So there has been some excitement and confusion lately over a signal discovered by SETI researchers after they aimed one of their radio telescopes toward “objects of interest” discovered by the Kepler mission. These are possible exoplanet discoveries, but they’ve yet to be confirmed by other telescopes. (These are called Kepler Objects of Interest, or KOIs.) Until now, SETI researchers have been blindly aiming their telescopes all over they sky listening for possible alien radio signals. Now that the Kepler team has a few KOIs that might be habitable, it makes sense for SETI to narrow their search and start listening specifically in the direction of those KOIs. Well, they did just that, and they found an interesting signal! One that is clearly not just natural background noise. But, that signal is almost definitely interference from one of our own satellites, because the signal still shows up even when they aim the radio telescopes away from the exoplanets. So, don’t let anyone fool you- SETI has NOT discovered an alien radio signal.
As he always does, Dr. Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy lays out the truth on this. Universe Today has an excellent post on it as well.
Kepler finds earth-sized alien planets/Some amazing volcano photos
December 21, 2011
Credit: NASA
The Kepler team at NASA announced yet another exciting discovery yesterday: the first confirmed earth-size alien planets, Kepler 20f and 20e. The mission has found other exoplanets that pretty close to earth-size, but these two are by far the closest yet. What really befuddled me about this announcement was that that in addition to those two smaller, rocky worlds, there are three bigger gas-giant or super-earths in this system as well. No only that, but all five of these exoplanets’ orbits would fit inside our own Mercury’s orbit around our sun! That’s a lot of planets crammed into a tiny area! Of course that also means that these planets are scorching hot- far too hot to be habitable. But, it’s very reassuring to confirm that Kepler can positively identify alien planets that are earth-size and even tad bit smaller (Kepler 20e is about 87% the size of earth). As usual, Dr. Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy has a very good explanation of the whole thing. And I’ll also point you toward this article on space.com about the likelihood of us finding a true earth-twin within the coming year.
And now I will simply tell you to go take a look at this amazing set of volcano photographs and have a a few eyegasms. You’re welcome.
The Higgs boson: progress made but nothing conclusive yet
December 13, 2011
You’ve no doubt already seen or heard mention of this breaking news elsewhere, but I simply must weigh-in: This morning physicists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced that they are making significant progress toward discovering the Higgs boson, or what many tend to call “the God Particle.” They really are on the verge of making a discovery that will change the face of physics forever, and vastly improve our understanding of the building blocks of EVERYTHING in the universe, and how the universe came into existence. The announcement does not mean that they have found the Higgs, just that they’ve seen a series of spikes in activity (the few nanoseconds right after a particle collision) within the predicted mass range for the Higgs. They’ve narrowed its mass down to a pretty small range with a fairly high degree of certainty because they’ve amassed quite a bit of data, and the chances that this is just a statistical fluke are getting lower and lower. Still though, the certainty is not high enough for physicists to claim an actual discovery. This elusive Higgs boson is the last missing “link” in the most widely accepted theory of particle physics- The Standard Model. If the Higgs is finally confirmed to exist within the range of mass predicted by the Standard Model, then this theory will essentially become rock-solid.
*Steps onto soapbox.*
But the beauty of science and the scientific method is that it will be just as exciting, if not MORE exciting, if the Higgs is proven to either exist outside the predicted range of mass or not exist at all! Science relies strictly on data, and if the data shows something not predicted then you go back to the drawing board and keep trying until you have a theory that fits the reality of the data. That method is infallible, and that is why I love science.
*Steps down from soapbox.*
For more-
the Guardian has been posting live updates to their story.
But BBC News has the best coverage I’ve seen.
The music of Les Miserables in a concert benefitting YEAH: tonight & tomorrow at Mercy Lounge
December 7, 2011
It’s been a big season of benefit shows for YEAH! but this one is probably the biggest- a bunch of local musicians/artists have teamed up to present the music of Les Miserables live in concert two nights in a row at Mercy Lounge. It kicks off tonight, tickets are $18, and it will be awesome. With Larissa Maestro and Jordan & Alex Caress at the helm and a huge cast of local musicians from such acts as Uncle Skeleton, By Lightning!, Ponychase, The Privates, Umbrella Tree, The Non-Commissioned Officers, Happy Little Trees, Blue Heart Hour, and many more, this is quite the undertaking. Again, this is a two night stand, but I have a feeling tonight will be the biggest of the two since Hall & Oates are at the Ryman tomorrow night. YEAH! is just about the coolest non-profit in all of TN and I’m proud to be an active volunteer with them. They deserve your support!
On a completely separate note (but still relevant to this blog), I’ve been approved by YEAH’s music programs director to start a new workshop at the Tennessee Teens Rock & Roll Camp this year- the Science of Music. Here’s the description I came up with, with the help of fellow volunteer (and former camper/fellow nerd) Alyssa Scheele:
How does an electric guitar work? How does a microphone work? How does MUSIC work? Learn this and much more in the brand new Science of Music workshop. This workshop will give campers a crash course in the science behind music and how different instruments and audio equipment create and amplify sound. This workshop is ideal for campers who might be interested in the production side of music. The Science of Music will empower campers to pursue science as well as music by showing them how science is an integral part of art.
I’m ecstatic about getting to teach kids how basically everything, let alone modern music, would not be possible without science. I want to get them to make that connection and realize that science isn’t all far-off labs, atom smashers, and old dudes in white coats. It’s also a part of literally EVERYTHING. I think that focusing on how science makes music possible is the best way to make it “hit home” with them. AND it will hopefully jumpstart some of them in the direction of music production, both studio and live.
Kepler finds potentially habitable exoplanet 2.4x size of earth
December 5, 2011
Should’ve gotten to posting this earlier today but I was waaay too busy.
Very exciting news in the science world today- NASA’s Kepler mission has been very busy lately, finding exoplanets left and right. Problem is, those observations have to be followed-up and duplicated by other telescopes, usually ground-based. Thus, it takes a while to fully confirm the existence of an exoplanet discovered by Kepler. Finally though, they’ve found one that is close to earth’s size, and orbits a star similar to our sun within its habitable zone. It’s not quite the “holy grail” of planet hunting because the planet is 2.4 times the size of earth, but it’s getting us ever-closer to the discovery of a true earth-twin. This is awesome. It’s only a matter of time…
Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
For more, check out this article on Space.com, or this article on Discovery News.
Mars Science Laboratory launches/other badassery
November 30, 2011
That is video of the final separation of NASA’s new Mars Science Laboratory rover (named Curiosity), sending it on its way to Mars. The probe launched successfully this past Saturday atop an Atlas V rocket, and will reach Mars in August of 2012. If you follow this blog you’ll know that I’ve mentioned this probe excitedly before- that’s because this is the biggest, boldest of all the robotic rovers we’ve sent to Mars. It’s about the size of a small SUV and it will be looking for evidence of conditions that may have been conducive to the development of microbial life, past and present. Important distinction: the probe is NOT searching for life itself, just for evidence that the planet may have been habitable in the past or maybe even the present. August 2012 will be a tense month for NASA and all following this probe’s progess, because the final landing stages are immensely tedious and complex. (See the landing animation below.) For now though, we just sit and wait as the probe zips through space and the engineers make the final adjustments to its trajectory. For some more expert commentary on this mission, check out Bad Astronomy or Universe Today.
Since I probably won’t be posting again until this Friday’s “A Few Good Shows” post, here are a couple more videos full utter badassery:
“Jetman” Yves Rossy flies alongside fighter jets on his jetpack. It doesn’t get much cooler than that…
Nothing like some shirtless 9-year-olds totally nailing “Crazy Train”
It’s turkey week: a weird video and some myth debunking
November 23, 2011
Before I remove myself from the interwebs for a few days to be with the fam, I thought I’d debunk one of the most pervasive turkey myths out there: that turkey contains more tryptophan than other foods and that it makes you sleepy. THIS IS NOT TRUE. Turkey contains about the same amount of tryptophan as other meats and some veggies. What makes you feel sleepy after a big holiday meal is what makes you sleepy anytime you eat way too much- food coma. There are some slightly differing opinions out there as to what causes the proverbial food coma, but it is not the tryptophan in turkey that directly causes sleepiness after holiday meals. It is simply the fact that you probably ate way too much in one sitting, and probably had some wine to go along with it. For more info see this article from Snopes, this article from NPR, and this article from Live Science.
I’ll leave you with this bit of complete and total absurdity from an Indian gameshow. That should hold you over till next week when I eventually resume posting. Have a great Thanksgiving!
All you ever wanted to know about Daylight Savings Time
October 27, 2011
Every year in the spring and fall the debate about whether to keep doing daylight savings time pops up. If you look at it globally it really is quite complex, and makes things much more difficult than they need to be. I personally think it should be eliminated, BUT I want to keep the clocks permanently on DST. I like having the sun set later in the afternoon, because I’m not a morning person and I don’t really give a shit about when the sun rises. I DO give a shit about when it sets, because I despise how ridiculously early the sun sets in December/January, especially here in Nashville which happens to be on the eastern edge of the central time zone. On the winter solstice the sun sets at 4:33pm! I want at least an hour of sunlight to enjoy after I get of work! If we just kept DST on forever then we could have that. Anyway, watch this very informative video created by Colin Gregory Palmer Grey and learn everything you wanted to know about Daylight Savings Time: (via Devour)
Timelapse videos of auroras from the space station
October 20, 2011
This post needs very few words. Just sit back and enjoy these gorgeous timelapse videos shot from the International Space Station. They’re of the Aurora Borealis and/or Aurora Australis. Be sure to click on the resolution and choose the HD version, and make that shit fullscreen! (All via Universe Today)
Neutrinos faster than light? Let’s be realistic.
September 26, 2011
Of course the big news about the “faster than light” neutrinos would have to break right in the middle of Soundland, when I was insanely busy running around taking literally thousands of photos for 4 days straight… but the above image pretty much sums up how I feel about it. There’s an old saying in science- extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. However, in this case we’re not dealing with crackpot fringe scientists, we’re dealing with CERN scientists. In other words these people are very disciplined and have ruled out just about every other statistical anomaly, measurement inaccuracy, or other explanation for their results. So the fact that they measured neutrinos that appear to have traveled faster than light is not in question. The key word there is appear. And this is such a massively important discovery that the scientists involved are asking for comparison from the rest of the worldwide scientific community. They want others to repeat their experiments and see if they get the same result. When you’re questioning one of the most iron-clad, thoroughly proven theories of science such as General Relativity, you’d better have rock-solid, repeatable evidence to support your claim. No matter what the outcome of this, it will fascinating to sit back and watch as it unfolds. Here are a few links to interesting articles I’ve found relating to this news:
steve cross loves music and science 