I dont like wimps

[Vince1963]

Just watched  Horizon BBC2) dancing in the dark.. Very interesting.. I particularly like Prof John Ellis, How does he know where everything is, I mean..Did anyone watch it?, you could hardly see him behind his desk lol. Don't think i'm convinced with the WIMP particle  (not that i know anything lol), but i do believe in the "dark matter" thing. (i wish i'd spent more time in school lol). What i can't get my head round is the where  it came from, I mean they can't measure it and they cannot see it, they can only see the way it interacts with everything (my brain is hurting)... I think that black holes play a part in there somewhere.

Like when they munch on everything that falls in to the event horizon i think that one of the bi products of "inhalation" is part dark matter (or maybe all of it). I do hope they find the answer before i go back to starlight.

[L8-Nite]

Kind of like magnetism, you can't see it, but its there.

[Ptarmigan]

 of "inhalation" is

Is that what the cosmologist Bill Clinton did not do when he was young,

smoked stuff but did not inhale 

Nice one, dont you just love speel chuckers !!

[kalasinman]

Magnetism and gravity can't be seen or denied. With the LHC starting next week, this year or next should see phsics get turned on it's head, hopefully.

[Cath]

I tend to view current scientific theories much like a newly born neural network. It's very much in it's infancy with lots of random connections that needs time to organize/reorganize itself (of which the root driving process is currently unknown to us) to learn how to attempt to interpret it's surroundings.

Sometimes the neural net settles on false minima (and can also go off on tangents), and needs a bit of an external 'kick' to bounce it out of this false minima. These false minimals are configurations where the net has unfortunately got a little stuck on a false 'positives' as far as the net is concerned.

I greatly suspect we are in deep need of that little 'kick'. We really need more Newtons and Einsteins in this world, but our apparently extreme desire for 'sameness' in people (take a look at ANY school to see this these days) is (and always has been) a bit of a serious road block in this area.

[Vince1963]

Said i should have gone to school more lol...sorry annihilation (above post edited) thanks Ptarmigan

[Vince1963]

Well put Cath, I agree, but isn't Stephen Hawking our top guy at the moment?... He gets a lot of "limelight" these days, he's done some good things, or may be Alan Guth or Edward Witten and then there's Brian Cox...(i'm sure there will be more)

There is one thing i do know though....i hope they find out in my lifetime.

This breakthrough will open so many doors to our understanding of everything (i think in all science), maybe CERN will find the answer and if there is more particles than the ones we already know i think this will be the key to everything for all areas of science, One worry i do have though..  I hope in our quest to know everything we don't destroy our beautiful blue world.

[ronin]

I saw part of it, well listened to part of it is more accurate.

It seemed a little dated - who was narrating? I have a horrible feeling I knew the voice but couldn't put a name to it, had an impression of a face that should be there.

Some of the people did seem to be sticking to old known ideas that as best I know have little (no) evidence for them even after several years of looking, but they are still churning out the rhetoric. As Cath says a kick in the rear is required and some new ideas.

Not I think one of the better Horizon presentations.

[JB80]

I'm positive it was David Mitchell doing the voice over. It added a certain numberwang element to it, I just can't help but think he was being cynical but then again I just think it is him. Don't get me wrong I love David Mitchell and would like to see him doing more stuff on Horizon, I may of actually watched the life of cats one if he was doing it.

Still I enjoyed it.

[DaveS]

It was David Mitchell, RT said so.

I dunno, SUSY does look to be on shaky ground, but then LHC II might find one or more SUSY particles. Problem is, a lot of (All of?) these extreme cosmologies need very high energies to test them, energies we haven't had up to now, and some we may never have enough energy, so the theoretical cosmologists and physisists have been, let us say, dancing in the dark. Whether LHC II will shed any light is a moot point. We can but hope.

I thought it was reasonable for a Horizon, not *too* dumbed down, though I dare say some on here will find it too simplistic.

[ollypenrice]

I greatly suspect we are in deep need of that little 'kick'. We really need more Newtons and Einsteins in this world, but our apparently extreme desire for 'sameness' in people (take a look at ANY school to see this these days) is (and always has been) a bit of a serious road block in this area.

You are certainly right that a formulaic sameness in education is very much in vogue at the moment and is equally certainly a bad thing. On the other hand Einstein apparently didn't find his own education overly stimulating and it was, perhaps, in reaction to this that he thought as he did. I wonder how many of our radical thinkers were radical through reaction against conventionality or radical through encouragement to be radical? The disappointing answer might well be the true one! (The greatest and funniest example of reaction is provided by Bohr who, when given an aneroid barometer to find the height of the school, held it over the roof parapet with a stopwatch in hand...       )

However, we do need to kick out this managerialist approach to education.  The stuff they do in schools at the moment is, in all subjects, no more than painting by numbers. I'm glad to be out of it which is something I never thought I'd say.

Olly

[Vince1963]

I thought it was reasonable for a Horizon, not *too* dumbed down, though I dare say some on here will find it too simplistic.

Well I like Dumbed down, Cos i find it condescending when some people try to  baffle with waffle. Programs on TV are broadcast to a diverse audience and try to cater for those with an interest in astronomy/cosmology.  So Yes i agree with you to an extent Dave .

Keep it simple suits me (and many others)

[ollypenrice]

Well I like Dumbed down, Cos i find it condescending when some people try to  baffle with waffle. Programs on TV are broadcast to a diverse audience and try to cater for those with an interest in astronomy/cosmology.  So Yes i agree with you to an extent Dave .

Keep it simple suits me (and many others)

The trouble is that telly is so reluctant to try to talk to anything but a huge audience. What would be wrong with talking to a small one from time to time?

To my mind the telly tends to bore with waffle rather than baffle with it.

Olly

[Ptarmigan]

 reluctant to try to talk to anything but a huge audience.

,

What would be wrong with talking to a small one from time to time?

That is because it MUST by charter , assuming we are still talking about the Beeb ?

,

cost / audience

Nowt wrong with talking to a huge audience, my daughter and partner enjoyed stargazing greatly,

whilst not (they admit ) to following all the guffaws and 'in'  laughter that rendered D O'B _even_  less intelligible than usual.

I amused them by telling that I correctly identified the mystery "buzz", not cos I had heard it before but by deduction. (email me !) because I have experience in spacecraft telemetry.

Cant get a wider audience than that for beeb 'science to the masses' type progs.

Oh by the way, I am retired but open to JeremyC.type consultancy offers !

Oh, PS, Mitchell's commentary - had me in stitches ! a delightfull and unusual variation on the usual patronising WE KNOW and WE REQUIRE YOU TO BELIVE that usually sends me to sleep

[Vince1963]

The trouble is that telly is so reluctant to try to talk to anything but a huge audience. What would be wrong with talking to a small one from time to time?

To my mind the telly tends to bore with waffle rather than baffle with it.

Olly

I Do agree with you totally Olly.. They need something in the style of Open university, now i would love to watch that, whether any of it would sink in is another story (this is where i find the people with a great ability to remember things in long term memory is the key to intelligence and the two go hand in hand... its all about memory) I can watch/read something that goes deep and 10 minutes later i forgotten it lol i digress... Well anyway they can still use the "waffle" but explain it in "layman's terms" for us thats a bit slow

[Vince1963]

That is because it MUST by charter , assuming we are still talking about the Beeb ?

,

cost / audience

Oh by the way, I am retired but open to JeremyC.type consultancy offers !

Oh, PS, Mitchell's commentary - had me in stitches ! a delightfull and unusual variation on the usual patronising WE KNOW and WE REQUIRE YOU TO BELIVE that usually sends me to sleep

I liked your comment.. BUT not got a clue about the Jeremy Clarkson thing lol

As for Mitchell's commentary.. I didn't find him patronising, I found him easy on the ears lol

[baggywrinkle]

I guess you have to be a professor to know where everything in your office is

I used to work with people like that at Harwell Research when I first left the RN.

It was a good programme.

[Ptarmigan]

Oh by the way, I am retired but open to JeremyC.type consultancy offers !

Oh, PS, Mitchell's commentary - had me in stitches ! a delightfull and unusual variation on the usual patronising WE KNOW and WE REQUIRE YOU TO BELIVE that usually sends me to sleep

I liked your comment.. BUT not got a clue about the Jeremy Clarkson thing lol

As for Mitchell's commentary.. I didn't find him patronising, I found him easy on the ears lol

Jeremy's big fat fees, £££ !

Mitchell - just to make sure I am not misunderstood, I was not calling him patronising ! I was favourably comparing him with others who are

I found his 'sceptical' tone / comments great !

[Vince1963]

Ahh... i see now, Don't watch Clarckson..Used to, I find him arrogant and irritating.

Ptarmigan.... Sorry if i got and gave the wrong impression