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Quantum leap

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Edited by Vicky Fraser, Friday, 9 Sep 2011, 14:23

 

It appears that physics and I get on rather well. That is probably apparent from the recent fangirl posts; but now I have it on paper too.

A grand total of 93% for TMA07. I am delighted; it wasn't one of my better TMAs, and I really wasn't sure if I'd grasped it properly. I made a couple of silly mistakes - but I can't complain, and it's focused my eye for detail a little more closely on the detail!

Here's a musical interlude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZGINaRUEkU

Book 8 has been pretty interesting so far; I'm searching for life elsewhere in the Universe (as ever) and the journey began by looking at the origins of life on Earth. How far back can we see? Are those tiny squiggles in the rock microfossils, or random arrangements of crystals, or just eye-worms in the heads of the scientists in question?

However long ago life sprang into life on Earth, we now have it on fairly good authority that the building blocks, at least, of life came from the stars, via the intervening space.

Comets brought water; meteorites brought organic compounds.

We haven't found life anywhere else in the Universe just yet. The chances are it's just too far away. But it's crazy to believe that we're the only life in the staggeringly vast space that we call reality. There are plenty of star systems like our Solar System, and no reason to suggest that there are no other Earth-like planets out there inhabiting that narrow band of space just the right distance from their star - and who knows what lives there?

I like to think that's where some of the creatures from mythology abide - Pegasus, the unicorns and the odd satyr, together with pixies, fairies and well-adjusted teenagers.

Will we ever visit a different world? Perhaps. Not by conventional means, but who knows what may be possible in the future.

One thing I do know for sure: this planet of ours is extraordinary and beautiful, and thinking about the chances of everything happening just at the right place and time is mindblowing. Not miraculous; just absolutely bloody fantastic.

Now, go and look at Symphony of Science.

 

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Blue hair, yellow sweater, big smile

The Nature of the Universe

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Edited by Vicky Fraser, Thursday, 17 Mar 2011, 09:24

I was going to take a quick look at this video; but a quick look turned into total absorption. Lawrence Krauss is engaging, funny, and explains what he means really well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo

I'll forgive him the few cheap jibes at religion. I dislike that as much as I dislike the nonsense spouted by the excessively religious. I know what he means, and agree with him, but his lecture could have spoken for itself without being cheapened that way. Some of the jokes made me chuckle though!

And, I have to disagree with his final statement: I think the Universe and everything in it is incredibly special! Whether it's totally random or not: the very fact of it, and the wonders it contains, are staggering.

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