If one of these was one of you who regularly read this blog, remember you’re not ‘in’ and able to ‘comment’ if you don’t a) register here AND b) use your not-a-bot skills to find my e-mail addy up there in the usual place ^^^ and write me a very brief e-mail stating you’re not a robot. Otherwise I assume you’re trying to get me to buy designer watches or the like.
Just ‘denied’ about 38 people who’ve been hanging fire on the approval list for weeks
by CJ | Jul 15, 2017 | Journal | 32 comments
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And we’ve just heard from several—who are now approved! Yay!
Welcome in, new people!
And here I thought I was being so daring by writing you back! It was like a reverse Turin test… and I passed!
Welcome to the Wavy Navy!
Hello, we’re glad you have joined us.
Welcome in!
Welcome in!
On another topic, I’ve just finished reading We have no idea by Jorge Cham (of PHD Comics) and Daniel Whiteson.
It’s the best overview of the current state of physics that I’ve ever read, and in a very light, entertaining, and readable format.
The emphasis is on what we don’t know. If you ever thought that modern physics has a pretty good idea about how the universe works, this book shows how little we actually know, and how many fundamental scientific questions still remain unexplained. We’ve barely scratched the surface.
Web page
http://phdcomics.com/noidea/
Short excerpt
http://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1949
Just because one can imagine a question does not imply it must have an answer. Why does the teacup fall to the floor and destruction? Gravity is no answer. Newton’s Law is no answer. There is no explanation for why the gravitational constant is positive. Depending on who’s positing, there are a half to couple dozen Fundamental Constants, that just ARE. No derivation produces them. Chase the chains of cause and effect far enough and one comes up against a wall of “That’s just the way things are” that is impenetrable.
Science is not about certainty. It’s about falsifiability as much as anything.
Modern science didn’t get to where it is today by scientists shrugging their shoulders and saying, “That’s just the way things are.”
The questions in this book are certainly not about ‘why is this constant this value’ (though, of course, asking that may result in important and profound insights). There are far more interesting questions.
In spite of its light tone, this a serious book about serious physics, incorporating the latest insights and experiments from the past few years. It’s not sensationalist or superficial. It’s very thought-provoking.
Dark matter? It’s real, and a large proportion of the universe is composed of it, but it must be a fundamentally different kind of matter from any other matter/particle/force we are aware of. We simply don’t know what it is, and nothing in our current knowledge explains it.
Dark energy? It’s causing the universe to expand. It’s been calculated by several different independent approaches that 68% of the energy in the universe is ‘dark energy’. Yet nothing in our current theories gives even the slightest insight into what it is.
Cosmic rays are constantly hitting the earth with enormous energy. There is no object in the universe that we know of, and no process we that we can imagine, that can produce such particles. Something is doing it, but we don’t have even the slightest idea what.
What is mass? There are many strange things things about it that we don’t understand, many unanswered questions.
Gravity – why is it so completely different from any other force? How does it fit in? Yes, we have General Relativity, but that still leaves major questions unanswered.
Space? We know that space itself can expand and contract, and ripples have been experimentally detected in space. Space appears to be flat, but we would expect it to be curved. Why? Is space quantized? We don’t know. And even stranger questions come up. Are there parts of the universe without space? Does our space sit inside a larger metaspace? How far does space extend beyond the horizons we can perceive?
More than 3 space dimensions? Current theories, like string theory, use many space dimensions, some of them tightly ‘looped up’, to explain phenomena. No conclusions, though.
Time – a huge mystery. Many outstanding questions.
Causality? Weird ‘action at a distance’ through quantum entanglement? Unification of quantum mechanics and relativity? Etc.
The chapters are:
1. Â What Is the Universe Made Of?
2. Â What Is Dark Matter?
3. Â What Is Dark Energy?
4. Â What Is the Most Basic Element of Matter?
5. Â The Mysteries of Mass
6. Â Why Is Gravity So Different from the Other Forces?
7. Â What Is Space?
8. Â What Is Time?
9. Â How Many Dimensions Are There?
10. Can We Travel Faster Than Light?
11. Who Is Shooting Superfast Particles at the Earth?
12. Why Are We Made of Matter, Not Antimatter?
14. What Happened During the Big Bang?
15. How BIG Is the Universe?
16. Is There a Theory of Everything?
17. Are We Alone in the Universe?
A Conclusion of Sorts
Do we have any idea if dark matter and dark energy are actually more than two things? That is, do we know if there are several kinds of dark matter and dark energy?
I’d thought gravity was deemed to be a sort of higher-order force that derives as a natural property out of objects having mass? As though one is an integral and the other a differential or derivative in some way of the same thing.
(I really liked calculus, but I never could get physics right. I always put in a force where it wasn’t supposed to be, or omitted one. My calculus is rusty these days, but still in there somewhere. I’d be better sitting com/comp instead.)
IMO, we’re not even sure each is even one thing. Both Dark Matter and Dark Energy are somewhat hypothetical. Neither have been “seen”, just the effects they have. Although it may be argued, I suppose, that the “scale” is all wrong, we seem to be finding planets and brown dwarfs at a rate that should cause a reaccounting of the matter in the Universe. The traditional estimate of the amount of baryonic matter, i.e. normal, atomic sort of stuff, was based on an assumption that said matter was in shining stars. Sure, Sol has planets, but less than a generation ago nobody expected there were so many “solar systems” out there. Now the conjecture is that most stars have planets. Heck, there were just recently a couple papers published that provided good evidence that “Nemesis” exists. Something is warping the orbital parameters in the far Kuiper Belt.
Dark Energy is even further from “capture”.
My point is, Science hypotheses may have evidence, but must still be taken skeptically. In Science, everything is potentially falsifiable. Certainty is in the realm of Faith.
Some of those “questions” are of the imaginary sort. First one must demonstrate that there is a knowable answer. As well ask, “If the Universe didn’t exist, what would?” “Why was there a Big Bang?” Our physics breaks down before we get to that instant. There’s no way physics can tell us what there was before it that made it happen or what happened during the Big Bang. There’s no way to know. Those questions are meaningless.
It’s like Feynman said in his lectures, Quantun Mechanics isn’t anything you CAN understand. You’re positing questions that suppose the answer fits in the terms of the question. “How can an electron be a particle and a wave at the same time?” Because it’s neither. It’s an electron. It has electron properties. Particles and waves are human constructs.
Travelling faster than light is decided. Matter can’t. Tangled particles, instantaneous action at a distance, isn’t travelling faster than light.
Mass is thought to depend on what we learn after having seen that a Higgs boson actually exists. That’s all we really know about it so far, it exists, and that’s just a bump in a spectrum from the LHC. Nobody’s seen one jump through hoops yet.
I spent a good deal of time in college exploring the surface of an inflating four (spatial) dimensional sphere as the shape of the Universe, and it works.
Be careful of the “Welcome In” phrase. Who was it that got a pan of water throne on him in one of the company wars? Fletcher Neihart was not treated very nicely in Finity’s End.
But we do appreciate the new additions to the CJ List.
I’m mystified why it double-posted me, but at least it didn’t lose the post in the internet’s “celestial aether,” as has also happened (rarely) for my posts.
I’m aware of Fletcher’s bad experience with his “welcome in,” but choose to use it the way most intend it, as a real welcome. (My personal sympathies go with Fletcher and Jeremy on that one.)
I just got an e-mail from Kobo with the first pre-order notice for the next book (scheduled for next April) – they’re using the cover illo that says “Emergence”, which means they have the wrong title. I hope that gets fixed!
I had it backwards. Next out IS Emergence, then Resurgence! THank you!
In that case, I’ll want to check Amazon to make sure of my pre-orders for Cherryh books. I will be all over the Alliance Rising and sequel when it / they are up for pre-order. (And certainly for the Alliance / Union history piece from Closed-Circle.net).
—–
Off-Topic: I (finally) got a half day at my storage space, and brought home a few things, mostly books and I think some BJD stuff, though not all. Still somewhere in storage are my camera, guitar (awaiting study), and some kitchen tools and pantry contents (dry goods, canned goods, spices(!) ) It’s going s-l-o-w-l-y, but it’s going. Grocery trip tomorrow, I hope, or else this week. — Note: Robby etc. (BJD) are still in storage…somewhere. I didn’t locate that box yet. — I will likely want to sell or give away some SF&F paperbacks and possibly hardbacks. I would be happy to give Cherryh fans here and at Shejidan first chance. I still have to explore eBay versus Amazon versus a local used book store; and I would rather give fellow fans here the first chance.
@Hanneke and other international fans — This may include some CJC books where I have the ebook or extra copies. I seem to recall some overseas fans said they could not get PB or HB English copies in their countries, or ebooks also. Ah, and chondrite, though you’re in Hawaii, I believe you’ve said getting in-print / out-of-print books for libraries or fans can be a problem? Both of you and any other fans, feel free to contact me here or via my email. — I don’t yet know what books I’ll have, as this depends on getting boxes out of storage and looking through them. But as I know more, I’ll update fellow fans. :waves:
Thanks, BCS; my main concern is keeping the ‘Christmas presents’ coming for my friend. Now that he has discovered I can request the books (signed, no less!) directly from CJ a reasonable time after publication, I have a standing order in perpetuity.
@BCS: Thank you for the offer, but since Amazon made it possible to buy used books from overseas I’ve managed to fill the gaps in my collection. I don’t like these giant corporations that are out to dominate the entire market (and refuse to use them to buy anything new, that I can get through other channels), but for old, used English-language books (that are no longer available new) it’s been the first real option available to use as an ordinary customer.
After that, my American & English bookstore in Amsterdam started offering the same service: people can now order any English book from them, even if it’s out of print, and they will find & get it for them using Amazon’s secondhand booksellers!
Considering the international postage costs, and the hassle of getting packages to the post-office to be franked and get the Customs stickers put on etcetera, selling them locally or at least in-country might be a lot easier for you.
If you choose to sell on Amazon, you can say if you will sell internationally or not. As an international buyer, I’m very happy that there are US and UK sellers who will sell to me, but those are often bigger firms. About half the time, private persons do not.
Ebay I dont know, I’ve never bought anything there since their postage costs to Holland are prohibitively expensive (at least they were for those few small things I’d eyed with covetuousness).
I’ll be gathering books from boxes and looking at options. I’m very glad you both have had better results getting US (mainland) books in. 🙂
I suspect it may be easier / more effective for me to sell boxes of (some) books to a local used bookstore, but I haven’t done this myself before. I expect I might get.a better return by selling on Amazon. Ebay seems to be geared towards items other than books; or maybe I’m misinterpreting that.
Look, I can spout off character names and major plot points at the drop of a hat, but even I have trouble keeping the titles of books 7-14 straight.
Thank you very much for the heads up that the new book is available for Pre-Order. I had to hunt for it on Amazon, but the Kindle version is available and ordered. Apologies to CJ that it’s not a hardcover order, but for those of us who need large type, Kindle books make life so much more pleasant!
Carolynp, I think the book may be available in hardback also, but I fully understand wanting and needing the larger print available from ebooks. By careful use of Audible.com, you can also get audiobooks using the free monthly credits, or pay a modest fee for them.
@Paul
Evidence for dark matter comes from several different independent sources.
Observational evidence for dark matter
Evidence for dark energy comes from three different independent sources.
Observational evidence for dark energy
Physics has been advancing rapidly over the last few years. It’s not like our knowledge and concepts of the universe are fixed or static.
I suggest you preview or read the book before denouncing it. You might find that that it’s far from superficial or sensationalist, despite its light tone.
The co-author Daniel Whiteson has a Ph.D. in Physics from Berkeley, and is currently a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Irvine.
I didn’t claim that Dark Matter and Dark Energy don’t exist, and there isn’t evidence the traditional model doesn’t explain. Science doesn’t have all the answers, has never claimed to, but we have to be careful about the questions.
What I object to is “jumping the gun”. There have been all kinds of hypotheses that didn’t “pan out” scientifically. My point is imagination is not Science.
Don’t you see that your statement above, “…it must be a fundamentally different kind of matter from any other matter/particle/force we are aware of. We simply don’t know what it is, and nothing in our current knowledge explains it.” is self contradictory?
“If luminous mass were all the matter…” The traditional model assumed all the atomic mass that counted in a galaxy could be measured by bolometry and absorption spectra. We now know that’s not true. “In particular, there is a lot of non-luminous matter in the outskirts of the galaxy (‘dark matter’).” We have observed that there is matter around us out in the disk that is neither gasseous nor shines, as was assumed. This matter IS “dark matter” and changes the rate at which galaxies spin. So we need a new accounting. It may not be enough, but it will change the deficit.
“Assuming that the standard model of cosmology is correct, the best current measurements indicate that dark energy contributes 68.3% of the total energy in the present-day observable universe.” Based on what? An assumption. Never forget that.
All I can suggest that you read up on the facts.
We know that dark matter is NOT non-luminous normal matter, because it does not have the properties of normal matter. It’s something entirely different. That’s the whole point.
The estimate of dark energy comes from independent calculations along completely different lines, which give similar results.
What’s interesting to me (because I’ve been having a conversation about this elsewhere as well) is how threatened and uncomfortable some people feel about the idea that there are still huge gaps in our scientific knowledge, and that we are very far from having an adequate understanding of the universe. On the contrary, I find it exciting.
I made it in – I think! Nice to be here! Been visiting for a few years but only just signed up.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve been *lurking* for a bit, but glad to finally get signed up!
Welcome!
Well, the sign up process seemed counter-intuitive at first, then I thought about it and it makes a lot of sense. Glad to be here!
Welcome!
Thank you.