My Big Freeze is your Big Bang?

If I understand this new theory, and it's unlikely that I do, it holds that the anticipated end of our Universe, becoming infinitely large in a Big Freeze, will mathematically be simultaneously infinitely small, and result in another Big Bang.

A respected scientist says the evidence for this is visible as circular patterns in the cosmic microwave background.

physicsworld.com - 11.19.10

Circular 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 of "conformal cyclic cosmology". This claim is bound to prove controversial, however, because it opposes the widely accepted inflationary model of cosmology.

According to inflationary theory, the universe started from a point of infinite density known as the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago, expanded extremely rapidly for a fraction of a second and has continued to expand much more slowly ever since, during which time stars, planets and ultimately humans have emerged. That expansion is now believed to be accelerating and is expected to result in a cold, uniform, featureless universe.

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Airport Security Screening Protest - Why it Flopped

Or, "Quit your crying, you ninnies!"

The entire time news sites were reporting on the horrible, despicable, execrable, evil TSA and their new security screening procedures, I thought: Give me a xxxx-ing break. The cries of foul play were clearly being hyped by the media, who never saw a dispute they didn't want to create, the Republicans, who will miss no opportunity to make the current administration look bad, and a few idiots who have too much time on their hands.

So someone "calls" for a protest day. Right. Travelers who don't want to be blown up on their way to visit grandma and just want to get there as quickly and comfortably as possible are deliberately going to shoot themselves in the foot by jamming up the lines and making themselves and everyone else miss their flights. Not gonna happen.

Live Science - 11.24.10 by Benjamin Radford

Complaints about airport security recently triggered calls for a consumer-led "Opt-Out" day (boycotting full-body scans) that would hopelessly snarl travel plans and force the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to rethink its intrusive methods. Airline and government officials worried that there would be nationwide travel disruptions today.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, "Despite threats of protests from passengers angry at new security rules, it was relatively smooth sailing — and flying — at O'Hare Airport Wednesday. Lines at ticket counters and at security checkpoints were moving freely throughout the morning and early afternoon. 'There are no delays, no lines, no protests that I know of,' said Karen Pride, spokeswoman for the Chicago department of aviation."

In fact, reports so far have indicated no significant delays, protests, or slow-downs at any major airports, from Los Angeles to New York — beyond, of course, being the busiest travel day of the year. So what happened to the thousands (or tens of thousands) of angry airline customers who weren't going to take it anymore?

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The next big career path - Molecular Animation!

Visualizing what's really going on inside our bodies at a molecular level requires an amalgam of science and movie-making.

New York Times - 11.15.10 by Eric Olsen

When Robert A. Lue considers the “Star Wars” Death Star, his first thought is not of outer space, but inner space.

“Luke’s initial dive into the Death Star, I’ve always thought, is a very interesting way how one would explore the surface of a cell,” he said.

That particular scene has not yet been tried, but Dr. Lue, a professor of cell biology and the director of life sciences education at Harvard, says it is one of many ideas he has for bringing visual representations of some of life’s deepest secrets to the general public.

Dr. Lue is one of the pioneers of molecular animation, a rapidly growing field that seeks to bring the power of cinema to biology. Building on decades of research and mountains of data, scientists and animators are now recreating in vivid detail the complex inner machinery of living cells.

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Will people get married much in the future?

Daily News - 11.18.10 by Nina Mandell

Forget about tying that knot? Forty percent of adults said marriage is becoming less important today.
Four out of 10 adults agree marriage is so passé, according to a new Pew Center Research Survey.

In the survey, which was taken in part with Time magazine, American adults today said they are far more likely to skip the walk down the aisle than in 1978 when only 28% of survey respondents thought the institution was outdated and pointless.

The study also looked at people’s attitudes towards gay marriage, adoption, the importance of family and other changes in societal norms since the 1960s.

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What the heck is Google working on now?

Eyes firmly on the future, Google is crazily (like a fox) spending millions (that's like nickels to the rest of us) on far-out, futuristic projects. I like it.

PhysOrg.com - 11.4.10 by Jessica Guynn

With mountains of cash and some of the world's smartest engineers, Google Inc. has always set aside research and development dollars for futuristic ventures that appear to have little in common with its core business of Internet search.

But lately, it's been backing some eye-popping projects. In recent weeks, the company has revealed it's working on self-driving cars and a multibillion-dollar windmill farm - in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Crazy? Like a fox, analysts say. The projects, no matter how far afield from the company's ambitious mission of organizing the world's information, may turn out to be more calculated - and prosperous - than they initially appear.

"Some of these things will turn out to be wildly successful and others will just fade away," said Jay Wong, portfolio manager with Los Angeles investment firm Payden & Rygel, which owns Google shares. "It's part of their creative culture and what makes them so successful."

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Bring on the Singularity! (Video PSA)

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Military explores how to attack enemy minds

Wired.com - 11.2.10 by Noah Shachtman

It sounds like something a wild-eyed basement-dweller would come up with, after he complained about the fit of his tinfoil hat. But military bureaucrats really are asking scientists to help them “degrade enemy performance” by attacking the brain’s “chemical pathway[s].” Let the conspiracy theories begin.

Late last month, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing revamped a call for research proposals examining “Advances in Bioscience for Airmen Performance.” It’s a six-year, $49 million effort to deploy extreme neuroscience and biotechnology in the service of warfare.

One suggested research thrust is to use “external stimulant technology to enable the airman to maintain focus on aerospace tasks and to receive and process greater amounts of operationally relevant information.” (Something other than modafinil, I guess.) Another asks scientists to look into “fus[ing] multiple human sensing modalities” to develop the “capability for Special Operations Forces to rapidly identify human-borne threats.” No, this is not a page from The Men Who Stare at Goats.

But perhaps the oddest, and most disturbing, of the program’s many suggested directions is the one that notes: “Conversely, the chemical pathway area could include methods to degrade enemy performance and artificially overwhelm enemy cognitive capabilities.” That’s right: the Air Force wants a way to fry foes’ minds — or at least make ‘em a little dumber.

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