I am in the UK, and had thought that Scientology had been legally deemed 'not a religion' in this country (they wanted to be a religion for e.g. tax purposes). I could be somewhat out-of-date, though.
The study referred to in the article is only analysing data from one field of medical science; to tarnish all of the sciences with the same brush, as the summary title suggests, is misleading.
I thought I'd point out that this isn't the only group in the world doing research like this--a friend of mine here is working on tumour modelling, and has been for several years now. The research group's homepage is http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/cmb/Research/index.htmlh ere. I suspect there are probably many more, too, given there are journals devoted to this stuff.
I realise the point of the BBC investigation--what I was trying to get across was to say that no, I don't think research is being stifled, and the scientific facts are such that there are (IMO) no sides to pick between.:) But it will be interesting to see what the survey comes out with.
I work in a related field, and don't think that any counter-claims are being stifled. Although it is entirely possible they are escaping my notice, I've not heard of cover-ups or censorship happening. I think the truth simply is that there is a general consensus that the IPCC reports are a good summation of our global knowledge--attempting to give equal space for climate change skepticism is unrepresentative of the scientific community, and in my opinion it creates an illusion of controversy when there really isn't controversy.
Which study is this? I work in a related field and was at a seminar a couple of weeks ago discussing the contined breaking up of large parts of it. I'd be quite intrigued to read the article!
I believe the official language of ESA is English--at least, my work involves an instrument on an ESA satellite and the official languages of the conferences and workshops they run is always English. Though the conferences themselves are often in places like Italy, which is nice.
While the government and public services are discussed, I thought I'd point out that almost all computation-requiring research done in University science departments I have come across is on Unix machines. Granted, that's only 2 universities I've been at, but speaking to my friends in other science departments and institutions it seems to be rare for scientists to use Windows.
My friends working in the arts or social sciences do tend to use Windows--although they're using it for writing up, as opposed to computations for research.
But to work out speed from that you then have to consider F = ma, so when you work out acceleration the mass cancels out (i.e. acceleration is independent of mass). Since s = ut + 0.5a(t^2), this gives a speed also independent of mass. Note that there's a lot of other factors such as air resistance which are important too, though.
I don't think so, because the barycentre of the Earth-Moon system is inside the Earth (as opposed to, in the case of Pluto and Charon, somewhere in space between them).
This site has a nice illustrative applet on group velocity which helps to visualise some of the points in the parent posts: http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/APPLETS/2 0/20.html You can also use it to show why you can't transfer information faster than light.
... and where I was for undergrad (York) they're still using that sort of system! Though they've taken away the Mondex brand name from it.
It wouldn't have been such a bad thing if it were easier to top up (both in terms of number of machines and their reliability).
It'd be interesting to see them try to sneak an ad for Coca-Cola or whatever into something like Oblivion.;)
I don't see how they could advertise many products in a fantasy setting. It'd ruin the immersion. Unless they have Ye Olde Coca-Cola ale for sale in a tavern or something... But even then, someone would doubtless quickly mod the game to replace it with something non fourth-wall breaking.
Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has recently been added to the lists of places considered possible to harbour earthlike like (on the grounds of geological activity and subterranean water). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus_(moon)
It was picked because the mission was planned, built and launched within a relatively small space of time (around 4 years?) whereas normally they take a few years longer than that.:) So the name was the giving themselves a pat on the back for working efficiently and being able to carry it off.
A few friends of mine here are working on the mission, so our department here at Uni are getting pretty excited about it now... 7am (GMT) is roughly when it should enter orbit.:) I think they lose contact with it for a few hours in the middle as it goes around the far side of the planet, so I imagine that'll be a pretty nerve-wracking few hours.
Here's hoping it works, because otherwise I have a friend whose PhD is in trouble!
Slashdot Mirror
I am in the UK, and had thought that Scientology had been legally deemed 'not a religion' in this country (they wanted to be a religion for e.g. tax purposes). I could be somewhat out-of-date, though.
The study referred to in the article is only analysing data from one field of medical science; to tarnish all of the sciences with the same brush, as the summary title suggests, is misleading.
I thought I'd point out that this isn't the only group in the world doing research like this--a friend of mine here is working on tumour modelling, and has been for several years now. The research group's homepage is http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/cmb/Research/index.htmlh ere. I suspect there are probably many more, too, given there are journals devoted to this stuff.
I realise the point of the BBC investigation--what I was trying to get across was to say that no, I don't think research is being stifled, and the scientific facts are such that there are (IMO) no sides to pick between. :) But it will be interesting to see what the survey comes out with.
I work in a related field, and don't think that any counter-claims are being stifled. Although it is entirely possible they are escaping my notice, I've not heard of cover-ups or censorship happening. I think the truth simply is that there is a general consensus that the IPCC reports are a good summation of our global knowledge--attempting to give equal space for climate change skepticism is unrepresentative of the scientific community, and in my opinion it creates an illusion of controversy when there really isn't controversy.
Which study is this? I work in a related field and was at a seminar a couple of weeks ago discussing the contined breaking up of large parts of it. I'd be quite intrigued to read the article!
I believe the official language of ESA is English--at least, my work involves an instrument on an ESA satellite and the official languages of the conferences and workshops they run is always English. Though the conferences themselves are often in places like Italy, which is nice.
While the government and public services are discussed, I thought I'd point out that almost all computation-requiring research done in University science departments I have come across is on Unix machines. Granted, that's only 2 universities I've been at, but speaking to my friends in other science departments and institutions it seems to be rare for scientists to use Windows.
My friends working in the arts or social sciences do tend to use Windows--although they're using it for writing up, as opposed to computations for research.
But to work out speed from that you then have to consider F = ma, so when you work out acceleration the mass cancels out (i.e. acceleration is independent of mass). Since s = ut + 0.5a(t^2), this gives a speed also independent of mass.
Note that there's a lot of other factors such as air resistance which are important too, though.
I don't think so, because the barycentre of the Earth-Moon system is inside the Earth (as opposed to, in the case of Pluto and Charon, somewhere in space between them).
This site has a nice illustrative applet on group velocity which helps to visualise some of the points in the parent posts: http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/APPLETS/2 0/20.html
You can also use it to show why you can't transfer information faster than light.
Ooh, piracy. So, anyone got a link to the torrent?
... and where I was for undergrad (York) they're still using that sort of system! Though they've taken away the Mondex brand name from it. It wouldn't have been such a bad thing if it were easier to top up (both in terms of number of machines and their reliability).
It'd be interesting to see them try to sneak an ad for Coca-Cola or whatever into something like Oblivion. ;)
I don't see how they could advertise many products in a fantasy setting. It'd ruin the immersion. Unless they have Ye Olde Coca-Cola ale for sale in a tavern or something... But even then, someone would doubtless quickly mod the game to replace it with something non fourth-wall breaking.
Envisat's what I work with... it works well, but I'm not so sure about the faster/cheaper parts!
Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has recently been added to the lists of places considered possible to harbour earthlike like (on the grounds of geological activity and subterranean water). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus_(moon)
It was picked because the mission was planned, built and launched within a relatively small space of time (around 4 years?) whereas normally they take a few years longer than that. :) So the name was the giving themselves a pat on the back for working efficiently and being able to carry it off.
I think I'll just keep my fingers crossed and go out for celebratory beers later instead... ;)
A few friends of mine here are working on the mission, so our department here at Uni are getting pretty excited about it now... 7am (GMT) is roughly when it should enter orbit. :) I think they lose contact with it for a few hours in the middle as it goes around the far side of the planet, so I imagine that'll be a pretty nerve-wracking few hours.
Here's hoping it works, because otherwise I have a friend whose PhD is in trouble!