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Friday, September 17. 2010

Love Science!

Just saw something interesting on the History Channel. Once in a while the History Channel has something on other than war video. Well, most of the time, but this program was even more interesting than the norm.

The Universe: Secret of the Space Probes came on at 12 noon, when MSNBC is usually on my tube. Now, admittedly, I know little about science and even less about cosmology, but I know something is an awesome moment in human development when I see it! And the narrator is kind enough to point it out to me.

Secret of the Probes was about various space probes that have gone out into the universe over the past 50 years. From the very earliest that would only measure radio waves, to the most recent, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or the Solar Probe Plus. That one will be really awesome! It was launched directly into the sun! I hope to live long enough to find out what its helioseismic and magnetic imager tells us about Sol! That will be decades.
 I envy my nephew Dan. Not only is he interested and educated on these topics, he will most likely live long enough to enjoy the moments of discovery.

What caught my attention though were a couple probes that were out in our galaxy all ready, taking samples from comets and comet trails, as well as from the planets and moons in our solar system. From one probe, Stardust, taking samples from the tail of a comet, the name of which is forgotten, the dust from stars not our own were found! That means, stars blasting solar dust from other solar systems have found their way into our neighborhood. But the scientists expected that. How would I know? It sounds pretty awesome to me.

What the scientists found that was unexpected to them was that much of the comet was made up of material found here in our own solar system. The impact on us, scientifically and historically, is monumental. The building blocks of our planet and indeed humankind, are found in the stars. In fact, with the discoveries of Stardust and many of its predecessors, it is a fact we were created from the stuff of stars outside our solar system.

Some people might remember the song by Joni Mitchell, “Woodstock.” She sings, “We are stardust, we are golden and we got to get ourselves, back to the garden.”

For decades I thought that was just hippie-dippy imagery formed to create a really great song. Like, we are all connected in a spiritual, synchronous bond of, we hope, love, fellowship and good vibrations. We were all hippies back then, so it made sense. Still does, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Little did I know we actually are made from stardust.

We might learn even more about that soon. The SHO was launched in February of this year and has begun transmitting data back to Earth. It’s going into the sun with a helioseismic and magnetic imager to take pictures with 14 different cameras, all focused on different wavelengths. You can check it out at the web site of the Stanford Solar Group.

To be honest, I have no idea what the Hell I’m talking about in more than a general sense, but it all is interesting. Science does for us what many of us cannot do for ourselves — learn about ourselves as a species and as a small part in this larger world and universe.

Anyone with any credible knowledge of science agrees the Earth itself is over 4.5 billion years old. Think about that. The average age of a human is about 75 years, not even 100 years. Even if our average age was 1,000,000 years, that’s still minute compared to the age of the Earth. And what of the universe?

Now, according to religious fanatics, the Earth is only 6,500 years old, give or take a century or two. And, they conclude, evolution is impossible no matter how old the Earth is. God said so. And, they would like you to believe, there are credible “scientists” who can refute the science of science. There is no science to support Creationism and its sister fallacy, Intelligent Design.

What do the people who promote mythology as truth do for humanity? They force public school systems to teach that mythology as science or state that evolution is just a “theory,” further confusing the students as to what is real and what is not. In other words, they add to the incredible level of ignorance in this nation.

Some people, who fall on the side of intelligence and science, think we need to placate the ignorant minority that wants to believe a mythology created just over 6,000 years ago to explain that which couldn’t be understood at the time. This debate started over 150 years ago with the publication of Charles Darwin’s On The Origins of Species. It’s time to end the debate and let the mythologists know they can continue to believe mythology, but it will not spill over into reality. We need to say no to these crazy people, and they are indeed crazy.

I’m all for teaching Creationism in public schools, in a comprehensive course on religion and/or mythology, like we do for ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Greek and Roman mythology. And that should be expanded to other ancient cultures as well, like Native American, including Mayans, the Incas and Aztecs. It’s the Mayans who predicted the Earth would end in 2012.

You know what I like about evolution? Women today look like the lovely Ashley Nicole and not like Cro-Magnon women and certainly not Neanderthals.
 Did you know there is now evidence different species of “humany” beings inter-coupled for sex? No kidding! Homo erectus got it on with Homo floresiensis, over 40,000 years ago.
 And did you know the Republican nominee for the Senate seat formerly held by Vice President Joe Biden believes science has developed mice with human brains? Christine O’Donnell of Delaware, the kook who wants us to abstain from masturbating thinks science is advanced far enough to make mice human, but not smart enough to know the Earth is only 6,500 years old.

Now, my thoughts are on something altogether different from science and religion, thanks to those two — or three — tangents. And Ashley’s photos. Gotta go!

Posted by Tim Forkes in Science at 00:01 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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