Welcome to The Carnal Carnival!

Who ever said scientists had no sense of humor, never met these guys. What, from my point of view as a casual twitter observer, began as a joke on twitter a few days ago has turned into a full-blown blog with articles scheduled out through October 2011 so far. Themes include: poop, barf, orgasm, and weird animal sex just to name a few. These are my kind of people. The tag line for  the blog is:

appealing to your more sophomoric interests since 2010 (it’s science, we promise!)

“The Carnal Carnival will publish the third Friday of each month. The host will pick the general topic for that particular month.”

via Welcome to The Carnal Carnival! «. <<Click Here

The Carnal Carnival is also on twitter.com

Big Bang Abandoned in New Model of the Universe

This is one of the most exciting theories I have heard in a long time. I am going to tell you why and you are going to think I am even nuttier than you already do. But, as you know, I don’t care. One night after watching some documentary about Stephen Hawking and the black hole wars, I was lying in bed just contemplating the Universe. Suddenly and image came into focus and a said aloud to my husband.

“I get it. It has a hole but it has no hole.”

Of course he groggily responded.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

I went on to explain that I had seen an image of the Universe. That it was kind of like a doughnut. But, because we are inside the ring so we just keep going around and around. From our perspective it doesn’t have a hole. And the image I saw it was all stretched out so the “doughnut hole” was almost invisible.

“A new cosmology successfully explains the accelerating expansion of the universe without dark energy; but only if the universe has no beginning and no end.

Shu’s idea is that time and space are not independent entities but can be converted back and forth between each other. In his formulation of the geometry of spacetime, the speed of light is simply the conversion factor between the two. Similarly, mass and length are interchangeable in a relationship in which the conversion factor depends on both the gravitational constant G and the speed of light, neither of which need be constant.

So as the Universe expands, mass and time are converted to length and space and vice versa as it contracts.

This universe has no beginning or end, just alternating periods of expansion and contraction. In fact, Shu shows that singularities cannot exist in this cosmos.” Read the full article…

via Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: Big Bang Abandoned in New Model of the Universe.

Critical Thinking 101: A Skeptics Toolkit

Have you ever tried convincing someone that ghosts aren’t real, aliens are not abducting people or that psychics are con artists, only to end up in an argument? It has happened to me. More often you are presented with a situation where a friend or family member states something you know to be complete baloney, but out of politeness or fear you say nothing. Well, thanks to The Cleveland Skeptics, now you can. They have put together a toolkit. When someone says something stupid just find the appropriate video or podcast and send it to them. It is also a good idea to go through all of the material yourself.

“Critical Thinking 101

These are videos, podcasts, articles and books that, I think, provide the basic knowledge for skepticism. These are the essential tools that every active skeptic should have.” Please read and bookmark

via The Cleveland Skeptics: Critical Thinking 101.

Beginning and End of the Universe

Universe History

* The diagram below outlines the major Eras of the Universe according to the Big Bang Theory. Click the picture for many more details and a larger image. The one line in the article that caught my attention the most was at the end.

“One important point is that since everything that we learn about the Universe comes from light (photons), if there are no photons there is no information. Thus, before the end of the era of nuclei, we have no information since the photons were trapped. We will never see this era of the Universe with photons, but maybe gravity waves (?).”

That is a point that has been bothering me. Since we can’t “see” most of the Universe why do some (not all) scientists cling so tightly to one theory to the exclusion of all others? Isn’t it possible the standard model is wrong? Or, Isn’t is possible string theory is wrong? or M-theory? or even the Big Bang Theory? People use to think the theory of a geocentric universe was true. We agreed to get over that. Well, most of us did. I am just saying Science is about keeping an open mind about the facts. And the facts are, at the moment, most of the Universe is still invisible.

via Astronomy 309: COSMOLOGY.

Are We Living Inside a Black Hole?

This is a new one. I don’t know about you, but I will have fun thinking abut this one this weekend. My definition of fun is different than most.

“Scientists trying to explain the universe’s accelerating expansion usually point to dark energy, which seems to be pushing everything apart.

But an Indiana University professor has a new theory, reports New Scientist: We’re inside a black hole that exists in another universe. Specifically, a black hole that rebounded, somewhat like a spring.

Some fairly mind-blowing physics is involved here, but the gist is that Nikodem Poplawski of IU-Bloomington used a modified version of Einstein’s general relativity equation set that takes particle spin into account.” Read Full Story

via Are We Living Inside a Black Hole? | Popular Science.

Oh Cool, Super Bubbles!

“The enormous stars in the [Tarantula]nebula are producing intense radiation and searing winds of multimillion-degree gas that carve out gigantic bubbles in the surrounding cooler gas and dust. Other massive stars have raced through their evolution and exploded catastrophically as supernovae, expanding these bubbles into X-ray-brightened superbubbles.” Read full story

via Image of the Day: Ghost Bubbles of the Tarantula Nebula.

We are never ever alone

PZ Myers is still writing.  Get ready for some poop.

“It is our conceit to regard ourselves as individuals of Homo sapiens, a body of cells clonally derived from a single human cell. It’s not true. It turns out that each one of us is actually a whole population of species, linked by our evolutionary history and lumbering through the world as a team.”

Read the entire article on Panda’s Thumb “No metazoan is an island“

Can you help save the world sitting on you ass?

Ways YOU can help save the world from home without getting off your ass.

You may say “People should get off their ass to help!” My response is: Unfortunately, not all of us can. Whether they be physical, financial, social or just plain weird sometimes circumstances make us feel useless and trapped. Helping others is the best way to feel better about your own life. All of the examples I have listed below are free, easy, fun, educational and cool. You will soon forget started doing it to help others. In fact by doing these things you are really helping yourself.

• Join Zooniverse :
  • Explore the Moon in unprecedented detail using images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
  • Help astronomers figure out how galaxies form and evolve by classifying their shape. Now with added Hubble galaxies.Help spot explosions on the Sun and track them across space to Earth. Your work will give astronauts an early warning if dangerous solar radiation is headed their way.Help us to catch an exploding star – astronomers are ready to follow-up on your best candidates at telescopes around the world.
  • How do galaxies merge? Help us find out by visiting Galaxy Zoo Mergers – Explore, Enhance, Evaluate.

• Join World Community Grid– Donate the power of your computer when it is turned on, but is idle, to projects that benefit humanity! They provide the secure software and system that does it all for free, and you become part of a community that is helping to change the world. Once you install the software, you will be participating in World Community Grid. It’s that simple!

• Once you have the software installed for Wold Community Grid, you can attach to other projects like: LHC@home is a volunteer computing program which enables you to contribute idle time on your computer to help physicists develop and exploit particle accelerators, such as CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.
• TIP: You can run SETI@home and LHC@home on the World Community Grid Platform but not vice versa. So sign up for Wold Community Grid first.

Humungous bubbles blown from small black hole

You know how much I love bubbles. This is the coolest one I have seen in a while. The universe is such an amazing place. I wouldn’t live anywhere else. 😉

Read the Story behind this image on NewScientist.com

Big Bang Big Boom

“BIG BANG BIG BOOM: Sorry, I could not embed the video. Click the link to the left.

an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life … and how it could probably end.

direction and animation by BLU

http://www.blublu.org

production and distribution by ARTSH.it

http://www.artsh.it

sountrack by ANDREA MARTIGNONI

many thanks to (in random order):

xm24 bologna, csoa mezzacanaja, ericailcane, robert rebotti, andrea bagni, paper resistance, studiocromie, rifrazioni festival, sasso passo, sibe, festival de cine experimental de maldonado (uruguay), gianluigi toccafondo, orilo, maria de brea, bs as stencil, run don’t walk, franco fasoli, modo infoshop, pietro and icone festival, doma, cesare romani, popup festival and all the blu’s family

Coolest new Free toy from NASA

Eyes on the Earth Is a 3D plug-in from NASA, JPL and California Institute of Technology. It provides Real Time tracking of NASA satellites and the 3D maps that they generate! I have been looking for an easier way of seeing this information for months. I cannot express my excitement. There is even a game. Go now and check it out.  Happy Happy! Joy Joy!

Through the Wormhole

Wow. And I mean wow. Have you seen Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman? It is delightful. OK, I had some issues with the first episode. It dealt with the “god debate”. I don’t understand why scientists have to pretend there is still a debate. Is the Pope still sending out death squads?

Nevertheless, the second episode, about black holes was amazing. It was one of the best presentations explaining The Black Hole War I have ever seen. I have seen many.

Each episode just gets better and better.