1683 - The Ebola virus

-  1683  -  The Ebola virus is deadly with no known cure.  Recent re-engineering of RNA molecules allows protein molecules to be starved off preventing the virus from replication itself.  The experimental drug has gone from monkeys to people this year because of the spreading Ebola epidemic.
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---------------------  1683  -  Can the Ebola Epidemic be stopped?
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- October, 2014, there are 4 cases of the Ebola virus in patients in the U.S.  It appears very similar to the Flu virus.  Flu symptoms soon become worse.  The virus hijacks cells throughout the body to make copies of itself.  The liver, lungs, spleen, and blood vessels hemorrhage if the virus is not stopped.
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-  In Central and West Africa thousands have become infected.  Up to 90% of these infections are fatal.
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-  How can this virus be stopped?
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-   Science is re-engineering DNA and RNA molecules to prevent the Ebola virus from making the particular protein it needs to replicate itself.  The “SiRNA” drug does not seem to effect other proteins.
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----------------------------  RNA  is ribonucleic acid
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----------------------------  DNA  is deoxyribonucleic acid
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-  The double helical structure of DNA was first discovered in 1953.  This corkscrew of molecules is a near permanent repository of our genetic code and our gene proteins.
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-  RNA contains genetic information too but it is less hardy and more easily degraded, or modified.  Regardless, RNA is intricately involved in almost every cellular process.   RNA  controls the behavior of DNA and protein molecules by increasing or decreasing their activity.
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-  Cells manufacture proteins by copying the genetic code found in DNA and producing long sequences of messenger RNA.  Combining with ribosomes the messenger RNA grows protein molecules by linking specific amino acids together.
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-  All this may sound complicated, but, actually it is easier.  Proteins are 3- dimensional structures that are difficult to characterize.  RNA is basically a 2-dimensional sequence, a linear problem much easier to solve.
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-  Re-engineered RNA treatments may actually cure the Ebola Virus infections.  The modified RNA may prevent the Ebola virus from making a protein thus preventing it from replicating itself.  RNA treatments may likely defeat this disease if we can get to it soon enough.
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-  Other diseases may be treated in a like manner.  The hepatitis-C virus is the leading cause of liver cancer.  In the U.S. this virus is more deadly than the AIDS virus.  In 2013 science found a micro RNA that targets particular liver cells that can remove the hepatitis-C virus.  The thinking is that if micro RNA can block the viral replication long enough the body will cure the  disease.
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-  This is amazing work!  Biologists have identified tens of thousands of molecules that direct and shape the organized chaos that goes on within our body’s cells.   By manipulating RNA science could potentially develop treatments to cure cancer, infectious
 diseases and a wide range of chronic illnesses.
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-  To learn more:  www.nebi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articlesPMC2724769
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-                        http://f1000.com/prime/reports/b/5/47
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The Big Bang

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-  1682  -  The Big Bang is not the birth of the Universe.  That belongs to religion.  Science is what we learn through observation and experimentation.  The Big Bang is the birth of the Observable Universe.  We don’t know the rest.  The rest is our Quest for knowledge
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---------------------  1682  -  The Big Bang is Not the Birth of the Universe.
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- The Big Bang is not the birth of the universe.  We don’t know that.  Science uses observation and experimentation to understand stuff.  The Big Bang is our name for the birth of the Observable Universe.  The rest of the stuff is still a mystery.  The biggest mystery of all is that we are here to observe it.  That is religion.
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-  Science has evidence to suggest that we today only can observe 5% of the Observable Universe.   95% is Dark Energy and Dark Matter that we see evidence for but that we cannot directly observe.  We only have theories as to what this “ Dark” stuff is.
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-  Plato was a Greek Philosopher.  He described science as being like prisoners in a cave.  A fire’s flame in the background creates flirting shadows on the cave walls.  These 2- dimensional images are the only reality the prisoners can observe.  How can they possibly understand their Universe when that is all they can see?
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-  Our science today observes 3-dimensions of space and one dimension of time.  Those 4 dimensions create our images on the cave walls.
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-  A discovery in science was how to create holography where 2-dimensional images can be projected to create a 3-dimensional image in space.  Perhaps the 3-dimensional images we see in space are projections of higher dimensions that we don’t see?
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-  To explain what we observe in our Universe we use the Big Bang as a model for the creation of expansion of space and the passage of time.  Our 4-dimensional Universe.  However, in order to get the math to work our we have to assume the Universe expanded 10^78 times in volume in the first few seconds.  ( That is 1 followed by 78 zeros ).  The expansion of space was much, much faster than the speed of light.
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-  We call this event “ Cosmic Inflation”.  It is used to explain why space can be uniform in all directions while the speed of light could not have reached all the places we observe to make them uniform.
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-  The math to explain this comes from a few simple equations containing only 5 independent parameters.  The math matches what we observe today 13.5 billion years after the first few fractions of a second.  One of these fundamental parameters is the density of the Universe as the sum of Ordinary Matter, Dark Matter, and Dark Energy.  We need to explain the ratio of mass-energy that balances gravity’s attractive force with the repulsive force that is expanding the Universe at an ever faster rate.
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-  When the math matches observation it tells us the 25% of the matter creating attraction is Dark Matter that we can not see.  And, 70% of the repulsive force is Dark Energy that we can not explain.  That leaves the Observable Universe that we can see to be only 5% of the mass-energy that is out there.
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-  As the Universe expands it cools.  The hot plasma at the beginning was the temperature of 10^27 degrees.  ( That is a 1 followed by 27 zeros.)  Today the temperature in all directions is observed to be only 3 degrees.  This temperature is uniform in all directions to distances that even light could not have yet reached.  Like a giant sphere where the surface appears flat to a small observer the space appears geometrically flat to all that we can observe.   The Inflation theory was needed to explain these observations.
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-  What caused this inflation to occur?  What caused it to stop?  It took a massive amount of energy.  Were did all this energy come from?  What existed before the inflation started?  Is this a one time event or does it happen all the time?  We don’t know.
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-  How do we get a violent emergence of space and time from an infinitely dense point?  In what universe did this point exist?
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-  There is another mystery that we can reference.  Astronomers can observe the effects of Black Holes.  There is one at the center of our galaxy and at the center of most large galaxies.  Black Holes are the process experienced by giant stars that exhaust all their nuclear fuel and collapse under immense gravity into a single point.  The density of that point is so great as to create a gravitational force from which even light can not escape.  Astronomers fail to learn what is inside a Black Hole because without light no information can escape.
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-  The effects are like shadows on the walls of the cave, but, we can not yet exit the cave to see the light outside.  We continue to search for light, knowledge, that will explain all that we observe.  In the meantime, we just don’t know.  Science is quest for understanding.  Religion is the faith in the mysteries that we will never learn about the real universe and this life that lets us observe it.
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-  Footnote:  When the Universe was 2.8 billion years old its rate of expansion for 2 galaxies separated by 1 million lightyears was 42 miles per second.  151,000 miles per hour was how fast the galaxies were moving away from each other as the space between them continues to expand.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
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 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Friday, October 24, 2014  ---
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Moons in our Solar System.

-  1681  -  Two of the moons in our Solar System might support life?  There are a lot to choose from.  All of them are different.  We have 173 moons circling our 8 planets.
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---------------------  1681 -  Enceladus and Europa might support life?
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- There are 173 moons circling planets in our solar system.  Enceladus and Europa are the two most likely to support life?
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-.  What  environments does life need as we know it.
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-.  Life needs energy.  Energy can come from the Sun in the form of radiation.  It can come from internal radiation, heat generated by friction or radioactivity.
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-.  But, not too much radiation.  It needs a shield from too much radiation ,or, from too much energy arriving in the form of meteoric impacts.  The atmospheres and ice shields are two forms of protective shields.
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-.  Life as we know it also needs water.
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-.  For life to evolve with these above 2 ingredients it also needs stability for millions of years.  Life on Earth evolved over 3,000 million years.  That's a long time.
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-.  But, life's evolution does best without too much stability.  Life needs dynamics in smaller environmental changes and in geological activity that creates diversity and survival of the fittest.
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-.  Obviously, these condition existed on Earth or I would not be here talking about it.  It is interesting how much our Moon contributed to the stability and to the dynamics in Earth's environment to help our evolving life on this planet.
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-.  These 4 conditions for life might well exist on at least 2 other moons in our solar system:
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----------------  Enceladus, one of Saturn’s 62 moons.
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----------------   Europa, one of Jupiter's 67 moons
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-.  Enceladus  is the second closest moon orbiting Saturn , just 148,000 miles outside the rings.  It is an ice ball that reflects nearly 100 % of the sunlight that hits its surface.  Our Moon reflects just 7 % of its sunlight.  The average temperature on Enceladus’ surface is minus ,-205 centigrade.
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-.  Enceladus is only 311 miles in diameter, 3.9 % the size of the Earth, and 14 % the size of our Moon.  Its density is just a little more than pure water, 1.24 grams per cubic centimeter.
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-.  Cryovolcanics on the surface of Enchiladas are spewing jets of water vapor and ice into outer space.  The ice debris contains ammonia which acts as an anti-freeze.  2 % of the jets are sodium salt.  The temperature of the geysers is -93  centigrade which is 112 degrees above the average surface temperature.
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-.  Enceladus is in a locked rotation orbit around Saturn that takes 1.37 days.  Tidal heating from the gravity pull of Saturn causes internal heat that creates these geological activities.  There is likely an internal ocean beneath the ice shield that is on the surface.  Note that all 4 ingredients are there for evolving life?  Is there life in these oceans?
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-Europa is one of 4 moons you can easily see with binoculars orbiting Jupiter.  Europa is 1,944 miles in diameter, 180 % that of our Moon.
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-.  Europa's surface is an ever-changing boundary of floating ice and water oozing through cracks from the salty oceans below.  The surface temperature is - 150 centigrade.  How can liquid water exist there?
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-.  The tidal forces of Jupiter constantly twist and distort the mantle below the subsurface liquid water.  The flexing and friction generate the internal heat.  Hydrothermal vents may also be heating the oceans below the surface.
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-.  The 10 mile thick ice cover is a protective shield.  It is pockmarked like our Moon.  It's geological dynamics have refreshed surface to only 60 million years old.  Our Moon’s surface is 4,370 million years old.
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-.  Titon is another of Saturn's 62 moons.  It has a hazy atmosphere that rains liquid methane.  Its atmosphere protects it from meteor impacts and radiation.  It has a stable environment, but, it is too cold for life, and, hydrocarbons are not as nice as water for life's evolution.
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-.  Io is another of Jupiter's 67 moons.  It is a most volcanic world in our solar system.  Io is slightly larger than our Moon but has multiple erupting volcanoes, daily shooting plumes of lava 250 miles above the surface.  All of this heat is generated by the tidal forces from Jupiter.
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-.  Triton is one of Neptune's 14 moons.  It is more likely a captured Kuiper Belt Object.  There are at least 85 of these moon -size objects in the Kuiper Belt.  Triton orbits in the wrong direction.  Neptune turns clockwise every 16 hours and Triton orbits counterclockwise every 6 days.  Triton is 1,700 miles in diameter.  It surface is interlaced icy patterns of frozen nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water.  It spouts nitrogen geysers and maintains a slight atmosphere.
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-.  It is not just planets that have moons.  Over 150 asteroids also have orbiting satellites.  The planet Mars has two moons that are most likely captured asteroids.  Our moon has the most unique beginning of these total 425 Solar System objects.
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-.  Our Moon is formed by an it impact from a Mars- size proto-planet that struck the Earth in its early evolution.  The impact created an accretion disk of splashed earth crust that eventually coalesced into a single moon.  This was early in Earth's evolution 4,370 million years ago.  In the beginning the Moon was orbiting much closer to the Earth and the Earth was rotating faster.  The Moon has stopped spinning and it is further away tightly locked with one rotation for each orbit.  The Moon is still moving away from us at four centimeters per year.
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-.  The Moon has been essential for life's evolution on Earth.  The ocean tides have provided a dynamic environment of circulating ocean water and atmosphere.  It's orbit has stabilized Earth’s orbit with a 23 degree tilt , perfect for four seasons and a dynamic environment to evolve life's diversity.
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-.  Life has a wide diversity on Earth.  The diversity of moons offer life elsewhere in our solar system.  Over 1,700 exoplanets have been discovered in other solar systems outside our own.  Those planets also have moons.  This greatly expands the chances for life elsewhere.  An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
----------------------------------------------------
(1)----------  Mercury ----   0  moons
-------------  Venus    -----   0  moons
-------------   Earth  -------   1  moon
-------------   Mars  -------   2  moons
-------------   Jupiter  ----   67  moons
-------------   Saturn  ----   62  moons
-------------   Uranus  ----   27  moons
-------------   Neptune ---   14  moons
-------------   Asteroids --  170 with moons
-------------   Kuiper Belt Objects ---- 85  includes Pluto
 -  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
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 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Friday, May 16, 2014  ---
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Cosmic Inflation, how the Universe started?

-  1680  -  Cosmic Inflation. The faster than the speed of light expansion of the early Universe produced gravitational waves in the radiation that is detected in polarized light found in the Cosmic Microwave Background.
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---------------------  1680  -  Cosmic Inflation.
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- The Universe appears to us as extremely homogeneous on the grandest scales.  It appears uniformly the same in all directions.  It spatial geometry appears to be “flat“.  This is analogous to being on the surface of the Earth.  The sphere is so large to two eyes only six foot off the ground the Earth is flat.
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-.  Using that same analogy the Universe must be an expansion much, much, greater than the 13.8 billion light-years radius that we can see from our vantage point.  “Radius” is not the right word because it can imply one direction outward from the center.  Actually, space expanded in all directions, everywhere, at the same time.  There is no center.  Yet, for it to look the same looking 13.8 billion light-years in one direction and 13.8 the light-years in the opposite direction it must have expanded faster than the speed of light.  This is where the theory of Cosmic Inflation comes from.  If the Universe did expand faster than the speed of light in the very beginning than the Universe is much larger than what we can see   What we see only appears homogeneous and geometrically flat.
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-.  By the way, space expanding faster than speed of light does not violate the Theory of Relativity that states nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.  That speed limit is constant and remains true.  It says nothing about the ability of space itself to expand faster than the speed of light.  We just can not move through space any faster than 670,633,500 miles per hour.
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-.  Cosmic Inflation to happened at 10^-38 seconds after the Big Bang, when the expansion first started.  In that trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, in that short period of time, in that instant, space expanded over 1,000 times.
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-.  As evidence of that expansion there now appears gravitational waves embedded in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation.  Gravitational waves are waves in space-time geometry.  Pushes and pulls of the fabric of space-time that is detected in the polarization of the earliest light.
-.
-.  Light itself is electromagnetic radiation, waves of light are actually two traveling waves, oscillating, at right angles to each other.  Alternating traveling Electric waves intermingled with traveling Magnetic waves both oscillating at the same frequency.  This frequency ranges from radio waves, to microwaves, to gamma rays, across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
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-.  The waves at right angles are denoted as the E-mode and B-mode, for Electric and Magnetic waves.  Normally, the orientation of the waves is random, rotating at every angle over the full 360 degrees.  Polarization is a process where a specific orientation is selected.  Polaroid sunglasses have filters that only pass light that is oriented in a specific up-down orientation.
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-   It turns out that the B-mode waves are easier to detect.  A careful analysis of the primordial Cosmic Micro Background radiation can detect the orientation of the B-mode polarization.  This is the light that left the Big Bang opaque plasma 380,000 years, shortly after, the Big Bang.  The pattern of this polarization shows us convincingly that gravitational waves exist in the fabric of space-time just as Cosmic Inflation theory predicted.
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-.  This detected stretching and compression of space-time was imaged in the BICEP2 experiment being conducted at the South Pole.  Astronomers have witnessed an exciting new era since telescopes have been enable to see more than visible light..  New  telescopes and detectors today witness the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves, to microwaves, to infrared, to ultraviolet ,to x-rays, to gamma rays.  Each leap in technology has brought us a wave of new knowledge.
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-.  But, the electromagnetic detection has its limitations.  We can get back to the Cosmic Microwave Background which left 380,000 years after the Big Bang.  Beyond that the view is opaque.  We cannot see further because the charged plasma scattered photons to such a degree we can not see through them.  It is like looking at the surface of a cloud.  We witness the surface but we cannot see inside.
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-.  Gravity waves give us another detection system that could see inside the earlier Universe.  Science is busy building these gravitational wave detectors.
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-.  See the LIGO-  Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory to learn more about attempts to see our first gravity waves.
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-.  These gravity wave detectors are essentially a giant microphone designed to listen to gravity sound waves originating from the Big Bang and even from with Stellar Blackholes.
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-.  To get gravity waves we need massive objects that can curve space-time into swells of gravity waves.  Although direct detection has eluded us.  Indirect detection has been accomplished studying a binary pulsar system.  One of the stars is a pulsar emitting a light beam pulse like it cosmic clock.  The other is a neutron star.
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-.  The orbiting pair are slowly losing their angular momentum and spiraling in towards each other.  The loss of momentum energy is due to their massive movements generating gravity waves.  These radiating gravity waves drain energy from the system, causing the orbits to tighten down and speed up.  Because the pulsar’s cosmic clock is so accurate that lower orbit speeds could be measured precisely.  The measurements agreed exactly with the Theory of Relativity equations for the emission of gravity waves.
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-  An atomic interferometer is a new detecting technique that measures the distance between clouds of ultra cold atoms just 1,000 kilometers apart.  A laser is used to measure the distance between the clouds.  If a gravity wave comes through the clouds the distance will change to and fro as the wave passes.
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-.  Another technique is the Laser Interferometer used in LIGO which sends two laser beam's in  perpendicular directions, reflecting against mirrors, and  creating an interference pattern when they meet on the return trip.  If the distance shifts due to passing gravity waves the interference pattern will change.
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-.  BICEP2, Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization, is a detector designed to measure the very faint polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background.  The CMB appears as a uniform blackbody at 2.7 degrees Kelvin.  This detector is designed to see the small variations down to 0.000,000,85 degrees Kelvin, ( 85 nano-Kelvin per square degree pixel ).  To get there all the optics of the telescope are cooled down to 4.0 degrees Kelvin.  And the beam size of the telescope is limited to 0.22 angular degrees.
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-.  The Amundsen – Scott South Pole Station proved to be the perfect environment for this microwave astronomy.  Data was taken from November, 2009, to December, 2012.  The polarization map produced from the data appears like iron filings arranging themselves under the influence of a magnetic field.
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-.  The vortex like curling patterns were detected as B-modes which were the signs of the passage of gravitational waves generated during the brief period of Cosmic Inflation.  Cosmic Inflation theory assumes that everything started out as quantum fluctuations that got amplified with inflation.  The detected B-mode gravitational waves matched the theoretical expectations of both quantum mechanics and relativity.  Wow!  Three years of microwave data gathering ,and , extensive detailed systematic analysis down to 5-Sigma on two different modes of detection.  Science is hard work.  More announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned we have a whole new set of eye in gravitational waves.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Friday, May 2, 2014  ---
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Space Dust, what does it tell us?

-  1679  -  Space Dust , what does it tell us?  The Earth travels through tons of space dust that mostly originated in comets and asteroids.  Astronomers are collecting this dust and studying every grain.  We see this dust entering the atmosphere as “ shooting stars”.
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---------------------  1679  -  Space Dust , what does it tell us?
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- Space is full of dust.  Even outer space is full of dust.  This dust mostly comes from comets and asteroids that are circling the Sun along with us.  Earth passes through this space dust every day.  Amazingly, between 50 to 100 tons of space dust falls on us each day.
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-.  In the night sky you can see these as “shooting stars“.  These are bright streaks of light shooting across the sky at 28,000 miles per hour.  The glowing hot dust particles are the size of a grain of sand, or smaller.
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-.  Thousands of tons of these extraterrestrial particles fall to the surface as cosmic dust very year.  Typically they measure less than 100 microns, about the width of a human hair.
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-.  Astronomers are trying to collect and study this cosmic dust to learn more of the evolution of our solar system.  They have used 12 mile high-flying aircraft with sticky surface Lexon plates, coated with silicone, beneath the wings.   They study these dust particles under scanning electron microscopes analyzing and cataloging each piece of dust.
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-.  Astronomers have learned that a large portion of this cosmic dust is not the same as meteorites that we find on the surface of Earth.  Meteorites mostly originated from asteroids.  Some of the particles are the least altered material in the solar system.  Most likely coming from comets.  Some are the dusts originating from the interstellar medium.  Some of the dust grains contain organic material that may have seeded early Earth with the raw materials necessary for life.
-
-.  Two spacecraft have been launched to attempt to collect cosmic dust before it enters Earth's atmosphere:
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-----------------  Stardust
-----------------  Hayabusa
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-.  Stardust was launched February, 1999, arriving at the 81P/WILD comet in January, 2004.  The spacecraft was equipped with 124 silicone aerogel blocks that collected dust from the comet’s tail 149 miles from its surface.  The samples were returned to Earth January, 2006, parachuting into the Utah desert.
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-.  The tracks in the aerogel stopped the dust particles that hit the surface of the gel at 13,000 miles per hour.  Studies of each particle revealed its composition.  One surprise was that some of the minerals had to be formed at high temperatures found in the inner solar system.  Comets are formed in the far outer solar system.  This dichotomy suggested that the early solar system was a turbulent environment that result in mixing of both of these regions.
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-  Suggestions were made that asteroids are the cores of comets.  Comets that ended up too close to the Sun.  All their lighter elements have evaporated away from heat and solar winds.  What is left is a rocky surface with a heavy mineral core.
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-.  The Hayabusa mission launched in 2003 to the near-earth asteroid “Itokawa“,.  It arrived September, 2005.  The mission was to fire a projectile into the surface and to collect the debris.  The spacecraft returned June ,2010 landing in the Australian desert.
-
-.  We learned that meteorites most commonly found on Earth contain chondrite minerals which were similar to those found on this asteroid.  The iron content told astronomers that Itokawa was once much larger and likely broke apart as result of impacts.
-
-.  Studying cosmic dust as a way to learn more about the origin of our solar system and possibly how life developed on our planet.  An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
-  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Friday, May 2, 2014  ---
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Moon History from the Beginning

-  1678  -  Moon History from the Beginning.  Evolution of the surface of the Moon was much different than that on Earth.  Meteor impacts and volcanism took different forms.  Here is what we have learned about Moon History.
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---------------------  1678  -  Moon History from the Beginning
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- When asked my age I sometimes say, “I'm older than dirt“.  Even at my age that is a bit of an exaggeration.  The average age of the Earth's surface dirt and rocks is 500,000,000 years.
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-.  That is an average.  Some of the oldest rocks found were 3,800,000,000 years old.  The reason for new rocks being formed is the result of erosion and plate tectonics that erased  most all the planets earliest landforms.
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-.  However, there is a place where erosion and plate tectonics have not changed things in the same way.  That is on the Moon.  The Moon is Earth's crust that was splashed into orbit 4,500,000,000years ago.
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-.  The changes on the Moon's surface were totally different than what happened on the Earth.  The Earth had an atmosphere that had wind and rain erosion.  At the same time an atmosphere protected it from small meteor impacts.
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-.  Moon had almost no atmosphere.  It had hot and cold but no weather that resulted.  No atmosphere meant the moon was not protected from meteor impacts and cratering.  Its surface did have volcanism and ground faulting.  In fact, the earliest surface of the Moon saw so many impacts that the immense energy transfer melted the surface forming a global magna ocean.
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-.  Low-density elements like aluminum floated to the surface.  High density elements like iron sank deeper below the surface.
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-.  To get an idea of Moon’s impact history analysis of crater ages is shown in the table below:   This is for craters 1 kilometer in diameter or greater, some were hundreds even thousands of miles in diameter. Impacts are shown per each square kilometer of surface.
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---------------------------  Billion years ago  -----------------  Impacts per km^2
-
-------------------------------  4.5  -------------------------------  1 per 1 km^2
-------------------------------  4.0  -------------------------------  5 per 100 km^2
-------------------------------  3.5  -------------------------------  4 per 1,000 km^2
-------------------------------  3.0  -------------------------------  2 per 1,000 km^2
-------------------------------  3.0  -------------------------------  1 per 1,000 km^2
-------------------------------  1.0  -------------------------------  1 per 1,000 km^2
-------------------------------  0.25  -----------------------------  1 per 10,000 km^2
-------------------------------  today  ----------------------------  1 per 100,000 km^2
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--.  You can see that the early Moon was seriously pelted by meteors.  The Earth was as well at that time.  Every square kilometer of the moon had a one kilometer or greater diameter meteor impact on its surface.  Today this is less than one impact per 100,000 square kilometers of moon surface.

-  Meteor impacts were not the only erosion on the Moon.  volcanism was caused by heating due to the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium that melted parts of the mantle.  This fresh magna rose up through fractures under the crater basins, erupting cased vast expanses of lava on the surface.  Rapidly flowing lava cut winding channels and a flowing magnetic caused basins to sink.
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-.  Most of the volcanic eruptions occurred between 4,000,000,000 and 3,000,000,000 years ago with 50 to 60 eruptions occurring each year.  Most all these eruptions ceased 1,000,000,000 years ago.  Also, 3,800,000,000 years ago impact cratering had rapidly declined by a factor of a thousand.
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-.  You can count the cratering yourself on the website “ NASA Lunar Reconnaissance 0rbiter”  images at www.moonzoo.org.  The Moon will orbit Earth 250,000 miles away but these images will be form less than 400 miles above the surface of the Moon.
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-.  Dozens of missions to the Moon have uncovered a lot of Moon history and evolution.  But, what we have learned has also generated many more questions.  The next major goal in lunar science is another moon landing.  When will we go back?  An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Sunday, April 27, 2014  ---
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Dinosaurs in Utah?

-  1677  -   Dinosaurs in Utah.  Evolution there lasted for 20,000,000 years with diversity of species.  Many species were lost with the asteroid hit the Yucatan Peninsula.  Evolution got a re-start.
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---------------------  1677  -   Dinosaurs in Utah
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-  90,000,000 years ago the central part of United States east of the Sierras and west of the Rockies was a swamp land.  Utah was more like Louisiana than the deserts we see today.
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-.  Of course, the California coast was located in Baja ,Mexico at that time.  The drifting continents had a different name and the era was called the Crustacean Period.  The drifting continent was called “Laramidia“.
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-.  In the Utah desert today scientists are unearthing fossils of plants and animals that are 75,000,000 years old.  The continent Laramidia  existed for 20,000,000 years.   During that time the Earth was warmer and the oceans were higher.
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-.  Plants and dinosaurs thrived in this once, swampy, lush, jungle like environment.  Not just dinosaurs but,  turtles and crocodiles lived along with the horned and duckbilled herbivores.
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-.  There were birdlike Teropods.
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-.  There were 30 foot Hadrosaurs with jaws containing 800 teeth.
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-.  There were rhino-size Triceratops that had 15 horns on their heads.
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-   Many of the dinosaurs had horns, spikes, and frills that were not much use against predators.  Or, more likely, these adornments were used to impress the opposite sex.
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-.  All through Laramidia  there was a divergence among the species.  Not just due to natural selection, but, more specifically divergence due to sexual selection.  Natural selection is concerned with limbs and teeth.  Sexual selection is more concerned with peacock tails and moose antlers.
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-.  In Laramidia  the vegetation was so thick and jungle-like dinosaurs did not need to wander.  The result was many species sharing the same small spaces.  As divergence occurred two species evolved in different places out of a single species.
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-.  Left to themselves each community of animals evolve differently.  Plants and animals adapted to different climate zones and different vegetation.  When the differences met and no longer recognized each other for mating then two populations have become to species.
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-.  Like it or not life got a fresh start.
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-.  60,00,000 years ago this evolution ended with the event of the asteroid smashing into the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.  The Earth was encircled by firestorms and dust storms that blocked the Sun for decades killing off the dinosaurs and much of the life in the oceans.  Turtles, crocodiles, and a few, small warm-blooded animals survived.  After another 50,000,000 years thousands of new species again occupied  the Earth.  The same evolution of a diversity of species repeated itself.
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-.  The human species started out in Africa 1,500,000 thousand years ago.  And, some hiked out of Africa into Asia and Australia some 130,000 years ago.  Some 50,000 years ago these same wanderers choose a northern route and got into Europe and the Mediterranean seashores.
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-.  During this entire time the California coast was creeping north along the San Andreas fault.  Rocks that adorn the shorelines of Baja ,Mexico, were now in Bodega, California, just 20 miles from my house.  Tectonic plates moving just a few inches per year can cover thousands of miles over tens of millions of years.  You may not realize it but these tectonic plates are still inching  north in California.   An announcement will be made shortly stay tuned.
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-  2 inches per year.  1,000 miles * 5,280 feet per mile * 12 inches per foot  =  66,360,000 inches.  To mover 1,000 miles takes 31,680,000 years.  Come back in 30,000,000 years and Bodega’s rocks will be in Alaska.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Thursday, April 24, 2014  ---
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