"Major discovery" at Harvard-Smithson to be released at 4PM
Discussion
Bisonhead said:
My question is - what does this tell us that we haven't already calculated?
Or is it simply proving the theory right that is the big deal?
Also, what discoveries are open to us?
BBC has it summed up quite well.Or is it simply proving the theory right that is the big deal?
Also, what discoveries are open to us?
Art0ir said:
So they're saying the entire universe started as something unimaginably small, then expanded to the size of a marble then continued expanding ever since.All from watching a tiny patch of sky with a telescope for a few years.
Their brains must be so large its hard to imagine how they can fit in a human head!
My mind boggles at how anyone can come up with such a scenario from stargazing. It's almost religious in the outlandish nature of what they're saying.
The next questions I guess are what was before and why did this start?
I think the most significant aspect is experimental proof of gravitational waves. Inflationary theory confirmation is nice too, suggests that stuff outside of our universe affected our universe, possibly continuing to do so. A window into more interesting stuff in the future, no doubt.
Art0ir said:
Campo said:
All from watching a tiny patch of sky with a telescope for a few years.
Absolutely not. And to suggest so does a great disservice to the incredible amount of work done in the field.BBC Article said:
The breakthrough was announced by an American team working on a project known as BICEP2.
This has been using a telescope at the South Pole to make detailed observations of a small patch of sky.
I meant that its amazing what they've discovered using a telescope on Earth and just looking at a tiny patch of sky.This has been using a telescope at the South Pole to make detailed observations of a small patch of sky.
I didn't meant they sat back with a couple of beers and made it all up.
Its really easy for posts to get misinterpreted isn't it?
Campo said:
I meant that its amazing what they've discovered using a telescope on Earth and just looking at a tiny patch of sky.
I didn't meant they sat back with a couple of beers and made it all up.
Its really easy for posts to get misinterpreted isn't it?
It is! Apologies if I picked you up wrong.I didn't meant they sat back with a couple of beers and made it all up.
Its really easy for posts to get misinterpreted isn't it?
What I meant was the groundwork has been done by theoretical physicists and other disciplines over the course of years, decades even.
This observation is just the last piece in the puzzle to legitimise the theories.
Ta!Catatafish said:
Inflationary theory confirmation is nice too, suggests that stuff outside of our universe affected our universe, possibly continuing to do so. A window into more interesting stuff in the future, no doubt.
Certainly big implications for String theory, multiverse, quantum physics, etc.Art0ir said:
Absolutely love that video.To think that they did this before the announced anything... such a wonderful thing to do for him.
steveT350C said:
All the work, that has ever been done...
Alan Watts said:
You have seen that the universe is at root a magical illusion and a fabulous game, and that there is no separate ‘you’ to get something out of it, as if life were a bank to be robbed. The only real ‘you’ is the one that comes and goes, manifests and withdraws itself eternally in and as every conscious being. For “you” is the universe looking at itself from billions of points of view, points that come and go so that the vision is forever new.
Art0ir said:
steveT350C said:
All the work, that has ever been done...
Alan Watts said:
You have seen that the universe is at root a magical illusion and a fabulous game, and that there is no separate ‘you’ to get something out of it, as if life were a bank to be robbed. The only real ‘you’ is the one that comes and goes, manifests and withdraws itself eternally in and as every conscious being. For “you” is the universe looking at itself from billions of points of view, points that come and go so that the vision is forever new.
Carl Sagan said:
We are all made of star stuff.
Douglas Adams said:
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's peanuts to space.
And only ever getting bigger. 
I used to lecture on home defence. One question that used to come up was how 'big' is a megaton in relation to a nuclear explosion.
I used an old biddy going to a post office every week, walking a distance of 1/2 mile in total. I asked the students to explain to this old biddy how far away the Moon is.
I used to get various answers: it's a long way away, the quote from HHGttG.
The most apt answer, in those pre PC days, was:
Listen Luv, it's too long away for some silly old cow to understand.
The size of the Universe is too big for us silly old sods to understand.
I used an old biddy going to a post office every week, walking a distance of 1/2 mile in total. I asked the students to explain to this old biddy how far away the Moon is.
I used to get various answers: it's a long way away, the quote from HHGttG.
The most apt answer, in those pre PC days, was:
Listen Luv, it's too long away for some silly old cow to understand.
The size of the Universe is too big for us silly old sods to understand.
Artoir, It outlines the discovery well thanks. I think instead of looking for the new discoveries opening up, I should be looking at what this confirms. At that level, very intriguing.
Interesting to read that it confirms the 3 of 4 quantum states. Hopefully paves the way to fit gravity into as well. This is where the real meat will be added to the bones. A grand unified theory could well be what allows us to advance technologically in line with our grasp of physics. Truly exciting.
Interesting to read that it confirms the 3 of 4 quantum states. Hopefully paves the way to fit gravity into as well. This is where the real meat will be added to the bones. A grand unified theory could well be what allows us to advance technologically in line with our grasp of physics. Truly exciting.
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