I would suggest that a fact is a statement of what is believed to be true, but in which such truth is founded upon a belief or being "proved" to be true through interpretation of observed phenomena. However a fact does not by this definition, be correct, and can indeed be proved wrong given more information.
For example, the sun used to go around the earth. This fact on its own was
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JonnyMcA
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Coffee Shop
An article from this month's Physics World on the topic of Pyramid Metrologists (or more exactly Charles Piazzi smyth, and his fixation upon the encoded knowledge in the great pyramid). Some may like it, some may not, but interesting all the same.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Alternative Geometry and Numerology
But a lot less scientific. And dramatic does not equate to correct. I tend to subscribe to the "principle of least astonishment" in these cases.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
It is probably more likely that this vestoid was from a collision of an exposed part of Vesta. For example an secondary impact with the large crater at the south pole.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
No this is not a refutation of string theory. There are other theories that postulate extra dimensions, and the one that they are examining here is Low-Scale Gravity, which postulates that the planck mass could be lower than the 2 x 10^16 TeV value that it is generally believed to have (which is the value used in String Theory), to 1 TeV.
QuoteThe possibility of production of microscopic bla
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
It is not something I have ever suffered, and I missed a hell of a lot of classes.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
QuoteThe CMS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has completed a search for microscopic black holes produced in high-energy proton-proton collisions. No evidence for their production was found and their production has been excluded up to a black hole mass of 3.5-4.5 TeV (10^12 electron volts) in a variety of theoretical models.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Hi Tommi
QuoteWell, other life doesn't have to be very far for the reason of us not hearing about them being them keeping quiet. 50 lightyears in a really, really short distance in the universe, and for the time being, that's how far we are able to get information from the way we are trying.
Are you confusing our sphere of radio transmission with our ability to detect alien signal
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
QuoteOn Tuesday night, The Core’s director, Jon Amiel was talking at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting here in San Francisco in a session about the representation of science in blockbuster films. In an entertaining presentation, Amiel discussed Hollywood’s obsession with geo disasters, from freak hurricanes to giant space rocks on collision paths with the Earth.
A transcript
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JonnyMcA
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Paper Lens
There is no better feeling than getting them over and done with.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Quantum theory survives latest challenge
QuoteSonja Franke-Arnold and colleagues at the University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde.... have performed another experiment showing that entangled photons exhibit ... stronger correlations than allowed for particles with individually defined properties – even if they would be allowed to communicate constantly.
I think the article may have
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
What is the size of a proton (more specifically its charge radius)? Until July this year it was measured and accepted to be 0.8768 fm, but then Pohl et al using a muonic hydrogen, determined it to be 0.8418 fm. More importantly, as stated in the above paper
QuoteThis new value of the proton radius rp = 0.84184(67) fm is 10 times more precise, but 5.0 sigma smaller, than the previous world av
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
A copy of the published article can be downloaded from my dropbox
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
This link details an ongoing argument within this topic.
jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Hi Paul,
I note that the author states this
QuoteBut that impact was into a dense gaseous atmosphere with no solid surface, and the dynamics were very different from solid-body impacts. The mechanism that created the Jovian plumes does not apply on Earth. A low-pressure region on Earth cannot achieve as large a pressure difference as on Jupiter, and our atmosphere is significantly less dens
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
A big catchy title and one to capture the attention of more people than the title "6 things that science has yet to solve" or "6 things science is working hard to solve". The article title makes scientists sound absolutely clueless, and I wonder if that was the intention. In fact some of them are like asking what is the biggest number possible. Mathematicians cannot answer
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
An audience with the Pope’s astronomer
This link conatins a video of Brother Guy Consolmagno (the Pope's Astronomer), who was giving a talk at the British Science Festival in Birmingham.
Its well worth a look at the video.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Happy days. And do you think they will try to fit seven pairs of every clean animal and bird, as well as two of every unclean animal onboard. Might make an interesting experiment, and Im sure the animal rights activists would have something to say about that.
Might even come in handy for 2012
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Humanities
I especially like the stretch in logic of
QuoteIt opens up the possibility that Extra Terrestial aliens like the one from the 1982 movie CAN exist in the solar system.
If only we could all do this in real science.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
LOL
I believe that this ted and carol station experiment is sheduled to be perfomed by the LHC on the 23rd of December 2012, by Mayan physicists investigating the effects of time traveling black holes.
Equally as plausible as some theories i imagine!
jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
PhysOrg have finally gotten wind of this news.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
To late,
i have bought today, a chicken and ham pie, a jar of mulled wine chutney, 8 halogen bulbs, a penguin torch, a new shaving mirror, and a new cordless telephone set.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Coffee Shop
Available now in flat pack.
HÄDRÖNN CJÖLIDDER. Proton colours may vary.
Jonny
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JonnyMcA
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Paper Lens
QuoteCircular patterns within the cosmic microwave background suggest that space and time did not come into being at the Big Bang but that our universe in fact continually cycles through a series of "aeons". That is the sensational claim being made by University of Oxford theoretical physicist Roger Penrose, who says that data collected by NASA's WMAP satellite support his idea
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
See note here about the error of +/- 5% . to save clicking, I reproduce it here
Quotethe claim to 5 % is an extreme case for using the first approximate method in that link (not the other methods). And you have erroneously assumed that the program you used uses this method. If you use the first approximation method you will see that you get an answer of 8999.633736. the answer you have determ
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JonnyMcA
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Alternative Geometry and Numerology
A Question to Paul. How did you date this crater to 10-12 thousand years old, and how certain are you of this dating?
And of course I am sure Paul is aware that some may well try to link this to the hypothesised YD impact event, due to the overlap in dates. Indeed, I find it tempting to do so myself, but the two thousand year "window" is quite a large uncertainty.
Will there
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
Hi Lobo,
Lets look at things from the centre of mass frame of the comet itself. By this I mean we look at the comet as if it were stationary. We can then think of the snow particles as being ejected from the surface with a particular velocity. With it being a centre of mass frame, we can ignore the initial velocity given to each particle from the movement of the comet itself through space,
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory
QuoteThe 'snowstorm' occupies a roughly-spherical volume centered on Hartley 2's spinning nucleus. The dumbbell-shaped nucleus, measuring only 2 km from end to end, is tiny compared to the surrounding swarm. "The ice cloud is a few tens of kilometers wide--and possibly much larger than that," says A'Hearn. "We still don't know for sure how big it is
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JonnyMcA
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Laboratory