The 4 Elements
Are there more than four?
The idea of 4 elements are usually seen as obsolete metaphysics, that finally collapsed centuries ago.
However, this is only partly true. The original theory made physical sense, but creates nonsense when applied chemically.
Above Fire was supposed to exist a mysterious substance phlogiston, with a negative weight to balance equations.
(And you thought modern physics were weird?).
However, the idea of 4 elements still makes sense, as the four physical states of matter: solid, fluid, gas, plasma.
If understood as principal levels,
then Elements are still valid today:
Element Earth
: Solid, stabil, unmoving matter.
If the aspect of a fixed form is lost, then we'll get the next element:
Element Water
: Fluid form, but the volume is still constant.
If a fixed volume also is lost, we'll get the next element:
Element Air
: Fluid form and volume, but still some substance that creates atmospheric pressure.
Air may be in perpetual motion, but it is always there.
Loose that and we'll have the next element:
Element Fire
: Nothing is no longer fixed, not even existence. Fire comes and goes.
But though it seems insubstantial, it still leaves tangible traces in the rest of the world.
Next element?
If another aspect is lost, we'll have the next element above Fire.
Any suggestions? My own kandidate could be light, as it leaves no traces at all.
Deeper?
How about an element below Earth? Which aspect should then be added?
I wonder if Black Holes could fit, but there could be other candidates:
Any idea..?
The aliens inside us
They are already here...
"Of the trillions and trillions of cells in a typical human body - at least 10 times as many cells in a single individual as there are stars in the Milky Way - only about 1 in 10 is human. The other 90 percent are microbial. These microbes - a term that encompasses all forms of microscopic organisms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and a form of life called archaea - exist everywhere. They are found in the ears, nose, mouth, vagina, anus, as well as every inch of skin, especially the armpits, the groin and between the toes. The vast majority are in the gut, which harbors 10 trillion to 100 trillion of them. Microbes colonize our body surfaces from the moment of our birth. They are with us throughout our lives, and at the moment of our death they consume us."
Jeffrey Gordon / New York Times
"About 100,000 segments of human DNA are remarkably similar to retroviruses, a class of viruses that includes HIV. Retroviruses insert a copy of their genes into the genome of their host cell. Scientists estimate that 8 percent of the human genome is made up of this viral DNA, known as human endogenous retroviruses, or HERVs." Carl Zimmer / New York Times
The law of more
In need of speed?
If development of cars followed Moores Law,
it would only take half a century
to attain the speed of light.
And then beyond...
Grandfather-paradox revisited
The political correct version and other variations
I'll admit: the usual version is short and efficient. But it's also the horror-version. How about a fantasy-version? Or science fiction? How would a surrealist paint it? Or maybe as music..? Here's the original version: Invent a timemachine, travel a century back in time and kill your grandfather. Then he won't marry, nor have any children. Childrens children also disappears and so on. Thus your parents no longer exist, and neither do you....
Paul Nipkow
Inventor of Mechanical Television
Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (1860-1940) was a german physicist who pioneered television. Nipkow noticed that the metal Selenium had a special ability: its conductivity depended on light. Perhaps this could be used to convert an image to electricity? December 1883 he found of a way to send a moving picture by wire: Television was born....
Optical illusions
If your eyes were adjustable like television
There are many possible optical illusions. Some are just a trick to fool the eye, or a gimmick in the filmindustry. But art has also found them usefull sometimes, fx Escher, Magritte, Dali. However, all illusions I've seen did have one irritating drawback. Each time I was left with the impression that the illusion was an effect of the picture, not the eye. That's actually an extra illusion by itself. The optical illusion is caused by the optics itself (=eye+brain), no picture is required. You may create an optical illusion merely by manipulating your own eyes....
Penguins in modern physics
And Quarks and Cows...
Penguins? In a preface written for Mikhail Shifman's 1999 book, ITEP Lectures on Particle Physics and Field Theory, John Ellis (CERN) recalls how the gluon interference diagram came to be called a penguin diagram. One night in spring 1977, Ellis lost a bet during a game of darts. His penalty: use the word 'penguin' in a journal article...
Largest numbers
A step towards infinity...
Why large numbers? Why should a large number be interesting? Does it have any practical value?
You might as well ask why numbers, any number, should be interesting at all. But we use numbers all the time. To count things, to order things, to measure. Science need numbers, one could argue that numbers are the language of science. Trade would become impossible without numbers, except on the most primitive level. Numbers have lots of functions. But we use them both to count, and to think. Arranged as a spectrum we would find the smallest, but most popular numbers at one end. The other end would present the extreme magnitudes, only rarely used. However, rare does not autimatically imply unimportance. Likewise, many popular things makes only a small difference. If there's always a bit more, who cares to count...
Large numbers do have importance, in principle. They are part of the edge of our worldmap. If something is "countless" it becomes virtually unknown. Of course, we may speak of things in qualitative terms only, but then we can't seperate a drop from an ocean....
Index
Dark energy seems to exist
Europe reaches the moon
First photograph
Kenotafium
Mars: A century ago
Mars: Acheron Fossae
Mars Express
Mars: Ice on south pole
Mars: Olympus mons
Mars: Tithonium Chasma
Phoebe - Saturns weird moon
Rosetta - chasing a comet
Sound of Big bang
Star escaping our galaxy
Teleportation experiment
Voyage of Arthur Eddington
Quaoar
Science Links
Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. To investigate the reach and impact of human imagination.
Ant Laboratory. Ant laboratory, excellent swiss site, sf and science
Bad astronomy. Apollo hoax, planet X, myths, misconceptions
Chance of the gaps. Any one of us could this instant spontaneously combust if all the most rapidly moving air molecules in our vicinity suddenly converged on us...
Civilian Space exploration
Cosmic ancestry. Life comes from space because life comes from life
Cronicle of the future: Welcome to your future - tomorrows news today. From the already familiar landscape of life in 2000 to the uncharted territories of 2050.
Current position of ISS. International Space Station
Future shoes. Mike Finleys future shoes.
How was it like to discover Pluto? Asked how it feels to have discovered a planet, Clyde Tombaugh falls back on a ridiculous adjective "nice".
Innovative Technologies From Science Fiction
Maison Ailleurs Museum of science fiction, utopia and extraordinary journeys.
Mars society. Explore and settle on the red planet.
Moores law. Basic computer-capacity doubles every 1½ year.
National Space Society. Independent, international, educational, grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to creation of spacefaring civilization. Founded 1974 by Wernher von Braun.
Points of divergence. Alternate history writers' workshop and amateur press association.
Project Apollo Archive. Reference source and repository of digital images of the historic manned lunar landing program.
Retro Future. What happened to all that futuristic stuff which was supposed
to change our lives by the year 2000? Rocket belts, flying cars, food pills and inflatable homes...
Robots Hall of Fame. Excellence in robotics technology worldwide. Fictional and real robots that inspired science.
SETI - Search for Extra-Terristrial Intelligence.
Space-elevator. For the first time since initially conceived, this dream is now within our reach.
Spaceweather. Whats up in space? News and info about the Sun-Earth environment
Speculative fiction magazines directory. Large directory of paper/net-based magasines, amateur, semi and pro.
Tales of future past. It wasn't that long ago that we had a future that we could clearly imagine...
TerraNova. View a new planet every day.