This is probably no surprise to anyone but it is good to have the statistics in on exactly who is missing the dark ages and who isn’t.
The war on science is on the fundamentalist agenda, to halt the spread or scientific evidence that contradicts the “authority” of the bible is a plain and established fact. In the USA this deliberate and malevolent attack on progress seems to be making inroads. Shame.
Click on the click thing below for the article.
What a very very good idea.
I’ve been discussing the Earth’s age and evolution generally with creationists. They usually let it be known that scientific measurements are probably wrong. Well they were. But for myself that the scientific community actually attempts to and quite often does falsify a hypothesis or theory is one of the strengths science brings to the table. This process of test and observe, throwing out the old for the new and improved, questioning and the humility before the “result” is what elevates empirical research and the scientific method above all other knowledge gathering systems. This constant refinement of human knowledge is precisely why we are where we are today.
What on Earth! Hot news on our planet’s formation
As of today, the world might have changed forever.
A fundamental assumption underpinning much of modern geochemistry is that the earth has the same composition as a class of meteorites called chondrites. These are small fragments of rock-like, primeval material that have survived from the birth of the sun with few subsequent changes.
So ingrained is this chondritic assumption in geochemical thinking that, as recently as three years ago, to write a paper questioning the chondritic theory would have been regarded as an act of scientific heresy. It’s unlikely any reputable scientific journal would have published it.
Every professor and every textbook has been telling students for more than 40 years that the composition of Earth is chondritic. Consequently, all geochemists assume the chondritic hypothesis forms an unshakable foundation upon which we can build future advances in geochemistry.
But today, with a paper published in Nature, we’re challenging this fundamental assumption, arguing Earth’s composition isn’t chondritic.
While our paper could be a turning point, geochemists have been questioning aspects of the “chondritic” hypothesis for three or four years now.
We know that the argon content of the atmosphere is only about half that predicted by the chondritic hypothesis. This insight has led to the suggestion that the earth’s mantle – the rocky part between the iron-nickel core at the centre of the earth and the surface – is divided into two layers, and only the outer layer has lost argon.
Our study shows this can’t be the case, but more on that in a moment.
Our challenge to the chondritic paradigm comes from studies of neodymium isotopes in volcanic rocks and meteorites. Our studies show that the ratio of samarium to neodymium (both “rare-earth” metals) in Earth’s volcanic rocks is higher than it is in chondritic meteorites.
This means rare-earth elements abundant in the upper part of the earth, as seen in volcanoes, are not chondritic. The simplest explanation for this observation? The composition of the Earth is not chondritic.
But there are other theories being proposed as an explanation of the neodymium paradox. One is that there must be a complementary hidden reservoir of material near the core-mantle boundary with a low samarium-to-neodymium ratio. This would balance out the high samarium-to-neodymium ratio of upper Earth, thereby maintaining the chondritic hypothesis.
Many geochemists have found this hidden reservoir a convenient place to hide excesses or deficiencies of other elements that do not conform to the chondritic Earth hypothesis.
But the “hidden reservoir” hypothesis has a flaw. It requires about 40% of the mantle’s heat-producing elements – uranium, thorium and potassium – to be concentrated near the core-mantle boundary. The problem with the hypothesis is while you can hide elements that don’t fit your theory, you can’t hide the heat they produce.
The only mechanism by which the heat produced by the putative hidden layer of low-samarium-to-neodymium-ratio material can be removed is through mantle plumes. These are columns of hot rock that rise from the core-mantle boundary, almost 3,000km below the surface, and give rise to volcanoes such as those in Hawaii.
The hidden reservoir hypothesis therefore requires 40% of the mantle’s heat-loss to come from mantle plumes. This is inconsistent with the observation that plumes carry less than 20% of the mantle’s heat loss. Consequently the hidden layer hypothesis cannot be correct.
So what’s the alternative? Well, in conjunction with Professor Herbert Palme, my co-author Professor Hugh O’Neill developed an alternative hypothesis for the composition of the earth.
The prevailing theory holds Earth was formed by collisions of planetary bodies of ever-increasing size. Our suggestion is that by the time the planetary bodies reached moderate size (a few hundred kilometres across), they developed an outer shell rich in heat-producing elements and with a samarium-to-neodymium ratio below the chondritic value.
We suggest that during the final stages of formation of the earth, the outer shell was lost by a process called collisional erosion.
This erosion produced an Earth that is depleted in heat-producing elements compared with the value predicted by the chondritic hypothesis and with a higher samarium-to-neodymium ratio.
Our new theory explains why the samarium-to-neodymium ratio of Earth is above the chondritic value and why the atmosphere has less argon.
(The collisional erosion hypothesis predicts the earth will have less potassium, and argon comes from the decay of potassium.)
Many of the paradoxes that have puzzled geochemists for the last 40 years are predicated on the assumption that the composition of Earth’s mantle is chondritic. If we abandon the chondritic hypothesis many of the problems that have been puzzling geochemists for years disappear.
If our theory is correct and Earth isn’t chondritic, then this necessitates a dramatic rethink of the way we understand the formation of Earth.
We might even have spent the past 40 years developing ingenious solutions to problems that didn’t even exist – problems that stemmed from the chondritic hypothesis.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article.
Human knowledge finally overtaking human ignorance.
“The leading idea for the evolution of really large brains is that it was driven by complex social relationships,” he told BBC Nature.
So rather than an encounter with another group of dolphins automatically resulting in “us against them” aggression, Shark Bay dolphins decide when to use friendly behaviour in order to make allies, and can even “switch sides”.
Only humans and the Shark Bay bottlenose are known to have these multiple levels of male alliances in their social network.
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” asks Regina Dugan, then director of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In this breathtaking talk she describes some of the extraordinary projects — a robotic hummingbird, a prosthetic arm controlled by thought, and, well, the internet — that her agency has created by not worrying that they might fail.
This may have been blogged all over the internet but today was the first time I’d seen the video. Literally amazing science, redefining the physiology of the human species. It will be interesting to monitor this tech over the coming years.
Heart Stop Beating is the story of Billy Cohn & Bud Frazier, two visionary doctors from the Texas Heart Institute, who in March of 2011 successfully replaced a dying man’s heart with a ‘continuous flow’ device they developed, proving that life was possible without a pulse or a heart beat.
I wish this meme was around 5-10 years ago when there was so much stupid debate about the semantics of the word “theory”.
Also, I watched this great Dawkins clip the other day when he’s talking to someone who argued, “As far as I know, no scientist has declared evolution a fact. It’s just a theory.” (Btw, I could imagine a hundred hilarious ways for this scene to unfold.) Dawkins just looked at him and said, “Yes, well, I’m a scientist and let me assure you, it is a fact.” (I kinda wish the guy had asked Dawkins for his credentials.)
Anyways, an important point for all debates - scientific or otherwise - is establishing the meaning of words. I’ve seen too many stupid arguments where people agree to an idea but simply use different terminology. Also, don’t let semantics limit your mind; I’ve seen it all too often and it’s troubles me how otherwise intelligent people can get so stuck with something as simple as a label for an idea or a conventional way of understanding something. (e.g. “Marriage is defined as a bond between a man and a woman.” So.. why can’t we just redefine it? Furthermore, it’s not like marriage hasn’t been redefined before.)
P.s. Looking at the photo again, I realized there’s another layer: People often don’t understand “evolution” either, and then I have to tell them that I don’t believe in what they think evolution is either! So, Senior Montoya, wise words all around.
Nice post.
Watching the talk and reading the comments, the comment that struck me was a reasonably factual statement that “History” is becoming extremely dense. The libraries of the world, the manuscripts et al even film up till the creation of Youtube pale in comparison for the shear volume of data available to the modern or future historian that can access it, enabling a synthesis of vast quantities of information and perspectives regarding a specific moment in time.
Apart from that for one’s own future self might appreciate an application like OpenPaths (it gets a mention about half way in). Since we already give up our movements to companies like Apple or the various developers whose apps we use, it is nice to find an app that tracks movements and displays them over time, visually. Ape may have a playback running along with other media collected digitally embedded in Ape’s tombstone.
OpenPaths App for iPhone and Android devices
“Using our mobile apps you can track your location, visualize where you’ve been, and upload your data to the OpenPaths website. You can then download your data from the website in a variety of friendly formats, including KML, JSON, and CSV. The OpenPaths API enables you to integrate your own software with the platform, and you can import data from location-based services like Foursquare.”
Ape will be reading E.O.Wilson’s latest on the kindle.
“Once again, Ed Wilson has written a book combining the qualities that have brought his previous books Pulitzer Prizes and millions of readers: a big but simple question, powerful explanations, magisterial knowledge of the sciences and humanities, and beautiful writing understandable to a wide public.” (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel )
Edward O. Wilson’s New Take on Human Nature
The eminent biologist argues in a controversial new book that our Stone Age emotions are still at war with our high-tech sophistication
By Natalie Angier, Smithsonian magazine
Check out this great Youtube channel Evolution Documentary
The video below is a refresher in Evolution posted FYI only!
Ape must say Taylor talks about himself a lot …but Ape believes that’s because Ape desire the abilities he has and his IQ percentile. He is only 17 and has achieved as much as most do in a life time of scientific inquiry…humility may kick in or he may just be an affable Sheldon Cooper. Ape is happy for him.
“At age 10, he built his first bomb out of a pill bottle and household chemicals. At 11, he started mining for uranium and buying vials of plutonium on the Internet. At 14, he became the youngest person in the world to build a nuclear fusion reactor”
How is it that we still need articles explaining something we’ve known for over a century…Genesis is wrong, an unsurprising epic failure by bronze age goat herders to anticipate how the Earth was actually created, the time frame involved or the fact that one day scientific method would uncover this knowledge held in the rocks they often slung at each other while engaged in genocidal ethnic cleansing.
And so it begins, perhaps? 3D artificial brain today. Tomorrow, neural uploads?
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg have taken the first step in creating a three-dimensional model of the brain by attaching neurons to a positively charged nanocellulose scaffold.
The purpose is to understand Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease better, for example.
Nitrocellulose (microfibrillated cellulose) is obtained from plant materials, such as woodpulp.
‟Pores can be created in nanocellulose, which allows nerve cells to grow in a three-dimensional matrix. This makes it extra comfortable for the cells and creates a realistic cultivation environment that is more like a real brain compared with a three-dimensional cell cultivation well,” says Paul Gatenholm, Professor of Biopolymer Technology at Chalmers.
The researchers found in their experiments that neurons began to develop and generate synapses (contacts with one another) and a neural network of hundreds of cells was produced. The researchers could then use electrical impulses and chemical signal substances to generate nerve impulses that spread through the network in much the same way as they do in the brain. They could also study how nerve cells react with other molecules, such as pharmaceuticals.
Ape like serendipitous blog entries. See my previous blog and make the connection…
Truly amazing work on the material state consciousness is. With advances in other areas like computing and even 3D printing, how long before this type of work will lead to advances in AI only conceived of in sci-fi like Star Trek. If you’re a fan, the coincidence that Seung phonetically shares his name with Data’s creator Noonien Soong is quixotically energizing.
The image below contains a link to Seung’s own site.
Sebastian Seung: I am my connectome http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_seung.html
