This week in Cosmology

[flowperson]

Here's the latest "dope" on the rings of Saturn .

flow....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7141628.stm

[flowperson]

Okay...are we ready for GLACIERS ON MARS ?

flow....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7151190.stm

[flowperson]

The universe which we can perceive and detect may be miniscule compared to the ones which are as yet undetectble or undecipherable, but are still out there according to cosmologists. My take is that this is the 85% of dark matter reality which is mentioned in this article. Any opinions ?
And BTW, our brains reflect the structures discussed in this article.

flow....

Our Universe: Dark and Messy | LiveScience

[Tao_Equus]

Originally Posted by flowperson

The universe which we can perceive and detect may be miniscule compared to the ones which are as yet undetectble or undecipherable, but are still out there according to cosmologists. My take is that this is the 85% of dark matter reality which is mentioned in this article. Any opinions ?
And BTW, our brains reflect the structures discussed in this article.

flow....

Our Universe: Dark and Messy | LiveScience

Interesting thoughts on the brain-like structure that I tend to agree with. But as a born again atheist I must say this is only romantic anthropomorphising
However for me the most interesting part of that was the link to the hubblecast showing what appears to be a ring of dark matter in the constellation of Pisces. Though they ascribe it to dark matter I see no explanation of why it could not just be cold ordinary matter. Regardless it is still a very interesting object.

Tao

[Tao_Equus]

Black holes I believe hold the key to the how and why of the existence of anything. To me they are the engines that drive all we can observe. Recently published articles have shown how central they are to every galactic type, where once they were believed to be rare oddities. Here are a few links to recent studies. They may answer few questions and as ever raise more, but I feel they unambiguously state that black holes are very very important for future understanding of how things work.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Huge black hole tips the scales
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Black hole 'bully' blasts galaxy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1885376.stm
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Tiny galaxy hosts huge black hole
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Thin galaxies harbour big secret

Tao

[flowperson]

Hi Tao...Being a romantic anthropomorphiser and a Piscean, the dark circle also interested me. Keep in mind that the symbol for Pisces is two fish swimming in a circle or in opposing directions. Once again, does art imitate reality, or does reality imitate art ?

As far as the black hole mystery is concerned, I agree with you and the new findings that they are much more ubiquitous than anyone ever imagined. Sometime ago I came to the conclusion that they functioned mainly as both matter destructors and energy recirculators.

Have a good day friend.

flow....

[Tao_Equus]

Are black holes organisms? The article in the 2nd link uses violent analogies but are they actually copulatory?
The image below is it a fist or a penis? Makes me think.

[flowperson]

Here's another tidbit concerning the "nature" of the universe which we are able to see. I'm not surprised that it prominently features conflict. In fact I'd have been very surprised were this not so.

flow....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080111/...9aNrkaLhus0NUE

[flowperson]

Hey, don't feel bad if you don't get the arguments here. It was even a bit much for me to try and digest. I got all glassy-eyed and weak-kneed about halfway through. But many smart people seem to be interested in trying to decode the brain/universe conundrum.

I'm just content when I believe that our brains and their structures "reflect" the true nature of the universe. Read Dauer's post on the youtube thread also. This issue is what Dr. Bohm is speaking of there also. Perception is reality and reality is perception ?

flow....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/sc...ml?ref=science

[Tao_Equus]

Ty Flow, great article,

Experience is so intimately related to the observer and the preconceptions he/she bring to the experience. Thinking outside the box is so hard but it does appear to me, somewhere deep within the realm of hunch, that the whole universe is alive. The article you link to is pretty obsessed by brains, which to me seems to hint at us again projecting our own experience onto something much weirder. In nature it is not brains that are the most important organ but the means of reproduction. And when I say in nature I am not confining it to life here on Earth but also to the methods that nature uses to recycle and produce whole new stars. There have been no studies that I am aware of that show the creation of galaxies and galactic clusters but I think future generations of telescopes will show us that recycling and predictable methods of creation do exist. As I stated recently I think the key to all creation as we see it in our local universe is intimately linked to the properties of black holes. They are the cosmic generators/replicators if you like. So are black holes like organisms? Are they in some sense alive? I think time will show us that in some sense they are.

Tao

[flowperson]

Curiouser and curiouser. Who ever said that you can't get something from nothing ? I believe that they were wrong.

flow....

Pools of Invisible Matter Mapped in Space | LiveScience

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by flowperson

Perception is reality and reality is perception ?

"Form is emptiness and emptiness is form."

- The Heart Sutra.

s.

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by Snoopy

"Form is emptiness and emptiness is form."

- The Heart Sutra.

s.

And so space isn't really empty?

[flowperson]

SG...You are a victim of the American Scientific establishment educational system. Absolutely everything is space. Mt. Ranier is space. An anvil is space. Your thumb is space. Your house is space. Your car is space. A piece of cheesecake is space.

These constructs are different than other forms of space in that they are constituted in part by organized sets of atoms in certain patterns which give a visible and tangible nature to the place in space with which they are identified. Granted the space of a car is more filled than a cubic meter of air in terms of atomic structure. But all space is really structured based upon the "scalar" nature of the materials filling it.

We all must start thinking in terms of an "inside-outside" universe rather than looking at the blackness around Earth's environment and declaring only that to be "space". Or as I like to put it, the entire universe is reflected in a grain of sand.

flow....

[Tao_Equus]

Originally Posted by flowperson

Granted the space of a car is more filled than a cubic meter of air in terms of atomic structure.

But by a fraction so tiny as to be almost insignificant... unless of course that car is about to hit you!!