New Incentive Toward Space Travel?

The speed of light in the vacuum of free space is an important physical constant usually denoted by the letter c.[1] It is the speed of all electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, in free space. It is the speed of anything having zero rest mass.[2] The SI metre is defined such that the speed of light in a vacuum is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second[3] The speed of light can be assigned a definite numerical value because the fundamental SI unit of length, the metre, has been defined since October 21, 1983, as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second; in other words, any increase in the measurement precision of the speed of light would reduce the uncertainty in practical realizations of the metre but would not alter the numerical value of c. The approximate value of 3×108 m/s is commonly used in rough estimates (the error is 0.07%). In imperial units, the speed of light is about 670,616,629.4 miles per hour or 983,571,056.4 feet per second (roughly one foot per nanosecond), which is about 186,282.397 miles per second.

Sinister looking fellows and thoughts of the crazy scientists. White jackets and all.

It is of course necessary to see this in context with the following article and while we exemplify the photon and a massless entity, it is important to see where current research is taking us with regard to new theoretical thoughts.

Two Baylor University scientists have come up with a new method to cause a spaceship to effectively travel faster than the speed of light, without breaking the laws of physics.

Dr. Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at Baylor, and Richard Obousy, a Baylor graduate student, theorize that by manipulating the extra spatial dimensions of string theory around a spaceship with an extremely large amount of energy, it would create a "bubble" that could cause the ship to travel faster than the speed of light. To create this bubble, the Baylor physicists believe manipulating the 10th spatial dimension would alter the dark energy in three large spatial dimensions: height, width and length. Cleaver said positive dark energy is currently responsible for speeding up the expansion rate of our universe as time moves on, just like it did after the Big Bang, when the universe expanded much faster than the speed of light for a very brief time.

Traveling Faster Than the Speed of Light: Two Baylor Physicists Have a New Idea That Could Make It Happen by Matt Pene

These images all show the 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-fold eversions in the upper left, lower left, upper right, and lower right cornerse, respectively. First we see an early stage, with p fingers growing in the p-fold everion. Next we see an intermediate stage when the fingers have mostly overlapped. Finally we see the four halfway models. For p odd, these are doubly covered projective planes.

If this process has been used in the "motivation of the early universe toward topological expression, as "one of the many," then this process theoretically by design could be used to move such a craft?

So you see, the architecture of bubble manufacture can be useful, instead of just one of many possible universes, we use the action to propel the craft. The basis of this exploration has to incorporate an understanding of where Equilibrium is created and how such use can be used to travel the Lagrangian skies.

See:
The Elastic Nature?

Order For Free

A purple haze shows dark matter flanking the "Bullet Cluster." Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/M.Markevitch et al. Optical: NASA/STScI; Magellan/U.Arizona/D.Clowe et al. Lensing Map: NASA/STScI; ESO WFI; Magellan/U.Arizona/D.Clowe et al

One would have to understand how this may become appealing in the sense, that if one were to believe in a God, that it might as Stuart Kauffman purports, that it to be nature's creative genius.



Self-organization

Self-organization is a process of attraction and repulsion in which the internal organization of a system, normally an open system, increases in complexity without being guided or managed by an outside source. Self-organizing systems typically (though not always) display emergent properties.

If we are to think that such creation of universe are to be thought in this way, then what is the emergent principal inherent in such an expression that would allow for complexity to rule with it's matter states while considering the voids?

Self-organization vs. entropy

Statistical mechanics informs us that large scale phenomena can be viewed as a large system of small interacting particles, whose processes are assumed consistent with well established mechanical laws such as entropy, i.e., equilibrium thermodynamics. However, “… following the macroscopic point of view the same physical media can be thought of as continua whose properties of evolution are given by phenomenological laws between directly measurable quantities on our scale, such as, for example, the pressure, the temperature, or the concentrations of the different components of the media. The macroscopic perspective is of interest because of its greater simplicity of formalism and because it is often the only view practicable.” Against this background, Glansdorff and Ilya Prigogine introduced a deeper view at the microscopic level, where “… the principles of thermodynamics explicitly make apparent the concept of irreversibility and along with it the concept of dissipation and temporal orientation which were ignored by classical (or quantum) dynamics, where the time appears as a simple parameter and the trajectories are entirely reversible.”[3]

As a result, processes considered part of thermodynamically open systems, such as biological processes that are constantly receiving, transforming and dissipating chemical energy (and even the earth itself which is constantly receiving and dissipating solar energy), can and do exhibit properties of self organization far from thermodynamic equilibrium.

A LASER (acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”) can also be characterized as a self organized system to the extent that normal states of thermal equilibrium characterized by electromagnetic energy absorption are stimulated out of equilibrium in a reverse of the absorption process. “If the matter can be forced out of thermal equilibrium to a sufficient degree, so that the upper state has a higher population than the lower state (population inversion), then more stimulated emission than absorption occurs, leading to coherent growth (amplification or gain) of the electromagnetic wave at the transition frequency.”[4]

The understanding here on my part is to see that such examples are held relevant to how one may perceive "arrow of time." It is out of a "state of existence"(equilibrium or symmetry) that overrules this universe in expression. While holding this understanding about it's evolution, it will express the universes current state. It is also initiated from this being perceived as "being outside the universe." It is overseen.


WMAP cosmic microwave fluctuations over the full sky with 5-years of data. Colors represent the tiny temperature fluctuations of the remnant glow from the infant universe: red regions are warmer and blue are cooler. Credit: WMAP Science Team

This holds a dimensional perspective in that one may see the earth, but at the same time, such a view held to it's gravitational anomalies tracked by Grace, would also hold to this being inclusive to a perception held in the overall scope of the universe and it's matter states. Alas, Lagrangian.

See:
WMAP Reveals Neutrinos, End of Dark Ages, First Second of Universe
Bullet Cluster

Picasa Web Albums With a Message

I wanted to draw attention to a feature that has been added to my blogger site.

If you look over to the right hand side of this blog you will notice a picture slide show that is rotating. I find like the people of blogger initiatives, this one to be worthy of an addition to your site.

One of the things that I found useful is the reorganization feature that one can choose if they want the pictures to appear in an order. One might like to express a point of view? This is still a work in process for me. I have arranged a portion of the beginning, while the rest are random. So organization is taking time. There is redundancy in terms of repeatable pictures. This has been made useful, to drive a point home.

Using blank pictures to create a division, and a introduction to a new round of pictures. Further experimentation on this development will be post as I work through it and find ways to increase flexibility in this medium choice.

I have done this to reinforce some of the perspective that I share here, as well as, point to connections of relevance I found necessary, when thinking in terms of Einstein's world of gravity in General Relativity. As well, our vision of earth as we go through this "evolution of our senses" in regards to the non-euclidean views.

I have reposted some of the directions from "Google Help
Picasa" for others so that they can get an idea of what can be done with this new medium of expression. Some might like the randomness indeed as a collage of experience, while others, might have a message to share.

How can I embed a slideshow into my blog or webpage?
Print

Using Picasa Web Albums you can create a Flash slideshow to embed in your blog or webpage. Each slideshow features built-in playback controls, size options, and the ability to display captions.

To create and embed a slideshow:

1. Sign in to your Google Account for Picasa Web Albums at http://picasaweb.google.com using your Google Account username and password.
2. Click the My Photos link and select the album you'd like to make a slideshow.
3. Click the Embed Slideshow link. This creates a Flash slideshow from the album you've selected. When you update this album, your slideshow is automatically updated to show the latest photos.
4. To embed the slideshow, copy and paste the HTML code that's shown into your blog or webpage.
5. Optional: For information about the slideshow, click the Picasa logo in the lower-right corner.

Tip: Once it's embedded into your blog or site, people viewing your slideshow can click the person icon to go to your public gallery or click Get Your Own to start making their own portable slideshows.

The New Garden of Eden

Is it more astonishing that a God created all that exists in six days, or that the natural processes of the creative universe have yielded galaxies, chemistry, life, agency, meaning, value, consciousness, culture without a Creator. In my mind and heart, the overwhelming answer is that the truth as best we know it, that all arose with no Creator agent, all on its wondrous own, is so awesome and stunning that it is God enough for me and I hope much of humankind.

BEYOND REDUCTIONISM: REINVENTING THE SACRED

Stuart Alan Kauffman (28 September 1939) is an US American theoretical biologist and complex systems researcher concerning the origin of life on Earth. He is best known for arguing that the complexity of biological systems and organisms might result as much from self-organization and far-from-equilibrium dynamics as from Darwinian natural selection, as well as for proposing the first models of Boolean networks.

Kauffman presently holds a joint appointment at the University of Calgary in Biological Sciences and in Physics and Astronomy, and is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Philosophy. He is also an iCORE (Informatics Research Circle of Excellence) [1] chair and the director of the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics.

BEYOND REDUCTIONISM

See:Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion (Hardcover)

Well now, I have followed the work of those whose ultimate destination has been by seeking results from LHC as to the nature of some Higg's field that would bring together an organizational effort to the particle of nature. Now I should be much clearer here just as Stuart Kauffman should.

Higgs Fields

A Higgs field (named after a Scottish physicist Peter Higgs) is a field supposed to be responsible for the genesis of inertial mass (and, because of Einstein's equivalence principle, gravitational mass). When the universe is extremely hot, a Higgs field (which is supposed to have a certain curve of potential energy; as regards the shape of this curve, there is no unique consensus, except for a certain general feature, among the physicists) exerts a wild influence; but we will neglect this here. Once the universe cools down enough, below a certain temerature, the Higgs field assumes a certain value (i.e. a value of the Higgs field) which corresponds to the lowest energy level (i.e. the potential energy is zero, but the value of the Higgs field is nonzero; this level may be called vacuum). And this energy level continues to prevail throughout the whole universe (uniform, nonzero Higgs field).

So here I am alone thinking about this self organization that goes on and I picked out Stuart Kauffman's book because I know that such a view is garnered by the likes of Lee Smolin, that it presents a challenge for me.

Been at it long enough to know there are opposing views and methods to determination that shall judge one's approach as too the "nature of reality." I am not going to go into the definition of this nature of reality but to assume that such a definition will become apparent in the selection of this title and the consequence of choosing Stuart's book. My reasons for expanding here under this title of the new Garden of Eden.

How it it that I could ever compare the very nature of the "Arch Model" to the insightful development of us as participants in the nature of reality that we could shape our destines and not think us less then a participant in this adventure called life.

At 9:15 AM, August 18, 2008, Blogger Plato said...

Experimentally, this became a basis for exploration which implanted experimental choice departures from euclidean space, which is flat.

This was a mathematical adventure of "pure thought" toward the process of interpreting this mathematics in the natural world.

How could one say the experimental process was first when such thought had to exist? It had to already exist in nature for us to test the theorization by definition.

So we emulate the process by experimentation. Oh sweet "spooky action at a distance?"

One should not think that such an avenue of research had not taken me down this road in regards to spooky, that I would not have adventured too, entanglement, or scattering amplitudes, that I would not of looked at Young's experiment and thought about the photon's travel. The combination or how calorimeters have been used to discern this interaction in the decay process.

Has Reductionism run to it's limit?

This is what Stuart Kauffman did not realize when thinking about reductionism or what Robert Laughlin spoke of toward the idea's of self organizational attributes of those things that gather, while we take them apart. It's not that they ever came to a definition of this limit, but tried to explain reductionism away, by the introduction of new ways, new approaches.


The Keystone

ON one side of this arch is an approach to Reductionism, and on the other, is emergence. The keystone, is the Equivalence principal.

First Principals of Quantum Mechanics

Of course the discussions are leading me to gather my thoughts on things, as they are being spoken too, by Bloggingheads.

A Life of the Genius Ramanujan
by Robert Kanigel



Srinivas Ramanujan (1887-1920)In the past few decades, we have witnessed how Ramanujan's contributions have made such a profound impact on various branches of mathematics. The book, "The man who knew infinity", by Robert Kanigel reached out to the general public the world over by describing the fascinating life story of Ramanujan. And now, in the form of a play, the public is made aware, once again, of this wonderful story. This is a very impressive play and I had the pleasure of seeing it with Prof. George Andrews, the world's greatest authority on Ramanujan's work and on partitions.

I am some what disappointed that Sean Carroll deleted my response to Lawrence Crowell and Rebel dreams.

Lawrence referenced GH Hardy, and I expanded on this in relation to Ramanujan. The point is in regards too pure mathematics. Some might have become offended by my saying "one's God" too imply, that one can idolize and put into stone, graven images of God, yet, this is so far from the truth of my statement that I hope the post I wrote was kept and seen in this light that I am to explain.

Some would never recognize the developmental aspect of a "higher self" and what images that we unconsciously induce to allow this communication within to take place.

It is not the forgetfulness with which one would like to make those graven images and form, "but the realization" that what ever we attach to something being meaningful, becomes meaningful, and pray too, can come through with an extraordinary amount of wisdom.

IN this context I would not judge another human being on the position they hold too in life, as this sets the stage for what is to come. In Ramanujan's case, the information of his mathematics came through in such a form.

My point is that while we build the inductive/deductive application to our "principals of infinite regress" that ultimately such an exercise is reduce too, yes, the mathematical framework that lies very close to that light.

While in relation to creation stories, such responsibility is on the adherence that we adopt to scientific endeavour, with which we place observation and experimentation to understanding what reality is about. I do not advocate irresponsibleness in this regard, but push to rigour that science requires.

The Craftsman

BEHOLDING beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities, for he has hold not of an image but of a reality, and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may. Would that be an ignoble life? PLATO

Timaeus:

Genesis Timaeus 27c-34a

First then, in my judgment, we must make a distinction and ask, What is that which always is and has no becoming; and what is that which is always becoming and never is? That which is apprehended by intelligence and reason is always in the same state; but that which is conceived by opinion with the help of sensation and without reason, is always in a process of becoming and perishing and never really is. Now everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created.

See Timaeus:Laying the Ground rules on Genesis

The Demiurge (Creator)

Literally, “craftsman.” The creator of Plato’s physical world is not a divine intelligence or a personal ruler, but (as it were) a manual laborer. Cf. Vlastos, Plato’s Universe (pp. 26-27):

That the supreme god of Plato’s cosmos should wear the mask of a manual worker is a triumph of the philosophical imagination over ingrained social prejudice. ... But this divine mechanic is not a drudge. He is an artist or, more precisely, what an artist would have to be in Plato’s conception of art: not the inventor of new form, but the imposer of pre-existing form on as yet formless material.

See:

The Man Who Knew Infinity

William Thurston

Xianfeng David Gu and Shing-Tung Yau
To a topologist, a rabbit is the same as a sphere. Neither has a hole. Longitude and latitude lines on the rabbit allow mathematicians to map it onto different forms while preserving information.

William Thurston of Cornell, the author of a deeper conjecture that includes Poincaré’s and that is now apparently proved, said, “Math is really about the human mind, about how people can think effectively, and why curiosity is quite a good guide,” explaining that curiosity is tied in some way with intuition.

“You don’t see what you’re seeing until you see it,” Dr. Thurston said, “but when you do see it, it lets you see many other things.”

Elusive Proof, Elusive Prover: A New Mathematical Mystery

Some of us are of course interested in how we can assign the relevance to perceptions the deeper recognition of the processes of nature. How we get there and where we believe they come from. As a layman I am always interested in this process, and of course, life's mysteries can indeed be a motivating factor. Motivating my interest about the nature of things that go unanswered and how we get there.


William Paul Thurston

(born October 30, 1946) is an American mathematician. He is a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology. In 1982, he was awarded the Fields medal for the depth and originality of his contributions to mathematics. He is currently a professor of mathematics and computer science at Cornell University (since 2003).

There are reasons with which I present this biography, as I did in relation to Poincaré and Klein. The basis of the question remains a philosophical one for me that I question the basis of proof and intuition while considering the mathematics.

Mathematical Induction

Mathematical Induction at a given statement is true of all natural numbers. It is done by proving that the first statement in the infinite sequence of statements is true, and then proving that if any one statement in the infinite sequence of statements is true, then so is the next one.

The method can be extended to prove statements about more general well-founded structures, such as trees; this generalization, known as structural induction, is used in mathematical logic and computer science.

Mathematical induction should not be misconstrued as a form of inductive reasoning, which is considered non-rigorous in mathematics (see Problem of induction for more information). In fact, mathematical induction is a form of deductive reasoning and is fully rigorous.

Deductive reasoning

Deductive reasoning is reasoning which uses deductive arguments to move from given statements (premises), which are assumed to be true, to conclusions, which must be true if the premises are true.[1]

The classic example of deductive reasoning, given by Aristotle, is

* All men are mortal. (major premise)
* Socrates is a man. (minor premise)
* Socrates is mortal. (conclusion)

For a detailed treatment of deduction as it is understood in philosophy, see Logic. For a technical treatment of deduction as it is understood in mathematics, see mathematical logic.

Deductive reasoning is often contrasted with inductive reasoning, which reasons from a large number of particular examples to a general rule.

Alternative to deductive reasoning is inductive reasoning. The basic difference between the two can be summarized in the deductive dynamic of logically progressing from general evidence to a particular truth or conclusion; whereas with induction the logical dynamic is precisely the reverse. Inductive reasoning starts with a particular observation that is believed to be a demonstrative model for a truth or principle that is assumed to apply generally.

Deductive reasoning applies general principles to reach specific conclusions, whereas inductive reasoning examines specific information, perhaps many pieces of specific information, to impute a general principle. By thinking about phenomena such as how apples fall and how the planets move, Isaac Newton induced his theory of gravity. In the 19th century, Adams and LeVerrier applied Newton's theory (general principle) to deduce the existence, mass, position, and orbit of Neptune (specific conclusions) from perturbations in the observed orbit of Uranus (specific data).

Deduction and Induction

Our attempt to justify our beliefs logically by giving reasons results in the "regress of reasons." Since any reason can be further challenged, the regress of reasons threatens to be an infinite regress. However, since this is impossible, there must be reasons for which there do not need to be further reasons: reasons which do not need to be proven. By definition, these are "first principles." The "Problem of First Principles" arises when we ask Why such reasons would not need to be proven. Aristotle's answer was that first principles do not need to be proven because they are self-evident, i.e. they are known to be true simply by understanding them.

Back to the lumping in of theology alongside of Atlantis. Rebel dreams, it is hard to remove one's colour once they work from a certain premise. Atheistic, or not.

Seeking such clarity would be the attempt for me, with which to approach a point of limitation in our knowledge, as we may try to explain the process of the current state of the universe, and it's shape. Such warnings are indeed appropriate to me about what we are offering for views from a theoretical standpoint.

The basis presented here is from a layman standpoint while in context of Plato's work, brings some perspective to Raphael's painting, "The School of Athens." It is a central theme for me about what the basis of Inductive and deductive processes reveals about the "infinite regress of mathematics to the point of proof."

Such clarity seeking would in my mind contrast a theoretical technician with a philosopher who had such a background. Raises the philosophical question about where such information is derived from. If ,from a Platonic standpoint, then all knowledge already exists. We just have to become aware of this knowledge? How so?

Lawrence Crowell:

The ball on the Mexican hat peak will under the smallest perturbation or fluctuation begin to fall off the peak, roll into the trough and the universe tunnels out of the vacuum or nothing to become a “something.”

Whether I attach a indication of God to this knowledge does not in any way relegate the process to such a contention of theological significance. The question remains a inductive/deductive process?

I would think philosophers should weight in on the point of inductive/deductive processes as it relates to the search for new mathematics?

Allegory of the Cave

For me this was a difficult task with which to cypher the greater contextual meaning of where such mathematics arose from. That I should implore such methods would seem to be, to me, in standing with the problems and ultimates searches for meaning about our place in the universe. Whether I believe in the "God nature of that light" should hold no atheistic interpretation to my quest for the explanations about the talk on the origins of the universe.

See:

The Sound of Billiard Balls

Mathematical Structure of the Universe

Memories Arise Out of a Equilibrium

Sean Carroll of Cosmic Variance, California Institute of Technology and David Albert-Columbia University Science Saturday: Time’s Arrow

Some highlights at different spots of the exchange.

How a philosopher of science spends his time (08:34)

David describes his run-in with the “What the Bleep!?” cultists (11:56)

Is good science too disturbing to make good entertainment? (04:46)

Sean and David take on John Horgan’s critique of string theory (10:54)

String theory’s predictive power (or lack thereof) (06:04)

Why is the past so different, in so many ways, from the future? (12:20)

I selected the title for a reason. I will have to go back and record the exact time of this comment as it arises. Time 53:48 David mentions the point about a memory forming out of a equilibrium which not only encompasses the future, but can also include the past.

The integration of a philosophy of science alongside of a person in theoretics seems like a good idea to me. There is something to be said about this language used even though used in the conceptual performance of this collaboration.



Now you must know, that I speak from a position of one that is of discovery about the nature of the mathematics, as I have come to understand it. Yes sure I may cloud the interpretation of the mathematical deduction with the idea of a regress to an ultimate position in mind, that we might compare such relations to what the cosmos is saying and what we are saying about the future and past.

I will not discount the very fabric such psychologies might go too, to develop concept maps themselves, to map the thinking being as to the regress of reason, and it's ultimate fate resting in such a mathematical description.

When I point out the relation to WMAP and the idea of this mathematical relationship, one might see the underlying method with which Sean and David intermingle conceptually. To bring forward a clear and consistent description of what begins and ends in the universe, might mean in relation to the past and future. What it means in relation to the memory that arises

I am looking to define such a shape as well as to the very nature of this universe.

Incompatible Arrows

I link the previous blog entry above for consideration, in line with the topic of this post, so that the "continuance of this position" describes the other half of the talking heads, that Sean Carroll represents.

Sean Carroll has a interesting set of four entires about the backwardness of the arrow of time and how it would appear. This is an interesting exercise for me on how perception about the current direction of the universe could have represented "the Egg before the chicken" scenarios.

Incompatible Arrows, I: Martin Amis
Incompatible Arrows, II: Kurt Vonnegut
Incompatible Arrows, III: Lewis Carroll
Incompatible Arrows, IV: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Chicken or Egg

Illustration from Tacuina sanitatis, Fourteenth century

Reverse chronology — narrating a story, or parts of one, backwards in time — is a venerable technique in literature, going back at least as far as Virgil’s Aeneid. Much more interesting is a story with incompatible arrows of time: some characters live “backwards” while others experience life normally.

Update:

One should be aware that there are a series of bloggingheads up and coming that are being exchanged here.

Sean Carroll

This raises all sorts of questions, the most basic of which are: “What counts as `looking’ vs. `not looking’?” and “Do we really need a separate law of physics to describe the evolution of systems that are being looked at?”

See:Quantum Diavlog

Light House Keeper

Some will reconsider the effect that is portrayed here in terms of a mirror directed and reflects to one eyes, can cause an unsettling effect because of the focus of the beam.

IN nature such a thing is an everyday occurrence as we catch such glimpses not only here in our everyday lives, but assign them to a cosmological occurrence as well. Now as illusive as the God nature of particles from space, whose energy considerations may be of value, they are very odd to such glimpses contained, and maybe even called "God particles.":)

There is a limit to the knowledge, you have to remember and what is one to do when they invoke such a statement, to realize our knowledge is indeed limited? We theorize and we built gigantic devices for such measures, as to the certainty of our values assigned to those theoretics. It has to appear in some intellectual form before we can say yes they exist and the dependence on measure is what we are willing to build to become such realistic people.

I tend to think such a thing is a "direct connection to to what the event is saying" not only in our lives as the decay process is the effect of all our psychological actions(emotive intellectual or spiritual), it is also the elemental consideration that such constituents are held together by "such a glue" whose measure is affected, and measured, by such a light.

If light bends, what is it we are to saying about the path such a light has travelled that we would say "the light has an energy valuation to it" and such lensing occurs?

The light then, becomes a gravitational indication of the space it travels through?

Black Hole-Powered Jet of Electrons and Sub-Atomic Particles Streams From Center of Galaxy M87

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Yields Clear View of Optical Jet in Galaxy M87

A NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) view of a 4,000 light-year long jet of plasma emanating from the bright nucleus of the giant elliptical galaxy M87. This ultraviolet light image was made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC), one of two imaging systems aboard HST. This photo is being presented on Thursday, January 16th at the 179th meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. M87 is a giant elliptical galaxy with an estimated mass of 300 billion suns. Located 52 million light-years away at the heart of the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies, M87 is the nearest example of an active galactic nucleus with a bright optical jet. The jet appears as a string of knots within a widening cone extending out from the core of M87. The FOC image reveals unprecedented detail in these knots, resolving some features as small as ten light-years across. According to one theory, the jet is most likely powered by a 3 billion solar mass black hole at the nucleus of M87. Magnetic fields generated within a spinning accretion disk surrounding the black hole, spiral around the edge of the jet. The fields confine the jet to a long narrow tube of hot plasma and charged particles. High speed electrons and protons which are accelerated near the black hole race along the tube at nearly the speed of light. When electrons are caught up in the magnetic field they radiate in a process called synchrotron radiation. The Faint Object Camera image clearly resolves these localized electron acceleration, which seem to trace out the spiral pattern of the otherwise invisible magnetic field lines. A large bright knot located midway along the jet shows where the blue jet disrupts violently and becomes more chaotic. Farther out from the core the jet bends and dissipates as it rams into a wall of gas, invisible but present throughout the galaxy which the jet has plowed in front of itself. HST is ideally suited for studying extragalactic jets. The Telescope's UV sensitivity allows it to clearly separate a jet from the stellar background light of its host galaxy. What's more, the FOC's high angular resolution is comparable to sub arc second resolution achieved by large radio telescope arrays.

See:Hubble Site>

Just to draw further comparison here for consideration in light of this thread I apologize, but it is of importance, just not in that blog posting space.

The significance in our every day life of such a thing "catches the eye,"( thanks again Paul in regards to Snowboarders.) and we do not realize it. To find such cosmological comparisons is really interesting in the unfolding of the events. How significant?

We see a pulsar, then, when one of its beams of radiation crosses our line-of-sight. In this way, a pulsar is like a lighthouse. The light from a lighthouse appears to be "pulsing" because it only crosses our line-of-sight once each time it spins. Similarly, a pulsar "pulses" because we see bright flashes every time the star spins.

See: Pulsars
Link to tutorial site has been taken down, and belongs to Barb of  http://www.airynothing.com
See Also:Pulsars and Cerenkov Radiation

So What Did I mean By Olympics?

Smoky Comes to Visit Again

We built a patio to the one side of the house that allows us to watch the birds feed, and some of these pictures I have shown on this site. We found that quite a variety were coming as long.

While the birds still do come, the squirrel population is doing well, as they come to these feeders. It seems to attract our friend Smokey too.



This is a black bear, and you wouldn't know it. My wife shot this photo, as I was talking to her from work. The cub was apparently interested on what was inside the house. Good thing the patio doors were not left open like we usually do.



The interesting thing was the bear was actually coming to the patio window to have a look inside, and at one point actually stood on the house with it's front paws while leaning against it.

This is the little bears second season.

Not fifteen minutes before this little one showed up, my wife seen a Mother bear and her cub. It was obvious that Smoky was causing some distraction for the mother as the cub was chased up a tree.

The Inconceivable being Believable

While string theory does not, at this point, predict our world, it can at the very least plausibly encompass it. No other theory has been shown to do that. Aaron Bergman's book review of Peter Woit's

I think there is always an upper limit with which we can assign "our beliefs" and when given a set of tools with which to assess our current situations in science, we learn that what was once "inconceivable" can now be believable.

So having assumed "this set of tools and the analysis's of the beauty" and it's allure, one can move forward, as I have, based on these premises. To take it into the world we know and operate in. Indeed, how fragile a "house of Glass."

While "this view" of myself is inclined to a metaphysical point of view, and less then adequate to the valuations of science, I can be thought of, "as less then," and sent to the exclusions of the evaluation that science demands. This does not change "my philosophical point of view." We know what science thinks of this too.:)

The Inconceivable

This enlightenment experience is a realization about the nature of the mind which entails recognizing it (in a direct, experiential way) as liminocentrically organized. The overall structure is paradoxical, and so the articulation of this realization will 'transcend' logic - insofar as logic itself is based on the presumption that nested sets are not permitted to loop back on themselves in a non-heirarchical manner. 11

I have over my time researching the process here in science, learn to see the scientists in one form or another, equate themself according to the "peak realization and beyond" as something either God like, or, the allure of the "not believable."

To me such a "systemic behaviour" can cause outward afflictions to the associates in science. These are less then wanting in regards to characterization. A religiosity's appeal to the beyond, whether atheistic as a position or not. This must be perceived as either being realistic, or felt wanting for, as an adherence to the ethics and morality of science.

The Believable

Has become something more then the topic of string theory itself. While we think about the issue in regard to science's pursuance, this has been deterred by other issues, as I relate them in regards too, "the Conceivable and the not Believable."

The Inconceivable being Believable

Anomaly and the Emergence of Scientific Discoveries[/b] Kuhn now moves past his initial topic of paradigm to scientific discovery saying that in order for there to be a discovery, an anomaly must be detected within the field of study. He discusses several different studies and points out the anomaly that invoked the scientific discovery. Later in the chapter he begins to discuss how the anomaly can be incorporated into the discovery to satisfy the scientific community.

There are three different characteristics of all discoveries from which new sorts of phenomena emerge. These three characteristics are proven through an experiment dealing with a deck of cards. The deck consisted of anomalous cards (e.g. the red six of spades shown on the previous page) mixed in with regular cards. These cards were held up in front of students who were asked to call out the card they saw, and in most cases the anomaly was not detected.

I of course weight the relations and counterpoints held by Steven Weinberg in this case. I would rather think about the "essence of observation here" rather then the foundational ideas exemplified by the whole issue of paradigm change.

The Revolution that Didn't Happen by Steven Weinberg

I first read Thomas Kuhn's famous book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions1 a quarter-century ago, soon after the publication of the second edition. I had known Kuhn only slightly when we had been together on the faculty at Berkeley in the early 1960s, but I came to like and admire him later, when he came to MIT. His book I found exciting.

Evidently others felt the same. Structure has had a wider influence than any other book on the history of science. Soon after Kuhn's death in 1996, the sociologist Clifford Geertz remarked that Kuhn's book had "opened the door to the eruption of the sociology of knowledge" into the study of the sciences. Kuhn's ideas have been invoked again and again in the recent conflict over the relation of science and culture known as the science wars.

So we come to the real topic here. How one opens the door to what is considered "beyond." I will only point to the previous persons who have allowed themself the freedoms to move from a position of the inconceivable, who have worked the process in science, and come up with an idealization of what they have discovered. What it means to them now, as they assume this new "paradigm change," to the way the work had always seemed to them.

I will point to the "airs with which such transitions" take place that the environment is conducive to such journeys, that the place selected, could be the most idealistic in terms of where one may feel that their creativity is most aptly felt to themselves. Of course such issues as to the temperances of such creativity is always on my mind too, yet it is of essence that life be taken care of, and that such nurturing understand that the best of society is always the luxuries with which we can assign happiness? Then these in society become the grandeur of art and culture to become, the freedoms of expression, while there is always this struggle to survive.