HAWKING vs SUSSKIND

It's a fun time to be alive! As if reading my mind ("no such thing as too many programs and books about cosmology"), TVO's Big Ideas program today was the the 2011 Sackler Public Lecture at the University of Toronto given by Leonard Susskind on June 28, 2011. In the lecture, he described in simplified terms (yes, we need that!) the idea of the universe being a giant hologram. If this sounds familiar, note Brian Greene's ending remarks here ("imagine reality as a hologram").

Leonard Susskind and Stephen Hawking disagreed about what would happen to the information and matter stored in a black hole when it evaporates. Since I hadn't given ANY thought to a black hole evaporating (some physicists argue that black holes themselves may not even exist), this is all new and exciting to me. Not to writers at Wikipedia, though. I have a LOT of catching up to do re: theories in cosmology. See these and other articles at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Susskind

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_information_paradox

Image taken from Wikipedia (source: NASA)

FABRIC of COSMOS

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fabric-of-cosmos.html

Acclaimed physicist Brian Greene reveals a mind-boggling reality beneath the surface of our everyday world.

"The Fabric of the Cosmos," a four-hour series based on the book by renowned physicist and author Brian Greene, takes us to the frontiers of physics to see how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of space, time, and the universe.

Airing 11/2, 11/9, 11/16 and 11/23 on PBS
What is Space?
The Illusion of Time
Quantum Leap
Universe or Multiverse?

[I get this via PBS channel #388 (at SHAW DIRECT SATELLITE) WNED Buffalo-Toronto]


Quick Summary of Part 1: What is Space?

Empty space is not nothing; it is something, it has properties, e.g., it can twist.

Newton's space: a passive framework like the stage used for a play; space is a real, physical thing.

Einstein: the nature of light - constant speed of light is 671 million mph; think of a car with headlights on - the speed of its light coming at you when stopped is same as when car approaches you at 40 mph because light can't go any faster. The speed of light is absolute.

Einstein: nature of gravity - spacetime can stretch and bend like a rubber sheet; it is dynamic and flexible; gravity IS the shape of spacetime.

In 1950's Leonard Schiff conceived a project to test general relativity using orbiting gyroscopes: Gravity Probe B. The idea is to measure how space and time are "warped" by the presence of the Earth. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Probe_B

Quantum Mechanics: empty space is full of activity - particles pop into and out of existence and empty space has enough force to push on matter.

Peter Higgs - Univ. Edinburgh - the Higgs field was proposed by Higgs and others to provide mass to particles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Higgs

Big Bang was 14 billion years ago - will the universe continue to expand or will it collapse?

Saul Perlmutter investigated supernovae and discovered that the universe's expansion is accelerating. Something is counteracting the pull of gravity. "Dark energy" has been proposed as the cause. [Fun note: Perlmutter was mentioned recently on a The Big Bang Theory episode in which Sheldon wants to go to a lecture given by Perlmutter just so he can debunk the Nobel laureate's theories publicly.]

Einstein's cosmological constant Λ was introduced to allow for a static universe. He later called it his biggest blunder. The strange thing is: recent improved astronomical techniques have found that a positive value of Λ is needed to explain the accelerating universe.

The strangest revelation (revelation or crazy idea?) in "Part 1: What is Space?" is this:

* when something falls into a black hole it is lost forever; at least, the 3D version of that something; BUT the 2D version (information about the thing) stays at the black hole's surface

* imagine reality as a hologram -- with the 3D part = things in the universe and the 2D part = the surface of the universe.

I'm excited about the next episode: The Illusion of Time

BEWITCHED

Terri is so charming; I'm bewitched by her. Wouldn't you be too?

LAROSE FOREST

And now ... something pleasant. I drove Terri to Larose Forest Tuesday afternoon. When we got near the forest, she became VERY excited and started crazy frenzied barking "Oh boy! oh boy! I smell woods! I wanna run in the woods!" (or something like that). I poured water into her bowl and left it by a tire and let her wander around as there was only one other car parked in the lot.

Shortly after, a white car arrived but instead of parking, the driver drove around slowly, going uphill beside the road and around again slowly; stopped a distance away, drove around and finally parked. A man and his young son got out. He said that his son thought Terri was a wolf. Ha ha ha! Other owners of Belgian shepherds have heard that one before. The boy came over and petted Terri happily; then they proceeded to run around together. Terri loved having somebody chase her.

Terri and I walked along the dog sledding trails which were surprisingly dry and not slippery, despite the recent rains and fallen leaves. It was a perfect day for such a walk -- comfortable for a cozy sweater and jeans. I didn't need the jacket that I brought "just in case". Terri had fun playing with the many sticks she found along the trail. There were signs up warning not to allow your dog to chase deer. Terri has an excellent recall so I wasn't concerned she would cause trouble. It certainly isn't fair to deer to make them run in fear of wolf-like animals; they could injure themselves running fast amongst the trees and above-ground roots and branches.

Before heading home, my curiosity sent me driving through some roads in the forest and I was rewarded with sights of sunlit leaves amongst shaded branches.

Somebody is logging tall pines not far from the parking lot. The log piles appear to be made up of only the oldest, tallest pines in that part of the forest. Just past the logging area is a small pond with a sign stating: Nesting site for turtles. Respect. Do not disturb. I hope the logging operations don't disturb the turtles if they are still in the area.

There is a "Mush Larose" page at Facebook for people interested in participating in various sledding, skijoring, dog/biking activities.

UGLY TV

No, this is not about DWTS or similar "reality" TV (though it could have been). It's about the truly disgusting things I've watched recently and will never watch again, even though the info is (somewhat) educational.

I've found Monsters Inside Me to be strangely compelling and useful if you want to know how to avoid rare human parasites. I guess these stories of parasites aren't scary because they are so rare and unlikely to happen to me (I don't walk barefoot, I don't travel to third world countries).

Rat Busters NYC -- really, who thinks up these programs? The story of a rat infestation requiring breaking down walls, ceilings, and cement floors to find the source is enough to make you want to move to a clean icy igloo. While watching the exterminators setting traps for rats in a warehouse, I wondered if any pest control company has considered specializing in a pack of rat terriers to catch and kill rats and mice.

The ugliest program was on Animal Planet. Bedbugs are small creatures but they are spreading across the USA and probably Canada too. They can be picked up from hotels and other places where you use furniture.
- Bedbugs bite people for their blood.
- There are dogs trained to detect their odor.
- 120° steam can kill them.
- Rubbing alcohol kills them but it is flammable so you don't want to use it any place there could be a spark.
- Carbon dioxide can flash freeze them.
- Heating a house to 120°+ can desiccate them, but they may find cooler spots to hide in so the exterminator needs to check for cool areas.
- Heating clothes in a hot dryer for 30 minutes should kill them.
- The program didn't say whether diatomaceous earth could kill them.

Now, a pleasant photo to put that ugliness out of mind:

Freshly fallen white snow, anyone?

DOG PERSON ?

Dog person or people person ?

It would be obvious to anyone who knows me that I'm a dog (and cat) person. I now spend most of my time with Terri and Flower. They are sweet, furry girls who are a daily source of joy. I saw a sign on FB that states my situation perfectly:

The difference between dogs and people: dogs spend most of their time NOT being annoying, people are the opposite.

REINVENTING GRAVITY

Reading Reinventing Gravity by John W. Moffat is like reading a mystery. He builds his case towards an alternative theory of gravity gradually by taking us through the history of science to demonstrate how old theories need to be updated or overthrown when more precise observations are made of nature.

The mystery of the nature of space-time is revealed and all seems well until newer observations and measurements show flaws in Newton's and Einstein's theories. Black holes, dark matter, and dark energy have been postulated to update those theories to fit new observations. They have been accepted by many scientists but do these objects really exist?

Moffat writes:

Let me state the current situation very clearly. There are only two ways of explaining the wealth of observational data showing the surprisingly fast rotational speeds of stars in galaxies and the stability of clusters: Either dark matter exists and presumably will be found, and Newton's and Einstein's gravity theories will remain intact; or dark matter does not exist and we must find a new gravity theory.

This book is a GREAT read for anyone who fits into the author's intended audience: "the curious non-physicist who loves science" or "the reader with a more technical background in physics".

Moffat's alternative theory refutes some of the statements in Timeline of the Universe shown below.

---

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Radiation

The detailed, all-sky picture of the infant universe created from seven years of WMAP data. The image reveals 13.7 billion year old temperature fluctuations (shown as color differences) that correspond to the seeds that grew to become the galaxies. The signal from the our Galaxy was subtracted using the multi-frequency data. This image shows a temperature range of ± 200 microKelvin.

Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team

---

Timeline of the Universe

A representation of the evolution of the universe over 13.7 billion years. The far left depicts the earliest moment we can now probe, when a period of "inflation" produced a burst of exponential growth in the universe. (Size is depicted by the vertical extent of the grid in this graphic.) For the next several billion years, the expansion of the universe gradually slowed down as the matter in the universe pulled on itself via gravity. More recently, the expansion has begun to speed up again as the repulsive effects of dark energy have come to dominate the expansion of the universe. The afterglow light seen by WMAP was emitted about 380,000 years after inflation and has traversed the universe largely unimpeded since then. The conditions of earlier times are imprinted on this light; it also forms a backlight for later developments of the universe.

Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team