Science's 125 Big Questions

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by Zonk on Friday July 1, 2005 @11:40AM from the where-do-dorks-come-from? dept.

Shadow Wrought writes "To celebrate their 125th anniversary Science is running a series of articles on the 125 Questions of Science. The top 25 each link to an article exploring the subject of the question in depth. Included are such questions as: Are we alone in the Universe? What are the limits of conventional computing? How did cooperative behavior evolve?"

20 of 351 comments (clear)

questions by drewfuss · 2005-07-01 11:41 · Score: 5, Funny

Are we alone in the Universe? What are the limits of conventional computing? Why I can't I get a date?
1. Re:questions by mOoZik · 2005-07-01 11:48 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  No. Wait and see. Take a a shower. :)
  
  --
  A blog like any other.
2. Re:questions by cmburns69 · 2005-07-01 11:50 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Are we alone in the Universe?
  
  Maybe.
  
  What are the limits of conventional computing?
  
  Undetermined.
  
  Why I can't I get a date?
  
  Because you got the first post on /.
  
  --
  Online Starcraft RPG? At
  Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
3. Re:questions by Hal_Porter · 2005-07-01 12:08 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Dude, you should own all the boxes on the internet, script 'em them together into one kick ass rig, solve Seti and date some hot green chick.
  
  Hell, if there are no alien chicks, date the rig.
  
  --
  echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
125 Questions? What? by Knight+Thrasher · 2005-07-01 11:44 · Score: 5, Funny

We already know the answer to the ONE question... What we REALLY need to do is build a machine to figure out what that question is - who's with me?!
You know... by cpugeniusmv · 2005-07-01 11:52 · Score: 5, Funny

42 * 2.9761904761904761904761904761905 == 125 Coincidence? I think not!
1. Re:You know... by Anonymous Coward · 2005-07-01 12:03 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  ( (42-2) / 2^3 )^3 == 125 Coincidence? Probably.
And the #1 question... by Anonymous Coward · 2005-07-01 11:57 · Score: 0, Funny

Who let the dogs out?
Why so much bio? by jcorno · 2005-07-01 12:03 · Score: 5, Funny

More than half of the top 25 were biology questions. You'd think physics would be a little more strongly represented. But I'm all for answering the evolution questions if it'll stop my in-laws from giving me creationist literature.
1. Re:Why so much bio? by Tablizer · 2005-07-01 16:02 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  But I'm all for answering the evolution questions if it'll stop my in-laws from giving me creationist literature.
  
  Give them a banana in exchange. Worked for me.
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
Noticeably absent from this list are: by Anonymous Coward · 2005-07-01 12:03 · Score: 0, Funny
- How do differing species develop?
- Will human production of carbon dioxide effect the global-scale climate?
And so Science magazine continues to demonstrate itself irrelevant by its insistence on listening only to scientists instead of politicians, theologians, and clever people on the internet who have read a book about economics.
Re:Why humans have so few genes by Hal_Porter · 2005-07-01 12:49 · Score: 2, Funny

So humans are just a lean'n'mean RISC version of rice?

--
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Re:Why? by Nasarius · 2005-07-01 13:06 · Score: 3, Funny

I'm sorry, for a second there, I thought your post included the phrase "the rotational speed of toast". My Bad.
Clearly, it should have been "the rotational velocity of toast".

--
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Re:Why? by Boronx · 2005-07-01 13:34 · Score: 3, Funny

Tidal locking. The increased gravitational field towards the bottom of the toast will act to brake the rotation of the higher mass of the jam as it reaches the lowpoint and starts to rotate upwards.

As an aside, this theory predicts that, dry, unadorned toast will tend to land on it's edge.

--
Play Command HQ online
Re:This list is incomplete... by michaeldot · 2005-07-01 13:49 · Score: 2, Funny

Yes there is, it's under "What are the limits of conventional computing?"

Subsection 1: "Are there any limits to the desire of the organism homogeekus to port Linux to any device imaginable and then communicate the accomplishment in symbolic form?"
Re:Why? by wass · 2005-07-01 13:54 · Score: 4, Funny

This was alluded to by the Oracle some time ago. Surprisingly, it also answers other important questions about anti-gravity and alien lifeforms.
From the Internet Oracle Best of Digests :

The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply. Your question was:

Oh omnipotent oracle! If there were a single molecule from a forgotten oraclelean 10,000-year-old fart I would not be worthy to inhale it! Timorously, I ask you:

If you drop a buttered piece of bread, it will fall on the floor butter-side down. If a cat is dropped from a window or other high and towering place, it will land on it's feet.

But what if you attach a buttered piece of bread, butter-side up to a cat's back and toss them both out the window? Will the cat land on it's feet? Or will the butter splat on the ground?

-Mike

And in response, thus spake the Oracle:

Even if you are too lazy to do the experiment yourself you should be able to deduce the obvious result. The laws of butterology demand that the butter must hit the ground, and the equally strict laws of feline aerodynamics demand that the cat can not smash it's furry back. If the combined construct were to land, nature would have no way to resolve this paradox. Therefore it simply does not fall.

That's right you clever mortal (well, as clever as a mortal can get), you have discovered the secret of antigravity! A buttered cat will, when released, quickly move to a height where the forces of cat-twisting and butter repulsion are in equilibrium. This equilibrium point can be modified by scraping off some of the butter, providing lift, or removing some of the cat's limbs, allowing descent.

Most of the civilized species of the Universe already use this principle to drive their ships while within a planetary system. The loud humming heard by most sighters of UFOs is, in fact, the purring of several hundred tabbies.

The one obvious danger is, of course, if the cats manage to eat the bread off their backs they will instantly plummet. Of course the cats will land on their feet, but this usually doesn't do them much good, since right after they make their graceful landing several tons of red-hot starship and pissed off aliens crash on top of them.

You owe the Oracle two slices of toast and a bag of kitty litter.

--
make world, not war
Seti has been solved... by Anonymous Coward · 2005-07-01 14:17 · Score: 1, Funny

Didn't you hear?

The first message has been decoded.

Clear as a bell!

"Send moce Chuck Barry."
Re:Why? by WinterSolstice · 2005-07-01 15:31 · Score: 4, Funny

Actually, it is far more fun to spray a cat's feet with non-stick "buttery" spray, and send the cat off across the linoleum floor... Especially if there is a dog nearby :)

-WS

--
An operating system should be like a light switch... simple, effective, easy to use, and designed for everyone.
126, 127, 128, and ... by Ranger · 2005-07-01 16:26 · Score: 4, Funny
They haven't even scratched the surface. How about:
- Why do dogs have wet noses?
- If oranges are called oranges because of their color, why isn't a banana a "yellow?"
- Can God make a rock so heavy he can't lift it?
- Did Adam have a belly button?
- Gallagher: Do single people have dirty backs?
- Gallagher, again: What kind of wood were George Washington's false teeth made of?
- From South Park's Sexual Harrasment Panda episode - Skeeter: No! I wanna know something from Mr. Panda Bear here! If you pandas are from mountainous areas of China and Tibet, how come you eat bamboo which is prone to grow only in dryer more arid regions?
--
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Re:Good questions by jd · 2005-07-01 19:44 · Score: 2, Funny

You mean.... It's From The Elder Ones? Cthulhu really does spread madness through the inhabited world and College Physics classes?

--
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)