2007.03.06
Things That Make No Sense
One of the things I love about science is the fact that, no matter how much we’ve learned, we still know there is a lot we know nothing about. Up in Tahoe at the hotel Jerome pointed out a link titled 13 things that do not make sense (in science). The following is my sad (and possibly incorrect) interpretation of my favorites from the article.
1: The placebo effect. Why the fsck do people sometimes get better when you tell them they’re taking medicine and it’s just water?
2: The horizon problem. The edges of our universe are 28 billion light years apart yet it is only 14 billion years old. If nothing can travel faster than the speed of light this should be impossible. Or not?
3: Ultra-energetic cosmic rays. Over great distances rays of particles travelling great distances lose their energy. It’s kind of like getting old; you’ve got all this energy as a horny teen but if you make it to 93 years old you’re not likely to have marathon sex sessions. And yet we’ve found some particle rays that are a potent now as the day they “came” from other galaxies. How is this possible?
4: Dark matter. We still don’t know if it exists. If it doesn’t exist then where is most of the matter and mass in the universe is hiding itself? Certainly not in the junk drawer in my desk, no matter how much crap I can stuff in there. I won’t even go into dark energy because we know even less about that!
5: Tetraneutrons. We can create particles that shouldn’t, according to our current understanding, exist. We are creating things we don’t understand… This sounds like the premise of a B-grade science fiction movie. Excellent!
6: The Kuiper cliff. All the evidence points out that there should be a sizable planet out there beyond Pluto but we can’t find it. Kind of like the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Or dark matter. I call conspiracy!
Obviously there is much more at the link, and even more out there left to discover. The universe is an amazing place and anyone who tells you they know everything about it is a liar. I love science.
3 Comments Categorized: science
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3 Responses to “Things That Make No Sense”
- Mookee says (March 7th, 2007 at 12:52:24 )
No sense? Let me explain (numbers correspond to your things):
1) The healing power of prayer (:)
2) 14 billion years ago there’s an explosion, particles go in all directions, not only one. Two items travelling in opposite directions at the same time will be twice as far from each other as they are from they’re starting point.
3) There can be only one.
4) My tires are made of dark matter. Some pavement. There is plenty of dark matter out there. Who came up with this stupid list?
5) Ah carunadas, ookee jenga juk choi, ankoonus. Aside from portions, I have no idea what that means, doesn’t mean I didn’t create it.
6) This one is just stupid. How can there be a “cliff” in space? If you can’t see anything beyond Pluto then you’re not looking. Most everything you see at night in the sky is beyond Pluto.What a stupid list you’ve come up with. Seems pretty clear to me what’s going on.
- douglas says (March 7th, 2007 at 20:42:20 )
Let me respond.
1: The healing power of praying has already been debunked (read the retraction, which is the fact of the matter). That being said, perhaps praying to Cthulu should be tried.
2: This implies that we are in the exact center of the universe. Since I’m here, perhaps you have a point.
3: Agreed!
4: Your cornhole contains dark matter, too, but I don’t think it contains the several hundred billion billion metric tons (to the hundred billion billionth power) that would be required to explain where everything is. The matter in your cornhole is, unfortunately, accounted for.
5: Gag far ankoonis! Slick margwa, Mookee. :)
6: There is nothing beyond Pluto. He’s the craziest Disney character of them all!- TR says (March 7th, 2007 at 22:07:25 )
You’re number two is incorrect. You said the universe is 28 billion light years end to end. It doesn’t say anything about us being the middle. It implies that at one point there was a center.
yo nuc far far.
