ramblingsofaking

[ramblingsofaking]

Timefullness: Thinking like a geologist

 Today we review an episode on a podcast named bridging the gaps; a portal for curious minds. Which is anchored by Dr Waseem Akhtar and guest in the person of professor Marcia Bjornerud.

I picked this topic because of my interest of our surrounding and the earth. Professor Marcia explained in details the importance of Geology and why it cannot be over emphasized

Marcia Bjornerud is Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies at Lawrence University in Appleton. Bjornerud’s research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain-building, and she combines field-based studies of bedrock geology with quantitative models of rock mechanics. Bjornerud has done research in high arctic Norway (Svalbard) and Canada (Ellesmere Island), as well as mainland Norway, Scotland, New Zealand, and the Lake Superior region. She teaches courses ranging from ‘hard rock’ and planetary geology to environmental modeling and history of science.  She received a BS in geophysics from the University of Minnesota and her MS and PhD in structural geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She then held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University and worked as a contract geologist for the Geological Survey of Canada and the Norwegian Polar Institute. Bjornerud began her professorial career at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio but gave up a tenured position there in order to return to Wisconsin and join the faculty at Lawrence. She was the founding director of Lawrence’s degree-granting program in environmental studies and holds the Schober Endowed Chair in Environmental Science. Bjornerud is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Norway (2000-2001) and New Zealand (2009). She was named Outstanding Educator in 2011 by the Association of Women Geoscientists. She is the author of a well-received book, Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth and a contributing writer to the New Yorker’s science and technology blog, “Elements”. https://www.wisconsinacademy.org/contributor/marcia-bjornerud

The guest speaker started by explaining that structural Geography is a field that focuses on architecture of the crust, how in particular tectonic processes wrinkle and fracture the outer shell of the earth using a variety of techniques ranging from real time monitoring of earth quakes, satellite direct monitoring of plate motions. Basically, it is concerned with the nature of curst of the mechanical unit on the outside of the earth.

Professor Marcia expressed her view of geology as being a very important discipline that doesn’t get enough recognition. She explains by saying that geology has a public relations problem being tangled up with extractive industries and also, in the mind of the public it is associated with dusty mineral collections. Among the sciences it is very much an applied science such as chemistry but is never held in the same esteem, no Nobel prize in Geology but infact it is a very rigorous and challenging discipline. She gave the solution to the public perception of Geology will be to appreciating the earth and recognizing Geology as an important discipline.

Finally Professor Marcia encourage the listeners of the podcast I reviewed to see landscapes and rocks as verbs not nouns because there are records of events that has happened in the past  and we can enjoy them aesthetically too. Most importantly. it can be read about more deeply and understand the time they took to form because the timeline is comprehensible.

[ramblingsofaking]

The Joy of science

 Today we review an episode on a podcast named bridging the gaps; a portal for curious minds. Which is anchored by Dr Waseem Akhtar and guest in the person of Professor Jim Al-Khalili.

I chose this topic because science has been viewed by many in a rudimentary manner for so long and it also answers many questions about rationality, information and disinformation and absolute truths.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili OBE FRS is a theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey where he holds a Distinguished Chair in physics as well as a university chair in the public engagement in science. He received his PhD in theoretical nuclear physics from Surrey in 1989 and then spent two years as an SERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University College London before returning to Surrey in 1991. He was appointed lecturer in 1992 and, in 1994, was awarded an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship for five years during which time he established himself as a world leading authority. Professor Jim is also a prominent author and broadcaster. He has written 14 books on popular science and the history of science, between them translated into twenty-six languages. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries, such as the Bafta nominated Chemistry: a volatile history, and he hosts the long-running weekly BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific.

Professor Jim starts by saying that science should be viewed as a process of acquiring knowledge and not just the knowledge itself. Science can be carried out via different ways, such as trying to understand how a virus spreads, observation of nesting birds from the edge of a cliff, climbing into a volcano to study it. Science is so broad that it can be hard to define it, only what all those different aspects has to do with science.

The question relativity of truth and absolute truth was asked, and he explained that in the area of physics, there are absolute truths. He gave an example with a ball dropped from 5 meters will hit the earth in exactly 1 second, with such examples you can’t have opinions about the outcome because its an absolute truth. When it comes to truths about the human nature it can get quite messy because it gets mixed up with our beliefs, ideology, culture and moral truths. He continued with saying if the impression of science in teaching is given as cold hard facts, that are all perfectly packaged and understood, it will not spur up curiosity in the minds of the next generation to push them into research. Its best to push the idea that science is about being curious about things we don’t understand.

The question of rationality was asked and he tackled it by responding that we all cannot be rational else the world will be a cold boring place. What is wonderful about our species is that we can be irrational but science stops us from purely being bias and wanting our own theories to be correct. He explained the impact of information and disinformation as being huge because today we have so many sources of information hitting us very fast and with the most logical thinker will have a hard time discerning what is information, disinformation and deliberate disinformation.

Professor Kim said his joy of science comes from doing research work and the fundamental questions about our universe.

For further listening or investigations my sources are https://soundcloud.com/bridging-the-gaps/the-joy-of-science-with-professor-jim-al-khalili

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/jim-al-khalili

[ramblingsofaking]

Today we review an episode on a podcast named bridging the gaps; a portal for curious minds. Which is anchored by Dr Waseem Akhtar and guest in the person of Dr Danel Wayne Hooper.

Dr Daniel Wayne Hooper is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics University of Chicago. He Acquired his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 2003. Dr Hooper is an American cosmologist and particle physicist specializing in the areas of dark matter, cosmic rays, and neutrino astrophysics. He is a Senior Scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. He was born on December 16, 1976 (age 45 years) in Minnesota, United States. Dr Hooper is the author of several books, including Dark Cosmos: In Search of our Universe’s Missing Mass and Energy.

Today’s review is centered on one of many books written by Dr hooper titled At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe's First Seconds. A tour of our cosmic history, focusing on the first moments after the Big Bang and the puzzles of dark matter, dark energy, inflation and antimatter. I selected this topic because of my curiosity of our universe, the sound insight it gives into our universes first moments immediately after the big bang, theory of multiverses and the comparison of Newtonian principles and quantum physics.

Dr hooper starts by analyzing our universes journey from the big bang to the present day, how it’s been expanding over several billions of years and from this we can deduce how dense and hot our universe has been over those years. He continued by saying if we looked back into time, we could see the background of light that was released into our universe all those years ago which is called the cosmic microwave background. It was released because the universe got cold enough that atoms could form. In understanding our universe just after the big bang we use machines called particles accelerators to try and replicate those conditions.

 He answered the question about dark matter, and us knowing how fast its moving and knowing it was present in our universes first few seconds but we do not know what it is. He continued by saying some of the earliest evidence of it came from how galaxies rotated. Andromeda was an example he used. Stating we haven’t conclusively found what it is or we could be looking at it wrongly.

 Dr hooper tackled the puzzle of inflation saying physicists and cosmologists had a theory in regards to the big bang paradigm that shortly after the big bang there was a brief period of time in which our universe increased exponentially in very short burst. This theory gave way to certain predictions and detailed information about what the cosmic microwave background should look like. Over decades various measurements were made that agree with these predictions.

Dr hooper believes studying the first few seconds of out universe holds the key to understanding the four puzzles highlighted in his book and the fundamental questions of our universe. He continued by stating that matter had won out over anti-matter, dark matter was present in the very early stages of our universe, dark energy seems to be built in the features of our universe and the only solution he knows points to something associated with the big bang. Lastly inflations occurred very early in the history of our universe as well and maybe these four puzzles do not have a common solution but maybe by understanding one of the puzzles it could give way to the understanding of the others because they are likely interwoven and could be pieced together with better observation and findings.

Dr Dan hooper and a previous undergraduate student have carrying out research and have pod cast named “why this universe” this is for people who are interested and want to know more about astrophysics, astronomy and the related fields.

For further research and investigation,

Find below the sources is used