Day 14: Final Entry: My Love For Science

This is a high school physics textbook on my IPad that I read in my spare time. Obviously, there are no words, because this an introduction video clip to the textbook.

A chapter in the physics textbook that I read tonight. It talks about centripetal acceleration.

Throughout my whole life science has fascinated me. I started taking an active interest in first grade when my uncles introduced me to nature’s beauty on a trail hike. I’ve always been very curious and inquisitive, so I soon began to wonder how nature works.  Initially, I would ask my uncles these questions, which soon led to me reading about it on my own. As I got more in-depth about nature's inner workings, the reading kept exposing me to more and more of the scientific side. After a while, I began wanting to learn about the science behind things, until science itself became the priority.

Currently, my favorite branch of science is astrophysics, or the study of physics in the universe. I love the fact that there is still so much just waiting to be discovered. Also, the universe is ridiculously large so you never know what’s out there. There are even a few theories stating that there may be other universes, each with different physical laws and constants. The potential idea that we live in a universe among multiple other universes opens up many possibilities that so far can only come out of our imagination. One question that I always ask myself when thinking about the universe is “What if?” This is one of my favorite questions because it allows me to theorize a scenario. For example, what if I were to exit this universe? Could I do it? If I did it what would happen; would I freeze due to a lack of the space-time continuum? Another example might be, what if I went into a black hole? After being obliterated, what would become of me? Would I sit still with the rest of the matter at a possible bottom of the black hole? In addition, I love to learn about the physics behind the interactions of objects in space. I find it so neat to learn about space-time, gravity, energy, matter, anti-matter, dark energy, and more. Another good thing about these topics is that we don’t know everything about them; in fact, we know very little, so it leaves lots of room for me to speculate.

Outside of the astrophysics field, I’m also driven to learn about other branches of science. One of these branches happens to be biology. Many in my family either work within fields of biology or know a lot about it, so it’s interesting to learn from relatives. My parents both know a lot about biology, my aunt is a marine biologist, and my grandmother works with many animals, is an active birder, and reads hundreds of books about animals. Also, one of my uncles in particular is a botanist, and is always teaching me things. He shows me new discoveries, documentaries, and answers a lot of my questions. I always look forward to getting a lesson from a family member.

The best part about science is that you can never stop learning, so the process of discovery never ends. That is why my thirst for science will never be quenched, and I will always want to learn more.

Day 13: Dark Matter and Dark Energy

           Dark Matter and Dark Energy are quite similar, and could possibly be the same thing. It's hard to define them, since astrophysicists really don't know what they are yet. In a nutshell, Dark Energy is a mysterious and directly undetectable (in other words, cannot be seen by looking at it) force that is accelerating the expansion of the Universe. Dark Matter is a mysterious and directly undetectable type of matter that is influencing things in the Universe in weird ways. In fact, Dark Matter is thought to take up 23% of the Universe, Dark Energy takes up 72%, and regular matter takes up only 4.6%, and the .4% belongs to some complicated topic.

          One may ask, so how do scientists know that these things exist anyway? Well, one way of detecting Dark Energy is by referencing the Doppler effect. The Doppler effect is basically the change of frequency of a wave relative to the observer. On the electromagnetic spectrum, the color we that we see depends on the wavelength of the light. The Universe is already expanding, but we can detect the extra acceleration of the expansion by looking at distant stars and galaxies. If the stars and galaxies are flying further away from us, then the wavelength would increase, shifting toward the red part of the spectrum, and we would see "redder" light. This is called a red shift. Because many stars and galaxies are further red shifting, we know that there must be an unknown force occurring, which is Dark Energy.

          Dark Matter, on the other hand, is detected in many ways, one of them being through gravitational phenomenon. Because it does not give out light, or other electromagnetic radiation as a matter of fact, it cannot be seen directly. One way scientists have detected its presence is by looking at the rotation of galaxies. Strange enough, the outer parts of galaxies rotate as fast as the inner part of the galaxy. According to NASA, "This only makes sense if there is a spherical distribution of matter in each galaxy, which is not what we see. Therefore we infer that there is a certain amount of Dark Matter in each galaxy."

          One theory states that Dark Matter may be WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles.) It would make perfect sense because WIMPS don't interact with electromagnetism (one of the four fundamental interactions), so they cannot be seen directly. Also, WIMPS don't interact with the strong nuclear force, so they don't interact with atomic nuclei, so once again, we can't notice WIMPS directly. Another theory states that Dark Matter could be gravity from another dimension. It would also make sense because we cannot directly detect other dimensions. In the Brane-World theory, the ends of strings (referring to the string theory) are attached to out brane, and can only move within the brane. However, the theory states that gravitons, (the hypothetical particle that carries out gravitation) are closed stings, like a donut, so are therefore not attached and can "seep" through other branes (in this case dimensions.)

          It seems that for a while, whatever Dark Matter truly is will remain a mystery for years to come.

Day 12: Breaking News With a Happy Ending

This is the box to my telescope that I can not use. On the box, there are two views of the controller that broke.

          When I say breaking news, I literally mean, BREAKING news. My initial intentions of this blog, was to take pictures with my camera using my electronic telescope. The telescope is capable of viewing numerous things such as Saturn's rings, the Andromeda Galaxy, and fly-by comets. The very first day of this assignment, I took my telescope and camera out to snap some photos. What I found is that my telescope's controller was broken. The controller is mainly used to control the telescope's zoom and direction and locate objects by time, date, GPS, and a compass. The telescope was still useable, but I had no way of locating the celestial bodies other than doing it manually, which would take hours of reading through manuals, locating the celestial body by a nearly impossible guess-and-check, and adjusting the telescope by hand which is extremely hard. In a panic, I emailed my English teacher, asking her for advice. She got back to me, and gave me the idea that is now my day 3.
          Miraculously, once I started writing my blog, new ideas came to me, and my intentions of this blog changed. This should teach me a future lesson to check that something works before committing to its use. Hopefully, when it comes time for a new project, these newfound skills will kick in!

Day 11: My Thoughts On Interesting NASA Articles

          Article links: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090309-robots-moon-base.html
                               http://lunarscience.nasa.gov/articles/robots-may-start-moon-base-construction

          Around two and a half years ago I happened to stumble upon two articles pertaining to one of my biggest fantasies, colonization on other planets. Ever since I was about 6 years of age, I wanted to have humans living on other planets, with the ability to travel and communicate between planets. Actually, I was first inspired by Star Wars because not only was it my favorite movie series, but the colonization of numerous planets in the films was a very cool idea to me, and apparently still is to me to this day.
          Both articles are on the same topic, and they both cover the same materials. In summary, they describe NASA's plan to build a lunar outpost, possibly through the use of robots. Well, yes, this isn't quite colonization, nor will people be permanently living there, but the outpost will be permanently occupied, which is a step in the right direction. In fact, NASA has made it clear that they have intentions of building human housing nearby. The articles both state that a challenge for NASA will be preparing a landing area, because the launchpads would have to protect nearby human habitation, to be built later, from being sandblasted by the spacecraft. In the National Geographic article entitled Robots to Start Moon Base Construction?, written by Tim Hornyak, David Gump, the president of Astrobotic Technology Inc., said," The problem is real, and the question is how NASA will choose to solve it." It seems that NASA has hopes of the moon base being fully operational by 2024. NASA plans to have two remote-controlled robots build the landing site and lunar outpost in less than six months. The robots are supposed to be 330-pounds and the size of a riding lawn mover. The robots' primary mission is to build the launchpad as well as 8.5-feet-high walls around it.
          If this project carries out as planned, it could be a major scientific/technological breakthrough. I very much anticipate this event, and, hopefully, someday, we can colonize other planets.

Day 10: Heated Topics: Is there a creator to our Universe?

I first got the idea of this post from an episode of Through The Wormhole, in which they discussed the question of there being a creator to our universe.

          To be honest, I've heard enough of this topic. Being an atheist and an analytical thinker, it seems that wherever I go, I encounter pious people who just want to argue. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually blood-Quaker, and open to everyone's thoughts, and I respect everyone's opinions. I have no hard feelings whatsoever towards anyone who is religious, it's just when someone gets angry at me for believing that God doesn't exist, and that the Bible is completely inaccurate, then I get mad. I can recall numerous times when people asked why I believe something, so I explained it to them (without countering their thoughts or mentioning their religion or anything along those terms) and they became irate. So let me lay down my side of the story.
          Along with thousands of physicists worldwide, I believe in the Big-Bang theory, and have loads of evidence to back it up. According to the Big Bang theory, approximately 13.72 billion years ago, our Universe was in an extremely hot and dense state which rapidly expanded. Though Georges Lemaître, the Big Bang theorist, failed to give details on what the Universe expanded from, many modern physicists, such as Lawrence Krauss, believe the Universe expanded from a quantum fluctuation (the temporary change in the amount of energy in a point in space.) After the Universe's initial expansion, it cooled down to allow energy to be converted into sub-atomic particles. Thousands of years later, the sub-atomic particles met, and the first atoms were formed. The first element was hydrogen, along with some lithium and helium. Eventually, clouds of hydrogen condensed to form stars, and billions of years after that, other atoms coalesced through gravity, and formed more and more celestial bodies. Then, Earth finally came along, and biology and chemistry took part and made us. To prove this expansion true, scientists have observed many things such as red-shifts of almost all galaxies and cosmic background radiation.
          I am only just getting started with this data, and, also, professional physicists have loads more information than me to back up this theory as well. Modern-physicists could write multiple books just on this one topic. Next time, when someone tries to argue with me, they will be bombarded with pure fact.

Day 9: Stop SOPA! Unfair!

          Today I decided to take a step outside of the ordinary articles posted on this blog, and write about a current political issue. Most commonly known as SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, Protect IP Act, these bills, which were first proposed by Lamar Smith, would close down many user-content web-sites. Personally, I don't think Lamar anticipated the commotion that these bills would generate. By proposing these bills to Congress, Lamar had intentions of combating theft of property on the Internet. However, the only thing he got out of this was the disappointment of millions. One of those millions happens to be me.
          Honestly, I hate these bills. They impact me, as well as millions of people, in horrible ways that could change the way we live. My searches would be refined to a very small number of sites because many sites, such as YouTube, Wikipedia, and even this blog, would be closed down. One could argue that I don't really need YouTube. However, I'm on it every day, and I do occasionally reference it for necessities. Believe it or not, some people's careers either depended on it, or depend on it as of now. Also, reference sites like Dictionary.com, Merriam Webster, and Wikipedia won't be available. I use many of these sites on a daily basis because they help me with school work. I can't even recall the number of times that I had to use these for research projects, and, without them, I would've had a very hard time. On an estimation, I've read around 150-200 Wikipedia articles.
           So, what would happen without these? Well, the Internet life would go back to the 80s. One major purpose of these sites is to save time consumption. For many school projects, I look up articles and terms on the Internet. Without as much of the Internet, we can't look up topics in an online encyclopedia, or Wikipedia. We would have to drive half-an-hour to the local library, then find a book, look through the table of contents, and read 20 pages until we find an answer that might not even be satisfactory. If the Internet remains intact, this could all be reduced to a 10-second search with a satisfactory answer. We need to banish SOPA!

Day 8: Quantum Mechanics And Its Mysteries

An experiment involving quantum mechanics.

          I love quantum mechanics. It's probably one of my favorite topics in astrophysics because it makes no sense when you examine the laws of physics. There is so much controversy about it, and it's causing a big stir in the scientific world. For a while now, in science, quantum mechanics has been like an arrow pointing in multiple directions. The laws sometimes go against each other. For example, it seems that whenever something is proven, something else already proven suggests that it cannot be true, yet they are both proven to be true. That is one of the aspects that thrills me to learn about quantum mechanics.
          Quantum theory was first developed when Max Planck was doing an experiment and he realized that the laws of physics couldn't explain what had happened. This lead to the development of quantum mechanics. According to quantum mechanics, the atomic world is nothing like the world we live in. Quantum mechanics is, in a nutshell, a set of laws that govern the physical behaviors at the atomic and sub-atomic level. It deals with mathematical descriptions of the motion and interaction of subatomic particles, incorporating the concepts of quantization of energy, wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, and the correspondence principle. The uncertainty principle basically states that you cannot know both the position and momentum of a particle at the same time. The more precisely one is known, the less precise the other is. Another weird law in quantum mechanics states that the movement of the atomic/sub-atomic particles is completely random.
          Wave-particle duality is also a strange aspect. All particles act like both particles and waves, or, more accurately, are neither. They are undefined until someone looks at them or performs an experiment, therefore forcing them to be one or the other. Confusing, right? Looking at a particle can determine what it is. It makes no sense, and neither does this. Recently, I watched an episode of Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. One scientist proposed the idea that particles can be in two places at once. Scientists are still debating about these topics, and from the looks of it, they will continue to for years to come. That's the beauty of quantum mechanics.