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At least, with p<0.05 confidence
Dec. 20th, 2010 11:21 pmI'm in love with today's xkcd. I agree with everything said in the comic but it's the alt-text that delivers the joke. At least, with p<0.05 confidence. To those who don't know this is a frequently used statistical evaluation of significance of results. If p<0.005 your findings are considered true if it's bigger then sorry - it's just junk. So after all the affirmation of science he delivers the stab. This is what we know until someone proves something different with better confidence or is unable to reproduce results.
In other news with above p<0.05 confidence:
New way to fight obesity by turning white fat cells, that hoard reserves, into brow fat cells, that turn fat into energy. At least in mice.
Most people are aware that even newborn babies react to their mother voice but here is evidence that it actually does something to their brains other voices can't. Mother voice activates language centers.
The chemists finally had to accept the reality and adjust periodic table. I thought I had it bad back in high school when I had to memorise it but the sudents now that they will have to remember several atomic masses to acknowledge all the most popular isotopes for many of the most popular elements like carbon and oxygen.
Voyager 1 is soon to be the first one to go into interstellar space. Sooner then it was expected it's leaving the heliosphere. It's already where the solar wind stops.
Voyager 1 is the furthest a human made thing but we would still have to go 5x that to arrive at the nearest focal point of the Sun. And that would be useful because we could then use sun as a magnifying glass for all kinds of electromagnetic signals from observations of exoplanets to efficient interstellar communication.
Now that LHC failed to create black holes (so much time spent worrying what will happen when it would and now everyone is sad that it didn't) and setback proof the string theory we can look at other contenders for great unified theory. Here's a loop quantum gravity theory. I already like it because it's from my University Physics Department. I used to walk over their cyclotron every day.
And looking back to the Big Bang there are some signs that there are more universes around and they are close enough they smashed into ours at the beginning of time. And left bruises. If it gets proven we'll become even less special. Not just living on a small planet orbiting medium sized star on a verge of insignificant galaxy but also in one of many universes.
Back in our neighbourhood you can watch Titan's cold volcanoes spit icy water and maybe someday we can take samples and see if something lives there under surface.
If you prefer something you can see with your own eyes there is going to be a lunar eclipse tonight. I was all stock up when I read the plan of events:
In other news with above p<0.05 confidence:
New way to fight obesity by turning white fat cells, that hoard reserves, into brow fat cells, that turn fat into energy. At least in mice.
Most people are aware that even newborn babies react to their mother voice but here is evidence that it actually does something to their brains other voices can't. Mother voice activates language centers.
The chemists finally had to accept the reality and adjust periodic table. I thought I had it bad back in high school when I had to memorise it but the sudents now that they will have to remember several atomic masses to acknowledge all the most popular isotopes for many of the most popular elements like carbon and oxygen.
Voyager 1 is soon to be the first one to go into interstellar space. Sooner then it was expected it's leaving the heliosphere. It's already where the solar wind stops.
Voyager 1 is the furthest a human made thing but we would still have to go 5x that to arrive at the nearest focal point of the Sun. And that would be useful because we could then use sun as a magnifying glass for all kinds of electromagnetic signals from observations of exoplanets to efficient interstellar communication.
Now that LHC failed to create black holes (so much time spent worrying what will happen when it would and now everyone is sad that it didn't) and setback proof the string theory we can look at other contenders for great unified theory. Here's a loop quantum gravity theory. I already like it because it's from my University Physics Department. I used to walk over their cyclotron every day.
And looking back to the Big Bang there are some signs that there are more universes around and they are close enough they smashed into ours at the beginning of time. And left bruises. If it gets proven we'll become even less special. Not just living on a small planet orbiting medium sized star on a verge of insignificant galaxy but also in one of many universes.
Back in our neighbourhood you can watch Titan's cold volcanoes spit icy water and maybe someday we can take samples and see if something lives there under surface.
If you prefer something you can see with your own eyes there is going to be a lunar eclipse tonight. I was all stock up when I read the plan of events:
...the real 12 stages of a lunar eclipse are as follows:However I don't feel like staying up till 2 a.m. but if you are sleepless or live further west enjoy.
1. Faint penumbral dimming of the moon’s disk.
2. Pervasive creeping sensations of unease.
3. Howling of wolves.
4. Unclean things walk the earth; Dick Cheney rises from the grave.
5. Contortion of the zodiac.
6. Intrusion of strange dimensions.
7. Universal gibbering madness.
8. Cthulhu.
9. A glimmer of sanity in the chaos.
10. Restoration of Euclidean geometry.
11. Fungal Mi-go from Yuggoth return captive brains to their rightful owners.
12. Applause, followed by waffles for breakfast.
