The lab has developed a multi-color LED. This is moderately cool.
The lab has also been cryogenically manipulating spin on electrons. The atmosphere got a little cold when the idea came up, but everybody's happy now.
Stanford is making a serious effort to measure how much Earth is dragging its inertial frame along with it in space. The goal is to test Einstein's general relativity. If spacetime is a cube of jello, the earth is a spinning ball inside that cube, and the jello will be dragged along with the ball. That's what Gravity Probe B is interested in.
The current theory is that the universe is up to 90% dark matter, named so because we don't know where or what it is. However, it has to be there because otherwise the universe couldn't have held together properly since the big bang. Second reason: there's a project in the works (entitled, regretfully, OGLE) to use it as a sort of gravitational magnifying glass to see more distant stars than they otherwise could. The only creationist position I could find was skeptical of dark matter. Personally, I don't have any deep objection to dark matter (more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy), but I would rather have a sounder basis to assume it. Does anyone know more than I do?
Incidentally...David Weinberg's "Dark Matter Rap" is pretty funny. The lyrics, I mean. Haven't watched the video, so do so at your own risk. :-)
From a technical point of view, I can tell you that evolutionist are more wary of dark matter than creationists. To the evolutionists, dark matter is something they can't prove is there but that really needs to be there for their theories to hold together. To the creationists (and intelligent design gurus), the need for such explanations as dark matter is more proof that we don't infact know everything there is to know, and that the theory of evolution by itself isn't the ultimate answer some scientists claim it to be. There is definite proof of the big bang, but there are very few evolutionists gutsy enough to tacle to "problem" of what sparked it. :-D In the stories I've heard of those that tried, they eventually decided that there must have been an intelligent superpower of some form behind it, so fear not, scientists are starting to prove the right thing, once it stops being taboo. :-D
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that's "technically" my 2 cents. Have a wonderful evening :-D
Okay, sweet!
ReplyDeleteIncidentally...I like the nickname. ;-)