Sunday, January 30, 2011

Great stuff on physorg this weekend

The weekend is usually dull over at physorg. Not this time.

First up, "A Fizzy Ocean on Enceladus". It seems there may be life on Saturn's moon, right in our own local neighborhood. And you know what this means with respect to life elsewhere in the universe -- if it's on Earth and on Enceladus, a much different world, then life is common throughout the universe.

Next, "Researchers Find Smoking Gun of World's Biggest Extinction". I always believed the late Permian extinction was caused by volcanic eruptions. Now we know it was. This event wiped out 90% of life on Earth. There have been numerous mass extinctions of life on our planet -- and we're heading into another one now as a result of human activities.

There's also a great physics story that I don't even pretend to understand. But I love it anyway -- Time-like entanglement!

And finally, a depressing note from an article entitled, "High School Biology Teachers Reluctant to Endorse Evolution in Class". Here's a quote from it:
". . . only about 28 percent of [biology] teachers consistently implement National Research Council recommendations calling for introduction of evidence that evolution occurred . . ."
People have to stand up for truth, especially in these mindless times, yet it seems even biology teachers won't say it loud and clear: evolution created us and all the living things on our planet. Why am I not surprised? It's just the American decline again. I see it as a skull grinning madly back at us and hoping for the time when darkness will engulf everything for all eternity. This is what religion also seeks, and that is no coincidence. Knowledge is the mortal enemy of these people.

Anyway, check out the great sci-stories and mourn the facts revealed in the last one. And rest assured: no matter how many people try to stop it, science will always march forward.