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Gazing into the future
Long-term global cooling ended in 19th century
THIS UNIVERSE |
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Gazing into the future
INTERSTELLAR travel, hypercomputers, space mining — they all sound like the stuff of Star Trek and Buck Rogers, but they’re among the latest predictions from one of Britain’s most eminent scientists. And the Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, is better qualified than most to gaze into the future. The astrophysicist and cosmologist offers glimpses of a “post-human” universe in an essay, “To the Ends of the Universe”, written for an forthcoming book. He says subjects that were once in the realm of science fiction are now subject to serious scientific debate. And he warns that humanity is not the “terminal branch of an evolutionary tree” and could yet evolve into organisms capable of travelling to other galaxies. Rather than taking millions of years, he says, post-human evolution will happen much faster due to technological advances and genetic modification. He suggests that during the coming century the entire Solar System will be explored and mapped by flotillas of “tiny robotic craft”. “What we’ve traditionally called ‘the universe’ — the aftermath of ‘our’ Big Bang — may be just one island, just one patch of space... There may have been an infinity of Big Bangs, not just one. Just as Earth is a very special planet among zillions, so – on a far grander scale – our Big Bang was also a very special one. In this hugely expanded cosmic perspective, the laws of Einstein and the quantum could be mere parochial bylaws governing our cosmic patch. Our current concept of physical reality could be as constricted, in relation to the whole, as the perspective of the Earth available to a plankton whose ‘universe’ is a spoonful of water.” Professor Rees is to deliver the Cambridge University lecture at next month’s Hay Festival on this subject, but he admits futurology is a far from precise science. But he is certain that human beings will shape their own “far future”. This modern era, he says, is the first “when we’ve had the technological power to affect the whole species — starting perhaps with the H-bomb. One worries about... how new technologies could have a catastrophic effect if used unwisely.” — The Independent |
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Long-term global cooling ended in 19th century
A global long-term cooling trend ended late in the 19th century and was followed decades later by the warmest temperatures in nearly 1,400 years, a sweeping study of temperature change showed. The study, by a consortium of 78 authors in 24 countries, said its 2,000 years of data made it harder to discount the impact on higher temperatures of increased greenhouse gases due to human activity. “Global warming that has occurred since the end of the 19th century reversed a persistent long-term global cooling trend,” the National Science Foundation, one of the study’s sponsors, quoted the report as saying. Researchers found that various factors, including fluctuations in the amount and distribution of heat from the Sun and increases in volcanic activity, fed an overall change in temperature patterns. The researchers were part of 2K Network of the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme’s Past Global Changes (PAGES) project. The research was published online by the Nature Geoscience journal. The National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation jointly support the PAGES office. The US agency called the study the most comprehensive evaluation of temperature change on the Earth’s continents over the last 1,000 to 2,000 years. The PAGES study relied mainly on analysis of tree growth rings, pollen, skeletons of coral that register sea surface temperatures, polar and glacier ice samples and lake sediments, the National Science Foundation said. The 20th century ranked as the warmest or nearly the warmest century on all the continents except Antarctica. Africa lacked enough data to be included in the analysis. An abstract of the report on the Nature Geoscience website said reconstructions of temperature showed generally cold conditions between 1580 and 1880. The trend was punctuated in some areas by warm decades in the 18th century. From 1971 to 2000, the weighted average temperature was higher than any other time in nearly 1,400 years, it said.
— Reuters |
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Campaigners call for ban on ‘killer robots’ LONDON: Machines with the ability to attack targets without any human intervention must be banned before they are developed for use on the battlefield, campaigners against “killer robots” urged. The weapons, which could be ready for use within the next 20 years, would breach a moral and ethical boundary that should never be crossed, said Nobel Laureate Jody Williams, of the “Campaign to Stop Killer Robots”.
Scientists find clue to why matter exists LONDON: Scientists probing the nature of antimatter have found a bit more evidence to explain why the universe is not an empty husk, although not enough to account for the billions of galaxies strewn across the cosmos. Physicists believe that equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created in the Big Bang at the birth of the universe 13.8 billion years ago. Within one second, however, the antimatter had all but disappeared.
State institute cautions France over slow nuclear retreat TOURNEMIRE, France: A long slow retreat from nuclear power in France or indecision over policy could be very risky as skilled staff retire and young people reject careers with an uncertain future, the state-funded Atomic Safety Research Institute said. If France does decide to pull out of atomic energy, it should follow Germany's example and do it quickly, or face operating with inadequate personnel, said Jacques Repussard, who heads the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety.
Hubble telescope spies incoming Comet ISON CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: A recently discovered comet, dazzlingly bright even though it is still almost as far away as Jupiter, is racing toward a November rendezvous with the Sun, officials said. If it survives the encounter — and that’s a big if — the Comet ISON may be visible even in daylight in Earth’s skies at the end of the year. Preliminary measurements made with the Hubble Space Telescope, indicate Comet ISON’s body is no more than 4 miles in diameter.
— Reuters |
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THIS UNIVERSE Though both oxygen and hydrogen are plentiful in nature, why do we have water crisis everywhere? Water is produced through the combination of hydrogen and oxygen, both of which are abundant. These two elements combine easily, and exothermally. In a real sense, water can be called ashes of hydrogen burning. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element of the universe, water should be quite abundant. So it is found in some places, as on Earth, but it is not available in deserts. This is because it is rather particular about the habitat it favours. This, more than its general abundance, determines its availability. When was the universe first discovered and who discovered it? By billions of people, the moment they were born. In physics, why are we taught about the workings of the simple pendulum, properties of gases, etc? How is such knowledge useful in real life? Please do not be so impatient. It would be silly to try to teach you about working of a jet engine without going through some preliminaries. Similarly, if you want to understand why it is cold on mountains, you will have to learn about the behaviour of gases along with atmospheric pressure. I hope you got curious very early about the principle that allows a grandfather clock to keep time. I discovered the importance of allowing my arms to swing freely while walking with a gadavi full of milk on my head without spilling the milk. I was then a nine years old, but I intuitively understood the property of simple harmonic motion without being taught. I had become rather clever, quite accidentally! Readers can e-mail questions
to Prof Yash Pal at palyash.pal@gmail.com |
