New Results Contradict Long-Held Chemistry Dogma

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers have found that the long-held belief that only the outer, valence, electrons of an atom interact may be false. Computer simulations have shown that at pressures like those in the center of the Earth the inner, core, electrons of lithium also interact."

Comments

Re:Poor choice of words

[SEE]

It wasn't forgotten. The reason Columbus had so much trouble getting funding was that the royal courts of the time hadn't forgotten; they used Eratosthenes' old number (confirmed by the astrolabe), and then accepted Ptolemy's assessment that it was 180 degrees from one end of Europe to the opposite end of Asia. They knew there was no way that Columbus could reach Japan from the Canaries, 12,000 miles away, without running out of water (no ship of the era was big enough to carry enough for a trip of that length). So advised against giving him money, no matter how much Columbus insisted it was only 2,300. As it was, the reason why the terms of his contract with Fredinand & Isabella was so generous is that everyone expected him to die on the trip rather than make landfall.

And Columbus wasn't ignorant of Eratosthenes' number and Ptolemy's estimate; it was simply that he reached his error based on a different set of authorities:

1) That of Marinus of Tyre (from the first century AD), who thought that Eurasia was 235 degrees in width instead of about 180.
2) The measurement of Alfraganus that underestimated the size of a degree somewhat.
3) His own mistake of assuming that Alfraganus's mile was the same length as an Italian mile (which were 2/3rd the size).

Based on those numbers, it was perfectly reasonable to believe he'd reached Asia.

Re:Poor choice of words

[The Wannabe King]

The knowledge that the earth was round lasted through the dark ages too. When Columbus was laughed at by the church' experts, they didn't point out that the world was flat, but that Columbus used a too small value for the circumference of the earth. Therefore he would starve to death before reaching Asia. They were right, Columbus was just very lucky to hit America before it happened.

Generally, the dark ages weren't nearly as dark as historians from the 19th century depicted it to be.

Re:Proof that Proof isn't Always Right

[plasmacutter]

For instance, you can scientifically prove that God doesn't exist all you want given the small amount of information we know about our universe.

well, we know where you get your bias against science.

Science tries to prove testable positives. You know a theory is "wrong" if the observations don't match the hypothesis. Even then, it doesn't necessarily mean the theory must be completely disregarded (example: newtonian and quantum mechanics coexist today).

You can't "disprove" god with science because god is not rationally testable. You can't "prove" it either because of that, though, and as such no man of science will accept "the will of god" as an explanation for something, or a reason to perform/avoid certain actions.