"Is it possible for life to exist on other planets? Why? How?"
I had a hard time thinking of a question that I liked enough to use. A lot of them were either too general or too specific. I like this question a lot because there actually is an answer. There is plenty of scientific evidence that shows it is possible. My friend helped me come up with this question because like I said the ones that I was coming up with were way too in depth or were too broad. I want to do more research on the topic and write about why some may believe that it is impossible and also why science says that it is possible. I also want to do this research paper because I really do not know where I stand on this issue. Like I said, it is possible, but does it actually exist? I will not answer that question in the paper, but I will most likely touch on it a little. I am curious to see if I will finally form an opinion after I write this paper.
I think the paper is going to be extremely easy to write and I think I will enjoy writing it. I think it will be cool to finally have something that I wrote myself that informs people on such a big topic. I've always wanted to write an informative paper on something that I am actually interested in and now I can. I also think a lot of people are misinformed on this topic also. Not everyone knows what is being done 24 hours a day in the field of searching for alien life. I'll learn something new even if I don't form my own opinion.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Social Issue
One issue that I think needs to be fixed is the issue of scarcity of water in the world. I think it needs to be fixed because I know I have heard that it actually would not cost that much money to do. According to thirstproject.org, it only costs between $7,800 and $20,000 to build a fresh water well. It would also change the world drastically. It would allow for third world countries to finally develop to the best of their abilities. I guess what I am getting at is since the world is so concerned about money, this would be the best 'bang for the buck' and would also help the most amount of people.
This problem really does seem simple to me. The hard part about it is getting people to give up their money. It seriously is such a small amount of money that I think people would be surprised. There are 314 million people in the United States and the average amount for a well is $13,400. That means to build one well would be 4/100,000 of a dollar per person. To build 50,000 wells it would only cost a little over two dollars per person. This is only looking at the United States. It is only a matter of getting people to spend their money. The solution that I see is simple taxation. The government would have to tax people an extra 6/1,000 of a dollar a day, on average, in order to raise all of the money needed in one year. I don't know exactly how many wells would be needed to actually put an end to world thirst, but even if it took 1,000,000 wells, within years the problem would be gone completely.
This problem should be solved for obvious reasons such as to end world thirst, to help out humanity, and to give third world countries a push start. In my opinion if America actually considers itself a world leader then it should have fixed this problem decades ago. Obviously there are other things at role than just money, but I chose to look specifically at the money because that is what seems to speak loudest to people. It is extremely cheap to end world thirst.
This problem really does seem simple to me. The hard part about it is getting people to give up their money. It seriously is such a small amount of money that I think people would be surprised. There are 314 million people in the United States and the average amount for a well is $13,400. That means to build one well would be 4/100,000 of a dollar per person. To build 50,000 wells it would only cost a little over two dollars per person. This is only looking at the United States. It is only a matter of getting people to spend their money. The solution that I see is simple taxation. The government would have to tax people an extra 6/1,000 of a dollar a day, on average, in order to raise all of the money needed in one year. I don't know exactly how many wells would be needed to actually put an end to world thirst, but even if it took 1,000,000 wells, within years the problem would be gone completely.
This problem should be solved for obvious reasons such as to end world thirst, to help out humanity, and to give third world countries a push start. In my opinion if America actually considers itself a world leader then it should have fixed this problem decades ago. Obviously there are other things at role than just money, but I chose to look specifically at the money because that is what seems to speak loudest to people. It is extremely cheap to end world thirst.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
The Fabric of the Cosmos
I read a book called The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. The book is broken into five parts. The first two parts focused mainly on what we know about space-time and how we learned it. It is a combination of a history lesson and physics lecture. In the first two parts, Greene answers very difficult questions through quantum physics, classical physics, and general relativity. This is an essential part of the book. These three fundamental types of science are completely unique and could not be more different from each other, but they all offer some of the same explanations for things. Greene asks the following question towards the end of part two: "Is science unable to grasp a fundamental quality of time that the human mind embraces as readily as the lungs take in air, or does the human mind impose on time a quality of its own making, one that is artificial and that hence does not show up in the laws of physics?" (141). Like I mentioned before, Greene does his best to articulate his opinion based on several different sciences. The book is filled with questions that can be answered philosophically, religiously, and scientifically.
In the third part of the book, Greene begins to combine what he taught us about space-time, with modern cosmology. Cosmology is the study of the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe. This is a beautiful part of the book. I finally was able to envision how quantum physics and astrophysics are heavily related to one another. In the last chapter of this section he describes that since the Big Bang was a quantum event (extremely small), it was governed by quantum physics initially, but then when inflation occurred, these quantum laws became magnified and everything we see in the universe today is a consequence of the magnified quantum activity.
Part four of the book was definitely my favorite part. It is called Origins and Unification. Greene is known as one of the main proponents of Superstring theory. This is the part of the book where he explains why he believes strings are the answer to unify all of our physical laws. He gives a vivid description of what higher dimensions would actually look like and where exactly they would be since we cannot see them. String theory in a nutshell basically says that every thing that there is, is some variation of a rudimentary building block called a string. The strings vibrate in different ways to produce different particles like electrons or photons. They also would be responsible for the four forces of the universe. String theory is my favorite thing to visualize. Greene concludes the section with this, "At the ultramicroscopic level, the universe would be akin to a string symphony vibrating matter into existence". Next time you hear someone say 'good vibes', you'll be able to visualize it.
The final part of the book is a speculation of what is to come. He goes into topics such as time travel and teleporters. My favorite thing about this part is the fact that we know how to do these things, but we cannot do them because we are limited by our technology.
The book relates to my iQuest project because it explains what the arena of space-time is and it gives me a better understanding of astronomy and the physical structures of the universe. I would recommend the book to anyone who has the attention span to read it. It was pretty challenging for me at times and I have some experience with these types of books. Overall, it was a great read.
In the third part of the book, Greene begins to combine what he taught us about space-time, with modern cosmology. Cosmology is the study of the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe. This is a beautiful part of the book. I finally was able to envision how quantum physics and astrophysics are heavily related to one another. In the last chapter of this section he describes that since the Big Bang was a quantum event (extremely small), it was governed by quantum physics initially, but then when inflation occurred, these quantum laws became magnified and everything we see in the universe today is a consequence of the magnified quantum activity.
Part four of the book was definitely my favorite part. It is called Origins and Unification. Greene is known as one of the main proponents of Superstring theory. This is the part of the book where he explains why he believes strings are the answer to unify all of our physical laws. He gives a vivid description of what higher dimensions would actually look like and where exactly they would be since we cannot see them. String theory in a nutshell basically says that every thing that there is, is some variation of a rudimentary building block called a string. The strings vibrate in different ways to produce different particles like electrons or photons. They also would be responsible for the four forces of the universe. String theory is my favorite thing to visualize. Greene concludes the section with this, "At the ultramicroscopic level, the universe would be akin to a string symphony vibrating matter into existence". Next time you hear someone say 'good vibes', you'll be able to visualize it.
The final part of the book is a speculation of what is to come. He goes into topics such as time travel and teleporters. My favorite thing about this part is the fact that we know how to do these things, but we cannot do them because we are limited by our technology.
The book relates to my iQuest project because it explains what the arena of space-time is and it gives me a better understanding of astronomy and the physical structures of the universe. I would recommend the book to anyone who has the attention span to read it. It was pretty challenging for me at times and I have some experience with these types of books. Overall, it was a great read.
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