We are Stardust

Was watching a Science Channel show about how we and the universe came to be.

According to current theory all the matter and energy in the universe came from a point smaller than the nucleus of an atom that violently expanded about 13 billion years ago in what is referred to as ‘The Big Bang’. The idea that the whole universe was contained in so small a space is unimaginable not because it is wrong, but because our wonderful brains did not evolve to deal with such concepts. As an example try to imagine infinity, I can’t do it, but that’s because nervous systems developed in a world of finiteness. Evolution was more concerned with fight or flight or how to get lunch without being lunch than think about the origin of the universe, but what is remarkable is that we can do it nevertheless.

Anyway, the show said that way back when the proto-universe cooled enough to allow the formation of neutrons and protons out of things like quarks and their esoteric friends, hydrogen and helium formed. After a really long time these elements condensed into proto-stars. Slowly gravity condensed these stars and as they compressed they heated up until they got so hot they ignited into a fusion reaction uniting hydrogen atoms to form helium releasing massive amounts of energy. Think H bomb. As time went by, the star fused together larger and larger atoms up through the periodic table until it got to iron-- the fusion end of the line.

These massive stars then began to collapse since they no longer generated the energy to counter their crushing gravity. Eventually the star collapsed erupting in a super nova scattering most of its partial periodic table of elements through space.

In our case, one of these star’s stuff condensed into our sun and solar system. On Earth the atoms created in that exploded sun formed the molecules that evolved into life. We got a brain out of the deal that could think about where it came from and how it was created.

We are made of star dust.

Kinda gives you goose bumps, huh?

Radioactive Waste-where do we store it?

Was reading in SciAm about the benefits of nuclear power. There seems to be little doubt we need to come up with a number of alternate energy sources to lesson the havoc about to be wreaked on our small planet by global warming.

Although I agree that nuclear power plants have a much better safety record than they used to have, we still have a problem as to what to do with megatons of radioactive waste from these uranium burners. Some of the waste must be stored for thousands of years. Linguists are trying to come up with some kind of signage to warn future humans of the danger of these dumps thousands of years from now when language may be very different from today's.

Another problem is the plutonium produced in burning U235. You need to keep it out of the hands of wingnuts who might want to build a bomb.

Radiation and Astronauts

A big problem for manned space flight beyond low Earth orbit is radiation. Earth and to some extent low-Earth orbiting space craft are protected from the intense radiation from the sun and cosmic sources by its magnetic field.

The problem to solve for long lunar missions or missions to Mars is one of shielding. On the Moon the astronauts can burrow under the lunar soil or set up shop in lava tubes. Mars has no magnetic field and anyway the trip there will take a long time exposing astronauts to radiation over a long period of time. I’m not an expert, but that doesn’t sound like a good thing.

While in transit NASA has to find a way to shield the crew from radiation. Some investigators suggest using water, which they have to carry anyway. But water is heavy. Other lines of research are looking at the possibility of creating a magnetic field around the spacecraft that will function much like the Earth’s.

In the early days of spaceflight astronauts reported seeing flashes of light, even with their eyes closed. That’s the hint. Particles of cosmic radiation were smashing into their retinal pigments causing a flash of light. I thought I'd heard somewhere that a high percentage of astronauts suffer from a form of cataract appearing several years after their flights.


Has anybody else heard of this phenomenon?

UFO's??

Just read an interesting piece on-line about UFO's. You may remember that I wrote about the percentage of people who believe in space aliens having visited Earth is 20% higher than those who believe in evolution.

This article UFO states that the UFO scare started in 1947 when a man named Kenneth Arnold claimed to have seen nine UFO's flying over Mount Rainer in Washington. As I recall, in the TV documentary made of this incident, he was flying a small plane at the time and perhaps his being a pilot added some credulity to the story, soon after a number of similar reports were made as the sighting took hold on the public’s imagination.

Bad reporting is given, by the author, as the reason they were called ‘flying saucers’. In reality Mr. Arnold is said to have reported them as crescent shaped. He went on to say that they “flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across water." He evidently didn't mean they looked like saucers.

What caught my attention was that the authors of the book, The Saucer Fleet" (Apogee Books, 2008), claim that the entertainment media picked up on this story and promoted the flying saucer story hoping to cash in on books, movies, etc. from all the interest they themselves created. Eventually that one 'sighting' became a culture myth that many people came to believe as true, or so say the authors.

Me? As I said before, I would be surprised if we were alone in the universe, but am not ready to say they have visited Earth, but I am open minded about it. I have read a few books on the subject both for and against. Both points of view are persuasive.

Aliens or Darwin?

I heard a really weird statistic today, only forty per cent of Americans believe in the Theory of Evolution, but over sixty per cent believe space aliens have visited the Earth!

Now I happen to believe in the former and although I would be surprised if they didn't exist, I haven't seen solid evidence that alien life has visited Earth. Maybe it's because Earth is not the kind of neighborhood you would care to be seen in.

I just wonder what this says about the people's trust in science in the U.S.?

We believe more in a concept for which there is no evidence, than we do in one which has?