Latest Scientific Stories

I have included on the left hand side, (under links), links to new scientific stories, which I will update regularly with stories that are relevent to my paradigm or which are of interest to me generally. The source of this information is the New Scientist website, BBC Science website and a website called Science Daily. Please report any broken links : )

My Paradigm

My overview of the world around me after some, (not too much), thought and reading the work of others.

The idea of God
I have all but dismissed any concept of intelligent design particularly where life is concerned.

Religion
A culture within the human species which exists in the memepool and competes to exist in brains, religion is a collection of memes which are very successful and their success is often because of the emotions that they exert onto the brains ie. that of fear or the promise of a reward.

The original big bang ‘The ultimate Quantum fluctuation’
Quantum fluctuations have been observed and I understand them to be matter and anti-matter appearing in a vacuum for a brief length of time only to then cancel each other out. Could the multi-verse be the ultimate quantum fluctuation where energy is borrowed from gravity to produce the outward force and matter.

Energy
Fundamental to the universe. The four forces of nature and matter are all forms of energy. Could string theory unify this further with everthing being a string of energy but the difference being the way they vibrate?

Could the universe be overall of neutral energy?
Overall the universe may have no energy, being overall neutral as gravity is a negative energy and matter is a positive energy. Matter may include elements such as WIMPS, (Weak Interactive Massive Particles, which could be a large proportion of the matter in the universe but can not be seen and does not interact with us), and all visible matter.

The four forces of nature.

The known and generally well understood forces of nature are electromagnetism (Light and electricity) Gravity (the warping of space by matter) and the strong and weak nuclear forces (holds matter together).

The four forces of nature and matter split from one force shortly after the big bang.

Matter
Is a form of energy made up of atoms.

Atoms
As discussed the fundamental particle to the atom could be a vibrating sting.

It is however the electron and nucleus that are the important scale for all chemical reactions, the electron having a negative charge and the nucleus containing both a proton and neutron and the proton having a positive charge. An equal number of electrons and an equal number of protons, therefore the overall charge of an atom is neutral.

Each element in the periodic table is an atom with a varying degree of electrons and protons and depending upon the number depends upon the atomic weight. The simplest atom is Hydrogen (H) which has 1 electron and 1 proton, next is Helium (He) and so one. All the elements other than that of H and He are formed inside stars where extreme conditions of temperature and heat exist for this to occur.
Each atom has the electrons ‘orbiting’ the nucleus and desire a full set of shells 2 electrons in the first shell and 8 in the next and a further 8 in the outer shell. It prefers this because it is the lowest energy state to be in. For example water (H2O) is made up of 2 Hydrogen atoms, (each with 1 electron in its first shell), and 1 Oxygen (O) atom (which requires 2 electrons as it currently has 6 electrons in its outer shell). This then allows the element to be at its lowest energy state, which is preferred. The molecule of water (ice) is very stable and common as it is a preferred state of the lowest energy configuration for both H and O. On a similar theme Carbon is the building block of life here on earth and this element has 4 electrons in its outershell and as such can pair up with other elements in many ways and so is open to more combinations in terms of molecules (Silicone also has a similar property).

If energy is added to a system the electrons may jump from one shell to another and this may result in the molecule being broken down into its basic atomic components. Like wise energy such as heat or radiation can come from matter as electrons move down from one shell to a lowershell.

At the quantum scale the particles/waves act in a way that is not currently understood fully as it appears to be very unfamiliar, the three main paradoxes that spring to mind are:

1. Electrons jumping from one point in space to another without travelling between the two points (the Quantum leap)

2. A particle being in more than one place at a time ie it acts like a wave covering a large area until observed then collapses into a particle (wave-particle duality)

3. Two particles having opposite properties and if one is observed then the other particle will have the opposite property. This works if the particles are separated over vast distances and it has been suggested that it could be a method to transfer information even faster than the speed of light.

Black holes
A singularity the end of space and time in this universe, but could it sprout another universe at the other end? A very large star has that much weight that the gravity created by this mass will collapse it into itself to become increasingly dense and increasing small. Quantum mechanics does not allow matter at a finite place in space at this scale and so at the smallest scale possible for this configuration a plank length a singularity exists and a new universe sprouts?

Other Universes - The Multiverse
Any study of the properties of this universe may be just that, the properties of this universe and I feel that there are likely to be many different universes, some with life and some so different that stars never develop. One of the reasons that this seems to make sense for me is that the physics of this universe are very finely tuned and the likely hood of this being the case without there being any other universe would be too low.

Life
All life forms are a collection of self replicating molecules, which are inturn made of atoms. The life forms evolve to best fit their environment, that is the successful configuration of molecules survives and is available to re-copy itself. Evolution occurs following random mutations within the genes. There is no final design and we are here through chance. That is not to say that we are not almost immeasurably complex but this complexity is due to an almost incomprehensible period of time for different generations to evolve and also live with other molecules that have also adapted. Much can be understood about you and I and all other animals with a basic understanding of evolution. Including human nature and society etc..


This is my paradigm of the way things are and is based on casually reading around an overview of science to current date. I would also like to think that I keep an open mind and will adjust my paradigm as necessary. Being based on modern science most of the above agrees with experiment as science is often justified by the following statement: “If it disagrees with experiment then it is wrong”.