Cosmological Constant

Posted on 2012-09-23 by arjaybe

Cosmogenesis

Albert_Einstein_portraitAlbert Einstein didn’t like it. When he worked out his General Theory of Relativity in 1916 he realized that it made for an unstable universe. The General Theory is all about gravity and it has been one of the most successful theories of all time. It has stood up to every observation and experiment that scientists have thrown at it. But Einstein didn’t like the implication that the universe should collapse under its own gravity. He grew up in a world that took it for granted that the universe was infinite and eternal. That it was complete, done, cooked to perfection. When his theory threatened to upset that, he decided that there must be another force working to balance gravity. He stuck it in and called it the Cosmological Constant. Later he was to call it his “biggest blunder.” When astronomer Edwin Hubble announced in 1929 that galaxies in all directions appear to be moving apart, Einstein realized that the universe is expanding. That was why it wasn’t collapsed long ago by gravity. He abandoned the Cosmological Constant, disgusted with himself.

Photo credit - Bell Labs

Photo credit – Bell Labs

In his lifetime he saw the birth and growth of what would become the Big Bang theory. If everything was moving apart then it was logical that it was closer together in the past. Go back far enough and it was all in one place. A little less than 14 billion years ago the universe as we know it burst into existence, according to the Big Bang Theory, and it has been expanding ever since. In the 1960s, a very sensitive microwave receiver used in Bell’s communication network was plagued by persistent background noise. After weeks of trying to track it down, including the eviction of a couple of resident pigeons, the technicians, Penzias and Wilson, realized it was real microwaves coming from space. It was the cool afterglow of the Big Bang explosion.

In the decades since, observations have been refining the data and developing the theory. The Hubble Space Telescope, other observatories and legions of cosmologists have looked deep into the expanding universe and have given us the clearest picture ever. One surprising datum they’ve come up with is that, rather than the expansion slowing down under universal gravitation, it is actually speeding up. Some force seems to exist in the fabric of space which is accelerating its expansion. Some people are calling it the Cosmological Constant.

It wasn’t quite as big a blunder as Einstein thought.

rjb

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Collective Nouns – Part Two

Posted on 2012-09-19 by arjaybe

Parliament of Owls
See also part one.

Since the practice of inventing names for groups of animals was started by educated English hunting gentlemen in the fifteenth century, the English language has been blessed with a growing collection of collective nouns. Any animal you can think of probably has a word for a group of them, and if it doesn’t then you’re allowed to invent one. If you want, you can invent a new one even if there already is one. Say you’re not satisfied with a pride of lions, then you can make up your own. Call them a lounge of lions when they’re lying around, for instance. Continue reading →

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Synesthesia

Posted on 2012-09-16 by arjaybe

Grapheme-Color

Have you ever heard orange? Or tasted triangular? Those are a couple of examples of a psychological phenomenon called synesthesia. That’s when one form of perception produces another. For example, sounds might make a synesthete see colors as well. The word synesthesia comes from the Greek “syn” for together and “aisthesis,” to perceive. It means joined perceptions.

Estimates range from 1 in 200 all the way down to 1 in 100,000 people having the ability. But there are thought to be many synesthetes who don’t realize it. They have no reason to know that other people don’t share their way of perceiving the world. Especially when there are so many figures of speech that seem to imply that it’s a universal condition. Why else would we have “round numbers,” “cold logic” or “bright ideas?”

Wikipedia, the open-content encyclopedia project, defines synesthesia as a neurological mixing of the senses. That is, the five senses, sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, get selectively blended in the brain. Each person is different. One might hear colors while others see sounds or taste shapes.

The effect is consistent for each person. So, if they see the letter “a” as red, it is always red. A linguistics researcher, Karen Chenausky, who has synesthesia, says that she sees the word “linguistics” as a grayish-purple-blue. Where we see black ink on white paper, she sees it in color.

The most common synesthesia has colors linked to other sensations. There will be specific colors for printed letters or numbers, for the sound of words or music, or for smells or tastes. Next most common is to experience tastes or smells when the other senses are stimulated.

More women than men are synesthetes. Synesthetes are more likely to be left-handed than the general population. Sometimes they have a poor sense of direction, or trouble telling left from right. They are normal mentally and intellectually, though some have trouble with mathematics. Synesthesia tends to run in families. Famous synesthetes include the composer Franz Liszt and the physicist Richard Feynman.

Synesthesia is thought to result from overlaps or crossed connections between parts of the brain that process the various perceptions. Some researchers believe that infants have such overlapping senses, which are segregated as they mature. The degree of segregation would simply be reduced in synesthetes.

Here’s a site with a huge list of types of synesthesia.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, the telephone is vanilla.

rjb

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