Archive for the 'Science' Category

Imagine a black hole, if you can. There is one or more in every galaxy. These cosmic sized vacuum cleaners suck everything in their neighborhood down a funnel much like water going down the drain. As matter enters the vortex it’s structure becomes more and more compressed.
This is possible because matter primarily consists of empty space. Space between molecules, space between atoms in molecules, space between electrons and nuclei, etc. As the space between these particles of matter decreases the process generates heat. Tremendous amounts of heat. In fact, the trillions of degrees of heat are so intense the particles actually revert to their primal form, energy. Einstein’s theory tells us that the amount of energy created equals the material mass times the speed of light squared.Now lets assume the process occurred on a universe sized scale billions of years before the birth of our universe. Every single gram of matter became a part of a soccer sized ball of pure energy and there is no physical matter left. All knowledge, time, and matter are encompassed in this ball of energy….God, if you will. Then, for reasons not even guessed at yet, the ball blows up. We have the big bang. Energy is spewed out in all directions in a trillion degree heat wave. Our universe is born. As the energy becomes dissipated things begin to cool off. Millions of years later matter begins to form in a process similar to water vapor condensing to steam, and then water droplets. Clouds of the simplest from of matter, one electron circulating one proton, hydrogen, begin to form in galaxy sized clusters.

     If we are to agree on a simple proposition like 1+1=2, don’t we need to agree that whatever flows from that must be correct also? Doesn’t progress in mathmatics or science depend on this very principle? For example, lets look at the degree of accuracy that has been developed in the scientific community, which is mind boggling. Computer clock speeds have been increasing at warp speed and the second is  divided into billionths. Trillionths of a second would become the next reality if it weren’t for one inconvenient fact. Electrical impulses can only travel at the speed of light. It takes an electron longer to travel a foot than it takes to process the information it carries. Therefore computer clock speeds are only limited by the physical distance to remote memory cashes, aka fetch speeds.

      To produce computers their components must be free of contamination or impurities to an extrodinary degree. Clean rooms have contributed to the solution of pollution by measuring the amount of foreign particles in the air around the assembly of components. Particle counters sniff out and count individual molecules. This is analogous to finding not just the needle in the hay stack, but the tip of the needle. We can now reliably peer into a molecule to see the atoms assembled there. Further, we can look into the atom to see how it is assembled, and with advanced mathematics we can deduce to an extrodinary degree the particles which make up the electrons and protons which make up the atom.

       However, theorists like Steven Hawkings have placed an inconvient limit on how small the most basic of building blocks can be. His string theory asserts that all matter is essentially composed of strings of energy measured by putting thirty some zeros between a decimal point and a digit. Using really complicated reasoning he has also placed an inconvenient limit on the size of our universe. It seems a universe can only expand to around 18 billion light years in diameter before it reverses and begins contracting again. Fortunately for us however, there seems to be an infinite number of these universes to explore. Our telescopes can see out to about 15 billion light years and we can detect the background radiation left a trillionth of a second after the big bang.

        If we take a close look at our bodies and apply some basic plumbing principles immortality may only be a few generations away. Aubrey de Grey has presented an elegant argument which goes something like this: Toxins build up in our cells over our lives and eventually interfere with the cell’s ability the replicate itself correctly. The build up of contamination together with defective cell replication are responsible for aging, and ultimately death. We need only to find ways to remove the toxins from our cells so they reproduce faithfully and we should be able to extend our lives indefinitely. If we remove the artifical roadblocks in areas like stem cell research and the use of them, the process of repairing or replacing worn out body parts will be speeded up dramatically.

        Add up all the advances made in testing and measuring and science and technology and we are led to the ultimate inconvenient truth. From the smallest of particles of atoms to the far corners of the known universe we are having an ever closer look. And all of this progress and growth in knowledge has sprung from the simple proposition that 1+1=2. God, for lack of a better concept, is running out of places to hide. Isn’t it time to modernize our religious beliefs? While science has expanded mans’ awareness and knowledge one giant step after another, our religious leaders have steadfastly buried their collective heads in 2000 year old sand. I mean, if people weren’t brain washed from birth into believing increasingly dubious dogma like the earth and heavens being created a mere 6 thousand years ago, if people were taught to reason independantly from the herd (unlike sheep), would that really amount to some sort of catastrophe? Maybe to the people making a good living promoting this drivel but certainly not to an educated person. Isn’t it time we recognized people no longer need to be controlled through fear of an omnipotent force, whose authority can never be challenged because it is never direct? Isn’t it true that God is best known by his absence? Don’t Jews and Christians alike owe their phenomenal success to the fact that He never shows his face? Do we really need to blow each other up over who said what 2000 years ago? Can’t we just allow each other the room for our own thoughts and not feel obligated to foist our beliefs on others? The suggestion that one mans theory can convey our souls into a blissful eternity, while another theory only a hairs breath away dooms its believer to unrelenting hell, is shear nonsense. The suggestion that one mortal human has a direct link to a supreme being the rest of us were unfortunate enough to be born without is ridiculously childish. All we need do is look at each other, and our mothers and fathers, to conclude we are all cut from the same DNA cloth. We all , each one of us, must do the hard work of figuring these universal truths out for ourselves and not leave the thinking to others to do for us. In the final analysis, all a person can do in life is gather about himself his integrity, his imagination, and his individuality and then leap into experience.

   Is it too far a stretch to suggest that when the bees are gone so are we? After all, they are responsible for the fertility of a large percentage of crop plants throughout the world. Or how about the ice caps? When they are gone we will under go two (at least) major social disruptions. First the oceans will rise about 20 feet, flooding untold acres of the most heavily populated lowlands around the world. Billions of people will be forced to relocate, putting ever more pressure on the remaining green belts on the planet. Secondly, and more importantly, without the ice caps reflecting 90% of the suns radiation from the area, the water will absorb 90% of the suns energy. Then the ocean temperatures will rise dramatically. Global warming will shift into second gear.

     Although congressmen and senators with large coal or oil constituents in their districts dispute the findings of the most respected scientists and researchers in the field (as if being a politician gives them some special insight), I believe those of us without a vested (financial) interest would agree global warming is a fact. Those whose profession, like firefighters for example, put them on the front line of it’s affects have seen the trend for decades. As the world’s oceans increase in temperature the weather patterns everywhere become more extreme. Formerly arid areas get drenched and some wetlands become deserts. Wind patterns undergo major shifts and weather related traumas are subject to showing up anywhere. The southern hemisphere, for example, is suddenly introduced to hurricanes and tornados, which they never experienced before. Areas used to the capricious behaviors of the weather see huge increases in frequency and intensity of weather related disasters.

     These facts are real. And yet, in this country, we still employ dozens of lawmakers who continue to deny this. They are paid extremely well by special interests to confuse the figures and keep the electorate ignorant or bewildered, and ineffective at forcing change. Greed, for lack of a better word, is not good for America, or anywhere else. It is not, as a wall street pariah has said, the force behind innovation, job growth or income redistribution. Greed is self destructive, counter productive,anti-competitive, anti-social and down right disgusting. I believe it is time to throw the pigs out of the trough. It is time for a gentler partnership with the planet. It is time for more civilized points of view to hold sway. Let the war mongers and arms makers, the industrial polluters and the giant monopolies either slide into or be legislated into oblivion. Their time has passed.

Robert Parmelee: Kudos to Al Gore for being the first citizen of the world. We owe him a debt of gratitude for recognizing a higher calling than running this country.