Things in science that made you go "wow!"

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Permalink Reply by Sean Murphy on September 22, 2011 at 9:21am

For me it is Virtual Particles. We all know about conservation of mass, and conservation of energy. Well, it turns out that these are not absolute principles but are true on average, at least on the quantum level. Matter and Antimatter particles are created from nothing all the time, but they annihilate and bring the equation back to zero. So they are sort of like the universe keeping a double set of books. The idea that the Laws of Physics sometimes cheat really tickles my fancy...

 

But it gets better. When these virtual particles pop into existence right at the Event Horizon of a Black Hole, a certain percentage of the time the particle makes Escape Velocity as the antiparticle gets captured, and you wind up with radiation being emitted by the Black Hole, while the BlackHole loses an equal amount of mass to annihilation. The sums at the end of the equation all zero out again, but a small amount of mass has been transferred from the Black Hole into the universe at large, indirectly. And when Stephen Hawking did the math, the percentage of particles created in this manner exactly equals the expected blackbody cooling that you would expect from a Black Hole if it was not a Black Hole but a regular object.

Permalink Reply by Johan Fruh on September 22, 2011 at 9:34am

While I've heard about matter and anti-matter being created from nothing all the time, and it seems to be a pretty fascinating and mysterious zone... I've got to admit my imagination (and probably intellect) hit a brick wall there.

I just have so much trouble grasping the idea.

In my head, nothing.. is nothing. If something can come out of it.. then it would mean it isn't nothing, even if it appears to be nothing.

 

What bothers me as well (though this is probably just some misunderstanding on my part), is that this seems to imply that event horizons are required to bring matter into "permanent" existence.

Which begs the question, how did black holes come about in the first place? (but that's a whole other discussion ;) ).

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on September 22, 2011 at 10:46am

Thanks for the video.

Permalink Reply by AtheistTech on September 23, 2011 at 1:17am

I like Astronomy best, but what really "wow"ed me was Craig Ventor's team creating synthetic life:

 

It is a first step, but think of what it could mean... Designed bacteria...Designed food...Designed medicine

Think of a biological problem and design a solution for it. No more waiting on evolution to solve particular problems.

 

Then there is the use of biology for engineering buildings and other structures. There is so much this will affect, it will be a cultural revolution.

Permalink Reply by Johan Fruh on September 23, 2011 at 6:42am

Yeah that was pretty amazing! I liked the little additional touch of adding in the artifical DNA sequence some coded quotes, using the ATCG alphabet. If that little creature knew it was carrying poetry in it's DNA.....

What was most amazing though, was how the injected DNA just ejected the old stuff, and took over... very efficient and independent. You don't want to be on DNA's bad side...

Permalink Reply by AtheistTech on September 23, 2011 at 9:22pm

I was under the impression that the scientists removed the old DNA before injecting the synthetic DNA.

Permalink Reply by Nerdlass on September 25, 2011 at 3:56am

This is one of my favorite videos from youtube, showing the size of planets and stars, all set to the theme from The Black Hole.

 

Permalink Reply by Atheist Andrea on September 25, 2011 at 11:29am

Give me a break. A good refresher course on ATP though.

Permalink Reply by Lary9 on December 11, 2011 at 9:21am

The anomalous reaction of water and rubber. They both behave contrary to the laws of physical science and expand when cooled. Does anyone know why? Is it something about the nature of crystals? Then why rubber? BTW. This exception is one reason why I became "hooked" on science at a young age...that and Euler's Constant for the sq root of negative numbers. I love counterintuitive stuff...like the speed of light.

Permalink Reply by D.O.S on December 14, 2011 at 11:08am

Research on Absolute Zero. The idea that absolute nothingness is probably not even possible is fascinating to me. The fact that we have not been able to produce the lowest possible temperature, on at which even sub-atomic particles cease motion is mind-boggling to me.

Permalink Reply by Lary9 on December 14, 2011 at 5:19pm

An interesting corollary to this idea is that conductors, when chilled to absolute zero (or as close as possible) will conduct electricity without resistance or loss of power over unlimited distances (which inside circuits, amounts to a considerable barrier to voltage preservation). It opens up incredible new possibilities for circuits.