A Place For Science

OPERA Trying to send a "bit" of information faster-than-light.

2011-10-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

About 3 weeks ago the OPERA neutrino experiment at Gran Sasso laboratory reported FTL neutrinos. Since than, many explanations came about to explain how this surprising measurement was probably an error, discussions like (the inconsistencies) of tachyons, the problematic relation on astrophysical data, environmental explanation on experimental details, and general relativity effects.

But farther on this note, OPERA scientist thought that maybe they could send a "bit" of information to travel FTL. However, even thought FTL is still in debate OPERA assumes that the "measurement is correct and that there is no systematic shift in the measured data". They thought that based on this assumption it was possible to send a "bit" of data at FTL, with an experimental setup and of course to see if there was any mistakes on the Lorentz symmetry or errors in the causality principle.

So far there is no errors on the Lorentz symmetry as well as the on the causality principle based on the experiment, thus, the intend to send a "bit" of information was unsuccessful meaning that it was not possible to send information at FTL.

BUT!! this argument goes far beyond.

Scientist at CERN/OPERA have considered that just because the experimental setup was particularly set on a time length of 10000ns, scientist objected that maybe, by improving the luminosity and the position of the experiment or putting the neutrino detectors much much more farther away...the sending of a signal faster than c might be indeed possible. The bad news is that this might be an extrapolation (construction of new data points) meaning that nothing will change by changing the experimental setup. This is because the Lorentz symmetry (The feature of nature that says that experimental results are independent of the "orientation" or the boost velocity of the laboratory through space) and the causality principle (the description of cause and effect) are our basic understanding of nature.

So far CERN/OPERA scientist believe that the rejection of at least one of these "basic understandings of nature" (Lorentz symmetry or causality principle) might be because of the actual "transmission" of the "bit" of information sent at FTL and not by an extrapolation in the experimental set.

The group of scientist who wrote the paper on the experiment at CERN quoted: " Nature may be subtle, protecting these basic principles with the help of some not yet understood 'censorship' mechanism".

What sort of mechanism is this?? if such mechanism has a censorship on this principles, it is quite unusual to see neutrinos having the ability to travel Faster-Than-The-Speed-Of-Light, therefore, an error must be going on somewhere on this measurement. Why can a particle travel faster than c and a "bit" of information can't? It smells like rotten fish to me, and quite honest we will never know if this experiment was incorrectly set up until we get farther results from other institutions that have measured the neutrino speed and confirmed that, indeed, it is possible that neutrino particles travel faster than light. Until than, my best guess would be that physicist don't have a theory to explain why information goes slower than the speed of light and the apparent measurement of a neutrino particles shows the possibility to break the universal speed limit, meaning that the "basic understanding of nature" might not be "so basic" until farther results.

But I had to ask myself this, if neutrinos could travel faster than the speed of light and not be able to send a "bit" of information, what about quantum entanglement or the 'spooky action at a distance' being able to send random information to the other side of the galaxy instantaneously? Whatever it is, here I leave you with a video by Michio Kaku about Quantum Entanglement.

Source: Arxiv :1110.3642v2 [Hep-ph] 18 Oct 2011 Could The OPERA setup send a bit of information faster than light? F.Giacosa, Pkovacs, and S.Lottini Institute for Theorical Physics, Johan Wolfgang Gothe University, Max-von-Laue-Str. 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main and research Institute for particle and Nuclear Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Science, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary

FTL neutrinos might have an explanation?? (Maybe, Maybe not) + Interesting take on this by Phil Plait aka Bad Astronomer

2011-10-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Recently a team of scientist from the OPERA experiment measured a cloud of neutrinos going faster than the speed of light. Their measurement was very sound saying that the neutrinos were traveling about 64 nanoseconds faster than the usual speed limit (Which is not very much). However, A recent study may suggest that this whole thing might be explained with relativity.

Ronald A.J van Elburg has a different note on this (see paper). He says that just like when you have a one meter long of straw hold by your hand, an observer away from you will see this meter straw much shorter. This is because the universe makes sure everything has the same speed. In other words, If the only speed that the Universe claims to be the speed limit, no matter what. The universe will make sure to make that happened. We know this because Einstein found that the speed of light is the same for every observer, so this would mean that being away from 1 meter long straw or close to one it will still be, however, a one meter straw for every observer , even if it looks shorter or just like one meter straw being hold by your hand.

But I must quote the Bad Astronomer on this issue about his last post (Which I agree): "As I recall from the foofooraw that unfolded after the initial announcement, the original experimenters said they accounted for all relativistic effects. The paper they published, however, didn't include the detail of how they did this, so it's not clear what they included and what they might have left out. It's possible van Elburg might be right., but I expect we haven't seen the end of this. After all, not long after the announcement, a physicist asked if they had accounted for gravitational time dilation - like relative velocity, gravity can also affect the flow of time, throwing off the measurement - and the experimenters said they had." (Badastronomer 2011/10/15)

If this discovery by van Elderburg is incorrect...This might as well be the beginning of new physics and new theories to apply to our technology. I'm very exited about this and is something that is very important to be clarified once in for all.

Interview with Antonio Eridato

2011-09-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

What are Neutrinos?? Do they have Charge??? Here is an interview with Antonio Eridato spoke person of the OPERA experiment.

Disclaimer: this interview was not made by me.

Now neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light as shown through the results via CERN

2011-09-23T13:11:00.000-07:00

So yes!!! It is news!! is awesome interesting, amazing, gorgeous, extraordinary happiness news!!!! Faster than light neutrinos have been observed!!!

The OPERA experiment (The most brilliant and awesome experiment by far to me) has gathered data of over 15,000 neutrino events from CERN 730 km away of Italy's INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory.... SO... would it require a complete rewriting of physics??? Here is an interview with Proffesor Brian Cox on the subject.

This is better than Christmas!!!

The Only Way To Tell Whether Something Is real Is To See If It Works For You. Is This A Legitimate Principle?

2011-08-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

I don't think so, if speaking to physical reality, however, if speaking to feelings or modesty than yes it might be a legitimate principal, when you experience events through your life, your reality becomes different by the second than everyone else. The fact that everyone that lives in this world called "Earth" has a different reality is the main reason why your reality becomes real and different to you, per say, when everyone plays a different view of things upon the reality of events such as physical events (Laws of Physics, Matter, Energy..), social events (Relationships, Friendships, Social Interactions,...), human feelings and emotions (Breakups, Lost of someone loved, Fights, Anger, Happiness, Love, Affection, Contempt, depression, Anxiety, Desire, Despair, Disappointment, Ecstasy, Frustration, Boredom...) anything based upon this subjects that make up yours and everyone else's reality.

The most basic understanding of what really stands around you are the none social events, such as physical things, like when light reflects upon an object such as a tree and your eyes indicate that the tree is physically there. In fact, that particular tree that your eyes are seeing will form part of everyone's reality and your reality as well, when that particular tree is there. Using your senses to detect what physical object is in front of you. However, if your own reality of things are based upon who you are, what have you done, what is your position in your society, etc...than everyone's reality becomes different but not necessarily has to work for you or anyone else in order to be real.

To some people when something is real is when feelings and emotions such as love, a love that can or must be mutual in order to know if what they want for their reality works for both of them or not. The same way if something is real to you but not to her, and in the same way if it works for you but not to him, than that kind of reality makes it different for both of them because they want or don't want different aspects of what reality of relationship they want to have.

Reality in my opinion can be based in different categories like mentioned before, the reality of the physical, the reality of the world, the reality of emotions and feelings, the reality of society. They are all based upon events that makes it different to everyone else, this functions properly like a perpetual motion machine when all of the aspects of reality work together.

If something is real because it works to you and makes you alive, than yes, in order for something to be real must work for you, (Speaking) for the aspect of every single individual. However, if is speaking in the physical aspects of nature, than no, not necessarily. A tree is in your reality because is there and even if it doesn't work for you that the presence of the tree is there, you cannot make a tree disappear with your thoughts so it can live this world just to make it work for your reality in the real world we live in. If you think the opposite nevertheless, than I'm sorry friend but the world doesn't revolve around you, Copernicus taught us "The Earth revolves around the Sun, not the Sun revolving around the Earth".

In Memory Of The Space Shuttle (IMAGES)

2011-07-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

It all began in 1972 when Congress approved funding for the shuttle program. In 1977 NASA began to combine a 2 rocket launch system, an orbital spacecraft and a re-entry space plane with modular add-ons.

The first of its kind was the Enterprise built by NASA in 1974 to perform space flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of space flight.

In 1975 NASA began constructing the first space-worthy space shuttle the Colombia. First launched on the STS-1 mission and the first of the Space shuttle program, it completed 27 missions before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 near the end of its 28th. STS-107. (We will never forget the crew of STS-107).

The STS-170 Crew.

Over Texas, during re-entry on earth's atmosphere. The lost of Columbia and its crew was one of the biggest break downs NASA and all of the people has ever had.

January 1,1979 a contract award was signed to create a vehicle who could later be converted to a flight vehicle. In order to prevent damage during structural testing, qualification test were performed to a factor of safety of 1.2 times the design limit loads. The qualification test were used to validate computational models, and compliance with the required 1.4 factor of safety was shown by analysis. The Challenger was born.

Challenger was destroyed as it broke up in mid-flight in the second minute on its tenth mission, on January 28, 1986 at 11:38:00 am ET. The breakup was ultimately due to the failure of an O-ring on its right solid-fuel rocket booster.

While going up...

It occurred within our eyes what no body would have expected that would happen...

(We will never forget you STS-51-L crew).

This next spacecraft takes its name from four British ships of exploration named Discovery, primarily one of the ships commanded by Captain James Cook during his third and final major voyage from 1776 to 1779.

In 1980 the Space Shuttle Discovery Started it structural assembly of aft-fuselage and being finally ready in August 12, 1983 after a complete check and final acceptance. Discovery was NASA's Orbiter fleet leader, having flown 39 successful missions in over 27 years of service. It made its final touchdown at KSC on March 9, 2011 at 10:57:17 CST.

Next we have our beloved Endeavour, built with new hardware designed to improve and expand orbiter capabilities. Endeavour flew it final mission, STS-134 to the ISS in May 2011 after 18 years of service.

Endeavour was named through a national competition involving students in elementary and secondary schools.

Earth's horizon as seen from the Endeavour.

And last, and the very very last to flight into space is the Atlantis. The last active space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), it deployed the planetary probes Magellan to Venus (on STS-30) and Galileo to Jupiter (on STS-34) besides other missions that will be remembered through out history. Atlantis launched successfully for the final time on the 8th of July 2011 at 16:29:00 GMT.

The Atlantis space shuttle cockpit.

And of course the last crew of the Space Shuttle Program in history the STS-135.

And last, a video of the last lift-off of the Space Shuttle Program.

"Dear Space Shuttle,

Thank you for all the assistance you have provided us during all this years. We appreciate the hard work and advice you have given us,as well as the connections with new frontiers. Your expertise and help have been invaluable to all of us during this process.

Again, thank you so much.

A Place For Science."

Source:Wikipedia

"Tarot cards never lie." Is this true?

2011-07-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

Some people think so, and I’m not justified in believing it. For example, the chance of one card of the tarot that tells you that you are going to die is 1/40 because if I'm correct, the tarot hand has 40 cards. The chance that one of those cards will say that you are going to have a pleasant and calm life, therefore, is also 1/40. As a result you have a very good reason to begin writing your testament for believing that you are going to die, or a very good reason to start packing for a better life.

Eventually, if this knowledge has some certainty than of course, the preposition that the tarot cards works will have some certainty. But, what kind of certainty? I know that the tarot cards are all designed in such a way that any card that is thrown will make you think that you are going to die or that you will have a pleasant life,but the human brain is not designed for good reason to doubt a preposition, but for some reason, is designed to find some sort of justification. In fact when people need some sort of justification, or just because they have heard a testimony that the cards do actually predict the future, the less background of information to justify a preposition, the less conflict with the preposition and the more reason there is not to doubt it. However, if you put a question mark after Tarot; if we have good reason for believing it to be false, it will not justify the preposition to be true. Even if all our sensory evidence indicates that it is. I have a good reason to doubt a reading if it conflicts with the exactitude of the prediction that I have reasons to believe. Like Descartes said once, “When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable”.

I don't believe in the tarot because I do can figure out for myself what it is more probable to happen in the future of my actions than a reading of cards that has algorithms designed to propose your future. But, in fact your own future is determined by what choices you make. Yes, you can have a pleasant life after all, but even if the reading says that you are going to be rich, I can't say that the possibility of you becoming rich is implausible in fact it could happen in 3 ways. (1) you win the lottery , (2) you choose wisely or (3) you are lucky enough to that you have choose wisely.

The tarot randomly will tell you the future that you want to hear, but will never tell you how your future is going to be.

Astrology. What would you do to show them the error of their ways? (My thoughts)

2011-07-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

Try to find a good reason to make them think that astrology is wrong, better reasons, better prepositions, astronomy.

The more likely it is they will start thinking scientifically the better. Some people who believe in astrology believe that to know about planets is the ability to predict the people's personality, future, and to have no doubt of what kind of life this person will have depending in its zodiac sign. I would find good reasons to make them doubt about what astrology propose, than, I think they cannot have a good reason to believe in astrology. But how? and why take their believes away like a father taking the candy from his beloved kid?

In the first question of the how, I would try to explain the laws of physics and demonstrate that gravity is stronger on an apple being hold by your hand than the gravity of a planet affecting on you. I would try to demonstrate through out perception, introspection, memory, and reason that the constellations in the sky are no entirely still, that stars move like planets and that they have nothing to do with your personality; I would try to show them how mathematics works to explain the physics behind nature so they can have reasons to find the scientific method more interesting by learning more scientific background.

Just like they were the very same Babylonians who thought and reasoned the misconception of the position of planets having an effect on you. I would try to make them think that hepatoscopy is not the way to know the future just by explaining that the liver is an organ, that you only have one and is not meant to sacrifice it for the gods to get your future revealed by the their made up gods. Teaching them real science would make the astrology believers, them who have no reason, to not doubt what's disclosed to them through perception, introspection, memory, or reason than what they are justified in believing through astrology.

Is it logically possible to make a robot (a mechanical device composed of inorganic materials) that can think, feel, and act like we do.

2011-06-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

One way to see if this can be physically possible is to think of deep blue. The first chess machine who beat Kasparov, the world's best player. Deep blue was able o beat the human thinking in a war game, however this machine was only programmed to think a pattern of algorithms to make the next move. In some sense deep blue would be a clear example of the beginning of a thinking machine, but be careful, not yet a rational thinking machine because deep blue is only programmed to recognize different sets of patterns and choose which move is the most probable move to win the entire game. For machines to feel is not entirely impossible if the robot has installed on their robotic arm a some sort of skin to sensor what it is around, and even better yet, this machine could be programmed to record all different senses with specific algorithms that have been programmed into a positronic brain. And again, is far beyond our time spam.

For machines to act like humans would be almost possible but not possible. the reason is because machines won't be able to understand what is love, or even understand the relationships of love and pain, or the relationship of dreams and life experiences. OUr brains are very similar to a computers pc, but the one from a pc is inorganic and not highly evolved, our brain can make calculations in 1 sec much more faster than what your regular pc would do. So for a machine to be like us would require for the machine to learn and be conscious, aware to be determined alive. The most popular believe between humans and terminator like machines is that many people think that machines don't have souls, that only humans have souls. However, incorrect.

The whole idea of thinking that humans have a soul is not scientifically proven, what we know as soul is our consciousness, so by the time a machine becomes self aware of its reality than we are screwed.

Machines and humans will be categorized differently, we would be monkeys and they would be cold calculating self aware machines who's superiority will exceed in many ways yet unknown. They could be highly intelligent, highly evolved, and just by thinking these things they might even reach a point were different patterns in their intelligence will make them act like we do, but never feel like we do because they are not humans. They are machines.

Today is not possible to make a robot like DATA because the technology is not there yet. But, one day we will have robots to do all basic things that men kind have done for years, like serving a drink for example replacing bar tenders, or buying and selling shares in the stock market, so a human can become rich.

I often think of FUTURAMA, where "Bender" a roboto from the future who likes to drink and slack off is almost the very same image of some human behaviors. A roboto with such qualities would replace dogs and cats as pets, this kind of robot is the friendly robot is the robot that everyone would like to have, but than we have SKYNET per example. A self aware highly intelligent machine who plans to kill the entire race. No one likes this robot because SKYNET would be the kind of robot that has a Napoleon complexity. So this AI still very robot, and has no idea of planetary diplomacy.

On the other hand we have ASIMO, the only human shape like robot who already does many things such as walk like humans on two legs, bring your food to your table, laugh at your jokes (even though they don't get it). So the thought that robots like humans are logically impossible is incorrect, ASIMO does many human like functions, because the robot was programmed to do these things, until a roboto doesn't become self aware of what is doing, we don't really know if the AI will have a human like personality, we don't even know if the robot will ever learn the set of human values and from there determine weather we should be killed or we should live. A robot is not highly intelligent from what is is today to do this kind of functions and reasoning.

No one likes the idea that some other intelligent "being" will one day walk with us. because we have been here for millions of years, but after all we are all basically made of the same ingredients, their made of metal and we are made of flesh, we all need atoms to be present in this world, they will age like us, they will rust and we will oxidize .

One great advantage is that they will never know the kinds of pleasure that we have unless these robot will be build to study the kind of pleasures that humans have, such as eating, sex, smelling, smiling, sarcastic jokes, affection. One example is that, if this kind of robot is the one from the movie Bicentennial Man, where a robot who functions as a servant seeking for human like experiences,than Andrew Martin, the name of the robot, could eventually be considered human after doing so many plastic surgeries to its body, with technology that might even help humans in the future to live longer. Although the committee who decided weather Andrew should be considered human or not had a rough time because Andrew still had a positronic brain rather than a normal organic brain, and "he had lived much more than any other human being". Ironic isn't it? at the end Andrew dies, his heart stops beating (yes he had a robotic heart) and his positronic brain stopped functioning (making it officially dead).

What ever the kind of robot we want to think of, if it is a killer robot, a robot with Napoleon Complexity, a robot with human like attitudes or a robot with an obsession with cosmetic surgery to become more human are still far from our time line, but this does not mean that they can't act like us or made the same mistakes that our race have done in the past.

Diamonds Is The New Geek's Best Friend

2011-04-28T15:22:00.000-07:00

On April 23, 2011 Devin Powell author of ScienceNews wrote an article about how diamonds could store data by manipulating atoms inside the stone, which in turn could encode information as 0s and 1s simultaneously functioning as a quantum memory. This eventually, a "possible hope" of the beginning of quantum computers will start solving problems that today are not possible with current technology.

But every good idea has its problems.

The diamond is composed of pure carbon crystals which won't do the job. One of the most common defects of a diamond is the presence of Nitrogen atoms that makes the stone yellow.

When a nitrogen atom sits next to a vacant spot in the carbon crystal, the intruding element provides an extra electron that moves into the hole. Several years ago, scientist learned how to change the spin of such electrons using microwave energy and put them to work as quantum bits or also called qbits.

Diamond memory has several advantages: It works at room temperature, it's very stable, and it can be scaled up to larger sizes. David Awschalon of the University of California, Santa Barbara, discussed the technique at the American Physical Society's March meeting in Dallas, Texas.

If everything is solved all right and scientist actually managed to solve the nitrogen problem correctly, this will revolutionize quantum systems. Many quantum systems today require temperatures close to absolute zero, the greatest advantage of the diamond memory in my opinion is that it works fine at room temperature, meaning that the memory won't overheat at all and won't be needing any cooling system that goes almost below zero temperature.

Tourmaline: The unconceivable effect.

2011-03-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

This spring break I got to go to Las Vegas, NV to visit and get to know more about the awesomeness of casinos and learning which kind of games are more efficient to make you lose your money in the most kindly and greedy but vainness way. GOOD thing that I managed to lose my money in buying good clothing!

During this trip while I was walking in the mall located around 50 meters north east of Treasure Island (don;t really know the exact coordinates) I found this little store in the first floor selling some type of bracelet composed of a very rare mineral.

The seller was telling me how effective the stone was for improving circulation, relieving stress, increasing mental alertness and strengthening the immune system function, she later made me wear the bracelet and extent my arm into 180 degree position. Than pushed down my arm with the bracelet on and after that she did the same thing without it. I realize that she pushed down in different places of my arm, sometimes with less force and other times with more force depending on the point of push on the surface of my arm.

(to tell you the truth I believed that the bracelet worked....shame on me honestly)

This first impression of this pseudoscience got me caught up after that when she was explaining to me how the bracelet worked. I was baffled how the bracelet did have some sense of equilibrium on my body but i asked her how this bracelet exactly worked than I just got skeptic.( She was actually selling me tourmaline with a huge lack of understanding of simple physics).

Let's begin.

Tourmaline is scientifically interesting for being piezoelectric (electricity resulting from pressure) and pyroelectric ( the ability to gain a temporary voltage when heated or cooled). These property of the tourmaline has become very popular in the market and many devices are advertised based on the scientific premise of "Tourmaline generating negative ions" and "Far-Infrared light" (FIR) radiation.

Examples like hairbrushes, bracelets and water purifiers.

The hucksters who promote these largely worthless products by convincing people how to find blinks to something that never had eyes, or to make you find platforms to some land that has been ALWAYS a cliff... will guarantee to confuse you! and the LARGE amount of public whose limited understanding of science makes them vulnerable and the perfect target for exploitation.

What they don't tell you is that as far as for (FIR) goes... all materials releases its energy in the far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. So when they tell you that tourmaline helps improve circulation, relieves stress, increases mental alertness and strengthens your immune system function; and all of that by the tourmaline to its ability to absorb energy from a variety of sources such as -sunlight, body or room temperature and releases its energy in the far infrared of the spectrum to equilibrate your body...they are just simply LIES! No research has showed that tourmaline has any proven effect on you in any kind of way.

Coffee Good for women but not for men

2011-02-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

Yep, that is sad news... we man can't understand coffee...coffee doesn't love us :( coffee loves women...but wait I love women too!! why can't coffee love me the same way??? well according to some studies from Bristol University, UK suggest that women who drink coffee may perform better in stressful situations than those on decaf beverages and that for men is completely the opposite. Here is the link of the article.

But you know what? I still love coffee even if coffee doesn't love me back!! Call that masochistic, schizoid love towards coffee or whatever! i don't care! LOL i like my coffee even if i can't perform better under stressful situation as suggested from Bristol University. :P

The MOST bizarre thing in the MILKY WAY= Hyper-fast star faster than ever??

2010-07-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Is been a while since i posted anything in my blog, and to be honest i didn't know what in the world post. But today i just saw some interesting post at nasa's website. This for me is like the most bizarre thing I ever read in my LIFE! According to NASA (As said in the article) a hundred million years ago, a triple-star system was traveling through the bustling center of our Milky Way Galaxy when it made a life-changing misstep. The trio wandered to close to the galaxy's giant black hole, which captured one of the stars and hurled the other two out of the Milky Way. Adding to the stellar game of musical chairs, the two outbound stars merged to form a super- hot, blue star.

-Here is the image for graphical explanation.

1.Triple-star system moves near black hole at center of Milky Way galaxy.
2.One star falls toward black hole; binary pair recoils and is ejected.
3.Binary system leaves galaxy.
4.Binary merges to form blue straggler.
5.Blue straggler travels away from galaxy.

The most bizarre thing of all, is that the blue star from the triple star system that escaped the milky way galaxy, did it twice as fast than any regular hyper-fast star,(which by the way are very common in the Milky Way). A team of investigators calculated the speed from the point of ejection to its current location and quoted,

"The star is traveling at an absurd velocity, twice as much as the star needs to escape the galaxy's gravitational field," explains Brown, a hypervelocity star hunter who found the first unbound star in 2005. "There is no star that travels that quickly under normal circumstances-something exotic has to happen."

So, the most interesting part is that astronomers indicate, that this exotic matter might be the always known but yet unknown dark matter. Is very bizarre to know that in our galaxy the way that dark matter pulls a rabbit out of the had with something so bizarre as contradicting the usual speeds of hyper-fast stars is pretty amusing, not only dark matter is invisible and is pulling apart the universe together with dark energy but now it seems it does it without a constant speed.

Could it be that the black hole help out by inertia the blue star and that added up with the pulling force of the dark matter distributed in our galaxy? who knows....but the amazing universe is more pulchritudinous than ever.

A Reply to the Bad Astronomer to his last post of Stephen Hawking

2010-04-26T08:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday night there was the premiere of the new TV series of Stephen Hawking called "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking". I must say it was probably the best series Stephen Hawking has done so far. But this post is not about the documentaries he does, is about discussing a little bit about aliens and Phil Plait's recently posted "In which I disagree with Stephen Hawking". In his post he discusses Stephen Hawking's opinions with more opinions.

I have to say that even thou Stephen Hawking might be the smartest cookie in the globe today, it seems Phil Plait is very skeptic about his opinions and stood up to be the first contender against hawking's point of view of aliens. After I read his post I was kind of skeptical myself as well, I must say, and therefore I had to post my opinion in his blog posting this.

"To Bad Astronomer, I think that we cannot know how the aliens will look like, or what are their intentions. Just imagine ourselves as the aliens traveling through other galaxies to explore new worlds. What would our intentions be? I mean really, we haven't have the time to really think it through, we haven't been in outer the milkyway so we can't really tell what the aliens might do because we think like humans who just been to the "moon" and we just think what the aliens can possibly do, but not what humans possibly might do if we are able some day to do interstellar travel. In a logical point of view, the human rationale is only queerer than we can predict so just imagine how queerer an alien species might think logically.

We can assume that aliens might send robots to take our resources or just simply think that they were so intelligent that destroyed themselves and that's why we don't see any E.Ts visiting earth.

I think that whatever race who develops interstellar flight it doesn't mean is most likely to be doomed. It can mean progress if we take a look int he optimistic way. There can be many possible reasons for an alien to take our resources the same way there can be many possible reasons the aliens didn't make it to earth. There can't be a single reason of why we cannot think in some possible reasons to be doomed or at least some possible reason to be unique.

At the end of the day it makes no difference, everything continues forward. Life is just life where you put it and questions are just questions seeking for a logical answer. In my opinion I think is better to be prepare for any possible threat and at the same time workout a way to be prepare for a peaceful alien visitation. There are plans for everything the same way there are ideas for the unknown but we need to realize that not all that we know about logical way of thinking is completely accurate when it comes to E.T visiting earth."

I was very skeptical after what the Bad Astronomer posted and per say, these little battles between Stephen Hawking and Phil Plait are kind of cool. I really hope Dr. Phil Plait seeks for more battles, he certainly looks like a very nice contender.

Garlic: A 360º Report in Vampirism

2010-04-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

Today I felt like writing about something completely different from the usual stuff. This is a report based mainly in to the understanding of "garlic". By now you must be thinking, why garlic? WTH! happened to pseudo-science? Well, to not get confused with the subject. Garlic plays a very interesting role in spiritual and religious believes that have been around even before Van Helsing came with the idea of using garlic as a weapon against Count Dracula.

But, before beginning to explain and comment about the insubordination of garlic I would like to make a brief introduction to garlic for those who are not very familiar with it.

Allium Sativum, commonly known as "GARLIC" is a species in the onion family alliance. It's close relatives with the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Throughout history garlic has been used for culinary and medical purposes.

Now, let's make a really brief explanation about the history of this sativum.

To begin with, garlic, comes from old English "garleac", meaning "spear leek". DATING back over 6,000 years ago, it is a native of Central Asia, and has long been staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent seasoning in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Egyptians used to worshiped garlic and placed clay models of garlic bulbs in the tomb of Tutankhamen. garlic was so highly prized, it was even used as currency.

(Can you imagine! Client: "I would like two pints of beer please" Bartender:"Sure! it would be 5 garlic cloves") ROFL!

Going far forward after the Egyptians. Garlic was frowned upon foodie snobs in the United States until the first quarter of the twentieth century, being found almost exclusively in ethic dishes in working-class neighborhoods. But, in 1940, America had embraced garlic, finally recognizing its value as not only a minor seasoning, but as a major ingredient in recipes. Quaint diner slang of the 1920's referred to garlic as "Bronx vanilla, halitosis, and Italian perfume". Today, American alone consumes more than 250 million pounds of garlic annually.

(That's a lot of garlic in 1 year for 1 country).

Garlic may be applied to breads to create a variety of classic dishes such as garlic bread, garlic toast, bruschetta, crustini and canapé. Oils are often flavored with garlic cloves. These infused oils are used to season all categories of vegetables, meats, breads and pasta.

So, imagine how much stuff garlic is used just in culinary arts today. But we have to remember that garlic is not only used for gastronomic purposes. A lot of people use garlic in cooking without knowing that this herb has quite a few medical uses. AFTER some considered garlic as evil and BEFORE garlic had an important role in WWII even though penicillin had been discovered. Garlic was known to aid digestion, ward off colds, infections, expel worms, ease chest congestion, help alleviate rheumatism and cleanse the intestines, as well as hardening of the arteries, sinus problems, skin complexion, and hay fever if taken in capsule form in regular basis.

(LOL,to avoid problems. Please consult your physician for further details before taking any capsules. I don't want people dead because of what you read here. LOL).

By now, you must be asking. So how in the world Count Dracula suffered big time when garlic was around? Well, this is a very interesting question. Sadly I couldn't ask Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia personally why he hated so much the garlic. But, there is some theories about why Dracula hated garlic so much.

One theory is that garlic has been known as a mosquito repellent for centuries. Is kind of obvious that, knowing that mosquitoes suck your blood and transmit diseases thanks to their feeding tube. Is very tentative to associate a mosquito with Drake. Of course, if a mosquito has a feeding tube, Drake has his long fangs. If a mosquito sucks blood, Drake sucks blood. If a mosquito transmits malaria, Drake transmits vampirism. If in the folklore of garlic about mosquitoes being repelled by garlic was true, the folklore of garlic about Drake being repelled by garlic was also true.

(So, if you ate a clove of garlic and you have stinky breath, you are protected against vampires and mosquitoes ROTFLOL!!!).

But, all of this folklore about garlic is kind of missing something. What in the world makes garlic so special? Well, is very interesting. When you crush a garlic or also called Allim Sativum it yields "allicin" a powerful antibiotic and anti fugal compound (phytoncide). That is why garlic is so good with almost everything (Even Vampires). The taste and smell of garlic is thanks to a large number of sulfur compounds, this compounds. The most important compounds found in garlic for the taste and flavor are "Diallyl disulfide" for the odor component and "Allicin" for the hot sensation of raw garlic.

Maybe Drake hated the components from the bottom of his heart!

In addition, when the garlic is crushed it releases this chemicals to open thermo TRP (Trasient receptor potential) channels that are responsible for the burning sense of heat in foods. The process of cooking garlic removes allicin, thus mellowing its spiciness. (A reason why garlic powder is not as strong than raw garlic).

Also, this well known phenomenon of "garlic breath" is alleged to be alleviated by eating parsley. However, some people regards this as a myth- it is no more effective than chewing any other substance (such as chewing gum).

But not to panic! if chewing parsley doesn't fix the stinky breath we must remember that garlic was a force for both, good and evil!!!! Though it is not mentioned in the bible, a Christian myth considers that after SATAN left the Garden of Eden, garlic arose in his left foot print and onion in the right. ROFLMAO!!!xD.

But does garlic gives you gas? It can! garlic and its cousins the leek and onion, are high in inulin, a pro-biotic soluble fiber in the form of a fructose polymer that is indigestible by the human starch enzymes amylase and ptyalin; it passes straight through the human digestive system, unless digested by something else along the way. if it is digested by bacteria in the colon, gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen may be produced as a result. It`s worth nothing that garlic, leek and onion widely considered to be beneficial herbs that stimulate good health in the cultures where they are widely used. One hypothesis is because their high inulin content stimulates pro-biotic growth.

(This brings back memories of a very recognizable saying which was: "He may forget your name, but he'll know you've been there".)

Any way, garlic has many myths an legends surrounding it (one of the main reasons I wrote about it). After all this report about vampires and garlic I learned that the effective use of garlic is no longer a myth anymore. Hey!! garlic was eaten to fight off the plague in Europe!

So the next time you need to treat your body right consider garlic as an all around healing option. The only side effect of garlic is "garlic breath". But I repeat talk to your doctor FIRST!!!

The Concept: Strange Bedfellows The Target: Homeopathy

2010-04-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Homeopathy is a pseudoscience that has existed for more than 200 years. Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician, developed homeopathy in about 1796. He was dissatisfied with the conventional medicine of his time. And therefore he invented an alternative medicine, he was tired of seeing people die because of the remedy than by the disease itself. Hahnemann did not believe in atoms, and yet, he thought that matter could be divided endlessly.

The essential method of homeopathy is to dilute a substance by reducing its concentration of it by a process called "potentization" where by as said before; is a substance getting diluted.

The substance must be diluted with alcohol or distilled water and vigorously shaken in a process called "succusion". Shaking by forceful striking.

Considering the understanding of modern biochemistry, it is paradoxical that a process of dilution would arrive at a higher potency than a lower dilution, and in some highly diluted preparations there is very low probability for even a single molecule of the original substance to be present. As a matter of fact to make things more specific. The New Age movement is found in the emphasis upon some mystical energy (called the "vital force") which, though unquantifiable, supposedly permeates the universe and is responsible for healing.

(Ironically, the same way my nose predicts a T-storm).

One of the most gathering amusing things about this subject is the way how many physicians deeply believes in Homeopathy.

When you take a look in the internet, you can find very amusing things to read about homeopathy. There are some interesting articles written by doctors such as Dr. Peter Klay. In his article we can find how he intends to revive or just let's say, to introduce the basic principles of Homeopathy to science in a very optimistic way.

Dr. Klay explains how Homepathy can activate beneficial genes such as p53. He also explains how this "highly sophisticated molecular biological techniques" such as dilution and dynamized ( potentized) can, in fact, not only cure cancer but prevent the battle against cancer. (If I understood the article right, Of Course).

( What Dr. Klay doesn't know is that my nose can create a neutron star potentized in diluted space).

I think that Dr. Klay is not trying to consider that when you dilute a substance and you know that the greater the dilution the most likely the dilution will not contain any molecules of the substance being diluted.

When talking about amusing you know you're talking about something funny. But, when you talk about Homeopathy acts different in different genetic blue prints is like saying that Haiti recently lost many citizens because of a Hurricane, when everybody knows it was because of an Earthquake.

New Homeopathy is the new thing in the New Age movement to the new people getting involved in the old Homeopathy. New Homeopathy compared with he old Homeopathy is diluting DNA molecules with specific nucleotide sequences, this specific nucleotide sequences it refers to SNA ( Specific Nucleotide Acids) as the New Homeopathy. Now!! after all this nonsense i'm commenting here I asked myself this question, I mean really, how could highly DNA molecules target beneficial health promoting through their sequences?

Nevertheless, according to New Homeopathy and Dr. Klay is called "Telepathic DNA".

I know it sounds very pseudo-scientific, but, not to fear!

"If it walks like a duck, and looks like a duck; and sounds like a duck, than it probably is a duck". To what extent does homeopathy look like a complete QUACK, QUACK, QUACKERY? Let me rephrase the so called telepathic DNA and SNA invention of Dr.Klay and his stooges to clear the faulty logic.

The first example of SNA argument shown in Dr. Klay's article just show the fact that homeopathy does not guarantee validity because in first place, the more diluted a substance the more it loses its properties and second, just imagine the quantity and assortment of substances to dilute and actually recognize each and every single one of their DNA structures to make it recognize our own sequence! ENDLESS!!!!

Per say, I'm not saying is impossible I'm just saying that you can't really tell when a grain of salt is going to communicate with your hair to heal your toe. Even WORST! diluting salt with hair to hear your toe.

The paper of "DNA double helices recognize mutual sequence homology in a protein free environment" is, in fact, very interesting. However, from that paper written by Baldwin GS, Brooks NJ, Robson RE, Wynveen A, Goldar A, Leikin S, Seddon JM, Kornyshev AA. and to call it homeopathy is "non sequitur". Yet again, when diluting chocolate with mil and adding more milk to try to make it taste more like chocolate is not a logical way of thinking.

I just hope that my nose doesn't lose power when homeopathy strikes it with "homeovitality" power.

"The only thing necessary for quackery to succeed is for intelligent people to do nothing"

When Scientific Minds Turns To The Dark Side

2010-03-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

One of the things in the scientific community this days is the panic in where pseudoscience begins to operate and starts to boil the blood and minds of many scientist and skeptics. This mind blowing scenes of illogical, irrational and absolute rubbish science creates a very agonizing atmosphere to future scientist. Certain things like wrack science or tethered scientist manifesting a wrong doing of science, and therefore, corrupting the minds of the people who are not aware of the science behind it and purely making them believe magic tricks while disguising pseudoscience with science. Is a clear example of how pissed-off a scientist can get when this sort of things happens.

A clear example of this sort of "crimes" is Dr. Rupert Sheldrake and Barbara Ann Brennan.

(This are the description of the criminal minds extracted from the Wikipidia)

-Dr. Rupert Sheldrake is a Ph.D in biochemestry from the University of Cambride, England. He is known for having proposed a non-standard account of morphogenesis and for his research into parapsychology . His books and papers stem from his theory of morphic resonance <---(Does this even works under 10^-12 or also called 1 Picotesla?), and cover topics such as animal and plant development and behaviour, memory, telepathy, perception and cognition in general. His publications include A New Science of Life (1981), Seven Experiments That Could Change the World (1995), Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home (1999), and The Sense of Being Stared At (2003).

-Barbara Brennan is an American author, spiritual healer, businesswoman and teacher working mainly in the field of "energy healing" . She coined the term "High Sense Perception" to describe her work. Brennan received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1962 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and two years later received her Masters in Atmospheric Physics from the same institution. She then worked as a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. From 1970, she researched and worked with the "human energy field". She completed a two–year program in Therapeutic Counselling at the Community of the Whole Person in Washington, D.C., followed by a three-year program in Core Energetics at the Institute for Core Energetics in New York, New York in 1978 and a five-year program in Spiritual Healership at the Phoenicia Pathwork Center in Phoenicia, New York in 1979. She was strongly influenced by Eva and John Pierrakos, who founded a system for self-transformation called the Pathwork, drawing on the ideas of Wilhelm Reich. Brennan worked with the Pierrakos, and became...

a practitioner of the Pathwork and core energetics. She developed her own private healing practice and then established a training programme to teach others. Brennan claims Ph.D,s in philosophy from Greenwich University and theology from Holos University, both earned in 2001.These universities are unaccredited.

To begin, I will show you a 1st video where Dr. Rupert Sheldrake intends to use probability to prove a theory with lack of measurement such as Telephone Telepathy. And a 2nd video of what is "energy healing" and advertising a CAREER dedicated to the study the human energy, consciousness systems, as well as personal TRANSFORMATION, earning a B.S in science from Barbara Brennan School of Healing located in Florida.

P.D: The Barbara Brennan School of Healing is not accredited by the U.S. Office of Education (USOE) or the Council on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation (CORPA).

VIDEO Nº 1

VIDEO Nº 2

As you can see in the first video, Dr.Sheldrake intends the use of probability of a "dice" to prove the telephone telepathy. First up, to prove how rubbish this experiment is I went over this video over and over and over and over again to find the flaw. I first asked myself this question, what's the probability of not rolling a 5? Well, is obvious 5/6 right? everybody knows that! Now... what's the probability of right guessing? Well...here! is where in the video doesn't give you enough information therefore proving telephone telepathy with no evidence. Let me explain why.

At the beginning of the video Dr.Sheldrake begins rolling the dice getting a 2. OK, so far so good the sister calls her other sister named Colin and suddenly Colin, the sister in the room, guessed it right she knew who was the sister who was calling her. In the second throw the dice showed a 4, this time Amy got to use the phone and as a matter of fact, Colin guessed wrong. Than in the 3rd throw in the video it doesn't show what Linda got!! which makes the test a complete "Rubbish" because is not allowing to see all the data. After all this throws the narrator of the videos says, Note: Amy's number has come up 4 times and only 3 Colin guessed wrong.

Further in the video we can see Linda getting a 5, but we can't count the probability of the throw because we don't know which throw was it when Linda got a 5, or even if Linda got a 5 all the time.(when it comes into specifics, the experiment turns into an absolute TRASH).

Further more, the narrator almost at the end of the video says that after 3/4 of the way through....Colin guessed right and made a 50% right guessed. (She also said that this video was one of the highest test results conducted by Dr.Rupert Sheldrake out of ONE THOUSAND test). To make it more unclear, when the narrator says 3/4 of the way through... I was kind of curious because she also said that Colin got from the "known troughs" on the video, 3 right and 4 wrong....O_O coincidence? Similar Numbers? Telepathy? or a Magic Trick Under The Logic Sleeve?

OK, know let's take a look at our second criminal mind in the 2nd video. First, let me remind you guys that Brennan claims to have Ph,Ds in philosophy from Greenwich University and Theology from Holos University, both earned in 2001. We also know that this universities are not accredited.

The first priority of the BBSH is to help people to feel safe enough to go into their real feelings applying this next techniques.

1. Willingness and participation from the client (very obvious).
2. Straight up energy healing (I haven't found a measurable chakra or the prove of their existence)
3. Sessions that involve dialoguing and passing on tools to create pathways for the individuals to further "get to know" themselves.
4. Identify brain patterns.
5. Participate in their own healing process. (How good can that be if the healer can't do the job...)

To learn this techniques in the school you must work first with a licensed healer/psychologist from BBSH. This techniques combines solid hands-on healing with "psychological process work". (This is scary, while you are getting heal at the same time they're giving you the brain wash of your life).

I was kind of curious of what kind of psychological process work this school was using, BECAUSE I want to warn any person out there to be careful into what you guys might really get into.

List of techniques:

1. They rattle on about the psychology of your family's history and current problems.
2. The possible outcome of them knowing this, is them, being assertive by knowing your psychological problems and knowing how to make you feel good with the right answer to your questions. (This can be highly harmful when you're not knowing you're being seeded with their B.S).
3. They combine psych skills with psychic skills, which is considered to be powerful. (What a scam they not only empty your budget but they also make you stupid).
4. Barbara's Energy Skills are energy patterns (according to her) with an habitual defensive structure categorized by: schizoid, oral, masochist, psychopathic and rigid behaviors. (OK! now my brain waves turn to have psychiatric names).

Nevertheless people!!!! if you ever consider to do any of this scams or you even consider to be part of a RUBBISH experiment ask yourself this first.

Do I want to be an Idiot?

Science, Psychology and Type-1 Error

2010-01-30T14:06:00.000-08:00

Every person in the American society theorizes about many paranormal activities. The widespread of folklore and insignificant evidence within the paranormal are a significant introduction for superstitious beliefs. For decades this notion of the transcendent, supernatural or numinous, usually involving entities like ghosts, demons or deities, is a cultural universal shared by all human cultures.

Since this phenomena has been around for years we must seek for an explanation for this paranormal activities. As a result the most common explanation is within the imagination of the human mind causing paredolia and apophenia.

A type 1 error (false positive, false alarm, caused by an excess in sensitivity) is a situation created when the brain interprets random patterns as being familiar patterns according to Charles M. Wynn and Arthur W. Wiggins from the book "Quantum leaps in the wrong direction:where real Science Ends and Pseudoscience Begins" . When a person that often believes in paranormal events as something beyond the natural and has claimed for evidence of "seeing" the paranormal activity as a scientific evidence of this phenomena, they don't realize that it could have been a very common type 1 error. For this reason there is a way to explain a paranormal event with a consistent scientific explanation.

But you must be thinking, In what we can associate a type 1 error? Common locations of this error are often found in EVP ( Electro Voice Phenomenon), RF ( Radio Frequency), ITC (InstrumentalTranCommunication) where supernatural phenomenon such as ghost, things moving, poltergeists and voices are commonly found.

Every attribute given as supernatural belief like "ghost trapped in this world", "ghost with unfinished business" , "unexplained energy", "objects flying and moving", "weird steps", "Cold temperatures when a ghost is present" and the "white noise from EVP" creates a concern for all living things and a certain respect to be in harmony with the phenomena. When this values are present the believer often avoids all scientific evidence supporting this values and therefore, creating paranormal beliefs without significant evidence. Like Albert Budden defines in "The poltergeist machine",

"By definition, the paranormal does not conform to conventional expectations of the natural. Therefore, a phenomenon cannot be confirmed as paranormal using the scientific method because,if it was, it would no longer fit the definition."

(This definition is quit interesting because if the hoaxers and frauds where able to get away with their work, than Albert Budden and the scientific method would be wrong by definition.)

When expanding sensory images we often realize that by the time a paranormal event occurs the believer will fight for the farther truth without a sense of logic, by the time this happens, feelings an apophenia will shine a ray of hope to insignificant data.

There is many organizations that today, still believe that all of this supernatural phenomena are based in the regular type 1 error attributes like: James Randi Foundation and Foundation for Paranormal Research which I consider serious.There is also a lot of other foundations and organizations that try to explain this phenomena without the scientific method like: Florida Paranormal Research Foundation and organizations of self-proclaimed serious,critical researchers when they seem to work with psychics like Ghost Research Foundation. And I must say i'm not emphasizing foundations applying psedo-scientific explanations for many things than physics can explain.

So people when you see a movie about ghost, hear the radio about the paranormal and watch TV shows talking about psedo-science don't forget that there is no farther truth than to find significant evidence about the subject and a rational explanation to give.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

2009-12-23T16:05:00.000-08:00

Hello fellas!

This year has been very exciting for me, I hope that also was exciting to you as well. My wish for this next year is that this blog gets a better template LOL!! a one that suits much better. I also have to say that after all the great achievements in science and many other achievements in other areas as well, it has been a very special year for me. In many aspects of course, but talking about me and and how special was this year to me, is not the subject in this post. I have to say something very important in this post.

The invention of Christmas eve... a celebration of cheerful and lovable dinner, received gifts and a lot of wine! Is intend to make people happy, to remember good memories, to decorate, to sing and play music and carols, to write postcards to our friends and family and wait for Santa to receive the most waited gifts.

But we have to remember the ones that don't have presents to receive, a family to cheer greetings , cloths to put on, and a house to live in. I dedicate this post not only to the people that reads my blog ones in a while or to the ones that just passes by for curiosity to see my blog ; but to the people who don't have access to internet, a computer to learn, families under pain because they had a very important lost in their families, to the poor who is in need and is under war circumstances, to the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan for their country and mainly for those poor children who are starving and struggling for their lives.

Therefore, this post is specially for them.

P.D: I really hope you guys have an enjoyable Christmas, and I wish you the best in this holidays!!

The "turn on" of the LHC

2009-11-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

I guess many of you have witnessed via any source of network communication, media, or newspaper that yesterday, Friday the 20th of 2009 the CERN started to operate the LHC, the world's largest and higher-energy particle accelerator.Physicist really hope that this outstanding machine will help answer fundamental questions about physics today, like moments after the Big Bang, supersymmentry, the famous Higgs boson called the "God Particle" and any evidence of other dimensions. Now, the experiment which constitutes of many other experiments such as ATLAS, CMS, LHCb and ALICE is successful.... this means according to the Wikipidia.... :0)

"....a single Higgs boson may be produced every few hours. At this rate, it may take up to three years to collect enough data to discover the Higgs boson unambiguously. Similarly, it may take one year or more before sufficient results concerning supersymmetric particles have been gathered to draw meaningful conclusions"

O.O Well, that wasn't hard enough to understand. After all the accidents that the LHC been through, like this one or this one I can now relax, lean on my chair and follow CERN from twitter :oP specially to wait for some conclusions for the next 3 years HAHAHAHA! (I won't stay on my chair for 3 years! Doh!)

Now the most intriguing part of the LHC is that those conclusions can help our technology, like computers spacecraft and I guess medicine too. Imagine that we get a to discover the Higgs Boson! well that actually could help us in the understanding of our universe and therefore many quantum problems involving technology such as Quantum Computers can be more sophisticated. How? I certainly don't know i'm not a computer scientist LOL but my point is that knowing more about the universe can help us a lot for a Warp drive, Teleportation , nanotechnology, Dark matter, Dark energy and String Theory and it derivatives.

In the meantime before all of this happens we must wait .....Ahem! 3 years for conclusions LOL soooo.. the only thing I can do..is like a said before lean on my chair and follow CERN on twitter HA!

Clarification of causes and effects of the universe and humans

2009-11-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

With regard to human beings:

The Law of Cause and Effect is a law of life that many people do not take into account, and that is really the most important to achieve good results in all aspects of our lives.

The Law of Cause and Effect is also known as the Law of Consequence, remuneration or compensation. The Law of Cause and Effect is a law that works well on all levels and brings the realization that everything we sow, both in thought, word and action. This means that everything we do sets in motion a cause and it brings a consequence, positive or negative, depending on the cause putting into motion. There is no chance, good luck or bad luck, just results.

With regard to the physics:

In physics, the term describes the causal relationship between cause and effect, and is central to all the natural sciences, particularly physics. In general terms, causality can be studied from several perspectives: the philosophy of computing and statistics.

The principle of causation posits that all-around event-effect should always have a cause (which, in identical circumstances, a cause always has the same effect is known as the "principle of uniformity"). It is used to search for defined laws, which assign to each cause a corresponding effect.
This principle reflects a mechanical behavior of nature, which until the twentieth century had been accepted and performed in a deterministic sense. However, early this century introduced its Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that profoundly altered the classical principle of causality.

Heisenberg and other parents of quantum mechanics introduced a model of the atom that abandoning the classical vision of a compound of particles and waves. It was concluded that it was doomed to failure any attempt to draw analogies between the atomic structure and our intuition about macroscopic objects. The mathematical formulation of the theory of Heisenberg was initially called matrix mechanics, because it required the use of arrays of classical linear algebra. This formulation was up to the mechanical wave, the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger.

Using this mechanical energy levels or electron orbits are described in probabilistic terms: in general, for the same cause is due not always the same effect, but there are a variety of possible effects. Only one can predict (although, in principle, with a total reliability deterministic) the likelihood that, if the cause is, occurring every one of the effects.

Conclusion:

The cause and effect in relation to man and with the science of physics are completely different. The cause and effect in our lives are events that cause us either through our thoughts, words and actions, or in relation to what are strewn with all of the above. But in the end physical cause and effect are not words or thoughts or actions in relation to what is strewn with the above. Think that based in multi verses...the physics itself explains the causes and events therefore physics can explain an equilibrium in every universe. Imagine that you are a time traveler that manages to go to the past, you will actually go to the past of another universe with the same conditions than your universe, but is a whole different universe because nature manages that if you go to the past you won't go to your own past and change the future, so when you manage to make a bifurcation in the river of time, every action you toke in the past of your universe won't alter the past of the other universe because it wasn't your past, so if you go to the past and you kill your grandfather you won't be actually killing your grandfather, you would be killing another persons gradfather in another universe which could be or couldn't be your paralel grandfather. why? because the physics points to an equilibrium of each event . So every action you might take that would violate this equilibrium at the same time will violate the laws of physics and the universe will manage to make it stable again.

An example: imagine that in your time life you witness a terrorist attack to a ship, many people die, now you discover time travel, you go back to the past to catch the dude of the bomb and kill him, you kill the man who putted the bomb in the ship but than you see that the ship sinks and again, many people die. You manage to go again to the past to figure out why did the ship sunk, you discover that it was a hole that the ship had so you fix it, but this time when you get out of the ship you die. But actually the guy who die was your future "you" not yourself. So actually the future you changed, the course of time made a bifurcation in the river of time and the old river just vanishes and the new river continue. So every action you take that might violate the course of physics at the same time physics finds a way to stable the violation to its equilibrium.

Wrote by ALAN CEDENO

(this article is highly patented)

Boldness, God and Science

2009-10-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that this past few days I have been having some interesting discussions about what is going on in bold science today.

Although I'm not a scientist or I'm not studying Physics (Which i will in the future), I have been reading a whole bunch of books and articles about Science, studied mathematics by my own and I'm person that needs a rational explanation about nature itself. I agree that I still need more education to at least debate something about science, but I want to discuss something that should be debate.

Not long ago, I had a great conversation about God with one of my cousins. He strongly believes that the theory of evolution is a completely fake, because we humans are made on gods image. I strongly disagree on that because we don't really know what's the image of god itself.

During the conversation we talked about different subjects like, robots, spirits, demons, mind control and many other stuff. we specially talk about spirits and demons. The great part of that subject is that he claims to believe that such things actually exist, spirits, demons, belzebu etc... namely that even thou he claims to have seen spirits or that even his house have been haunted, I still don't believe that such things actually exist.

The particular reason of why I don't think such mythologist beliefs exist is because even that we may not have an explanation in some supernatural event, there is always going to have a breach to question it. There for a simple and rational explanation will appear. Such things like spirits can't exist because we don't know what god or whatever it is that created the universe, is planning, doing, thinking and dreaming. In particular it seems that actually god is made upon our own image HAHAHAHAHAH!

The people with such beliefs of spiritualism doesn't realize that every demon, every spirit, every supernatural event, every exorcist, every witch, every pseudoscience, every close minded, are based in the thoughts of the human mind since the beginning of religion. Every kind of mystic being or religion and every kind of mystic belief without a rational explanation of such mystic being or event are just a mind control of masses. I think that all of this mystic things that had been around since centuries are pure business, they make others be blind folded to avoid any medical treatment with this great excuse "god is just testing you to see if you are prepare to go to heaven" The religion itself can make some money out of that belief. I strongly belief that innocence about science is the worst crime today.

Which in particular that should be debated in justice. But the majority of those kind of religions, cases where some religions have gods called Eminen, Shakira or President Obama. Are more punished than the church of Christianity itself. Not that I have something against christianity.

The faith that this people have are completely wrong inside a numerous factors of beliefs, per example the ethical faith still struggling against the spiritualist religions. And not just that but also the willing of not wanting to belief that we don't know what god is! and they prefer to have faith in the bible!...instead of faith in one self and the ethics that the humans created. Let's say I believe that at some point in ethics you really don't know what god is!!!... instead of believing that!! they belief that in some point you have to have faith in the bible, Jesus Christ and God itself.

That actually my friends is not fair this occurs because in my opinion every minute you pray, every minute you think that being clement is actually going to give you points to go to heaven are just avoiding you to see the reality of life itself. That reality is that every day there is people dieing on the streets, there are wars that haven't been avoid, there are killers, cowards, braves, and every thing you can think of, that they do claim for a piece of heaven but they don't seem to have the same luck that some other people have. Ins't that unfair? why not everyone goes to heaven? do they have the fault of not going to heaven? or they just didn't had faith in god or had some special problem that actually some person couldn't handle. Why the preachers and believers in religion thinks that god sent his own son down to earth to do the work for god? I thought that god could do everything!

I think faith is very important but depends in what kind of faith you belief, if is good for yourself and for others that is good faith, but if is good for yourself and god! is not good because one is being selfish with oneself by not accepting the pure reality of things. we have to take action to secure humanity. What we cannot do is to stay put and pray to god to save us.

Why do believers actually feel honored that he/she sent Jesus to earth? was it because god is so full of love that he/she decided to take a vacation?

Don't really know... but I have to admit that even thou this people exist I can't help to respect there believes, aether way science and religion are almost the same story the only problem is that from the part of science we don't accept religion to be close minded and for the part of religion they don't accept science to be open minded.

Wrote by Alan Cedeno

Stephen Hawkings has tossed aside the Mathematics professorship at Cambridge University

2009-10-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Article from||Articulo de: Ian Sample

Without fanfare or ceremony, the most celebrated scientist in the country (England), Stephen Hawking, quietly stepped down this week from the most prestigious post in British physics.

Hawking's successor as Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University will be decided by committee this month, but as he moves on, leading physicists warn that Britain risks losing the next generation of great minds.

Government pressure on universities is diverting researchers away from purely intellectual problems and on to sure-fire money-making projects, physicists say. The university's role of pulling in and nurturing deep thinkers will be sidelined in favour of people who can turn profits by making better widgets.

The shift from "blue skies research" to more practical problems will turn gifted students with the potential to be the next Hawking or Sir Isaac Newton off science for good, physicists claim.

The Lucasian chair has been held by some of Britain's finest scientific minds. The tradition began in 1630 with Isaac Barrow, who founded the mathematical tools of calculus. Newton took over in 1669, and was followed by names such as Charles Babbage, the father of the computer, and Paul Dirac, recipient of a Nobel prize awarded for discovering antimatter.

Neil Turok, a leading theoretical physicist who worked with Hawking at Cambridge before leaving for Canada last year, said focusing on industrial applications of science and commercialisation risked ending Britain's history of world-class thinkers.

"Giving up on that tradition of deep intellectual discovery in favour of immediate economic benefit is a huge mistake. You lose the gem of creative, insightful, long-term thinking. That is what Britain has done so spectacularly in the past, and to give that up is a tragedy," Turok said.

The science minister, Lord Drayson, led calls this year for the research budget to be spent on projects most likely to bring money into Britain. The main funding body for physics, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), is reviewing research it supports with a view to giving priority to projects most likely to benefit the economy.

"The government is putting a lot of emphasis on applied research and that sends a message to young people that they don't value the big questions in science," said Brian Foster, head of particle physics at the University of Oxford. "But it's the big questions that get those people excited and into science in the first place. There is a real danger of killing the goose that lays the golden egg."

In May, an Institute of Physics survey of 800 students found that 90% had been inspired into science because they wanted to do pure knowledge and curiosity-driven work in quantum theory, nuclear physics and astrophysics.

"Most students want to be the next Newton, Dirac or Hawking," Turok said. "They want to think for themselves on really foundational problems. Physicists are paid barely sustenance wages for working their socks off on really hard problems. You can't then go and tell them what they should be working on. You mustn't confine the best minds."

Earlier this week, physicists learned that the STFC will give grants for projects for only one year, not the usual five, and that a £30m black hole in budgets will hit basic research hardest.

A principios de esta semana, los físicos se enteraron de que el STFC dará subvenciones para proyectos para un solo año, pero no los cinco habituales, y que un agujero negro de 30 millones de libras en los presupuestos golpearan a la investigación básica bastante duro.

"The legacy of great British physicists is at risk. If these cuts go ahead, it will cause carnage inside the major research universities and Oxford is one of them. We will very likely see physics departments close, and the prospect is bound to make good students go elsewhere," said Foster.

Source:Ian Sample, science correspondent guardian.co.uk, Friday 2 October 2009 22.35 BST

The source and evolution of religion within the rationality of humans

2009-09-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

This essay will try to briefly explain the source and essence of religion. Before we start our analysis a few concepts on the different forms and characteristics of religions must be introduced. Monotheism is the belief in only one god and polytheism the belief of more than one god as the being(s) superior to the soul or spirit. The only god or the most important one is believed to have created and control the universe.

Polytheistic and monotheistic ideas are considered an evolved form of animism.

The opposition to monotheism or polytheism is pantheism. Pantheism is the idea that god is the universe itself and not a separated entity. Meanwhile deism is the idea that god as a separated entity created the universe but does not communicate to people or spirits. This in theism is the idea that god (or gods) as separated entities communicate with people and spirits.

By atheism we refer to the idea that god (or gods) does not exist and there are only the laws of physics.

On the other hand agnosticism is the idea that nothing can be said about the existence of god (or gods).

Unlike atheists or pantheists, agnostics do not deny the existence of god (or gods) they just avoid making any theories about it. Finally spiritualism is the belief that life after death does exist and materialism is the belief that life after death does not exist.

After this brief review of the main concepts we will start analyzing how religion has evolved. The most ancient form of religion developed by humanity is called animism. This was based on the idea that not only people, but also animals, plants and nature objects have soul or spirit which survives death. The worship of these spirits is the most basic form of religion. Old animism did not include the concept of god (or gods) but most modern animism contains either pantheistic or deist ideas. The idea of a human spirit started as an explanation for dreaming (temporal death) and death (eternal dreaming). It was reinforced lately by the idea of life after death. Nevertheless animist ideas started as a human explanation for diseases and nature phenomena.

Later on time we could see the development of a more advanced form of religion called shamanism. This is the name of the practices of a shaman as a healer and magician. It is based on animism, being the shaman the connection with the spiritual world. Nomadic people (hunters, gatherers and pastoral) practiced shamanism. As people become sedentary (agricultural) religion evolves to create an organized priesthood and separates itself from medicine and other practices. After that the figure of the shaman disappears or loses its importance. This is the time when religions start becoming more organized institutions and set of ideas. The more ancient of the modern world religions are the so called Indian and Chinese religions. Later on arrived the so called Abrahamic religions.

The so called Indian or Dharmic religions are the religions originated in India, i.e. Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism has always been polytheistic and Buddhism is agnostic, however both believed in the concepts of rebirth and karma. The idea of rebirth originated in the Indus Valley civilization (ancient Dravidians) before the arrival of the Aryans. However both the ancient Dravidians and the Aryans were polytheistic. Hinduism is the mixture of the Ancient Dravidian and the Aryan religious beliefs. Karma is a concept developed within Hinduism. However karma is a concept common both to Hinduism and Buddhism. This is that the effect of past thoughts and actions continues during subsequent lives. Hence Karma has a moral approach. Another way to call the law of karma is the law of cause and effect, i.e. it essentially means that what goes around comes around.

Buddhism originated when Buddha wanted to “purify” Hinduism by making it more like the original Dravidian religion (i.e. no caste system and more social equality) and by incorporating a solution for the continuous process of death and rebirth by achieving Nirvana. Nirvana or more correctly said the search for Nirvana or enlightenment in Buddhism attempts to break the life-death cycle (rebirth) and becoming one with the universe, this is to be absorbed or become part of the outer universe. Moreover according to Buddhists, Nirvana means to stop the rebirth cycle by reaching perfection. However in a more pragmatic approach, Nirvana is just life auto realization and is always perfectible. Hence it is indeed basically a continuous process of self-improvement and evolution. Nirvana is attained through the practice of the Buddhist law. The path to Nirvana is based on practice of compassion and no attachment. The last goal is self-realization and happiness.

We can see how strongly related to the idea of karma is the concept of Reincarnation, also known as rebirth. According to this idea although rebirth is always a choice for any spirit, the opportunity is not easy to get and is always based on karmic conditions. As a matter of fact many spirits might need to rebirth in more primitive planets or dimensions than earth because of karmic conditions. They might eventually rebirth on earth again and after that in more advanced planets or dimensions if they qualify.
Another aspect of Buddhism concerns the idea of Cosmic Realms, i.e. the mental states in human life according to Buddhism. Most Buddhist texts simplify them into nine basic mental states, though they recognize many more. These states are a reminder of how we should not think or behave if we want to enter the path to Nirvana, and of course to avoid all the negative responses that we will get from these actions and thoughts, i.e. karma. Traditional Buddhism also portraits these states as dimensions where people can rebirth.

The so called Chinese religions are the religions originated in China, i.e. Taoism and Confucianism. In the past like today people in China were polytheistic and believed in afterlife. Taoism started as a philosophy based on the Lao Tze philosophical writings -Tao Te Ching-. Combine with local beliefs it evolved into religion and Chinese medicine. On the other hand Confucianism originated in the writings of a bureaucrat called Confucius. He wrote extensively about the ideal form of government and society. Like Lao Tze, he did not intend to create a religion. The incorporation of his beliefs into laws and customs combined with local beliefs evolved into religion. Although both religions are currently polytheistic, the original Taoism is still considered pantheistic and orthodox Confucianism remains agnostic. Neither religion deals with the idea of life after death.

Hence the original Taoism is the no polytheistic but the pantheistic one. The basis of Taoism is the idea of Tao (also known as the Way), which is difficult to explain. A near explanation would that Tao is the cosmic or universal order. However Taoists mention how difficult is to try to describe the Tao and just try to experience it. Another important concept is the idea of Ying and Yang as the only forces shaping the universe. In the universe there are always neutral or mixed forces or energy along with pure positive and negative forces or energy (i.e., Ying and Yang). Furthermore it is important to emphasize the idea of universal change since no matter, force or energy -be it positive, negative or mixed- remains like that forever. The only permanent thing in the universe is change. Also the idea of passivity and acceptance of the Tao is not exclusive to Taoism. It happens in all religions, i.e. passivity and acceptance of god’s wishes or people’s destiny. However the main difference with Taoism is that acceptance of the will of the universe is not a moral concept, but a natural and more philosophical concept. This makes it very different from other religions, like the ones with human-created laws of morality (supposedly given to the “prophets” by God) implying that therefore these are god’s wishes or people’s destiny.

The Tao or Way is attained through the belief and practice of the fundamentals of Taoism. The last goal is self-realization and happiness. It is simply to be in harmony with the universe or cosmic order and to improve our energy (Chi). The Way looks for the joy of life and “active inaction”. This means to take control of your life through accepting things just as they are and trying to do the best out of them. The idea is that if things must be changed, they will be eventually, but first we must accept them as they are. The so called Abrahamic religions are Christianity, Islam and Judaism, the three only major monotheistic religions. They all believe in the existence of a personal human-like God. The name comes from Abraham, the first known monotheistic religious leader and considered the founder of Judaism, from which Christianity and Islam originated. Before him the Jews were polytheistic, like everybody else in that time. Abrahamics believe in the idea of life after death, but not in rebirth or karma.

In Christianity the goal is the search for salvation. Salvation is attained through the practice of the Gospel. This is essentially to imitate Jesus life and behavior as describe in the Gospel. This includes the practice of compassion, unselfishness, humbleness and especially an unconditional love for God, also known as the Lord or the Father. The final goal is self-realization and happiness. Christians believe that the only god judges all sins and has the right to absolve them. They also believe that the only God is the creator of the universe and the father of Jesus. Hence Jesus is not just another prophet but Gods own son. In addition God is the only that can forgive sins and judge people, especially on weather they will go to heaven or hell after death. Judaism and Islam are similar to Christianity in many aspects and beliefs but strongly disagree with it in the rejection to the idea of Jesus as Gods son, as according to them God cannot have any sons or children whatsoever. In addition both the Torah and the Koran include rules and norms for almost anything in life while the Gospel does not and leaves more gaps open to self discretion. This is due to Jesus disdain for everything “earthly” and a major emphasis on the “heavenly”. As a result Christianity has evolved as a more tolerant religion that the other two.

Finally we must consider the beliefs of the atheists. They claim the nonexistence of God. Their argument is that if you blink to the idea of the nonexistence of God, then look at the way humanity has approached the idea of God throughout the times. The concept and characteristics of God in primitive times is not the same as the later Jewish God, and even the Jewish God characteristics differ from the later Christian God, which also differs from the Muslim God. According to atheists every man or religion creates its own God (or gods). Hence people decide what kind of God they want and then the concept of him will change as people change and evolve. Atheists believe that the idea of God we have today is different than the idea of God we have say one thousand years ago, and will be different one thousand years from now. Furthermore in closer analysis every person has her own concept of God. Every person’s concept of God is not only different but usually reflects individual characteristics and personal ideas that keep changing throughout the person’s life. Hence this is strong evidence, atheists say, that somehow we all create our own God (or gods). In other words our idea of God is only the reflection of in what level of psychological and sociological evolution we stand–which are changing. So they claim why should anybody accept the characteristics of God that someone else has created? Who was Abraham, Jesus, Mohammed or anybody to decide how God was? It was their God. But for example Buddha never mentioned God explicitly, only Nirvana. Here atheists attack again by questioning who is to say that Nirvana is the only way to self-improvement? In the same order of ideas atheists question other beliefs. For example Hindus say we are condemned to reincarnation. But who is to say that we are condemned to reincarnation? Their final conclusion is that men has created and create religions and after all since they were just men, all religions are faulty. They claim that the idea that man created God and not the other way around is proved by the many different and always changing psychological and sociological definitions of God. That is why our God changes and evolves as our personality evolves and as society evolution affects our own conceptions and personal evolution. However the more open minded atheists acknowledge that all main religions show a way to self development and self improvement, but it is important to find the path to happiness and self realization that really fits our interests and goals in life. It can be in the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist or any other path, but we must be happy and fully satisfied with it, otherwise there is no purpose in having such religion unless we just want to be victims of absurd fanaticism and superstition.

Another idea of the atheists is the concept of survival instinct sublimation (SIS). SIS is based on the concept of the need of humans to believe that there is life after death, even though there is no scientific proof of that. They claim this is supposed to happen because human beings as rational creatures have sublimated the survival instinct that is actually present in all irrational creatures. Since we normally are not exposed to life threatening problems as animals do, forcing them to develop certain physical evolutionary mechanisms for survival, we have canalized this instinct into a desire for living permanently. Hence the idea of life after death or “eternal life”, and also the equivalent idea of reincarnation or “rebirth”.
Finally, although not the goal of this essay is to explain the difference between philosophy and religion. Philosophyis simply a framework of ideas - too often an intellectual exercise that contains no motivation to cause the observer to act. This is not to detract from the fine efforts of my favorite philosophers. I personally enjoy serious philosophy (Wittgenstein, Russell and others). But there is a clear distinction between the philosophical endeavor and religion. Religion is the transformation of philosophy into behavior. It is the adherence to a framework of ideas so strongly that we cannot look upon the world without consideration of them.

Cesar Ramos, ph.D in Economics

Water in the Moon!!!!

2009-09-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

BUZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!! Hello guys! I just thought that even if I told you that I wasn't going to write anything until next week I couldn't retrieve for this last post of the week. The great great great news are the NASA has finally found water on the Moon! yeah! not only in Mars but now in the Moon, right next to us. Isn't that cool!!! I bet it is!! well people i'm so happy that I could tell you this. here is the link to a couple good stories about it, I thought you should read this storyand here is the BadAstronomer story. If you like you can go to NASA for more information.