Beta Galaxy

Thick as thieves

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 01:27:00 +0000

The history of 4.000 million years compressed in 3 minutes. Kalle Matson, Kevin Parry, Carla Veldman, Andrew Wilson and Andrea Nesbitt worked in this project around 6 months, and the result is this funny stop motion video.

Via | Kalle Mattson

Yosemite range of light

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:38:00 +0000

An amazing time lapse from Yosemite National Park. It seems your are at the top of the world, or sitting on the hugest roller coaster that ever existed.

Via | Shawn Reeder

Magnifying the Universe

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:46:00 +0000

Thinking about human life:

"Sometimes we think we are important, but maybe we are just a bacteria colony in the middle of a bee's throat"

Via | Numbersleuth

¿Por qué somos tan estúpidos?

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:09:00 +0000

Nuestro cerebro es una chapuza, un amontonamiento de parches que asombra no por su armonía sino porque parecen funcionar lo suficientemente bien como para mantenernos vivos. Y es que nuestro cerebro es propenso a las ilusiones visuales, auditivas y hasta cognitivas. Lo peor de todo, no obstante, es que ni siquiera somos conscientes de lo imperfecta que es nuestra manera de pensar y lo fácilmente que nos engañan los sentidos.

Somos racionales por los pelos. De hecho, la mayoría del tiempo, somos más estúpidos que racionales.

A todo ello sumemos que tendemos a invertarnos explicaciones para llenar nuestras lagunas de conocimiento, aunque esas explicaciones sean incoherentes, tal y como lo hicieron los seguidores de los cultos Cargo: estas tribus observaban aviones de la Segunda Guerra Mundial que aterrizaban llenos de regalos tecnológicos, pero, lejos de admitir que ignoraban lo que estaban presenciando, lejos de ponerse a estudiarlo sistemáticamente, se limitaban a seguir complejos rituales religiosos para que los aviones regresaran (vamos, que inventaron dioses, mitos, sombras que ocultaran sus propias sombras cognitivas).

Para mantener un poco (solo un poco) a raya nuestra estupidez de serie, hace muy poco tiempo (poquísimo, si lo ponemos en perspectiva con los miles de años que hace que corremos por este planeta), un grupo de personas articuló el método científico. Algo así como un juez que arbitra, cuestiona y censura las veleidades de nuestro cerebro propenso a los errores, a la opinión, al sé perfectamente lo que pasa, al se sienten, coño, y todo lo demás.

El método científico no sólo pone en entredicho lo que opina el personal sino que se pone continuamente en entredicho a sí mismo: todo lo que aprueba es temporal y está sujeto a corrección. Pueden existir científicos dogmáticos, al igual que hay personas dogmáticas, pero nunca sus ideas podrán ser dogmáticas frente al escrutinio del método científico: lo que importa aquí son las ideas, no las personas. Y aún así estas ideas no se respetan. Si la ciencia respetara las ideas dejaría de ser ciencia y se convertiría en religión. La ciencia dinamita las ideas para construir ideas mejores.

Pero el método científico sigue confinado en laboratorios y otros ambientes estrictamente académicos. Fuera de ellos es un rara avis, una mutación intelectual todavía muy nueva y minoritaria. Esgrimir el método científico en la vida cotidiana es una empresa casi quijotesca, habida cuenta de que, en cuanto nacemos, somos sometidos ya a ritos mágicos de aspersión de agua sagrada. Cuando adquirimos cierta lucidez mental y nos formulamos preguntas medianamente serias, recibimos de padres y maestros respuestas idiotas sobre el origen del mundo, la moral, los sentimientos y otras cosas importantes.

Si no tenemos la suerte de cursar estudios en los que se enseñe qué es el método científico en profundidad, qué engaños hay en el relativismo, por qué la ciencia no es una cosa de laboratorios sino una manera de pensar, entonces acabaremos despilfarrando días y años en aprender de memoria doctrinas religiosas, literarias y filosóficas que existen totalmente desvinculadas de la ciencia, como si aún viviéramos en la Edad Media.

Mitos y supersticiones, por cuestiones económicas y de indigencia intelectual, se enseñan incluso en Universidades; en farmacias se venderán productos que no superan ensayos clínicos (pero a mí me funciona, qué más da); en el entretenimiento de masas el héroe será siempre el que crea sin pruebas, el que conecte con su yo infantil o el que intente perpetuar la Navidad; seguiremos ad infinitum con la cantinela de que tú no lo crees porque no lo has visto, cuando una de las primeras prevenciones del método científico es que, aunque ante ti se aparezca el fantasma de Alejandro Magno afirmando ser el fantasma de Alejandro Magno, tú no puedes empezar a creer en fantasmas por esa razón tan endeble. Pero creerémos, porque las raíces de nuestros pensamientos, tanto pedestres como elevados, siguen conectados con la parte más primitiva nuestro cerebro. Porque no se dispone a la gente de unas buenas tijeras intelectuales para cortar de raíz.

Porque los que opinan son de letras y orgullosos de serlo, porque los intelectuales que ensalzamos no conocen los principios de la termodinámica, porque en cualquier librería la demarcación de ciencias suele ser la que menos anaqueles acapara; porque en los medios de comunicación no hay tantas secciones de ciencia como de cualquier otra cosa, porque… en fin, porque prácticamente toda la información que recibimos durante nuestra vida sigue estando, estructural y epistemológicamente, al nivel de los analfabetos que se postraban y rezaban cada vez que restallaba un relámpago en el cielo (como los relámpagos tenían origen divino, las iglesias fueron las últimas en adoptar los pararrayos, por considerarse impíos… hasta que las iglesias empezaron a ser las únicas víctimas de los rayos; pero da igual, zas, zas, y nuestro cerebro imperfecto encontrará otra excusa para seguir postrándose y perpetuando otra sombría superstición).

Como colofón a esta diatriba, soflama o simple catarsis, no puedo dejarme en el tintero el siguiente fragmento del profesor de Lógica de la Universidad de Turín Piergiorgio Odifreddi, extraído de su libro Elogio de la impertinencia, que expone magistralmente esta especie de esquizofrenia del ciudadano de a pie: a pesar de verse rodeado de avances producidos por la ciencia en todas las áreas de su vida, continúa viviendo de espaldas a ella y prestándole más atención a lo que diga cualquiera que lleve túnica blanca, negra o con purpurina:

"Por la mañana, la mayor parte de nosotros se despierta con el sonido de un reloj, enciende la luz eléctrica, activa los sifones y cisternas hidráulicas, abre grifos para el agua fría o caliente, coge alimentos de la nevera, prepara el desayuno usando el gas, la electricidad o el microondas, se coloca las gafas, si las necesita, se pone ropa y zapatos producidos industrialmente, conecta una alarma después de haber cerrado la puerta de casa, desciende a la planta baja o al garaje en un ascensor, se mueve con medios motorizados de todo tipo, trabaja en fábricas y despachos ampliamente automatizados, usa continuamente teléfonos y ordenadores, vive en casas de ladrillos calentadas por radiadores, mira la televisión y va al cine, si no quiere tener hijos usa anticonceptivos, si enferma se hace exámenes médicos o radiológicos, toma píldoras y fármacos, se hace operar y trata de prolongar su vida lo máximo posible de manera artificial.Por tanto, la mayoría de nosotros debería saber perfectamente que el mundo está regulado por leyes mecánicas, termodinámicas, electromagnéticas, nucleares, químicas y biológicas a las cuales apelamos, directa o indirectamente, de manera constante."

"Y entonces, ¿por qué una buena parte de nosotros se preocupa por la sal derramada, cambia de dirección si un gato negro le atraviesa la calle, evita pasar por debajo de una escalera apoyada en una pared, toca madera o hace los cuernos si ve un coche fúnebre, conoce su signo del zodíaco, lee y escucha los horóscopos, compra productos de herboristería, practica la homeopatía y la acupuntura, se hace tratar por iridiólogos y sanadores, consulta cartománticos y videntes, cree en los extraterrestres, los ángeles, los demonios, las Vírgenes que lloran y la sangre de san Jenaro, se dirige en peregrinación a Lourdes, Fátima y Pietrelcina, se ilusiona con que las plegarias puedan tener efecto sobre su vida, y destina el 8 % de su renta al Vaticano?"

Via | CienciaXataka

Physicists set strongest limit on mass of dark matter

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 10:21:00 +0000

Brown University physicists have set the strongest limit for the mass of dark matter, the mysterious particles believed to make up nearly a quarter of the universe. The researchers report in Physical Review Letters that dark matter must have a mass greater than 40 giga-electron volts. The distinction is important because it casts doubt on recent results from underground experiments that have reported detecting dark matter.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — If dark matter exists in the universe, scientists now have set the strongest limit to date on its mass.

In a paper to be published on Dec. 1 in Physical Review Letters, Brown University assistant professor Savvas Koushiappas and graduate student Alex Geringer-Sameth report that dark matter must have a mass greater than 40 giga-electron volts in dark-matter collisions involving heavy quarks. (The masses of elementary particles are regularly expressed in term of electron volts.) Using publicly available data collected from an instrument on NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and a novel statistical approach, the Brown pair constrained the mass of dark matter particles by calculating the rate at which the particles are thought to cancel each other out in galaxies that orbit the Milky Way galaxy.

Koushiappas said:

"What we find is if a particle’s mass is less than 40 GeV, then it cannot be the dark matter particle,"

The observational measurements are important because they cast doubt on recent results from dark matter collaborations that have reported detecting the elusive particle in underground experiments. Those collaborations – DAMA/LIBRA, CoGeNT and CRESST – say they found dark matter with masses ranging from 7 to 12 GeV, less than the limit determined by the Brown physicists.

"If for the sake of argument a dark matter particle’s mass is less than 40 GeV, it means the amount of dark matter in the universe today would be so much that the universe would not be expanding at the accelerated rate we observe,"

referring to the 2011 Nobel prize in physics that was awarded for the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

The Fermi-LAT Collaboration, an international scientific collaboration, arrived at similar results, using a different methodology. The Brown and Fermi-LAT collaboration papers will be published in the same issue of Physical Review Letters.

Physicists believe everything that can be seen — planets, stars, galaxies and all else — makes up only 4 percent of the universe. Observations indicate that dark matter accounts for about 23 percent of the universe, while the remaining part is made up of dark energy, the force believed to cause the universe’s accelerated expansion. The problem is dark matter and dark energy do not emit electromagnetic radiation like stars and planets; they can be “seen” only through their gravitational effects. Its shadowy profile and its heavy mass are the main reasons why dark matter is suspected to be a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP), which makes it very difficult to study.

What physicists do know is that when a WIMP and its anti-particle collide in a process known as annihilation, the debris spewed forth is comprised of heavy quarks and leptons. Physicists also know that when a quark and its anti-quark sibling annihilate, they produce a jet of particles that includes photons, or light.

Koushiappas and Geringer-Sameth in essence reversed the annihilation chain reaction. They set their sights on seven dwarf galaxies which observations show are full of dark matter because their stars’ motion cannot be fully explained by their mass alone. These dwarf galaxies also are largely bereft of hydrogen gas and other common matter, meaning they offer a blank canvas to better observe dark matter and its effects.

"There’s a high signal-to-noise ratio. They’re clean systems,"

The pair analyzed gamma ray data collected over the last three years by the Fermi telescope to measure the number of photons in the dwarf galaxies. From the number of photons, the Brown researchers were able to determine the rate of quark production, which, in turn, allowed them to establish constraints on the mass of dark matter particles and the rate at which they annihilate.

"This is the first time that we can exclude generic WIMP particles that could account for the abundance of dark matter in the universe,"

Geringer-Sameth developed the statistical framework to analyze the data and then applied it to observations of the dwarf galaxies.

Geringer-Sameth said:

"This is a very exciting time in the dark matter search, because many experimental tools are finally catching up to long-standing theories about what dark matter actually is,"

from Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.

"We are starting to really put these theories to the test."

The National Science Foundation funded the research.

Via | Brown Univerity

What If other planets replaced the moon?

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:36:00 +0000

Here's an animation to make you feel small, and also convey the deep awe I feel at the feet of the Universe.

So the basic idea is, each planet you see is the size it would appear in the sky if it shared an orbit with the moon, 380,000 kms from earth. This video was created in After Effects, and because of certain technical considerations had to keep the field of view at 62 degrees. That means the foreground element is not precisely to scale. All planets are to correct scale with one another in any case.

Via | Pakiavelli

Happy birthday Neptuno

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:52:00 +0000

While Neptune slogged around the Sun over the last 165 years, a lot has happened on Earth in that span of time. This video chronicles some of the major events that occurred on this planet during a single Neptune orbit.

Via | HubbleSite

Sierra Nevada night sky (time lapse)

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:11:00 +0000

Sierra Nevada night sky time lapse, By Isidro Villo, is a succession of about 2,000 images taken at Granada's night between May 2010 and February 2011. The result is spectacular and the author promises more in HD.

Via | El Lobo Rayado

When Confucius met Lao Tzu

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:10:00 +0000

Around the 6th century B.C.E. Greece had Plato and Socrates; India had the Buddha and China had Confucius and Lao Tzu. Born in Ch'u (present-day Henan Province), Lao Tzu , which literally means "old master".

He was appointed Keeper of the Imperial Archives by the King of Zhou in Luoyang. He studied the archive's books avidly and his insight grew.

Hearing of Lao Tzu's wisdom, Confucius travelled to meet him. Confucius put a lot of emphasis on traditional rituals, customs and rites.

Confucius asked Lao Tzu about his opinion regarding the rites (that is, rules that must direct the life of people in the state). Lao Tzu would have answered:

"The men about whom you talk are dead, and their bones are mouldered to dust; only their words are left. Moreover, when the superior man gets his opportunity, he mounts aloft; but when the time is against him, he is carried along by the force of circumstances. I have heard that a good merchant, though he have rich treasures safely stored, appears as if he were poor; and that the superior man, though his virtue be complete, is yet to outward seeming stupid. Put away your proud air and many desires, your insinuating habit and wild will. They are of no advantage to you; this is all I have to tell you."

Later Confucius told his students:

"Birds can fly but will fall at the hunter’s arrow. Fish can swim but will be hooked by the fisherman. Beasts can run but will drop into people’s nets and traps. There is only one thing that is out of man’s reach. That’s the legendary dragon. I cannot tell how he mounts in the air and soars to heaven. Today I have seen Lao Tzu and I think if he would not be like a dragon."

The universe from my farm

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 15:57:00 +0000

Three weeks is the time that it has cost to Randy Halverson, a farmer amateur photographer, make this amazing timelapse from their farm in South Dakota. A spectacular work not only stands out for its technical quality but because of the difficulty of recording with the weather conditions resulting from the area.

Cloudy nights and high winds have not stopped Halverson, who has collected hours and hours of footage to edit this timelapse. On it, a second corresponds to fourteen real minutes.

Via | Vimeo

Tempus fugit, sicut nubes, quasi naves, velut umbra

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:50:00 +0000

"Las calles son de papel,

y van y vienen las golondrinas,

doblando y desdoblando esquinas."

Densest Matter Created in Big-Bang Machine

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:47:00 +0000

A superhot substance recently made in the Large Hadron Collider (pictures) is the densest form of matter ever observed, scientists announced this week.

Known as a quark-gluon plasma, the primordial state of matter may be what the entire universe was like in the immediate aftermath of the big bang.

The exotic material is more than a hundred thousand times hotter than the inside of the sun and is denser than a neutron star, one of the densest known objects in the universe.

"Besides black holes, there's nothing denser than what we're creating,"

said David Evans, a physicist at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. and a team leader for the LHC's ALICE detector, which helped observe the quark-gluon plasma.

"If you had a cubic centimeter of this stuff, it would weigh 40 billion tons."

Via | National Geographic

Eyes of Cassini

noreply@blogger.com (The Last Astronaut) — Tue, 31 May 2011 22:14:00 +0000

A disturbing collection of images that Cassini took on their journey through the solar system. As the author of the video said, nothing better than remember the quote from Carl Sagan:

"Somewhere, Something incredible is waiting to Be Known"

Via | Vimeo