Your input is needed!

[Azure]

Hey all, I'm a student currently doing my as levels at sixth form, and I want to go on to study physics at university. My school have selected me to take an as level called the extended project - it's essentially got to be a 6000 word dissertation on any topic you want - and I want to try and link it to astronomy/or at least that side of science if possible. So what better place to get ideas than here eh?

So basically, I need a question. It has to be open enough for some controversy, argument, and depth for extensive research and opinion etc. but not so ambiguous that it becomes messy and diffuse, with no real structure.

Some ideas I've thrown about include;

Is there life outside of earth?

Is the likelihood of finding life close to Earth high?

Should we continue to fund space exploration? Has it fulfilled it's purpose?

What's the meaning of life? Do we occupy a significant space in the universe?

Can God and The Big Bang co-exist as theories of creation? Does one make the other obsolete?

Other ideas I've had include everything from space commercialization to religion vs science etc.

Let me know what you think, and any ideas at all are welcome, try to keep them science-y-ish though!

[crashtestdummy]

I would think a good one would be "is life in our solar system confined to earth"

[KevUU]

"Should we continue to fund space exploration? Has it fulfilled it's purpose?"

This does it for me. Along with, should we fund further manned space exploration, or is just robotic / probe exploration sufficient?

[JamesF]

Can God and The Big Bang co-exist as theories of creation? Does one make the other obsolete?

I'd avoid this one like the plague. I genuinely can't see that you can go anywhere useful with it.

James

[JamesF]

"Should we continue to fund space exploration? Has it fulfilled it's purpose?"

This does it for me. Along with, should we fund further manned space exploration, or is just robotic / probe exploration sufficient?

I quite like this one. I think there's potential to extend the scope along the lines of "Is there value (in terms of exploration of space) in setting up a permanent lunar colony? Is there value in setting up a permanent colony on Mars? Would the first be a useful or necessary stepping stone to the latter?" For someone in your position I think these are doubly interesting because they could well happen in your lifetime.

James

[Qualia]

I'd avoid the last three.

The question: should we continue to fund space exploration? Has it fulfilled it's purpose? Is a normative based question and as such, no matter how rational and convincing is the arguement, ultimately it's already-always going to start from some perspective, gunked with some given prejudice that in itself cannot be wrong or right. Sure, it may be a fascinating argument to assert that the billions spent on the space venture in 2005, for example, some $2000 billion would have been better spent sorting out the 1 in 5 of Americans folk suffering terribly below the poverty line, for example, but we can easily imagine arguments to just why space exploration is so important. In the end such should-ought based questions are fascinating but perhaps not the best suited to your current physics project.

The penultimate question: what's the meaning of life? Do we occupy a significant space in the universe? Is, again, a more normative/semiotic based question which can be coherently (but not exhaustively) argued that meaning does not belong to life per se but is something we give it. Or again, from a purely biological, Darwinian front, we could argue that life per se is not intended by anything but is a purely mindless, goalless process, so cannot be thought of as having meaning or some end result unless we - as human beings - give it one (say, to pass on genes to the next generation etc) and then we run into the problems as suggested above. In that sense, to ask 'what is the meaning of life' is like asking 'what is the intention or meaning of water to flow down hills?'. The question - at best - is insoluble and perhaps one outside the parameters of physics.

The ultimate question is riddled with problems and one best avoided but certainly not one which shouldn't be contemplated - if only to exercise our grey cells. Regardless of the faith be it religion or science (the dubious dichotomy is noted) we simply ask ourselves where did that x or y come from, or what created them? If we say they just "came into existence" be this a god or Big Bang from nothing contradicts the notion that nothing can come from nothing. Now, there need not be a problem with this but we could ask how much 'nothing' does it take to bring about the existence of something? Or again, how does an entity which is nothing, that is, nonexistent, cause itself to be something, that is, existent? If somehow the nothing becomes conceptually conceivable and thus by inference becomes a something, then the idea is rendered absurd, and again, if we say that a given nothing can cause itself to exist, then we are saying that before an entity exists, it already has the ability to perform an act which seems a little odd. These assertion may seem only superficially valid, but you can appreciate that even at this immature level deep philosophical problems are arising.

These reasons are given not to undermine your excellent questions but more to raise the concern that they might not be absolutely fitting. It is for this reason that I'd focus on simpler, more empirically based questions which inturn may give you a greater grounding in your own knowledge.

At varying degrees of intrigue and difficulty, we could ask ourselves:

Why is there light on Earth but space is so dark even though it has so many stars? Why are sunsets reddish and summer skies blue? And why do we colour the sun as yellow, when the sun is in fact white? etc.

Why is it colder in winter when the Earth is nearer the sun?

How do we know other planets exist outside the Solar System, what is the probability of life existing beyond earth and is it coherent to consider terra-forming somewhere like Mars?

What does it mean to say we are all stardust, where do the elements that make up life and substances on Earth come from? How do we know this, what techniques are there?

What is the age of the universe, how is this estimated and what are the possible fates of the Universe and how do we theorise this?

What have been some of the theories on what is Space and Time and what is Spacetime?

What are the theoretical origins of our Solar System?

What is the estimated scale of the universe and what are the more pertinent features we should be aware of when considering the Universe's size?

Who was Messier and why did his 'blunders' change and direct the life of so many stargazers?

What is the current NASA project on Mars and what does it hope to do?

In what ways has astronomy, space exploration and study benefited mankind?

What does it mean to say that looking into space is looking back in time and what does this tell us about the Universe we inhabit?

These are just a few and obviously raise some of my own prejudices but I hope it helps a little.

[michaelmorris]

Many of your suggested subjects are as much about economics, politics, sociology and religion as they are about science. I would suggest that as you are studying science, I would try to ensure that my stidy was predominantly about science.

As this is an AS level project, a literature review of a subject would probably be the way to go. However I suspect you would get extra brownie points if you included something which was back up with observations/experiments.

If you are looking to study Astronomy/Astrophysics at university they are likely to be impressed if it is fits in this subject area.

For instance, you could carry out a review of the science behind observing eclipsing binary star systems and what this tells about the star systems concerned. You could then go on to discuss how this technique has been refined to help find extra solar planets. You could include your own light curves from observing short period eclisping binaries.

[Archie Tureous]

Hi Azure,

These are intersting questions but they are essentially philosophical questions rather that scientific ones. is that what you intended?

I think you will find that some of the questions have fairly short answers and it might be difficult to stretch them to 6000 words.

I do find the 'science vs. religion' question interesting, but if you take a open-minded view it becomes obvious that science and religion are fundamentally asking two different, non-conflicting questions: science is asking "how?", whilst religion is asking "why?". From that point it becomes apparent that anyone might believe either point of view, or both, or (perhaps most contraversially) neither.

Maybe an intersting direction to expore would be to attempt to put some scientific theories into terms that make sense in the every-day world. Clever people like Stephen Hawking tell us that space-time is curved - does that have any bearing on my life? What if the Higgs Boson really exists - should I care? Is the universe full of dark matter? Is my house full of dark matter? How do we we know? Why should we care?

Whatever you choose to do, please do share you finished work with us.

[Azure]

Wow, guys you've all been more helpful than you can imagine! Thanks - I've got a lot to chew on here, as well as what other reading I've been doing. I'll definitely give this some proper thought before trying to formulate and finalize an appropriate question, any other thoughts/ideas are always appreciated(:

I know that a lot of the questions I proposed are not very sciency, and instead have a flavour of philosophy in them - that's mainly because I've been struggling to find a astronomy related question that's both current and has some controversy to it . Having an element of argument makes for better writing and we were shown that the A* scoring pieces are generally ones with some debate to them. But that's not to say that a purely science topic would be unable to achieve a high grade. The topic also has to have a sufficient amount of depth to it - I am supposed to be able to spend the next month or 2 researching and structuring my topic. I quite like the line of space exploration, and have been thinking about the topic of ET life too. Some of the other ideas mentioned here are intriguing - I'm gonna go and do some more thinking about this. Thanks again.

[KevUU]

Off on a total aside, and at the risk of sounding patronising, I notice your sig says "a slightly dodgy solar filter"

Please be careful, there are some risks thataren't worth taking...

(sorry if I'm being stupid and stating the obvious here, no offense intended)

[LukeSkywatcher]

How about this one:

Q: "Life:Carbon-based Only?".

Then you can explore the possibilities of other forms of life in the universe(unknown to us as yet), that might be silicone-based etc.

[ronin]

Would avoid anything that brings religon into it, simply it tends to be one or the other and not a lot in the middle.

Life close or far is difficult.

Near to earth (Mars) could easily be contamination from Earth, possibility of one of the moons of Saturn probably not contamination, around other stars life is hyperthetical. At this time life on a moon of Saturn is also hyperthetical. If you say there is all someone has to say is "Show it then?"

If you went of anything concerning life then try What is necessary on a planetary and star system to enable life to come into being. Easier would be what about the Earth and the Sun have enabled live to get going.

[Azure]

Off on a total aside, and at the risk of sounding patronising, I notice your sig says "a slightly dodgy solar filter"

Please be careful, there are some risks thataren't worth taking...

(sorry if I'm being stupid and stating the obvious here, no offense intended)

Aha no worries, it was just a joke between me and a friend - I assure you I fully understand the risks and that my filter is by no means unsafe! I value my eyes! The line was a little in-joke form a few months ago, although you do see some people on here with very shoddy filters indeed

[Budding Star Gazer]

if you want all you ask just pit science against the faiths.