MWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!! This week, we’re all about…SCIENCE!!! (Imagine a flash of lightning instead of exclamation points and it’s soooooooo much better!) But really, that’s kind of the Hollywood/Frankenstein version of science. We’re a bit more grounded than that…although we DO love a good mad scientist movie…
We begin as we always do: discussing our first memories of the topic; in this case, our first memories of science. We obviously wouldn’t talk about science if we didn’t find science fascinating, so after that, we move on to the first field of science we ever loved. Also, find out if we were good students in science classes in school.
But enough about the past: find out what we feel are the most fascinating scientific developments right now! Then we roll into the weirdest science experiments we’ve heard about…and the most horrific! Some people think most science has the potential for harm…who should decide the limits of what we do with science: scientists, government, or something else? Or…should anyone have a say?
Next, find out what we feel are the most ridiculous assertions backed by “science,” and listen to why we feel so many people put stock in pseudoscience. It all wraps up with where we see science going in the future.
So put on the lab coats and headphones and then head to the comments to talk about one of the best things ever: science!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Hooray for science! I also did very well in my science classes, except for chemistry. Yep, chemistry math kicked my ass. Math in general gave me an ass-kicking me. Now I know it was because of dyscalculia. I still don’t know what the heck a mole is (beside the burrowing animal or beauty mark).
I remember learning about the Miller–Urey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment (primordial abiogenesis) experiment and being completely enraptured, and wondering why the heck biologists and chemists around the world weren’t devoting their careers to replicating the experiment with modern technology. Create life in a test tube, people! How can you not even try if it might be possible?! And when I learned about black holes, I wondered why nobody else seemed concerned about them. I imagined they would sooner or later consume the universe. Really, what’s stopping them?
Speaking of freaky: If you continuously observe an unstable particle, it will never decay. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Zeno_effect
WTF?!? And add this, also from wiki: “An important aspect of the concept of measurement has been clarified in some QM experiments where a small, complex, and non-sentient sensor proved sufficient as an ‘observer’—there is no need for a conscious ‘observer.’ ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_%28physics%29 So that’s some consolation, eh?
CMS: Yes, being able to make the building blocks of life from…nothing but the raw materials that existed earlier in Earth’s history…that’s a pretty big thing and I’ve always wanted to see it done today and carried through to a point of, “Look right here…something from seemingly nothing — no God needed!” Particle physics is some freaky-cool stuff. I don’t even pretend that I get it all, but it’s cool that we’re learning more and more that the things we used to say were unexplainable a decade or two ago are now like, “This chaos acts in a predictable manner…” and we can replicate cool, mind-blowing stuff.
I really do believe that science wins in the long run. It’s kind of like how right now, we’re seeing breakthroughs in technology that corporations can’t hold back. Ideas just going BOOM! and people wanting the new thing. I look forward to seeing what advances in a decade or two become commonly accepted, or that breakthrough that changes it all and ushers in a new way of looking at the world and the way we live our lives.
I’m here, Xenu.