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Thread ID: 56163	2005-03-29 02:22:00	13 Things That Don't Make Sense in Science	vinref (6194)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
338984	2005-03-29 02:22:00	This article (www.newscientist.com) from the New Scientist list 13 things that currently vex scientists because they are so anomalous and cannot be explained by established frameworks based on previous observations. Included are the "Kuiper cliff", "dark matter", and "homeopathy". And if you thought that cold fusion was long buried under the weight of scientific fraud allegations and ridicule, think again. And then there's the case most familiar to ordinary people - the "Placebo Effect". For a long time it was thought to be a simple case of mind-over-matter, or even malingering - until someone did an experiment to show that there is a definite physiological mechanism involved that is totally removed from any mind-over-matter effect or malingering. Very interesting read. It makes one feel like there is still room in science for amateur speculation and imagination. This must have been what it was like when the various usurpers of established science, such as Einstein, entered the scene with what seemed like wild and radical departures from current thinking.	vinref (6194)
338985	2005-03-29 02:32:00	I would add the Y Chromosone. The mysterious effect the Y Chromosone exerts on those who posess it - rendering it almost impossible for them to find things, keep things tidy, or in fact percieve when things are actually "messy" is one of life's great mysteries which neither scientists, nor a large number of those who do no posess the y chromosone, can explain or understand ...	Biggles (121)
338986	2005-03-29 02:37:00	I would add the Y Chromosone. The mysterious effect the Y Chromosone exerts on those who posess it - rendering it almost impossible for them to find things, keep things tidy, or in fact percieve when things are actually "messy" is one of life's great mysteries which neither scientists, nor a large number of those who do no posess the y chromosone, can explain or understand ... And even more mysteriouser - why is it that those who lack the Y chromosome harass and nag and whine and moan and b**** so much? Mate, I think I will start working on a theory and make my name in a new scientific field - Shutupalreadyology.	vinref (6194)
338987	2005-03-29 02:55:00	Good one, Vinref. Glad to see another fan of New Scientist mag. Here is another to ponder... The Global Consciousness Project, also called the EGG Project, is an international and multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers, artists and others. We have been collecting data from a global network of random event generators since August, 1998. The network has grown to about 65 host sites around the world running custom software that reads the output of physical random number generators and records a 200-bit trial sum once every second, continuously over months and years. The purpose of this project is to examine subtle correlations that appear to to reflect the presence and activity of consciousness in the world. The scientific work is careful, but it is at the margins of our understanding. ... we present various aspects of the project, including some insight into its scientific and philosophical implications. Find more, lots more, at http://noosphere.princeton.edu/ Example: a significant 'reading' from the network 4 hours before the World Trade Center attacks (also prior to the Boxing Day Tsunami) - this was even before the Al Queda terrorists boarded their planes. And if you think it is just a queer coincidence, think again - sift through the data on the web site / at least 70 top scientists substantiate the mathematics/physics of this project. There is speculation, but no real answers to how or why it all happens.	Strommer (42)
338988	2005-03-29 02:59:00	Is this in anyway similar/connected with Jung's theories? I was quite curious about them in the past, but have not found any current interpretation or developments about them.	vinref (6194)
338989	2005-03-29 03:17:00	No . 14: Science Discovers the Darksucker FOR YEARS it has been believed that electric light bulbs emitted Light, however recent research has finally disproved this theory . It is now established scientific fact that light bulbs do not emit Light at all, they actually suck Dark . Researchers have now succeeded in proving their long-held theory that Dark has a measurable mass that is actually heavier than Light . They have also proved for the first time that Dark travels faster than Light . Further research has thrown the whole scientific world of Dark and Light into turmoil and now it is known that there are actually two entirely different classes of Dark Sucker, active and passive . Active and Passive Dark Suckers: Take for example the windows in the room you are in right now . Windows are passive Dark Suckers, and no doubt you will have observed that there is usually much less Dark right next to them than there is anywhere else in the room . Although passive, these are quite sophisticated forms of Dark Sucker and their capabilities are able to be regulated using devices known as curtains, blinds or shades . One very effective form of regulator was known as a black-out curtain, which is risible now that we know it was really a black-in curtain . This curtain stopped all the dark being sucked out of the room as this would otherwise have made the window very bright, thus letting aeroplanes aim at it from high in the sky and drop explosive Dark Suckers on it that would suck out the remaining Dark so fast that the whole building would collapse . Active Dark Suckers powered by electricity are called Lamps or Bulbs, and the larger the Dark Sucker, the greater its capacity to suck Dark . However, as with all these things, Dark Suckers do not last forever and once they are full of Dark they can no longer suck . This can be proven by observing the presence of a black spot on the side of a full bulb-type Dark Sucker (or at the ends of a tubular or 'flourescent' Dark Sucker) . The candle was one of man's earliest and most primitive Dark Suckers . A new candle has a white wick, but you will notice that after the first use the wick is turned black by all the Dark it has sucked . When it is full of Dark, all that is left is a small curl of Dark-saturated wick in a puddle of wax . At the other end of the scale, the Sun is an enormous natural Dark Sucker but it is not capable of continuous operation and gradually stops sucking Dark after about twelve hours, depending on the temperature outside . Also, when it restarts it takes some time to suck Dark effectively and it can be an hour or more before all of the leftover Dark is sucked up . In winter the Sun sucks less Dark than it does during the hot summer weather therefore we have had to introduce daylight saving during summer to make sure there is enough Dark-Sucking capacity to see us through the cold winter days . The Sun will be able to suck Dark for a long time yet, but it is getting full in places . Patches of Dark called 'sunspots' can be seen on its surface sometimes . These are caused by reflections from spacecraft and high flying aeroplanes which temporarily overload its ability to suck Dark evenly across its surface . We will know when it is nearly full because the colour will change from yellow to red because of all the Dark trapped inside, and the friction and pressure will make it swell to many times its present size . It will then be called a Red Giant . There is also a very old White-Dwarf Dark Sucker called the Moon which is so weak it can only suck a little bit of Dark before it fills up completely and goes black . It can only manage to suck a few times a month and this is usually at night when it tries to mop up the bits of Dark left behind when the Sun is full . It doesn't do a very good job and even when it is sucking its hardest you can see the blotches of stored Dark all over its surface . As Dark Suckers go it is not very important and I don't know why the Americans spent all that money to go there to look at it . They should have drilled a hole around the back to let some Dark escape to outer space while they were there . Then we wouldn't have so many Dark Suckers around the streets at night to see where we are going . Dark is not only heavier than light, it also has far greater mass and as the Dark rushes into a Dark Sucker the friction of all that mass squeezing into such a small area generates a lot of heat . You will already have noticed that in the middle of the day in summer when the Sun is sucking maximum Dark it gives off so much heat that it will burn you if you stay outside too long, but in the winter when not so much Dark is sucked, you hardly notice any heat at all . Simple Experiments to show that Dark is heavier than Light and has greater mass: You can perform a simple experiment at home to prove that Dark has greater mass by using a candle (which you will remember is a primitive Dark Sucker) . Unfortunately these Dark Suckers are not very powerful and have limited range but they are ideal for our experiment because the Dark is being sucked straight into a solid wick instead of a large glass bulb and this generates more localised heat than the more powerful electric Dark Suckers . Set a candle-type Dark Sucker operating, then bring the forefinger and thumb of one hand close to each side of the wick . This will cause the dark to pass very close to your finger and thumb as it is sucked into the candle and you will easily be able to feel the heat being generated . Because of the inefficient design of this type of Dark Sucker, some Dark often escapes and this can be seen by holding a piece of paper a couple of inches above the operating Dark Sucker for a couple of seconds . When you take it away you will be able to see some of the dark that escaped still stuck on the paper . Do not hold it too close or even though it is not very powerful the Dark Sucker will suck Dark right through it . This will make a hole right through the middle and when this happens the paper itself will start to suck Dark . Be careful if this happens because it may suck Dark very close to your hand and burn it . If it does start sucking Dark, don’t drop it or it might turn your whole house into one enormous Dark Sucker . It is a good idea to keep some Anti-Dark handy while you are doing this experiment, so that if your paper starts to suck dark during the experiment you can pour the Anti-Dark over it and this will make it stop sucking . There is a common type of Anti-Dark called water available in every home which you can get from any tap . If you are doing this outside you may have to use some other type of Anti-Dark, which is alright as long as you have enough available and can get to it easily using only one hand . Any colour of Anti-Dark will do . When you have stopped the paper from sucking Dark you will be able to see some of the Dark still trapped at the edges of the hole . If you used Anti-Dark from a tap to stop it sucking this is quite safe to touch but if you used single-handed Anti-Dark it will still suck Yellow Dark and might not be safe or pleasant to touch . There is an easy and safe experiment you can safely perform in your own home to prove that Dark is faster than light, and you can use this as a party trick to amaze your friends and win the attention and admiration of women . Put your friends in a Dark room (one without an operational Dark Sucker and with good quality Black-in curtains) and close the door on them so that you are outside in an un-Dark room . When they give a pre-arranged signal, open the door to the room very slowly . Then ask them if they saw the light slowly appear in the room as the door opened and you can be sure that they will reply Yes! Now ask them if they saw the Dark leave the room and they will have to answer no because it happens so fast that they could not possibly see it go . No matter how many times they try to catch you out, the result will always be the same . They will think you are truly incredible and want to buy you drinks and stuff or even ask to spend the night at your house if you get lucky . If you want to practise you can try this on your own, but remember it will only work if you are inside the room without the Dark Sucker and you will have to open the door yourself, so don't forget the signal! Just to be safe you should take a portable Dark Sucker with you . Portable Dark Suckers: Portable Dark Suckers are very clever because they cannot store all of the Dark themselves so they use a dark storage unit or 'Battery' to hold the rest of the Dark that they suck . The smaller portable Dark Suckers use a dry, replaceable Dark storage unit and because they can only suck Dark in small quantities, and for a short time, they do not get hot except very close to the glass bulb where all the Dark is focussed as it is sucked in . It then travels down short wires to the Dark storage unit . Because they do not get hot you can safely cut one of these units open when it is full and you will then be able to see all the Dark stored inside . Once this type of Dark storage unit is full it must either be emptied or replaced before the portable Dark Sucker will work again . There are much more powerful portable Dark Suckers available and these use special high capacity Dark storage units or 'Wet-Cell Batteries' . They are called this because they are liquid cooled so that they do not get too hot . The Dark is stored in a special liquid inside the Dark storage unit and you should never cut one of these open because even though it may not feel hot on the outside there is a lot of stored up or latent heat in the cooling fluid and it will cause very bad burns if it touches your skin . If this fluid accidentally splashes in your eyes they may become so full of concentrated Dark that they cannot suck even the tiny amount of extra Dark you need to be able to see and you will be blind . Electronics and the Dark Sucker: In recent years Science has developed semiconductor Dark Suckers called LED's (or Light Eliminating Diodes) some of which are very cleverly designed to suck different colours of Dark . They cannot suck very much Dark and are easily overloaded if you try to make them suck too hard . They take the Dark that they suck away down thin wires to special semiconductor 'Dark Tanks' called 'Chips' which store it up in different locations around a circuit board . These are only temporary storage units and when the LED Dark Sucker is turned off they gradually leak the Dark out through their legs until it is all gone . This happens so slowly that you cannot see it going, no matter how little Dark is being sucked when you are looking . LED Dark Suckers do not get very hot, even when they are sucking Dark beyond their rated capacity, because it all goes into the Dark tanks . If the chips are overloaded with Dark sometimes they get warm, but you can safely feel them with your finger as they do not get hot enough to burn . If the Dark Tanks get too full, sometimes they release a huge surge of Dark all at once and this is channelled through lots of different wires until it reaches a special surge tank or 'Dark Expansion Chamber' called a Fuse . When the surge arrives at the surge-tank it expands out very quickly indeed, making the expansion chamber hot and black on the inside from expanded Dark . If it is a very bad overload, sometimes a popping noise can be heard as the Dark expands into the chamber, and if you are watching closely as it happens you may see a brief flash of light as the Dark expansion chamber suddenly gets too full to hold any more Dark . There are special types of Dark Expansion Chambers used to contain Very Large Dark Surges (VLDS) and these are made of white ceramic Anti-Dark material that does not let you see the Dark when it arrives inside . These were designed by a spoilsport who didn't want anybody to know when he overloaded a Dark Sucker Controller but believe me, the Dark is in there alright . Optical Fibre Dark Pipes: There is also an amazing invention called Fibre Optics . Fibre Optics can suck Dark for huge distances through very thin tunnels, and they are waterproof so that they can even suck Dark under oceans which are of course made up almost entirely of Anti-Dark . Because the Dark is being sucked through such a tiny space it gets especially hot and sometimes this may create smoke . This only happens over long distances and is sometimes used to transmit messages . If the smoke is allowed to escape from the receiver, the messages are lost . Despite their amazing ability to suck Dark over huge distances, Fibre Optics can only suck very small amounts of Dark, even less than a Light Eliminating Diode and this makes them useless if there is a lot of Dark to be sucked in one place . They are best for shifting very small amounts of Dark from one place to another . They are particularly good for carrying Dark Secrets to other places . Special types of Dark: Finally there is a special type of Dark called Infra-RED (Randomly Expandable Dark) which is very unpredictable in its behaviour . Little is known about this rare form of Dark but it is believed to be capable of burning people at a distance without even being touched . There is another and even rarer form of Dark called Ultra Violent Dark or UV-Dark which travels in dark rays and is even more dangerous . This is known to cause skin burns even on partly un-Dark days . Ultra-Violent Dark comes in three common types: UV-A, UV-B and UV-C . UV-A (UV-Agressive) is quite harmful if your skin sucks up to much of this it will go red and fall off . UV-B (UV-Bad) is much worse and not only will it make your skin all wrinkly, when it has absorbed too much UV-B you can get black patches called Melanomas that are full of really nasty Dark that can kill you . UV-C (UV-Can’t) is not a problem because it is too weak and can’t get throught the residual Dark in the atmosphere, even on a bright summers day when almost all of the Dark has been sucked up by the Sun . Eventually we hope our research will lead to the development of new and more effective types of Dark Sucker for the benefit of all mankind .	Billy T (70)
338990	2005-03-29 03:25:00	Is this in anyway similar/connected with Jung's theories? I was quite curious about them in the past, but have not found any current interpretation or developments about them . IMHO, yes, there is a similarity with Jung . See also: . swcp . com/~hswift/swc/about . htm" target="_blank">www . swcp . com . . . An explanation of the "Morphic Resonance" phenomena described by Dr . Rupert Sheldrake . Excerpt: Conventional science has for four hundred years striven mightily to eliminate any subjective influences in its workings, and this approach has been rewarded . Consequently, western science has developed a deep understanding of how the world works, which, in turn, has provided the western world with a technology that has provided a high level of material comforts . Western science has not, however, not provided needed guidance for adequately understanding ourselves, and consequently what our values should be . In fact, there is accumulating evidence that something is drastically wrong . We have crises in international conflicts, a destruction of the environment we depend on for life, and lack of concern for others arising from our egocentric vision . SWC is a new science that is within consciousness, rather than the science without consciousness that we now have . It is the brainchild of Professor Goswami, now Senior Research Scholar at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Sausalito, CA . Amit Goswami was a professor at the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon for over three decades . During that time he wrote a standard textbook on quantum mechanics that is widely used today . He also published a long list of significant papers in physics journals . He was born and raised in India, educated in Calcutta, and has lived in the US, since then . And another: . wolist . com/wo/science/anomalies-and-alternative-science/" target="_blank">www . wolist . com Rupert Sheldrake On-Line / Participate in the seven experiments that could change the world . Learn more about the morphogenic fields and the views of Rupert Sheldrake .	Strommer (42)
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