Well, right off the bat this week, let’s see if we can freak out the conspiracy theorists and doomsayers. I am sure that everyone out here knows what a black hole is. Well, now scientists think that they can create mini black holes in a laboratory. They think they can do this with particle acceleration, and it will take a lot less energy than originally thought. If they succeed, it could also prove the existence of extra dimensions in the universe.
There a number of theories that suggests the existence of extra dimensions of the universe, folded into sizes from the size of a proton, to as big as a fraction of a millimeter. (We are talking dimensions not multiverse realities so no sliding possibilities folks, sorry).
Just so you understand the power of the LHC, (Large Hadron Collider), here is the base of its power. It is 17 miles around, and at its maximum power each particle beam fired packs as much energy as a 400 ton train moving at 120 mph.
There would be no danger to Earth however. Even if Stephen Hawking is wrong, and black holes do not lose mass over time by way of Hawking radiation, they would be so small that it would take basically more than the current age of the universe to wipe out even a milligram of Earth matter. Basically though, they would die in a fraction of a second, not having the time to devour any matter.
MARTIAN LIFE?
Well, here we go again. But now the scientists are on my side, for once. Primitive life is now thought to have been possible on Mars. (No, I am not touching on the fossilized remains in a meteorite, though I could.) This is all from Curiosity herself.
Now this is not evidence that life did exist there, yet. And we are not talking about life in the more advanced stages either. Also, curiosity carries no life detecting gear on her. We are talking about microbial life at the moment. On Feb. 8th, Curiosity bored 2.5 inches into an outcrop of rock called John Klein using its arm mounted hammering drill. She identified some of the key chemical elements for life in the dust that was analyzed from the boring. These included sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous and carbon. The mix also included a possible energy source for indigenous Martian life, if it ever existed.
It is suggested a long ago aquatic environment, maybe a lake, that was neutral and not too salty. They also said that if you were around at that time that it was so benign and supportive of life that we could have probably drank it.
Brings up all kinds of theories for some of us, and probably a few more for those of the suspicious quirk of mind like mine.
ALIEN LIFE, FREQUENT OR RARE?
Well,
here is one I don’t personally agree with on a lot of levels, but here it is.
A new
theory presented this week, states that life may not exist elsewhere in the universe. Basically meaning that space is a whole lot
of wasted space. Some are now saying that just because another planet may have
a habitable atmosphere; it doesn’t mean that life would have evolved there.
In a statement Charles Cockell said, “On our planet,
carbon leaches into most habitat space and provides energy for microorganisms
to live. There are only a few vacant habitats that may persist for any length
of time on Earth, but we cannot assume that this is the case on other
planets."
"It is dangerous to assume life is common
across the universe. It encourages people to think that not finding signs of
life is a 'failure,' when in fact it would tell us a lot about the origins
of life,” he added.
He did go on to say however that we may not be able
to detect alien life even if it exists due to it being so different from planet
to planet. He also admitted that our
view is still going to be heavily influenced by our knowledge of life on Earth.
For those of you that have read some of my stuff,
you know where I stand on this. Number 1, we have to throw out our preconceived
views of what life is. And it is a big fracking universe out there as well. And
we have looked at how much of it so far. We just started to verify the
existence of other planets, and this guy is already throwing in the towel in my
book. I’ll make my feelings on this simple. Remember those planet killing
scientists I have been screaming about since August 24th 2006. They just moved down on my list. There
is now a new number 1 on that list. Matter of fact, he takes up spots 1,2, and
3. Here’s the link to the article anyway.
And just because,
here is a link to 9 possible worlds that could have life of some type.
FOR RIDLEY SCOTT FANS
Director
Ridley Scott has teamed up with the online streaming site Machinima. His
production company RSA will be doing a series of 12 short films for the site.
For
those not familiar with the site, and they have some good stuff there, here is
a list of a few web series they have done.
Halo: Forward Unto Dawn
Battlestar
Galactica: Blood and Chrome
Mortal Kombat: Legacy
The
idea is to bring some of the visionary science fiction film makers of his
company to use ideas they have that would work best as short films on a web
based platform.
The partnership also allows for RSA and Machinima to produce potential
feature films from these filmmakers while bringing Scott and his experience
into the fold. They are hoping that new science fiction franchises will be born
from this also. Here is the links to the main article, and to the Machinima
site itself.
Well, hope you all enjoy the rundown
this week. I’ll be spending the rest of the night dreaming about slapping the
living... Well, you get the idea of whom and why I am sure. Think I’ll go grab Leon and kill me a few
zombies tonight in RE6. There are people that just need a good slapping, you
know.
On the life question, here is a link to follow. No oxygen, no light, they live by a process called chemosynthesis. I love it when my irritated ramblings get some back up.
http://www.livescience.com/27899-ocean-subsurface-ecosystem-found.html
On the life question, here is a link to follow. No oxygen, no light, they live by a process called chemosynthesis. I love it when my irritated ramblings get some back up.
http://www.livescience.com/27899-ocean-subsurface-ecosystem-found.html
4 comments:
And for anyone wondering, the update was the last statement with the link. That is why there isn't more on that there. If I had found that in time, I would have been using it against Mister throw in the towel guy.
I always have trouble with the "we are the only ones" crowd. It smacks of speciesism way to much for my liking.
Yeah, me too. Smacks way too much of religion for me as well that we could be the only ones. We've barely even noticed the universe yet. There could be anything out there. Including life forms that actually live in a gas cloud out there. Anything. And we won't know till we have scoured the entire thing. Again, I volunteer.
Give me my robotic body, and a ship. And eventually I'll return and let everyone know what i found. Eventually.
Just finished up recording this one..
You know, I am fine with the Never Really Know bit, But you tell me ONE thing that has happened ONCE in this Universe, even as far as we have looked... there is nothing that hasn't been done before, and he wants us to believe that WE are the exception? That's frackin depressin.
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