Community blog entries

Evolution of the Universe

September 27, 2009 by rsridharan

Space

When we contemplate the evolution of the universe from big bang to the present time one wonders at the different forms of our universe from the inception of time. Can any one come out roughly with the number of forms sprung from the same universe? At each point in time, we have discovered a new form being evolved. What are these forms and how significant they assume in their evolution of 13 billion and odd years?

I wrote in my first blog ‘Modern Cosmology’ at http://www.rsridharan.blogspot.com/ that how do we combine all the different factions of the universe into a single format. Some of my friends in different science forums ridiculed at me although some others appreciated and even wondered at my blog. To those who are yet to discern my point in my first blog, here is the simple answer. When we go back from the present to the beginning of the universe, we can see that all different aspects of the present day Universe were once combined into a single point in time! This is what I meant. Isn’t that true and so simple?

And so we begin our journey from the start of the time to the present day evolution.

Why middle-agers shouldn't join the army

September 25, 2009 by The Quantum Lob...

Enlisting in the army is a significant life-changing decision, especially for someone who's middle-aged. Apparently there's an age cap of 42 for active duty. The reasoning behind this seemingly arbitrary number is that it allow for a 20-year military career before retirement. However, perhaps they should look toward a younger cutoff point in light of a recent study investigating the effects of sleep deprivation on arousal levels of middle-aged rats. But before we continue with this line of argument, lets define what being middle-aged really means.

Testing

September 25, 2009 by Laura Michaud

Measuring the Quality of a Scientific Paper

September 23, 2009 by coglanglab

"Good" is a notoriously difficult word to define. A pretty common and reasonably uncontroversial definition of a good paper, though, is one that has significantly advanced human knowledge. The question is how do we measure that?

When Pseudoscience Kills – Trust, Denialism, and Peter Duesberg

September 22, 2009 by BlueGenes

For scientists working in the field of HIV and AIDS, discussion of denialists can be at best tiring and at worst infuriating. This isn’t because a (‘good’) scientist can’t engage in a meaningful debate about their field with an honest dissident. It is because denialists of established science are not truly interested in objective examination of evidence. This may sound harsh, but it is important to realise that we’re not talking about any issues which have real controversy. The issue that I’m particularly talking about, the fact that HIV is the causative agent of AIDS, has over 25 years of medical science behind it, and is the subject of tens of thousands (1) of peer-reviewed research papers. The evidence is as irrefutable as that demonstrating that the earth orbits the sun, albeit perhaps less accessible to your average layperson. As this article is written by Ben Vincent, the newest contributor to Blue-Genes, you should give him a grand welcome by travelling over to Blue-Genes.net and reading the rest of it there!

Two new book reviews about small but powerful things

September 20, 2009 by Fred Bortz

I've updated my Science Shelf book review archive with two interesting titles, Pluto Confidential and Rising Plague.