Nov 24, 2014 Some thoughts upon re-reading Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 essay, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. His thesis was an instance of itself. The prevalent opinion was that scientific knowledge accumulates incrementally toward ever more accurate approximations of “the truth”, embodied in facts that are “out there”. Kuhn’s study of the history of…
Nov 21, 2014 Another asteroid has been detected sporting a long tail. Comets are often called “dirty snowballs” by astronomers. However, various investigative missions, such as Giotto and Deep Impact, revealed them to be blackened, cratered, and fractured. No ice fields, reflective crust, or watery clouds were observed. Indeed,…
Nov 20, 2014 Some gamma ray bursts exhibit unusual characteristics. When charged particles are accelerated in an electric field, they emit synchrotron radiation that creates X-rays and gamma rays—something that has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments. Gamma rays are a class of theoretical “electromagnetic particles” called photons, which are…
Nov 19, 2014 Electric currents create magnetic fields in the Sun. “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Asking this question always gets a chuckle from a group of kids who haven’t been asked that before. For adults, it confirms their conviction that unanswerable questions must be laughably…
Nov 18, 2014 Science advances through irrational methods. “I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.” — Thomas Jefferson It is a common perception that “we stand on the…
Nov 17, 2014 A toroidal magnet field is said to be embedded in a magnetar. “Magnetars” are usually classified as “X-ray pulsars (AXP)” or “soft gamma repeaters (SGR)”. As conventional theories argue, they are created when neutron stars reach magnetic field strengths measuring over 10^15 Gauss. Earth’s magnetic field…
Nov 14, 2014 Rapid gamma ray bursts from a black hole thunderstorm. An “extremely powerful outburst of gamma rays” was recently detected by the MAGIC telescopes in the Canary Islands. The most remarkable aspect to the observation was that it exhibited “very rapid flux variations”. In other words, the…
Nov 13, 2014 Electromagnetic fields guide light in specific ways. The image above is from the Planck satellite, now defunct, that was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in May 2005, along with the Herschel Space Observatory, which also recently ended its mission. According to ESA, Planck’s mission was…
Nov 12, 2014 Picture of the Day articles are meant to highlight scientific achievements and to offer alternative viewpoints. A major scientific achievement is happening now. The Thunderbolts Project urges readers to follow the Rosetta Mission’s climactic landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko today, November 12. It is expected that this event will…
Nov 11, 2014 Some star clusters appear to be inside out. Ideas that enter the mind under fire remain there securely and for ever. — Leon Trotsky The Flame Nebula is located in the constellation of Orion, just below the three visible stars that make up its belt. Of…
