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Title: OT: For the geekier of us...13 things that don't make sense Post by: trekgeezer on March 18, 2005, 08:51:29 AM Found this on slashdot this morning, thought it would be an interesting read for some here and maybe start a discussion. Some interesting things in science that still need some 'splainin.
13 things that don't make sense (http://www.newscientist.com/channel/space/mg18524911.600) Title: Re: OT: For the geekier of us...13 things that don't make sense Post by: Mr_Vindictive on March 18, 2005, 10:17:56 AM I read the same article on Slashdot this morning Trek. Really quite amazing stuff.
The placebo makes sense to me. If the person has experienced pain relief from medication and has gotten used to that feeling then I have no doubt that once they are given a placebo they will not feel pain. They expect to not feel pain, therefore they do not. Some of the other possibilites listed in the article are fascinating. A 10th planet, transmissions from space, dark matter. Good article. Title: Re: OT: For the geekier of us...13 things that don't make sense Post by: ulthar on March 18, 2005, 10:41:26 AM Skaboi wrote:
> They expect to not feel pain, therefore > they do not. > The wierd thing, though, is that actual chemical reactions are occuring in the body that are consistent with the real drug and inconsistent with the placebo. That seems to go a little deeper than just 'expecting' to feel pain. I once heard a story about a lady who had multiple personalities. One of the personalities had breast cancer, the other(s) did not. Sounds wild, and I wish I knew if this was documented somewhere, but from what I heard, this means tumors showed up on the mammogram when that one personality was 'active' and not while the others were. The big lesson in this list (to me, and this ijust my opinion) is that is shows science is not static. If you look at our culture, people seem to think that things are "known" and that's the way it is. Newscasters and lawyers, for example, always affix blame and such based on this sort of thing. We are only human, and the universe (and its complexities) are far larger than we are. Albert Einstein said that when you "know" something, your mind is closed, and all understanding ceases. Title: Re: OT: For the geekier of us...13 things that don't make sense Post by: Mr Hockstatter on March 18, 2005, 12:01:56 PM That sort of list really reminds us of just how little we know, and how young all the sciences are. I find it really fascinating that we don't even know what 90% of the matter in the universe is. Could it be some property of energy we don't yet understand? And the idea that the universe is actually accelerating in its expansion. And is there a 10th planet? I'm really looking forward to that probe to Pluto and Charon. Looking at the NASA website I always like to browse through the pictures of the moons of Saturn that Cassini is sending back every day. Wild stuff.
I always think that 1,000 years from now people will look back at our scientific knowledge of today the same way we look at people from 1,000 years ago. Like, the Vikings were just discovering Greenland and the sundial was being invented. I'm sure they thought they had everything pretty well figured out back then as well. :) Title: Re: OT: For the geekier of us...13 things that don't make sense Post by: Susan on March 19, 2005, 08:08:13 PM If they invest enough in fusion research our energy problems will be solved
Title: Re: OT: For the geekier of us...13 things that don't make sense Post by: DaveMunger on March 19, 2005, 09:03:04 PM Need a moonbase for the helium-3. Fusion's already feasible if we had enough of it, and nature is under no obligation to provide us with a feasible way if we don't even have the nads to get what we need when it's literally in orbit around our own planet. I'm a little frustrated.
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