Rock the Science

Stop. Listen. The Universe is Speaking.

[rockthescience]

[rockthescience]

So much Science, so little time!

I apologize to the two or three people who read this blog.  But...there has been some very cool stuff that has happened recently and I was reflecting on that tonight.

Water Ice confirmed on Mercury for heaven's sake!

If you've been monitoring what is happening over at CERN - the Higgs Boson is pretty much a done deal.  

New engine developed in the UK could revolutionize flight - this engine combines a jet with a rocket engine.  The "takes off and lands like a plane" rocket - basically.  Did you sign up for Kurzweil's Newsletter yet?  

Finally, I'll leave you with a new citizen science project.  How about helping Seti look for signs of alien life? Seti is targeting those areas in space where we've found planets and you can help by looking at data and helping mark those that look interesting. It is easy - just follow the tutorial. Just like Planethunters!  So if you get tired of looking at light curves, you can look at radio signals instead.  Check out:  http://www.setilive.org

[rockthescience]

Can't wait to see what another 4 years brings to the Kepler Mission and Scientists (& Citizen Scientists!) 

[rockthescience]

Can you find the Dark Matter that dominates our Universe?

There is more to the Universe than meets the eye. Out in the cosmos exists a form of matter that outnumbers the stuff we can see by almost 7 to 1, and we don't know what it is. What we do know is that it does not emit or absorb light, so we call it Dark Matter.

Such a vast amount of aggregated matter does not go unnoticed. In fact we observe that this stuff aggregates and forms massive structures called Dark Matter Halos.

Although dark, it warps and bends spacetime such that any light from a background galaxy which passes close to the Dark Matter will have its path altered and changed. This bending causes the galaxy to appear as an ellipse in the sky. 

What’s The Problem?

Detecting these Dark Matter halos is hard, but possible using this data. If we can accurately estimate the positions of these halos, we can then understand the function they play in the Universe. There are various methods to attack the problem (we have given you some examples), however we have not been able to reach the level of precision required to understand exactly where this Dark Matter is for all Dark Matter halos.

We challenge YOU to detect the most elusive, mysterious and yet most abundant matter in all existence.

Winton Capital offers you the chance to unlock the secrets of dark worlds.

www.Kaggle.com/c/Darkworlds

[rockthescience]

Hi Marilee. Congratulations. Fun, isn't it?

Yes, I think.  Jury is still out.  :)

[rockthescience]

Photo courtesy of NASA Curiosity.  Self Portrait today - with the science team getting a break because the rover will now operate on Earth time instead of Mars time.  Happy 3 month anniversary, Curiosity team!  

[rockthescience]

Citizens...let's do some Science!

Perhaps you've heard of Citizen Science projects.  Perhaps you've thought - that sounds cool, but I'd never have time to do that.  That sounds like a really big commitment. After all, it's SCIENCE!  

Got 5 minutes - you can do some really important science! 

Don't make that face at me - I'm serious.  Just for fun, let's do an experiment. Right now. Real time! Forgive me while I take a 5 minute break from writing this blog.  Gonna go do some actual science for 5 minutes.

Ready...set...GO!  

Ok - I'm back.  In 5 minutes, I looked at the light curves of 4 stars, hunting for a dip in the Star's light curve that might indicate the presence of a planet.  Planethunters makes this ridiculously easy.  (Although I admit you sometimes think you see dips everywhere and other times you just go through the light curves really fast looking for the really obvious ones.)  But that is the beauty of crowd sourcing.  Planethunters takes advantage of crowd sourcing principles so that no one person has to be perfect or really great at doing this.  When we make mistakes, the "crowd's wisdom" filters us out.   Trust me, this is an awesome way to spend 5 minutes.  Or an hour...or however much time you want to donate to the Yale Planethunters' Science team (yes, I said YALE) working on this project.  

I have devoted enough time to this particular project to actually get my name associated with two possible planet candidates.  Just me and around ten or so other Planethunters who were the first Citizens to review and flag these particular stars as having possible planets.  The Yale team has published papers about this project and the effectiveness of human beings, that's you and me, at being able to do the pattern recognition required to find the planets that the computer models examining the Kepler data might miss. And they do miss some.

Computers aren't as smart as you and me! (Yet)

For instance. Let's say you have a planet circling not one, but TWO stars.  And let's say, those 2 stars were circling 2 other stars! Yes, that is a 4 star system, with a planet.  That is very hard for a computer to find.  The planet gets lost in the noisy data from this type of system.  But guess who can find that kind of planet?  You can!  The Planethunter's science team just announced that two regular people (but smart, for sure) collaborated together, using the regular Planethunters' UI and then the downloadable data from Planethunters and found the first officially confirmed planet around a 4 star system.  This has been all over the news so perhaps you've heard about this.  But you probably thought, interesting, but I can't do that, I don't have time. 

Got 5 minutes? Find a planet.

Or do you?  Consider this.  You know that 5 minutes I just spent looking at light curves? That little dip in the light curve I flagged as a possible planet transit?  That planet, if validated by the "crowd" and then confirmed by the Yale science team, could be in the next paper that the Yale science team publishes.  My name could be on it.  Even better, perhaps it could have YOUR NAME on it.

So.  Visit www.Planethunters.org. - on Zooniverse.  Sign up (it's free!)  Take the tutorial.

And spend a few minutes with some light (curves) that traveled a really, really, long time to reveal their hidden treasures (planets).

To you.  

Citizen Scientist.

[rockthescience]

Stop. Listen. The Universe is speaking.

Rock the Science and save the world

It is time to take action, thus I create this blog.

I am mystified at the number of people who have decided that science is something you can chose to believe in. Or Not.  

Science is about investigating, experimenting, uncovering evidence, and formulating theories.  If a preponderance of evidence sheds enough light; if the theory continues to hold up to challenges and new evidence, then it might even become this thing called a FACT.

A FACT is a truth known by actual experience or observation.  Science always leave room for new evidence, new theories and new facts.   Science, by definition, is open minded to evidence and experimental results.  It doesn’t need to be believed in - it just needs to be understood. And studied.  And explored.  It is food for your hungry mind.  It is not optional.  

Without it we will die.

Think I'm being overly dramatic? Imagine man, failing to discover (& understand) fire, for example.  

And the reason that I’m particularly frustrated right now is that science is EXPLODING RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES!  We are in the middle of a scientific and technological exponential growth curve that is offering up an embarrassment of riches!

Short tirade coming up - sorry, I’m usually such an easy going person.

People - I must insist! Stop thinking that the bible must be interpreted literally, therefore we must deny the age of the earth and the universe. It diminishes the very God you seek to glorify in your worship!  If you want to really understand the wonder of creation and honor the power of your Creator then you need to revel in the scientific riches being uncovered across the world at an astonishing pace.  The ability for humankind to uncover the story of the universe, (perhaps the multiverse?) demonstrates the unbelievable power of the human mind and spirit.  God (your God, my God, his God, her God) is speaking to us through scientific discovery.  Are you listening?

Clear your mind 

Let’s do it together.  Let’s stop and listen for awhile. Quietly…listen to the universe.  It is trying to get our attention.

Clear our minds from the political ads, the noise, the distractions.  And simply…

Rock the Science!  And, perhaps, save the world in the process.

Lucky for you I’m here to help.  

Task #1:  Go to http://www.kurzweilai.net/ 

Then, sign up for their weekly newsletter and prepare to be blown away with the latest and most cutting edge scientific research and discoveries happening around the world.  It just magically appears in your inbox once a week.  Seriously - every week!  Thank you, Ray Kurzweil, for making it easy to access this scientific bounty.  

So, read those articles and come back later for a chat about them.  Enjoy!