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A Science Minute


Is Science the Only Standard for Truth?


  • Total voters
    55
I knew stars were big ... but this still amazes me ...


Do you guys ever wonder about the people on the planet who are just not in the least interested in such things as this video? I mean I am just awed thinking about the size of things, the distances, the amount of energy, the duration of all time so far etc. They say ignorance is bliss and maybe it is but I can assure you I have friends that neither know anything whatsoever about what I've just mentioned and nor do they wish to - but I cannot help but think they are missing out?
 
Do you guys ever wonder about the people on the planet who are just not in the least interested in such things ... I am just awed thinking about the size of things, the distances, the amount of energy, the duration of all time so far etc. They say ignorance is bliss and maybe it is but I can assure you I have friends that neither know anything whatsoever about what I've just mentioned and nor do they wish to - but I cannot help but think they are missing out?

That is so true. It's also why I'm trying to keep these clips really short. Fewer people these days want to take the time to read or get involved in something more complex. But if they can see something that's got some cool graphics or an unusual phenomenon ( or how to get a free toy from the claw machine ;) ), maybe they'll think science isn't so boring after all :).
 
This visualization tours the ocean floor from the gentle continental slopes to the deepest trenches
using data analyzed and archived by NOAA.

The ocean -- it is the most prominent feature on Earth, and of immeasurable importance to life on the planet.
But what would it look like if all of the water was drained out of it? Mountains and valleys that dwarf Everest;
shifting plates and undersea volcanoes; seams, ripples, and plains.
By sensing the minute gravitational changes that pull, push, and bulge the ocean surface, the bottom's shape
can be inferred from space. These bathymetric maps reveal the incredibly dynamic terrain of the ocean.
Where available, ship-based measurements are included to provide even higher detail.
Does it look familiar? It is actually the same data that
Google has incorporated into Google Earth and Ocean.
This was done back in 2009. Since then Google has started actual
dives with panoramic underwater cameras that give you a
sort of underwater "street view" with photographs.
 
Just a comment on the poll so far. I'm particularly impressed with the lone vote for firsthand experience. Although it could also have been mushed in with the "science isn't the only tool we have" option, IMO the vote for firsthand experience makes a definitive statement that recognizes that firsthand experience can represent truths that science and other types of intellectual investigation simply cannot provide a "Standard of Truth" for, particularly when it comes to the way that we perceive, visualize and feel about certain things.
 
That is so true. It's also why I'm trying to keep these clips really short. Fewer people these days want to take the time to read or get involved in something more complex. But if they can see something that's got some cool graphics or an unusual phenomenon ( or how to get a free toy from the claw machine ;) ), maybe they'll think science isn't so boring after all :).

Sad but true... but please do not dumb it down or shorten these for me.. hell I could watch hours of simply discussions on many of these topics, no fancy graphics just peoples thinking and theory's.
 
Just a comment on the poll so far. I'm particularly impressed with the lone vote for firsthand experience. Although it could also have been mushed in with the "science isn't the only tool we have" option, IMO the vote for firsthand experience makes a definitive statement that recognizes that firsthand experience can represent truths that science and other types of intellectual investigation simply cannot provide a "Standard of Truth" for, particularly when it comes to the way that we perceive, visualize and feel about certain things.

Yup. :D But believe you me, I had quite a hard time deciding not to vote for the first option. Not so long ago, I used to think science was the only way we can verify or falsify a claim or a theory. Objective science, without bias, that follows the data wherever it leads. But alas, scientists are human, so there will always be dead ends, wrong ways and straying away from the data to get to a more comfortable place.

Only after realizing that mind and consciusness might indeed be more than (by)products of purely materialistic biochemical/electrical processes and that mainstream science has been ignoring the evidence for decades, I came to think that sometimes you have to have an experience of your own to even begin to consider that evidence.

I mean, neurologists are in the process of exploring all the details of the materialistic part of the equasion, but I doubt if they will ever be able to discover the other side of it. The one thing they are (IMO) missing but which might help explain things like verifyable "past life" memories found with some children and (sometimes) in regression hypnosis, strange birthmarks, NDEs, unusual phobias or fascinations, haunting phenomena, maybe even multiple personalities, child prodigies, gender identity "disorders" etc...

That thing, call it soul, consciousness, spirit or whatever, is probably unreachable for science, because it doesn't belong to the "material realm" or however one might call that. IMO it might also be the only valid detector of other consciousness. Your built-in EMF meter so to say, only it has a much better chance of picking up something, at least for some people.

It can't be measured, quantified or even detected, only experienced. And therefore, it's pretty useless for science, I guess.
 
Different people can look at the exact same events unfolding right in front of them and disagree violently about what's happening on any subject. There's no shortage of vigorous debate going on in science . . . .

First 'Alien Earth' Will Be Found in 2013 | Exoplanets | Space.com

"The first planet with a measured size, orbit and incident stellar flux that is suitable for life is likely to be announced in 2013," said Geoff Marcy, a veteran planet hunter at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the Kepler team.

Should We Expect Other Earth-like Planets At All? | Life, Unbounded, Scientific American Blog Network

But if all worlds are unique it might be that there are no other places quite like Earth, and if a delicate set of conditions are critical for life this would put a damper on these prospects.
 
Well, it's a bit longer than a minute but it's full of interesting facts and the presentation is great. It's from ASAPscience, they have a lot of great science themed videos on Youtube, so check them out. Allow me to present, Amazing Facts to Blow Your Mind part 1 and 2:




 
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