According to the current theories concerning moon formation, many or all of thes planets might not actually have any satellites. Eccecntric orbits and close encounters with the sun (as close as.39 AU, or something like that) mean that any satelittes that happen to be captured possess extremely eccentric orbits themselves, which are at least going to get *baked* in their aopproach to the sun(s), if not hurled away from their parent altogether. Gas giants seem to be capable of gaining satellites solely by this method of attracting extant bodies, since you cant really blast material out of it to create a moon (unlike the earth, where we suspect this has phappened).
Since the formation and evolution of the planetary accretion disk is likely to be allbut complete by now, we are unlikely to see satellites around planets with high eccentricities or present in muli-star systems (at least possible according to the data concerning "companions" in the star systems).
Of course, this only applies ot the planets with high eccentiricities or in mulitple-star systems. And it only speaks of probabilities...But we should definitely check out the systems with the less eccentric planets first, if we ever get the chance (and distance is not a HUGE factor!!)
>Maybe I'm just being romantic when I say it sure >would suck if in the end, the universe was >simply radiated through a black hole as >virtual.particles -- talk about entropy.
It could be worse. If the universe is open rahter than flat or closed (as in this discussion), and protons do decay, then every bit of continually decaying radiation wil end up an infiinite distance from every other bit of radiation in the universe, getting farther and farther form each other and less energetic all the time.
No matter how you look at it, entropy sucks.
"Do not go gentle into that good night/old age should rave and burn against the close of day/Rage, rage against the dying of the light."-Dylan Thomas
Unless they modify the technology considerably our unfortunate ex-superman will have to remain in his wheelchair.
The reason that (most) quadraplegics and other "movement-challenged" [sarcasm]people are denied the use of their body is that their brain can'tget the signals to the limb in question. This usually means that their spinal column--or the area of their brain that sends the signals directly (very rarely)--is damaged irreparably.
Sending the copied brain signals to the body would not help--they would also be unable to get to the muscles and the receptors found therein, since the spinal column relay system would still be absent.
A scaled-down version of the chip could be placed directly within the muscle tissue in question, however, stimulating it quite effectively. It would need to include only the voltage and rate (pulsed) of the final signal sent by the brain to properly stimulate the motoneuron controlling the muscle.
However, it occurs to me that in the future we could either regrow such neurons or replace them with electrically conductive (insulated) material. The signal could then be artificially applied (though I dont klnwo why you'd want to...), or applied the goshdarn way that nature intended...by the brain. Maybe next we'll be reading about stuff like this...And I know that research is being done concerning the induced growth of neurons.
...then why do older people seem to learn much slower and often forget things? Is it even possible to really ever forget something?
1)Rate of neuronal death: increases with time
Rate of Neurogenesis: Decreases with time, initally very small when compared to (1)
as soon as you lose the neural structure that encodes the memories you have recorded-howver THAT works (*probably* strength of synaptic connections), you lose the memories
thanks for the correction..."o" and "p" are a litte closer together than the limit of my optical resolution at the moment.
Somebody did a recent follow-up. It was a comparative study of the behavior of two sets of twins raised in 'similar' (whatever that means) social environments; one member of each pair had suffered damage very similar to that which our friend Phineas experienced (they preserved his skull; later, A team of Hrvard Surgeons reconstructed the probable damage--seen in a SciAM article-in order to identify the brain structures responsible for constructing and preserving our moral attitudes. Said skull still sits on diplay at harvard, above the entrance to their neurobio museum. Creepy.).
The conclusion reached by the study was that the role of the brain ares in quesiotn in regulating moral behavior was unquestionable. The mechanism is still completetly unknown and knowledge of the structures involved remains imprecise (the specific structures damaged in each of the recent cases were understandibly different, with some srtucutres destroyed in both cases, and others in one or the other, but not both)
Of course, both the twins and Gage likely lost a bit more of themselves then the ability to determine and/or care about right from wrong, so we arent likel yot be able to isolate only those structures responsible for the creation of moral behavior for quite some time, if ever, but it seems interesting to me regardless.
Maybe someone else more cpable of coherent thought and writing (read:anyone who sees fewer than three keyboards in front of them) who has read the articles could respond?
...and eventually they lose the capacity to divide at all. Hence, no more brain cells, no more regrowth of dead storage space,a continually decreasing amount of snyaptic connectivity, less neural regulation (hormone production, motor control, perception filtering, etc), dependence on diapers, ec
The golden years look more like pyrite to me...
(do a search for telomeres and telomerase for an explantation...am very tired)
I remember reading the details...they lost a part of their prefrontal cotex and were 'mean', emotionally unstable, and unable to accept long-term responsibilities. To the extent that empathy is the basis of morality, they might be said to have 'lost the ability ot empathize.'
The same damage was originally found in a man named ohineas gage...check it out. Quite interesting if you're into the whole debate on the biological nature of morality.
Actually, I stole the idea from the "mars" series by Kim Stanley Robinson. Sorry. Nothing else popped into my head at the time (lack of sleep). I think it is a really good idea, and merited inclusion despite its lack of originality, and that such materials would be the best choice for constructing space-to-planet-elevator cables and many other usefuls bits of space-stuff.
but given that a black hole doesn't radiate Actually, the THINGS you are talking about are quasars, pulsars, and their derivatives, and were detected by the massive amounts of x-ray raditation that they emit. These bursts are the most powerful forms of radation known (although they arent really being radiated by teh balck hole, and are thought to be produced by molecules hitting each other really really fast, somewhere near about half the speed of light). And of course you simply made an error when you stated that black gholes dont really radiate, right (since you had just said that they do?)
For links referring to a discussion on Hawking raditaion as well as the original paper which described it, see my first post.
An interesting application for such a large quantity of diamonds would be their use as a construction material for several kinds of objects (like skeletons for particularly durable reserearch stations, ship hulls, or a space-to-planet cable that could serve as the basis for an inexpensive and highly efficent launching system). If buckyballs were present in any large quantities and could be isolatewd, then things might get really interesting.....
Slashdot Mirror
Since the formation and evolution of the planetary accretion disk is likely to be allbut complete by now, we are unlikely to see satellites around planets with high eccentricities or present in muli-star systems (at least possible according to the data concerning "companions" in the star systems).
Of course, this only applies ot the planets with high eccentiricities or in mulitple-star systems. And it only speaks of probabilities...But we should definitely check out the systems with the less eccentric planets first, if we ever get the chance (and distance is not a HUGE factor!!)
It could be worse. If the universe is open rahter than flat or closed (as in this discussion), and protons do decay, then every bit of continually decaying radiation wil end up an infiinite distance from every other bit of radiation in the universe, getting farther and farther form each other and less energetic all the time.
No matter how you look at it, entropy sucks.
"Do not go gentle into that good night/old age should rave and burn against the close of day/Rage, rage against the dying of the light."-Dylan Thomas
The above posts said it all. Kudos. Thanks for the link--it was very informative.
The reason that (most) quadraplegics and other "movement-challenged" [sarcasm]people are denied the use of their body is that their brain can'tget the signals to the limb in question. This usually means that their spinal column--or the area of their brain that sends the signals directly (very rarely)--is damaged irreparably.
Sending the copied brain signals to the body would not help--they would also be unable to get to the muscles and the receptors found therein, since the spinal column relay system would still be absent.
A scaled-down version of the chip could be placed directly within the muscle tissue in question, however, stimulating it quite effectively. It would need to include only the voltage and rate (pulsed) of the final signal sent by the brain to properly stimulate the motoneuron controlling the muscle.
However, it occurs to me that in the future we could either regrow such neurons or replace them with electrically conductive (insulated) material. The signal could then be artificially applied (though I dont klnwo why you'd want to...), or applied the goshdarn way that nature intended...by the brain. Maybe next we'll be reading about stuff like this...And I know that research is being done concerning the induced growth of neurons.
1)Rate of neuronal death: increases with time
Rate of Neurogenesis: Decreases with time, initally very small when compared to (1)
as soon as you lose the neural structure that encodes the memories you have recorded-howver THAT works (*probably* strength of synaptic connections), you lose the memories
thanks for the correction..."o" and "p" are a litte closer together than the limit of my optical resolution at the moment.
Somebody did a recent follow-up. It was a comparative study of the behavior of two sets of twins raised in 'similar' (whatever that means) social environments; one member of each pair had suffered damage very similar to that which our friend Phineas experienced (they preserved his skull; later, A team of Hrvard Surgeons reconstructed the probable damage--seen in a SciAM article-in order to identify the brain structures responsible for constructing and preserving our moral attitudes. Said skull still sits on diplay at harvard, above the entrance to their neurobio museum. Creepy.).
The conclusion reached by the study was that the role of the brain ares in quesiotn in regulating moral behavior was unquestionable. The mechanism is still completetly unknown and knowledge of the structures involved remains imprecise (the specific structures damaged in each of the recent cases were understandibly different, with some srtucutres destroyed in both cases, and others in one or the other, but not both)
Of course, both the twins and Gage likely lost a bit more of themselves then the ability to determine and/or care about right from wrong, so we arent likel yot be able to isolate only those structures responsible for the creation of moral behavior for quite some time, if ever, but it seems interesting to me regardless.
Maybe someone else more cpable of coherent thought and writing (read:anyone who sees fewer than three keyboards in front of them) who has read the articles could respond?
please?
The golden years look more like pyrite to me...
(do a search for telomeres and telomerase for an explantation...am very tired)
The same damage was originally found in a man named ohineas gage...check it out. Quite interesting if you're into the whole debate on the biological nature of morality.
Actually, I stole the idea from the "mars" series by Kim Stanley Robinson. Sorry. Nothing else popped into my head at the time (lack of sleep). I think it is a really good idea, and merited inclusion despite its lack of originality, and that such materials would be the best choice for constructing space-to-planet-elevator cables and many other usefuls bits of space-stuff.
For links referring to a discussion on Hawking raditaion as well as the original paper which described it, see my first post.
An interesting application for such a large quantity of diamonds would be their use as a construction material for several kinds of objects (like skeletons for particularly durable reserearch stations, ship hulls, or a space-to-planet cable that could serve as the basis for an inexpensive and highly efficent launching system). If buckyballs were present in any large quantities and could be isolatewd, then things might get really interesting.....