We went on holiday to Pembrokeshire when the boys were young and visited St David's, Britain's smallest city.
There are some really narrow hedge bordered lanes, leading to picturesque beaches, down which it would be exciting to drive in such a large camper van!
Curious, I checked out Capricorn Campers.
@Bonsai appears to have hired the Galaxy 5 berth rear lounge campervan.
And, would you believe it:
"Above the cab you will find a seriously comfortable king sized bed with a large panoramic roof light, perfect for star gazing."
https://www.capricorncampers.com/vehicle/galaxy-5h-rear-lounge
@Bonsai appears to have hired the Galaxy 5 berth rear lounge campervan.
And, would you believe it:
"Above the cab you will find a seriously comfortable king sized bed with a large panoramic roof light, perfect for star gazing."
https://www.capricorncampers.com/vehicle/galaxy-5h-rear-lounge
Andrew clearly travels in style.
Since no-one can understand every aspect of modern science, we have to specialise. Novae, for instance. Usually a white dwarf accreting matter from a nearby red giant.
Familiar star pointers include the handle of the Big Dipper aka Plough, for those interested in Nova T CrB which is near Arcturus and on a line from Vega, and may make +2.0 magnitude.
Notice the Northern Cross (Cygnus) on the left in the Milky Way:
A higher resolution picture here:
https://britastro.org/forums/topic/r-lyrae#post-622576
In fact this won't be the brightest Nova in recent history.
CP Puppis hit -0.2 magnitude in 1942:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP_Puppis
And V1500 Cygni made +1.7 in 1975:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V1500_Cygni
You just never know what will happen next in our Universe!
Since no-one can understand every aspect of modern science, we have to specialise. Novae, for instance. Usually a white dwarf accreting matter from a nearby red giant.
Familiar star pointers include the handle of the Big Dipper aka Plough, for those interested in Nova T CrB which is near Arcturus and on a line from Vega, and may make +2.0 magnitude.
Notice the Northern Cross (Cygnus) on the left in the Milky Way:
A higher resolution picture here:
https://britastro.org/forums/topic/r-lyrae#post-622576
In fact this won't be the brightest Nova in recent history.
CP Puppis hit -0.2 magnitude in 1942:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP_Puppis
And V1500 Cygni made +1.7 in 1975:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V1500_Cygni
You just never know what will happen next in our Universe!
The sky's the limit for the Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO)!
The new infrared telescope is billed as the world's highest astronomical site.
It's up high where the air is thin and dry and almost transparent to infrared wavelengths.
So high, that the telescope will have to operated remotely from further down the mountain where the astronomers can breathe!
Yes - moisture is a killer for IR - so much so it’s one (of quite a few others) used as a pointer to potential life on distant planets. Incoming IR is absorbed by the water molecules and you get a slot in the spectroscopy reading as a result (methane, CO2 are others off the top of my head).
I've got as far as 38 minutes in to that 1 hr 8 min interview (post #4,065).
I have three takeaways from that 38 minutes:
- Prof Turok is a minimalist. He believes that the Universe is more simple on the microscopic and macroscopic scales than the particle physicists and cosmologists would lead us to believe it is.
- The Prof only chooses to work with theories that furnish predictions that are testable. The theory of cosmic inflation, he says, is testable because of its prediction that the rapid inflationary period associated with the big bang would have generated very long wavelength gravitational waves. Turok says the precision of the experiments designed to detect these primordial gravitational waves is now high enough to rule out their existence and hence invalidate the hypothesis of cosmic inflation.
- Turok argues that the number of particles in the Standard Model is fixed by gravity. The number of particles can't be changed, he says, as it should be forced on us by the fact that the Standard Model couples to gravity. Adding more particles would spoil the logical and consistent mathematical picture of the Universe.
A significant finding that did not make the news!
I remember the sub-atomic particle zoo of the 1960's. I wasted some memory by learning the names on the list in junior high school. The standard model was announced right after I finished my physics degree. Or perhaps simultaneously. UofH maxwell equation course did not discuss current events. RiceU modern physics course was teaching 8 fold way in 1972.
It might be more accurate to say that observations have not yet confirmed the prediction of the inflationary model.
I've found more of Prof Neil Turok's minimalist thinking here: https://podpulse.ai/podcast-notes-and-takeaways/theories-of-everything-with-curt-jaimungal-the-simple-theory-that-explains-everything-neil-turok#:~:text=Inflation theory postulates that the early universe was,dialed to fit observations without offering definite predictions.
Turok comes up with a proposal that explains the beginning of the Universe without involving cosmic inflation. His work aims to provide a complete description and understanding of Hawking's Big Bang singularity using only known laws of physics. His method reveals a "mirror universe" on the other side of the Big Bang and proposes that the universe began in a rare event created by a reversal in time.
Well, that surely clears things up!
The Standard Model is the Crown Jewels of TP no doubt. Prof Turok mentions that in the video and what makes it the gold standard is the precision of its predictions. I think it was Peter Woit in his interview that mentions some of the experimental results have been to 16 decimal places. The Higgs was to >6 sigma agreement between the two groups at the LHC who were looking for it. Interesting that both Turok and Woit are not fans of string theory (ST), but explain why. After listening to Woit, I sort of get the criticisms of ST. The big issue is the strings have to be at the Planck length scale, so are absolutely unobservable. The math (hugely complex and very ‘deep’) generates 10 dimensions and the issue is how to get rid of the additional 6 dimensions without it impacting the 4 we know of, but retaining the predictive power of ST. This is where it all falls apart. Ed Witten et al used a process called ‘compactification’ using i.a.o Calabi-Yua spaces math techniques with the objective of reducing the 6 extra dimensions to small enough ‘spaces’ that they become insignificant and thus to not impinge upon the behaviour of the 4 dimensions we understand at the GR level. Sadly, ST has not delivered and the math will just not support the compactification process with the results required. However, as Woit points out, 40 years of doing this stuff has resulted in some exceptional math techniques which are being applied in research by people involved in pure math. Ed Witten won the Fields prize, which as a physicist is unheard of According to Woit.
It was refreshing to hear Fridman talk openly about his intellectual limitations as well. He has a PhD in computer science from MIT so must be a seriously bright guy, but admits that some of the concepts being discussed and papers being written at the bleeding edge of a subject he is familiar with are beyond him (quote) ‘I just can’t hear the music’.
(Nice summary Galu. You must have a seriously good memory Galu. Are you taking notes?)
[Calabi-Yua manifold https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabi–Yau_manifold good luck trying to understand that 😂]
It was refreshing to hear Fridman talk openly about his intellectual limitations as well. He has a PhD in computer science from MIT so must be a seriously bright guy, but admits that some of the concepts being discussed and papers being written at the bleeding edge of a subject he is familiar with are beyond him (quote) ‘I just can’t hear the music’.
(Nice summary Galu. You must have a seriously good memory Galu. Are you taking notes?)
[Calabi-Yua manifold https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabi–Yau_manifold good luck trying to understand that 😂]
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Strangely, the takeaways to the Turok interview rattled around in my head as I lay trying to get to sleep last night.
This morning I did some double checking on the actual language used in the video before submitting those takeaways in writing.
Your post furnishes yet another opportunity to reveal the extent of my understanding of string theory (annotation courtesy of system7):
This article provides a layman's introduction to string theory, including the need for those pesky extra dimensions:
https://www.einstein-online.info/en/strings/
I can but provide an illustration!
The six extra dimensions of space are curled up in those Calabi-Yau manifolds.