The Official Science Thread

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

Never gets old. I imagine this is about as close to paradise as it gets

I can't believe the sky looks like this in some places.

Rent a cabin upstate this winter and sit outside for a few hours. There's nothing better than the night sky at 2am on a bitter cold night. Whiskey & coffee or crown royal & hot choc will keep you warm.

Well it does if you have the iris and aperture of a tarsier.




Group trip to the canary islands? Or maybe iceland?

Or even better,

Originally Posted by k2pilot

Well it does if you have the iris and aperture of a tarsier.




Group trip to the canary islands? Or maybe iceland?

Or even better,

I definitely need to see some cool ass sh1t soon. All my vacations are on beaches.

I was recently on the CA-NV border in the middle of a plain, and you could see the sky like I've never seen it before. With a long exposure it definitely would have looked like that. You could see the milky way clearly with your eyes. Amazing.

Originally Posted by k2pilot

As for the debate of the determination of c, i was always under the impression that c would stay the same regardless of FTL particles because it was determined through maxwells eq, and that measurements just verified it.

I think the question was whether the previous measurements of c were off and the neutrinos are actually travelling slower than c. Either way, will be true.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what this means, but it sounds like the team has found a way to mathematically describe whether or not an observation measures an entangled particle or a separable particle. It sounds like it's all a matter of perspective. Look at the quantum state from this side, and it's entangled. Look from the other side and it isn't.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0927112039.htm

Originally Posted by k2pilot

Well it does if you have the iris and aperture of a tarsier.

lol

<----science lol

Do we really need a study to tell us that mushrooms help the brain think in a different manner?
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-0...rsonality.html

A single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called "magic mushrooms," was enough to bring about a measureable personality change lasting at least a year in nearly 60 percent of the 51 participants in a new study, according to the Johns Hopkins researchers who conducted it.

Lasting change was found in the part of the personality known as openness, which includes traits related to imagination, aesthetics, feelings, abstract ideas and general broad-mindedness.

Very cool idea for harvesting energy from ocean winds
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-...ne-energy.html

They must have selected a group that wasn't already high scoring in openness, i think most people that are already willing to try mushrooms would most likely already rate very highly in that category. I'm more curious about how they feel it affected their creativity.

I'd be willing to bet it helped. I'm curious as to their definition of a high dose; that's a very subjective thing with any drug.

Originally Posted by k2pilot

They must have selected a group that wasn't already high scoring in openness, i think most people that are already willing to try mushrooms would most likely already rate very highly in that category. I'm more curious about how they feel it affected their creativity.

I would be interested in knowing how they measure results in creativity.
I imagine that much of it would be subjective.
It is not like a math test, where results are black and white.

However, I guess that have psychological tests that measure differences in creativity.

I was wondering.....if 'the bomb' was based on the speed of light, does moving faster than the speed of light mean that there is a possibility of more energy being released with a new bomb ?

Does it mean that we can design bigger, more powerful bombs ?

Is it possible that we could design new nuclear powered generating plants that would produce more energy in the same amount of space using the new science ?

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

I'd be willing to bet it helped. I'm curious as to their definition of a high dose; that's a very subjective thing with any drug.

I'm sure it did, i'm just curious in what way, for how long etc.

For example, if mushrooms act as a stimulant for creativity and have long lasting effects, does this mean that a couple months/weeks down the road when you're thinking about a new idea it will benefit from the creativity enhancement effect? Or instead, if there's been an idea you've been working and couldn't quite complete, your brain while on the mushrooms would experience an a-ha moment that wouldn't have happened unless your were under the influence.

Originally Posted by Raymond42262

I would be interested in knowing how they measure results in creativity.
I imagine that much of it would be subjective.
It is not like a math test, where results are black and white.

However, I guess that have psychological tests that measure differences in creativity.

I imagine there's a number of experiments you could try to quantify the effects, granted they'd be somewhat subjective, but you can always tell when a person is being more or less creative if observed for long enough and under a variety of conditions.

Originally Posted by k2pilot

For example, if mushrooms act as a stimulant for creativity and have long lasting effects, does this mean that a couple months/weeks down the road when you're thinking about a new idea it will benefit from the creativity enhancement effect? Or instead, if there's been an idea you've been working and couldn't quite complete, your brain while on the mushrooms would experience an a-ha moment that wouldn't have happened unless your were under the influence.

IMO creativity is lateral thinking, finding a connection between two ideas that would normally have nothing in common, and it's been scientifically proven via fMRI and EEG that all psychedelics activate the area of the brain responsible for novelty. This can manifest in many different ways: something trivial and mundane becomes infinitely more interesting, something that normally brings comfort might send you into a panic attack, or you might look at/think about an idea or object and make a novel connection to another idea/object. In short: they aid in looking at/thinking about things from different perspectives.

Guys, if you are interested in how thinking is affected by mushrooms, a little info by Malcolm Gladwell on the effects of alcohol on our behavior might be fun: http://www.gladwell.com/2010/2010_02_15_a_drinking.html

Steele and his colleague Robert Josephs's explanation is that we've misread the effects of alcohol on the brain. Its principal effect is to narrow our emotional and mental field of vision. It causes, they write, "a state of shortsightedness in which superficially understood, immediate aspects of experience have a disproportionate influence on behavior and emotion."

The full article is really worth a read.

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

IMO creativity is lateral thinking, finding a connection between two ideas that would normally have nothing in common, and it's been scientifically proven via fMRI and EEG that all psychedelics activate the area of the brain responsible for novelty. This can manifest in many different ways: something trivial and mundane becomes infinitely more interesting, something that normally brings comfort might send you into a panic attack, or you might look at/think about an idea or object and make a novel connection to another idea/object. In short: they aid in looking at/thinking about things from different perspectives.

I think psychedelics could be useful, if the dosage was low and they were manufactured with higher standards than the guys who make it on their kitchen stove.

However, if I could find some safe DMT, that would be interesting....jk
I've hear a lot of interesting things about it.

Originally Posted by DylloS

I can't believe the sky looks like this in some places.

Damn, that looks nice.
I have never seen that many stars....

Originally Posted by cowmoo32

Very cool idea for harvesting energy from ocean winds
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-...ne-energy.html

Cool idea...

I wonder if the efficiency levels of turbines is getting to the level that we could mount one on every home rooftop. IOr mount one on your chimney and use the rising air to turn the blades ?

It would also be cool if they could invent solar panels that could double as window screens. That way you would not have to worry about having them on the roof. Just an idea.

I'll send my idea to Solyndra and see what they think. Oh wait....they are out of business...

Originally Posted by Raymond42262

It would also be cool if they could invent solar panels that could double as window screens. That way you would not have to worry about having them on the roof. Just an idea.

The angle would be an issue.

I've heard that they're testing solar panels that are almost completely see-through. These could be used on almost anything.