Warm waters around Florida have resulted in a growth of the population of Portuguese Man-of-War, or should that be Portuguese Men-of-War, an organism commonly confused with jellyfish (because they look just like jellyfish).
The PMOWs have a sting, roughly equivalent in pain level to a bee sting, and best treated at such. Do not urinate on your PMOW sting (save your urine for an actual jellyfish sting).
There are reports of many PMOWs washing up, with numerous swimmers suffering stings. The stinging tentacles, even after they fall off, are a hazard, and barefoot beachcombers can accidentally step on them. Many Florida beaches have warnings in effect.
Sea Surface temperatures in florida are high:
And relatively high compared to historical data (images from Google Map with Climate Reanalyzer overlays):
Photograph above by Julia Laden, taken this morning.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1ONVGKc
Warm waters around Florida have resulted in a growth of the population of Portuguese Man-of-War, or should that be Portuguese Men-of-War, an organism commonly confused with jellyfish (because they look just like jellyfish).
The PMOWs have a sting, roughly equivalent in pain level to a bee sting, and best treated at such. Do not urinate on your PMOW sting (save your urine for an actual jellyfish sting).
There are reports of many PMOWs washing up, with numerous swimmers suffering stings. The stinging tentacles, even after they fall off, are a hazard, and barefoot beachcombers can accidentally step on them. Many Florida beaches have warnings in effect.
Sea Surface temperatures in florida are high:
And relatively high compared to historical data (images from Google Map with Climate Reanalyzer overlays):
Photograph above by Julia Laden, taken this morning.
In an event likely never to be repeated, four new superheavy elements were last week simultaneously added to the periodic table. To add four in one go is quite an achievement but the race to find more is ongoing.
Back in 2012, the International Unions of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) tasked five independent scientists to assess claims made for the discovery of elements 113, 115, 117 and 118. The measurements had been made at Nuclear Physics Accelerator laboratories in Russia (Dubna) and Japan (RIKEN) between 2004 and 2012.
Late last year, on December 30, 2015, IUPAC announced that claims for the discovery of all four new elements had been accepted.
This completes the seventh row of the periodic table, and means that all elements between hydrogen (having only one proton in its nucleus) and element 118 (having 118 protons) are now officially discovered.
After the excitement of the discovery, the scientists now have the naming rights. The Japanese team will suggest the name for element 113. The joint Russian/US teams will make suggestions for elements 115, 117 and 118. These names will be assessed by IUPAC, and once approved, will become the new names that scientists and students will have to remember.
Until their discovery and naming, all superheavy elements (up to 999!) have been assigned temporary names by the IUPAC. Element 113 is known as ununtrium (Uut), 115 is ununpentium (Uup), 117 is ununseptium (Uus) and 118 ununoctium (Uuo). These names are not actually used by physicists, who instead refer to them as “element 118”, for example.
The superheavy elements
Elements heavier than Rutherfordium (element 104) are referred to as superheavy. They are not found in nature, because they undergo radioactive decay to lighter elements.
Those superheavy nuclei that have been created artificially have decay lifetimes between nanoseconds and minutes. But longer-lived (more neutron-rich) superheavy nuclei are expected to be situated at the centre of the so-called “island of stability”, a place where neutron-rich nuclei with extremely long half-lives should exist.
Currently, the isotopes of new elements that have been discovered are on the “shore” of this island, since we cannot yet reach the centre.
How were these new elements created on Earth?
Atoms of superheavy elements are made by nuclear fusion. Imagine touching two droplets of water – they will “snap together” because of surface tension to form a combined larger droplet.
The problem in the fusion of heavy nuclei is the large numbers of protons in both nuclei. This creates an intense repulsive electric field. A heavy-ion accelerator must be used to overcome this repulsion, by colliding the two nuclei and allowing the nuclear surfaces to touch.
This is not sufficient, as the two touching spheroidal nuclei must change their shape to form a compact single droplet of nuclear matter – the superheavy nucleus.
It turns out that this only happens in a few “lucky” collisions, as few as one in a million.
There is yet another hurdle; the superheavy nucleus is very likely to decay almost immediately by fission. Again, as few as one in a million survives to become a superheavy atom, identified by its unique radioactive decay.
The process of superheavy element creation and identification thus requires large-scale accelerator facilities, sophisticated magnetic separators, efficient detectors and time.
Finding the three atoms of element 113 in Japan took 10 years, and that was after the experimental equipment had been developed.
The payback from the discovery of these new elements comes in improving models of the atomic nucleus (with applications in nuclear medicine and in element formation in the universe) and testing our understanding of atomic relativistic effects (of increasing importance in the chemical properties of the heavy elements). It also helps in improving our understanding of complex and irreversible interactions of quantum systems in general.
The race to make more elements
The race is now on to produce elements 119 and 120. The projectile nucleus Calcium-48 (Ca-48) – successfully used to form the newly accepted elements – has too few protons, and no target nuclei with more protons are currently available. The question is, which heavier projectile nucleus is the best to use.
To investigate this, the leader and team members of the German superheavy element research group, based in Darmstadt and Mainz, recently travelled to the Australian National University.
They made use of unique ANU experimental capabilities, supported by the Australian Government’s NCRIS program, to measure fission characteristics for several nuclear reactions forming element 120. The results will guide future experiments in Germany to form the new superheavy elements.
It seems certain that by using similar nuclear fusion reactions, proceeding beyond element 118 will be more difficult than reaching it. But that was the feeling after the discovery of element 112, first observed in 1996. And yet a new approach using Ca-48 projectiles allowed another six elements to be discovered.
Nuclear physicists are already exploring different types of nuclear reaction to produce superheavies, and some promising results have already been achieved. Nevertheless, it would need a huge breakthrough to see four new nuclei added to the periodic table at once, as we have just seen.
In an event likely never to be repeated, four new superheavy elements were last week simultaneously added to the periodic table. To add four in one go is quite an achievement but the race to find more is ongoing.
Back in 2012, the International Unions of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) tasked five independent scientists to assess claims made for the discovery of elements 113, 115, 117 and 118. The measurements had been made at Nuclear Physics Accelerator laboratories in Russia (Dubna) and Japan (RIKEN) between 2004 and 2012.
Late last year, on December 30, 2015, IUPAC announced that claims for the discovery of all four new elements had been accepted.
This completes the seventh row of the periodic table, and means that all elements between hydrogen (having only one proton in its nucleus) and element 118 (having 118 protons) are now officially discovered.
After the excitement of the discovery, the scientists now have the naming rights. The Japanese team will suggest the name for element 113. The joint Russian/US teams will make suggestions for elements 115, 117 and 118. These names will be assessed by IUPAC, and once approved, will become the new names that scientists and students will have to remember.
Until their discovery and naming, all superheavy elements (up to 999!) have been assigned temporary names by the IUPAC. Element 113 is known as ununtrium (Uut), 115 is ununpentium (Uup), 117 is ununseptium (Uus) and 118 ununoctium (Uuo). These names are not actually used by physicists, who instead refer to them as “element 118”, for example.
The superheavy elements
Elements heavier than Rutherfordium (element 104) are referred to as superheavy. They are not found in nature, because they undergo radioactive decay to lighter elements.
Those superheavy nuclei that have been created artificially have decay lifetimes between nanoseconds and minutes. But longer-lived (more neutron-rich) superheavy nuclei are expected to be situated at the centre of the so-called “island of stability”, a place where neutron-rich nuclei with extremely long half-lives should exist.
Currently, the isotopes of new elements that have been discovered are on the “shore” of this island, since we cannot yet reach the centre.
How were these new elements created on Earth?
Atoms of superheavy elements are made by nuclear fusion. Imagine touching two droplets of water – they will “snap together” because of surface tension to form a combined larger droplet.
The problem in the fusion of heavy nuclei is the large numbers of protons in both nuclei. This creates an intense repulsive electric field. A heavy-ion accelerator must be used to overcome this repulsion, by colliding the two nuclei and allowing the nuclear surfaces to touch.
This is not sufficient, as the two touching spheroidal nuclei must change their shape to form a compact single droplet of nuclear matter – the superheavy nucleus.
It turns out that this only happens in a few “lucky” collisions, as few as one in a million.
There is yet another hurdle; the superheavy nucleus is very likely to decay almost immediately by fission. Again, as few as one in a million survives to become a superheavy atom, identified by its unique radioactive decay.
The process of superheavy element creation and identification thus requires large-scale accelerator facilities, sophisticated magnetic separators, efficient detectors and time.
Finding the three atoms of element 113 in Japan took 10 years, and that was after the experimental equipment had been developed.
The payback from the discovery of these new elements comes in improving models of the atomic nucleus (with applications in nuclear medicine and in element formation in the universe) and testing our understanding of atomic relativistic effects (of increasing importance in the chemical properties of the heavy elements). It also helps in improving our understanding of complex and irreversible interactions of quantum systems in general.
The race to make more elements
The race is now on to produce elements 119 and 120. The projectile nucleus Calcium-48 (Ca-48) – successfully used to form the newly accepted elements – has too few protons, and no target nuclei with more protons are currently available. The question is, which heavier projectile nucleus is the best to use.
To investigate this, the leader and team members of the German superheavy element research group, based in Darmstadt and Mainz, recently travelled to the Australian National University.
They made use of unique ANU experimental capabilities, supported by the Australian Government’s NCRIS program, to measure fission characteristics for several nuclear reactions forming element 120. The results will guide future experiments in Germany to form the new superheavy elements.
It seems certain that by using similar nuclear fusion reactions, proceeding beyond element 118 will be more difficult than reaching it. But that was the feeling after the discovery of element 112, first observed in 1996. And yet a new approach using Ca-48 projectiles allowed another six elements to be discovered.
Nuclear physicists are already exploring different types of nuclear reaction to produce superheavies, and some promising results have already been achieved. Nevertheless, it would need a huge breakthrough to see four new nuclei added to the periodic table at once, as we have just seen.
For 11 months of the year (give or take), our Christmas decorations live in plastic storage boxes in the cabinet under the stairs in the basement. Of course, when we stow these away, there’s inevitably one or two things that get missed in the initial sweep, and end up outside the boxes. And when I pulled the boxes out a few weeks back, something rolled off the top box, so I had to go fishing around in the back of the cabinet, where I eventually found both the ball I was looking for and this bit of pop-culture archaeology:
An old plastic car I found under the cellar stairs.
This is a little plastic toy car (currency for scale) that was in the French drain trench that circles the basement and connects to the sump pump. I have no idea how old it is– I’d guess 1970’s vintage, but I have no solid reason for thinking that other than I think that the previous owner’s kids are around my age. It’s been sitting on my desk since mid-December, until I got around to taking a couple of quick pictures last night when I realized I didn’t have a photo of the day yet.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1S3O5h8
For 11 months of the year (give or take), our Christmas decorations live in plastic storage boxes in the cabinet under the stairs in the basement. Of course, when we stow these away, there’s inevitably one or two things that get missed in the initial sweep, and end up outside the boxes. And when I pulled the boxes out a few weeks back, something rolled off the top box, so I had to go fishing around in the back of the cabinet, where I eventually found both the ball I was looking for and this bit of pop-culture archaeology:
An old plastic car I found under the cellar stairs.
This is a little plastic toy car (currency for scale) that was in the French drain trench that circles the basement and connects to the sump pump. I have no idea how old it is– I’d guess 1970’s vintage, but I have no solid reason for thinking that other than I think that the previous owner’s kids are around my age. It’s been sitting on my desk since mid-December, until I got around to taking a couple of quick pictures last night when I realized I didn’t have a photo of the day yet.
Many of you already know the beautiful blue-white star Rigel in the constellation Orion the Hunter. This constellation is one of the easiest-to-spot of all star patterns, and Rigel is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Follow the links below to learn more about the star Rigel.
How to see star Rigel in constellation Orion. The star Rigel is easy to spot, in part because it’s so bright and also because of its distinctive blue-white color. Plus this star graces a lower corner of one of the sky’s most distinctive constellations, Orion the Hunter.
You can catch Orion in the east before dawn in late summer, but on January evenings Orion is riding at its highest in the mid-evening sky. Look for Orion high in the south on these Northern Hemisphere winter evenings. By early March, Orion – with blue-white Rigel in its midst – is high in the south as soon as the sun sets. By early May, it is setting before the sky has a chance to get really dark.
To find Rigel, look first for its constellation Orion. You’ll look first for three stars in a short, straight line. These stars mark Orion’s Belt. A line drawn downward at a right or 90-degree angle from Orion’s Belt takes you to Rigel.
For comparison, draw the line upward and you come to Betelgeuse, with a distinctive orangish tinge. Do not confuse Rigel with Sirius, which is farther to the east and farther south. Sirius is similar in appearance, but significantly brighter than Rigel.
Science of star Rigel. We could not live as close to Rigel as we do to our sun, because its surface temperature is much hotter, about 19,000 degrees F (11,000K) in contrast to about 10,000 degrees F for the sun.
Overall, Rigel about 40,000 times brighter than our local star. Earth would need to be about 200 times farther away, or about 5 times as far as Pluto, to bear life in orbit around Rigel. Even then the light would not be the same, as much would be at higher, bluer, wavelengths.
Counting all its radiation (not just visible light, but infrared, ultraviolet and so on), Rigel is 66,000 times more powerful than the sun. With such enormous energy, you might be surprised to find that it has only 17 times more mass, and 70 times the width, of our sun.
Yet Rigel is not one of the galaxy’s largest stars, as the great video above, by Jon S. on YouTube, shows.
At magnitude 0.18, Rigel is the seventh brightest star in the heavens, the fifth as viewed from North America. It is a blue supergiant star, designated as type B8Ia, some 773 light-years from Earth (by Hipparcos data).
In other words, the light you may see from Rigel some spring or winter night, started on its journey a least 250 years before Columbus stumbled upon the outskirts of the already populated North America in his failed attempt to sail to the Orient.
Rigel in history and mythology. Historically, the brightest star in a constellation receives the designation Alpha, the second-brightest is Beta, and so on. This system isn’t used for Orion’s star, however. Instead, the red star Betelgeuse is Alpha Orionis, and Rigel is Beta. But Rigel is the brighter star. Go figure.
This deviation from standard stellar designations might be because Betelgeuse is a variable star and has been known to at least approach Rigel in brilliance. Rigel received the designation Beta Orionis from the German astronomer Johann Bayer in the early 1600s, who sought to systematize the naming conventions. It’s possible Betelgeuse actually was brighter around this time. Nowadays, Rigel outshines Betelgeuse, though.
By the way, Rigel is also intrinsically brighter than Betelgeuse. If you were to put Rigel and Betelgeuse together at the same distance, Rigel would outshine mighty Betelgeuse by more than 400 percent.
The name Rigel comes from an Arabic phrase frequently translated as The Left Foot of the Central One. Although Orion was depicted as a giant or warrior in many cultures, in the original Arabic it might have been reference to a black sheep with a white spot or spots. Thus in the original form, Rigel might have designated the left foot of a sheep! Now, however, many people know it as the left foot of Orion the Hunter.
The mythology related to Rigel is sparse and unclear. Perhaps the most interesting connection is in Norse mythology, which sometimes identified Orion with Orwandil (also Orvandil, Aurvandil, Earendel and others). According to some, Orwandil was traveling with his companion, the god Thor, when his big toe froze in an unfortunate river-crossing incident. Thor broke off the frozen digit and threw it into the sky, where it became the star we see as Rigel. In some variations, the Orwandil’s other big toe became the faint Alcor in Ursa Major.
Rigel’s position is RA: 05h 14m 32.3s, dec: -08° 12′ 05.9″.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/WKna8W
Many of you already know the beautiful blue-white star Rigel in the constellation Orion the Hunter. This constellation is one of the easiest-to-spot of all star patterns, and Rigel is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Follow the links below to learn more about the star Rigel.
How to see star Rigel in constellation Orion. The star Rigel is easy to spot, in part because it’s so bright and also because of its distinctive blue-white color. Plus this star graces a lower corner of one of the sky’s most distinctive constellations, Orion the Hunter.
You can catch Orion in the east before dawn in late summer, but on January evenings Orion is riding at its highest in the mid-evening sky. Look for Orion high in the south on these Northern Hemisphere winter evenings. By early March, Orion – with blue-white Rigel in its midst – is high in the south as soon as the sun sets. By early May, it is setting before the sky has a chance to get really dark.
To find Rigel, look first for its constellation Orion. You’ll look first for three stars in a short, straight line. These stars mark Orion’s Belt. A line drawn downward at a right or 90-degree angle from Orion’s Belt takes you to Rigel.
For comparison, draw the line upward and you come to Betelgeuse, with a distinctive orangish tinge. Do not confuse Rigel with Sirius, which is farther to the east and farther south. Sirius is similar in appearance, but significantly brighter than Rigel.
Science of star Rigel. We could not live as close to Rigel as we do to our sun, because its surface temperature is much hotter, about 19,000 degrees F (11,000K) in contrast to about 10,000 degrees F for the sun.
Overall, Rigel about 40,000 times brighter than our local star. Earth would need to be about 200 times farther away, or about 5 times as far as Pluto, to bear life in orbit around Rigel. Even then the light would not be the same, as much would be at higher, bluer, wavelengths.
Counting all its radiation (not just visible light, but infrared, ultraviolet and so on), Rigel is 66,000 times more powerful than the sun. With such enormous energy, you might be surprised to find that it has only 17 times more mass, and 70 times the width, of our sun.
Yet Rigel is not one of the galaxy’s largest stars, as the great video above, by Jon S. on YouTube, shows.
At magnitude 0.18, Rigel is the seventh brightest star in the heavens, the fifth as viewed from North America. It is a blue supergiant star, designated as type B8Ia, some 773 light-years from Earth (by Hipparcos data).
In other words, the light you may see from Rigel some spring or winter night, started on its journey a least 250 years before Columbus stumbled upon the outskirts of the already populated North America in his failed attempt to sail to the Orient.
Rigel in history and mythology. Historically, the brightest star in a constellation receives the designation Alpha, the second-brightest is Beta, and so on. This system isn’t used for Orion’s star, however. Instead, the red star Betelgeuse is Alpha Orionis, and Rigel is Beta. But Rigel is the brighter star. Go figure.
This deviation from standard stellar designations might be because Betelgeuse is a variable star and has been known to at least approach Rigel in brilliance. Rigel received the designation Beta Orionis from the German astronomer Johann Bayer in the early 1600s, who sought to systematize the naming conventions. It’s possible Betelgeuse actually was brighter around this time. Nowadays, Rigel outshines Betelgeuse, though.
By the way, Rigel is also intrinsically brighter than Betelgeuse. If you were to put Rigel and Betelgeuse together at the same distance, Rigel would outshine mighty Betelgeuse by more than 400 percent.
The name Rigel comes from an Arabic phrase frequently translated as The Left Foot of the Central One. Although Orion was depicted as a giant or warrior in many cultures, in the original Arabic it might have been reference to a black sheep with a white spot or spots. Thus in the original form, Rigel might have designated the left foot of a sheep! Now, however, many people know it as the left foot of Orion the Hunter.
The mythology related to Rigel is sparse and unclear. Perhaps the most interesting connection is in Norse mythology, which sometimes identified Orion with Orwandil (also Orvandil, Aurvandil, Earendel and others). According to some, Orwandil was traveling with his companion, the god Thor, when his big toe froze in an unfortunate river-crossing incident. Thor broke off the frozen digit and threw it into the sky, where it became the star we see as Rigel. In some variations, the Orwandil’s other big toe became the faint Alcor in Ursa Major.
Rigel’s position is RA: 05h 14m 32.3s, dec: -08° 12′ 05.9″.
Once again, tomorrow before dawn – January 7, 2016 – look for the slender waning crescent moon close to the planets Venus and Saturn in the eastern predawn sky. And know that Venus and Saturn are getting close! They’ll be closest on the morning of January 9, with a conjunction on January 9 at 0400 UTC. It’ll be their closest conjunction since August 26, 2006 (and the closest conjunction of any two planets since March 22, 2013).
At their closest, Venus and Saturn will be only 5 arc-minutes (1/12o) apart from one another on the sky’s dome. For some perspective, 1/12o is the equivalent of 1/6 of the apparent diameter of a full moon.
Get up early, or around 90 to 75 minutes before sunrise, to view fainter Saturn snuggling up close to dazzling Venus. If you get up late – say less than one hour before sunrise – aim your binoculars at Venus to view Saturn and Venus taking stage in the same binocular field.
And, by the way, Venus has reached its highest point in the predawn sky. It’s sinking downward in the east before dawn, and Saturn is climbing upward, as we speak. Before much longer, Saturn will shine above Venus in the January 2016 morning sky.
Also, look for modestly-bright Mars roughly midway between Venus, the sky’s brightest planet, and Jupiter, the sky’s second-brightest planet. See the sky chart below.
While you’re at it, get an eyeful of the dark side of the moon, which is aglow in earthshine or sunlight twice-reflected from Earth to the moon, and then the moon back to Earth.
Although the moon will drop out of the morning sky in a day or two, you can rely on Venus to guide your eye to the planet Saturn for many mornings to come. These two worlds will appear very, very close together over the next several mornings.
Take advantage of this opportunity to watch all of these worlds through binoculars or a low-powered telescope.
Bottom line: On the morning of January 7, 2016, let the moon be your guide to Venus and Saturn in the eastern sky. Then watch for the great conjunction of Venus and Saturn over the next several days.
Once again, tomorrow before dawn – January 7, 2016 – look for the slender waning crescent moon close to the planets Venus and Saturn in the eastern predawn sky. And know that Venus and Saturn are getting close! They’ll be closest on the morning of January 9, with a conjunction on January 9 at 0400 UTC. It’ll be their closest conjunction since August 26, 2006 (and the closest conjunction of any two planets since March 22, 2013).
At their closest, Venus and Saturn will be only 5 arc-minutes (1/12o) apart from one another on the sky’s dome. For some perspective, 1/12o is the equivalent of 1/6 of the apparent diameter of a full moon.
Get up early, or around 90 to 75 minutes before sunrise, to view fainter Saturn snuggling up close to dazzling Venus. If you get up late – say less than one hour before sunrise – aim your binoculars at Venus to view Saturn and Venus taking stage in the same binocular field.
And, by the way, Venus has reached its highest point in the predawn sky. It’s sinking downward in the east before dawn, and Saturn is climbing upward, as we speak. Before much longer, Saturn will shine above Venus in the January 2016 morning sky.
Also, look for modestly-bright Mars roughly midway between Venus, the sky’s brightest planet, and Jupiter, the sky’s second-brightest planet. See the sky chart below.
While you’re at it, get an eyeful of the dark side of the moon, which is aglow in earthshine or sunlight twice-reflected from Earth to the moon, and then the moon back to Earth.
Although the moon will drop out of the morning sky in a day or two, you can rely on Venus to guide your eye to the planet Saturn for many mornings to come. These two worlds will appear very, very close together over the next several mornings.
Take advantage of this opportunity to watch all of these worlds through binoculars or a low-powered telescope.
Bottom line: On the morning of January 7, 2016, let the moon be your guide to Venus and Saturn in the eastern sky. Then watch for the great conjunction of Venus and Saturn over the next several days.
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to pay more attention to my blog, so let’s kick off the year by considering what showed up in my mailbox today.
Though I have recently been less active on the creationism beat than I have been in the past, I am still on a handful of creationist mailing lists. As a result, I periodically receive the newsletter of Creation Ministries International, a young-Earth group. Each issue invariably contains a testimonial or two, and this one contained a real corker. Two people identified simply as “Bernhard and Louise K.” wrote it to say this:
We want to thank the Creation Ministries speakers, scientists and volunteers for all the work you do to promote the Truth of God’s Creation of the world, mankind, and the worldwide flood of Noah. We began screening different scientific CMI DVSs on Sunday nights…The most exciting outcome of these CMI Sunday evening screenings has been the commitment to Jesus Christ and baptism of a young…local man.
His testimony is that he was taught evolution at school–which he says made him believe that there was no God and no heaven. Therefore he was able to live his life without a conscience and do things that were wrong…He filled his life with drugs and the life that goes with this. They gave him comfort and purpose. After watching the CMI DVD about creationism, he realized evolution was a lie and had led him into a miserable, meaningless life. He says that God gives him comfort, purpose, and fullness. His life has been transformed after he learnt about creationism which allowed him to discard evolution…This is his story and he has been an enormous encouragement to us and we hope to you at CMI.
That’s verbatim how it appears in the newsletter, including the ellipses.
I got a kick out of this. I have no idea if Bernhard and Louise K are real people, or if they were just created by some intern at CMI. But I do know that whoever wrote this was reading from a script. This story is way too perfect to be credible. Absolutely no one fundamentally changes his life after receiving a perfunctory lesson on evolution in school. This young man seems awfully impressionable. One biology class in school and he spirals down into drug use and despair. Reflecting on his own misery was insufficient for him to change his ways, but watching a DVD did the trick. That must have been one powerful DVD! It’s reminiscent of that video from The Ring.
Anyway, I have no big point to make about this. I just think it’s funny that creationists never get tired of endlessly repeating the same talking points. Every issue of the newsletter opens with an editorial lamenting the harm that is caused by “compromising scripture,” followed by some testimonials (always along the lines of the one above) and home news (turns out CMI is renovating their offices), followed by many, many pages of advertisements.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1S2USaZ
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to pay more attention to my blog, so let’s kick off the year by considering what showed up in my mailbox today.
Though I have recently been less active on the creationism beat than I have been in the past, I am still on a handful of creationist mailing lists. As a result, I periodically receive the newsletter of Creation Ministries International, a young-Earth group. Each issue invariably contains a testimonial or two, and this one contained a real corker. Two people identified simply as “Bernhard and Louise K.” wrote it to say this:
We want to thank the Creation Ministries speakers, scientists and volunteers for all the work you do to promote the Truth of God’s Creation of the world, mankind, and the worldwide flood of Noah. We began screening different scientific CMI DVSs on Sunday nights…The most exciting outcome of these CMI Sunday evening screenings has been the commitment to Jesus Christ and baptism of a young…local man.
His testimony is that he was taught evolution at school–which he says made him believe that there was no God and no heaven. Therefore he was able to live his life without a conscience and do things that were wrong…He filled his life with drugs and the life that goes with this. They gave him comfort and purpose. After watching the CMI DVD about creationism, he realized evolution was a lie and had led him into a miserable, meaningless life. He says that God gives him comfort, purpose, and fullness. His life has been transformed after he learnt about creationism which allowed him to discard evolution…This is his story and he has been an enormous encouragement to us and we hope to you at CMI.
That’s verbatim how it appears in the newsletter, including the ellipses.
I got a kick out of this. I have no idea if Bernhard and Louise K are real people, or if they were just created by some intern at CMI. But I do know that whoever wrote this was reading from a script. This story is way too perfect to be credible. Absolutely no one fundamentally changes his life after receiving a perfunctory lesson on evolution in school. This young man seems awfully impressionable. One biology class in school and he spirals down into drug use and despair. Reflecting on his own misery was insufficient for him to change his ways, but watching a DVD did the trick. That must have been one powerful DVD! It’s reminiscent of that video from The Ring.
Anyway, I have no big point to make about this. I just think it’s funny that creationists never get tired of endlessly repeating the same talking points. Every issue of the newsletter opens with an editorial lamenting the harm that is caused by “compromising scripture,” followed by some testimonials (always along the lines of the one above) and home news (turns out CMI is renovating their offices), followed by many, many pages of advertisements.
View larger and annotated. | The Andromeda galaxy, nearest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. NASA’s NuSTAR space observatory has captured an image of a portion of the galaxy in high-energy X-rays. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC.
Astronomers released this image this week (January 5, 2015), which shows some of the more exotic inhabitants of the galaxy next door, the Andromeda galaxy or M31. They released these results at the 227th meeting of American Astronomical Society, going on this week in Kissimmee, Florida. The image is from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), and it shows a piece of the galaxy in the high-energy X-ray portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. NASA said NuSTAR has observed 40 X-ray binaries in this region, which are of interest to astronomers because they’re thought to play a critical role in the evolution of the universe.
X-ray binaries are objects seen to be highly luminous in X-rays, thought to be comprised of a black hole or neutron star that feeds off a stellar companion. They’re thought to heat the intergalactic gas in which the first galaxies formed.
So they’re of interest to astronomers, but studying these objects in galaxies beyond our Milky Way isn’t easy. Daniel Wik of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who presented the results at this week’s meeting of astronomers, explained:
Andromeda is the only large spiral galaxy where we can see individual X-ray binaries and study them in detail in an environment like our own. We can then use this information to deduce what’s going on in more distant galaxies, which are harder to see.
The Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away. That seems very far, but this galaxy is the only large spiral we can see easily with the unaided eye on a dark night, in a country sky.
In X-ray binaries, one member is always a dead star or remnant formed from the explosion of what was once a star much more massive than the sun. Depending on the mass and other properties of the original giant star, the explosion may produce either a black hole or neutron star.
Under the right circumstances, material from the companion star can spill over its outermost edges and then be caught by the gravity of the black hole or neutron star.
As the material falls in, it is heated to blazingly high temperatures, releasing a huge amount of X-rays.
They said that – with NuSTAR’s new view of a swath of Andromeda – Daniel Wik and his colleagues are working on identifying the fraction of X-ray binaries harboring black holes versus neutron stars. That research will help them understand the population as a whole and hopefully lead to some insights about X-ray binaries’ role in the universe as a whole.
View larger. | A close-up of the inset above: what the NuSTAR space observatory saw. NuSTAR’s view shows high-energy X-rays coming mostly from X-ray binaries, which are pairs of stars in which one ‘dead’ member feeds off its companion. The dead member of the pair is either a black hole or neutron star. Astronomers say NuSTAR can pick up even the faintest of these objects, providing a better understanding of their population, as a whole, in the Andromeda galaxy. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC.
Bottom line: NASA’s NuStar space observatory has obtained an excellent view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy, at the high-energy X-ray end of the electromagnetic spectrum. The X-ray view of this nearby galaxy is letting astronomers study X-ray binary stars, which are thought to play a role in the evolution of the universe as a whole.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1OLvO1F
View larger and annotated. | The Andromeda galaxy, nearest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. NASA’s NuSTAR space observatory has captured an image of a portion of the galaxy in high-energy X-rays. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC.
Astronomers released this image this week (January 5, 2015), which shows some of the more exotic inhabitants of the galaxy next door, the Andromeda galaxy or M31. They released these results at the 227th meeting of American Astronomical Society, going on this week in Kissimmee, Florida. The image is from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), and it shows a piece of the galaxy in the high-energy X-ray portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. NASA said NuSTAR has observed 40 X-ray binaries in this region, which are of interest to astronomers because they’re thought to play a critical role in the evolution of the universe.
X-ray binaries are objects seen to be highly luminous in X-rays, thought to be comprised of a black hole or neutron star that feeds off a stellar companion. They’re thought to heat the intergalactic gas in which the first galaxies formed.
So they’re of interest to astronomers, but studying these objects in galaxies beyond our Milky Way isn’t easy. Daniel Wik of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who presented the results at this week’s meeting of astronomers, explained:
Andromeda is the only large spiral galaxy where we can see individual X-ray binaries and study them in detail in an environment like our own. We can then use this information to deduce what’s going on in more distant galaxies, which are harder to see.
The Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away. That seems very far, but this galaxy is the only large spiral we can see easily with the unaided eye on a dark night, in a country sky.
In X-ray binaries, one member is always a dead star or remnant formed from the explosion of what was once a star much more massive than the sun. Depending on the mass and other properties of the original giant star, the explosion may produce either a black hole or neutron star.
Under the right circumstances, material from the companion star can spill over its outermost edges and then be caught by the gravity of the black hole or neutron star.
As the material falls in, it is heated to blazingly high temperatures, releasing a huge amount of X-rays.
They said that – with NuSTAR’s new view of a swath of Andromeda – Daniel Wik and his colleagues are working on identifying the fraction of X-ray binaries harboring black holes versus neutron stars. That research will help them understand the population as a whole and hopefully lead to some insights about X-ray binaries’ role in the universe as a whole.
View larger. | A close-up of the inset above: what the NuSTAR space observatory saw. NuSTAR’s view shows high-energy X-rays coming mostly from X-ray binaries, which are pairs of stars in which one ‘dead’ member feeds off its companion. The dead member of the pair is either a black hole or neutron star. Astronomers say NuSTAR can pick up even the faintest of these objects, providing a better understanding of their population, as a whole, in the Andromeda galaxy. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC.
Bottom line: NASA’s NuStar space observatory has obtained an excellent view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy, at the high-energy X-ray end of the electromagnetic spectrum. The X-ray view of this nearby galaxy is letting astronomers study X-ray binary stars, which are thought to play a role in the evolution of the universe as a whole.
