Science Magazine for Critical Thinkers
Science Magazine for Critical Thinkers
The press love stories about dinosaurs, especially if it includes everyone’s favourite dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex), so it’s no surprise that a new science study in 2017 was well publicised. The study shows a T. rex’s running ability was limited by the strength of its leg bones. It couldn’t run in our gravity.
Thomas Kuhn generally is a hero among dissidents. Along with his explication of what it all meant, his invention of the word “paradigm” was his greatest achievement. A paradigm forms the body of data, assumptions, and interpretations guiding a discipline during a particular period. A paradigm cannot be overthrown by anyone whose livelihood depends on it—only outsiders need apply for that infrequent function.
This paper defines a new way to assess the scientific value of Einstein’s special theory of relativity by defining a concept called irksomeness. This follows by converting the adjective irksome, meaning vexatious or troublesome, into a noun. We will call a theory irksome by the following definition: An irksome theory is one in which each of its component demonstrations makes sense or is rational, but the theory as a whole makes no sense or is irrational. Hence a theory, such as relativity, which is a very good example of a theory possessing this characteristic, is irksome or possesses irksomeness, if it satisfies the above definition. An irksome theory is recalcitrant in that its inconsistencies, anomalies, or paradoxes refuse to be tamed or effectively eliminated. It is also irksome when its concepts can not be clearly defined in a way such that there is a consistent agreement regarding its essential truth claims.
The Lifetime Achievement Award (2017) was bestowed on Maxlow for his work in geology, principally in developing Expansion Tectonics, including the generation of expansion models, in his lifetime pursuit of scientific truth.
It is probably the most sought after prize in physics. Einstein wanted it, everyone talks about it, and dissidents claim to have solved it. What is it? The unification of the four forces in nature. The latest in this quest for the “grand unification” has been quantum gravity or the unified field theory where physicists are trying to unify Einstein’s general relativity with the strong force inside the atom. So far, there has been little success with many candidate theories not passing the grade and having been debunked by the experiments during the last 10 years of the Large Hadron Collider.
Its been in the news as imminent for years, but it actually took until May 2019 for the the International Committee for Weights and Measures to officially change the definition of the kilogram from an artefact kilogram ( a lump of metal in Paris ) to a multiple of units based on fundamental constants.
With a number of sunny days, the conference was held in Alder Hall on the beautiful campus of the Unversity of Washington with majestic buildings, amazingly large trees, and beautiful vistas of the mountain including a picture-perfect view of Mount Reneir.
The following letter was prepared by Harry Ricker as a courtesy to Ivor Catt who wished to send a letter to the editor of the IOP Journal Physics Education in order to refute the claims made in a paper published in that journal. The letter was cosigned by five other scientists. This letter was rejected and so it is presented here. Background for The Catt Question is presented by Ivor Catt at his website.
The search for the elusive dark matter is famous. Here I will discuss the discovery of a different kind of dark matter in interstellar space, which I call cobwebs of space. This dark matter is just as elusive as the more famous, but probably fictitious, dark matter. The appearance of this dark matter, which forms dark filaments in space is referred to herein as interstellar dust filaments. This is because they are like the dark clouds that populate interstellar space, but they are long and narrow and crisscross throughout space forming the appearance of a dark cobweb that overlies all of the space through which we view distant celestial objects.
Light just may be the most important phenomena in the universe to life. It transmits information about the physical world around us and has fascinated we humans for thousands of years. But the biggest question about light still remains: what is it really? Mainstream science tells us that it is photon. Yet if you look at conventional descriptions, one quickly learns that the definition seems still very unclear.