|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
| |
In the Beginning...
Introducing the Origins Issue Scientific American -- September, 2009 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=in-the-beginning - - - Excerpt: ... In the following pages, a physicist grapples with the over- arching question of how the universe began. A chemist addresses possible ways in which life first started, and a biologist takes on what has made the human mind different from that of any other animal's. Then a historian of tech- nology contemplates the first computer, perhaps the most extraordinary invention of the human mind. A final section provides brief chronicles of the inception of dozens of phy- sical and biological phenomena, in addition to a series of remarkable human inventions. ... - - - end excerpt - - - - - - The Origins of the Origins Issue http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=starter-menu-the-origins - - - Excerpt: ... We decided to probe some of the most profound questions that humans ask about our existence, such as, Where did everything we see in the universe today come from? How did life begin? What led to the remarkable sophistication of the human mind? We knew we would want to provide in-depth feature articles on key topics in technology and in the physical and life sciences. ... - - - end excerpt - - - - - - The Origin of the Universe ( Preview ) Cosmologists are closing in on the ultimate processes that created and shaped the universe http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=origin-of-the-universe - - - Excerpts: Key Concepts a. Our universe began with a hot big bang 13.7 billion years ago and has expanded and cooled ever since. It has evolved from a formless soup of elementary particles into the richly structured cosmos of today. b. The first microsecond was the formative period when matter came to dominate over antimatter, the seeds for galaxies and other structures were planted, and dark matter (the unidentified material that holds those structures together) was created. c. The future of the universe lies in the hands of dark energy, an unknown form of energy that caused cosmic expansion to begin accelerating a few billion years ago. The universe is big in both space and time and, for much of human- kind's history, was beyond the reach of our instruments and our minds. That changed dramatically in the 20th century. The advances were driven equally by powerful ideas-from Einstein's general relativity to modern theories of the elementary particles-and powerful instruments-from the 100- and 200-inch reflectors that George Ellery Hale built, which took us beyond our Milky Way galaxy, to the Hubble Space Telescope, which has taken us back to the birth of galaxies. Over the past 20 years the pace of progress has accelerated with the realization that dark matter is not made of ordinary atoms, the discovery of dark energy, and the dawning of bold ideas such as cosmic inflation and the multiverse. The universe of 100 years ago was simple: eternal, unchanging, con- sisting of a single galaxy, containing a few million visible stars. The pic- ture today is more complete and much richer. The cosmos began 13.7 billion years ago with the big bang. A frac- tion of a second after the beginning, the universe was a hot, formless soup of the most elementary particles, quarks and leptons. As it expanded and cooled, layer on layer of structure developed: neutrons and protons, atomic nuclei, atoms, stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and finally superclusters. ... The universe continues to expand and indeed does so at an accelerating pace, driven by dark energy, an even more mysterious form of energy whose gravitational force repels rather than attracts. ... - - - end excerpts - - - - - - The Origin of the Mind ( Preview ) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=origin-of-the-mind - - - Excerpt: Key Concepts a. Charles Darwin argued that a continuity of mind exists between humans and other animals, a view that subsequent scholars have supported. b. But mounting evidence indicates that, in fact, a large mental gap separ- ates us from our fellow creatures. Recently the author identified four unique aspects of human cognition. c. The origin and evolution of these distinctive mental traits remain largely mysterious, but clues are emerging slowly. ... - - - end excerpt - - - - - - The Origin of Life on Earth ( Preview ) Fresh clues hint at how the first living organisms arose from inanimate matter http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=origin-of-life-on-earth - - - Excerpt: Key Concepts a. Researchers have found a way that the genetic molecule RNA could have formed from chemicals present on the early earth. b. Other studies have supported the hypothesis that primitive cells containing molecules similar to RNA could assemble spontaneously, reproduce and evolve, giving rise to all life. c. Scientists are now aiming at creating fully self-replicating artificial organisms in the laboratory-essentially giving life a second start to understand how it could have started the first time. d. Every living cell, even the simplest bacterium, teems with molecular contrap- tions that would be the envy of any nanotechnologist. As they incessantly shake or spin or crawl around the cell, these machines cut, paste and copy genetic molecules, shuttle nutrients around or turn them into energy, build and repair cellular membranes, relay mechanical, chemical or electrical messages-the list goes on and on, and new discoveries add to it all the time. ... - - - end excerpt - - - - - - The Origin of Computing ( Preview ) The information age began with the realization that machines could emulate the power of minds http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=origin-of-computing - - - - - - August 19, 2009 The Origin of Oxygen in Earth's Atmosphere The breathable air we enjoy today originated from tiny organisms, although the details remain lost in geologic time http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=origin-of-oxygen-in-atmosphere - - - Excerpts: It's hard to keep oxygen molecules around, despite the fact that it's the third- most abundant element in the universe, forged in the superhot, superdense core of stars. That's because oxygen wants to react; it can form compounds with nearly every other element on the periodic table. So how did Earth end up with an atmosphere made up of roughly 21 percent of the stuff? The answer is tiny organisms known as cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. These microbes conduct photosynthesis: using sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates and, yes, oxygen. In fact, all the plants on Earth incorporate symbiotic cyanobacteria (known as chloroplasts) to do their photosynthesis for them down to this day. For some untold eons prior to the evolution of these cyanobacteria, during the Archean eon, more primitive microbes lived the real old-fashioned way: anaerobically. These ancient organisms-and their "extremophile" descendants today-thrived in the absence of oxygen, relying on sulfate for their energy needs. But roughly 2.45 billion years ago, the isotopic ratio of sulfur transformed, indicating that for the first time oxygen was becoming a significant compon- ent of Earth's atmosphere, according to a 2000 paper in Science. At roughly the same time (and for eons thereafter), oxidized iron began to appear in ancient soils and bands of iron were deposited on the seafloor, a product of reactions with oxygen in the seawater. "What it looks like is that oxygen was first produced somewhere around 2.7 billion to 2.8 billon years ago. It took up residence in atmosphere around 2.45 billion years ago," says geochemist Dick Holland, a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. "It looks as if there's a significant time interval between the appearance of oxygen-producing organisms and the actual oxygenation of the atmosphere." So a date and a culprit can be fixed for what scientists refer to as the Great Oxidation Event, but mysteries remain. What occurred 2.45 billion years ago that enabled cyanobacteria to take over? What were oxygen levels at that time? Why did it take another one billion years-dubbed the "boring billion" by scientists-for oxygen levels to rise high enough to enable the evolution of animals? Most important, how did the amount of atmospheric oxygen reach its pre- sent level? ... Climate, volcanism, plate tectonics all played a key role in regulating the oxygen level during various time periods. Yet no one has come up with a rock-solid test to determine the precise oxygen content of the atmosphere at any given time from the geologic record. But one thing is clear-the origins of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere derive from one thing: life. ... - - - end excerpts - - - - - - August 21, 2009 The Origin of Zero Much ado about nothing: First a placeholder and then a full-fledged number, zero had many inventors http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=history-of-zero - - - - - - Origins: The Start of Everything http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-start-of-everything - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: ~~~ History/Origins/Future of Energy, Matter, Space, Time, and Life ... Universe(s) Origin(s) / Introduction (updated August 16, 2009) http://prohuman.net/origins_august2009intro.htm ~~~ The totality of naturalism (all that is / all that ever was / all that ever will be) http://prohuman.net/philosophy_general/totality_of_naturalism.htm "... Naturalistic infinity ... Infinity is a very long time, after all ... Isn't it wiser to reach from the known (the natural) to the unknown (as a natural but as of yet, incompletely understood area) -than it is- to fantasize about the unknown (via ancient myths of supernatural entities / places) in an effort to pretend the unknown (the supernatural) interacts with the known (the natural)? ..." ~~~ Infinite Universes, Infinite Size, No "In the Beginning", No End http://prohuman.net/science/infinite_universes_infinite_size.htm "... when one opens one's mind up to the possibility that there was really never nothing, that the all of which we are a part had no absolute beginning, and has no absolute ending, that the infinity that spawned each of us is endless, I suppose one is faced with a paradox, to either feel one's existence is validated, as being an important part of an infinite and never- ending and never-not-existing all -or- to feel infinitely small and unimportant -or- both, as it's simply just a matter of how you look at it ..." ~~~ Universe(s)  http://prohuman.net/science/universes.htm "The Universe - Parallel Universes History Channel, 2008 ... Parallel Universes ... BBC Documentary, 2001 ... Observable universe ... WMAP Content of the Universe ... Multi- verse ... Not just a staple of science fiction, other universes are a direct implication of cosmological observations, by Max Tegmark ..." ~~~ Inspirational Science (Tribute to Carl Sagan) http://prohuman.net/science/inspirational_science_carl_sagan.htm "The Carl Sagan Portal ... Carl Sagan Lives ... Ann Druyan Talks About Science, Religion, Wonder, Awe . . . and Carl Sagan ... All of Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' Videos ..." ~~~ Universe(s) Origin(s) 7 of 7 - Nothing / Everything http://prohuman.net/universes_origins_7_of_7.htm "... the nature of being in this grand cosmos of wonder and mystery whereby nothing is the most important something that resides at the core of everything that has existed, does exist, and will ever exist ..." ~~~ All That Is, All That Was, All That Ever Will Be? http://prohuman.net/science/all_that_is_was_ever_will_be.htm "... Immortality? ... Immortal Suffering? ... Oblivion? ... Pleasant Immortality Hope? ... Totality of Reality? ... Cosmological Calendar ... The Universe - Cosmic Apocalypse ..." ~~~
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 |
