, footballers, TV presenters, estate agents and politicians* []

*not to mention authors!

5

New Theories / Re: Creationism and death

« on: 17/09/2006 15:10:10 »

quote:Originally posted by thebrain13


This is what I assume. Time cant end, there can always be a next year, even if the earth explodes, the universe stops moving, all the energy is used up, there will always be a next thousand, million, billion, trillion on and on and on years. Time is infinite. So given that time is infinite, what are the chances that we exist at only this one specific point in time? I guess the equation would be our lifespan divided by infinity, in otherwords that chance is infinantly small, or that thought (which is assumed by everyone) is impossible........

...... eventually the right amounts of carbon nitrogen oxygen hydrogen etc will collect on earth, the sun will burn just hot enough and you will exist once again, even if it takes a trillion trillion trillion trillion years.

So thats how I know einstein, me, you, and george washington cant truely die. They existed once, and they will exist again......

Interesting argument but IMO it falls down by assuming too many infinites.  

I'm not sure whether time will end or not but I do think there is a finite amount of energy/matter in an expanding universe.  Therefore eventually, in fact quite soon by your timescales, there will be no suns and therefore no life as we know it (Jim).  

Probably no matter either in the 10^48 years you estimate this might take to come about, the half life of the atomic neutron is thought to be less than a trillionth of that! http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/proton.html

6

General Science / Re: falling off my bike

« on: 16/09/2006 20:29:14 »

Momentum!

7

General Science / Re: Help required from scientists please!

« on: 16/09/2006 20:18:06 »

I feel that it is worse but that is just a personal impression based on stories like falling applications for science courses, the closure of university science departments, shortages of funding for space research and so on.

How much of that is down to the government and how much to other agencies or just fashion is hard to say.  Certainly the higher top-up fees for science courses can't be helping, nor the ever increasing disparity with salaries paid to lawyers, financiers, footballers, TV presenters, estate agents and politicians* []

*not to mention authors!

8

General Science / Re: Are we getting smarter?

« on: 10/09/2006 16:07:43 »

quote:Originally posted by bigOz

I believe, just like the rest of the human physique evolving into different shape and size, when affected by external factors over long periods of time, so does the brain. With increasing demand on information intake and learning process, the brain must be developing to  adjust to larger storage and processing capacity.

Do you mean "evolving" (ie changing over generations through mutation and selection) or development through exercise, like body building?  

Personally I don't believe there has been any measurable evolutionary change over the period in which intelligence has been attempted to be measured.  Nor can I see any evolutionary mechanism that would favour greater intelligence in the modern era that didn't exist in the past. If you're smart enough to walk and breathe at the same time you've got as much chance of surviving and passing on your genetic material as anyone else. []

However, I am willing to believe that our ability to think improves with practice and that this might be reflected in changes in the structure of the brain.  I have seen some evidence to support this idea,  although only in the press (off duty I avoid scientific literature like the plague, which in many ways it resembles).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/677048.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1118603.stm

9

Physiology & Medicine / Re: How does human evolution work?

« on: 31/08/2006 22:14:01 »

quote:Originally posted by rosy
Well, evolution's certainly natural, but it's no more "for the benefit of humankind" than gravity is.

Exactly! Evolution's so last millenium - in a few years we'll be able to make changes in one generation that would take evolution a thousand.  

Sea level rising? Gills please, with a side order of webbed feet. Oh and hold the haemophilia! []

10

Just Chat! / Re: O.K Worst combinations??

« on: 31/08/2006 07:41:47 »

Coffee and tea []

btw, is it just me or has everyone tried this?

11

Just Chat! / Re: The Get Well Soon Thread For Neil

« on: 31/08/2006 07:35:50 »

Sorry to hear that Neil's not well - wishing him a speedy recovery.

12

Physiology & Medicine / Re: How does human evolution work?

« on: 31/08/2006 22:14:01 »

quote:Originally posted by rosy
Well, evolution's certainly natural, but it's no more "for the benefit of humankind" than gravity is.

Exactly! Evolution's so last millenium - in a few years we'll be able to make changes in one generation that would take evolution a thousand.  

Sea level rising? Gills please, with a side order of webbed feet. Oh and hold the haemophilia! []

13

Just Chat! / Re: O.K Worst combinations??

« on: 31/08/2006 07:41:47 »

Coffee and tea []

btw, is it just me or has everyone tried this?

14

Just Chat! / Re: The Get Well Soon Thread For Neil

« on: 31/08/2006 07:35:50 »

Sorry to hear that Neil's not well - wishing him a speedy recovery.

15

Just Chat! / Re: Statistics

« on: 29/08/2006 07:16:37 »

quote:Originally posted by 4getmenot

I do not see how this stuff comes easy to others...man...this is truely ging to give me grey hair...

Take it easy! Remember at the far end of the bell curve is the possiblity that you will guess all the answers correctly* []

*note - this only works if you answer randomly

16

Just Chat! / Re: WORLD CUP

« on: 17/06/2006 21:56:53 »

quote:Originally posted by ukmicky

COME  ON ENGLAND

 2.0

Michael

I was talking to a Scottish lad before the game and he said he didn't care which country won, Trinidad or Tobago! []

Didn't see him afterwards, funnily enough!

17

General Science / Re: How does a spider know how to make a web

« on: 14/01/2006 17:33:17 »

quote:Originally posted by Searcher

No living creature is born with  knowledge[:0]

Is that the necessarily true?  I can't think of any fundamental reason why the genome should not contain survival critical knowledge as well as other information.

I had a quick rummage through the internet after reading your question and most sites tend to call this kind of thing "instinctive behaviour patterns" - but, as you imply in your question, some of these seem to require a good deal of information to work.http://www.a2zpsychology.com/psychology_guide/instinct.htm

18

Just Chat! / Re: Pensees de Morbidity !

« on: 12/01/2006 23:52:14 »

quote:Originally posted by neilep

Dearest Internet Wonderfun of Astute Perspicacitinations,

Yes?

quote:Recently I was wondering how much space on the Internet is being used up by people who have passed away. Pages and pages of email accounts, retail web page accounts, blogs, photo gallerys, posts in forums etc etc that will never be used again.

Never mind the dead on the net,internet storage is now of a size that a lifetime of human sensory input could be stored - chuck in a bit of processing power and maybe you, or something based on you, could "live" in there!  

Now that's scary![:0]  But kind of interesting too []

19

Just Chat! / Re: Great landmark

« on: 30/12/2005 23:48:50 »

Happy millenuntium! []

20

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Whiteholes

« on: 30/12/2005 12:55:08 »

quote:Originally posted by DoctorBeaver


White holes are summised to be regions of space that spew out material. I'm not sure about size but I don't think they can be infinitely huge or we'd be in 1.

Maybe we are!  The big bang fits that description of a white hole mostly and since all matter, energy, time and space flowed out of it, the universe could be described as still being in it.  []