Do scientists really think that the world will end in 2012?
Real scientists don't expect anything out of the ordinary to happen in the year 2012, or specifically on the date December 21, other than the solstice, which happens every year. None of the "predicted" happenings for 2012 hold up under close scrutiny. "Planet X" and "Nibiru" simply don't exist. The Mayan calendar ends a cycle, but there were no predictions of the end of the world. The Sun doesn't line up with the galactic centre; it's 6 degrees off. No asteroids or comets are actually predicted to hit Earth. All of this stuff was put together by sensationalists in order to promote their books and TV shows, and shamelessly promoted by the History Channel. Don't take any of it seriously!
Does the 2011/2012 solar cycle that scientists predict for real? Are there any spiritual implications?
Look up precession of the equinoxes, it happens every 26,000 years. So yes the solar cycle is real. Some have looked at it in a "spiritual" way, meaning the consciousness of humanity will evolve, but this theory gets extremely complicated because it not only makes people realize what God really is, but explains that the universe is based on some "spritual" process involving energy and feedback system with everything thats is. If you believe in the arrival of Nibiru, a distant planet in the solar system that supposedly is responsible for creating manking, then I guess you could reason that "christ" is coming back. The ancient Sumerian knew there was another planet in the solar system which we still are unsure about, some say it might be the planEt discovered by NASA in 2003, known as Eris, or 2003 UB313, if this planet is in fact the same planet as NIBIRU, then in 2012 we should find out whether or not "Christ" or the Annunaki(look into the SUMERIANS) will return. Some of this is hard for believe to believe in, afterall it is pretty extreme as it would re-shape the way humanity thinks...which is exactly what the Mayans along with most other ancient civilizations prophecized.
If all of the scientists in the world were forced to work solely on a cure for cancer, would a cure be found?
No.I know why you think that. You’ve seen it in movies how a scientist (possibly a botanist) will mutate a sheep doomsday virus with a fork and an observatory, to extinguish an active volcano, just in time before it destroys LA, while finding a magical cure-all for cancer and hacking Google for the heck of it.A scientist is someone who conducts scientific research. In real life, this isn’t easy and this isn’t something anyone can do, as movies portray it. They all have long, rather costly educations and often a lifelong dedication to the their field of study that you can’t replicate in a few days.Science encompasses many different diciplines. Most of the scientist don’t specialize in “medical science” and thus their contribution to such a cure would be few, if any. They would however be missed in the forcast of hurricanes and earthquakes, in the study of other diseases, protection of wildlife, preventing famine and draught and a million of other things scientist do.Please keep in mind that there are several different types of cancer. In the widest sense they are an abnormal cell growth, but so are benign tumours. You can imagine the different cancer types as a huge family of diseases that are related to one another. But they have different causes, different prognosis and different speeds of development and also affect and severly damage different regions of the body. Thus one single cure, can’t eliminate them all and repair the damage to boot.Some types of cancer can already be “cured”, with others you can treat the symptoms, or stop it from spreading in your body, and sometimes all you can do, is to reduce pain and emotional distress. And scientist continue to look for new treatments and cures, daily. So, it’s far better to let the scientists studying cancer do their job and provide them with funding by donating.
How are volcanoes and earthquakes interrelated?
Volcanoes have origin at a depth of of about 2900 km or more below earth surface. The magma which comes out during volcanic eruption is from the liquid core of the earth. The entire liquid core material cannot and does not come to the surface of earth. The liquid from earth core is pushed in a small opening wherein the liquid material is pushed upward because of the pressure of the boiling core material. This small tube like structure through which the liquid comes up is known as plume. When the plume is about to touch the earth hard surface it takes some time. The lava in the plume pushes up and hits the earth surface from below. This impact causes earthquake like conditions and after a number of such hits the volcano erupts. The small jerks due to pushing of lava causes small magnitude earthquake. The magnitudes are in the range 5.0 to 6.0 or below. These earthquakes apparently do not have any connection or relation with plate theory and movement of plates and inter-plate friction which causes earthquake.Sometimes huge eruption of volcano could cause a very big jolt like earthquake. In 1883 Indonesia had experienced a very large eruption of Krakatoa Volcano. It is reported that the sound of volcanic eruption was so large that it was heard up to a distance of about 7000 to 8000 kilometers from Indonesia. The ash from Krakatoa volcano was up in the sky to an height of about 4000 kilometers above. The Indonesian Sea, Arabian Sea and parts of Pacific sea water was full of volcanic debris with black color for about six to ten months.Dr. Arun BapatResearch Seismologist and Earthquake Engineer
Whats with all these earthquakes? Perhaps the end?
There are no more earthquakes recently than at any time in the past; in fact this year has been _below average_ in earthquakes. With better news reporting and the internet we hear a lot more about recent disasters, but they've been going on by the dozen every year since the beginning of the Earth. > I know a lot about 2012 and the alignments that could cause all this stuff. Then you don't know _anything_ because _no_ alignments are predicted for 2012. "2012" is a hoax designed to scare children and naive adults, and to sell books, movies, and TV shows. There is no scientific reality behind it. The world has existed for over four billion years. Is it reasonable to expect that it will come to an end in less than three years? And all because of a Mayan calendar? Use some common sense. The most interesting astronomical events in 2012 will be an annular eclipse of the Sun on 2012 May 20, a total eclipse of the Sun on 2012 Nov 13, and a transit of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun on 2012 Jun 06. Scientists don't expect anything out of the ordinary to happen in the year 2012, or specifically on the date December 21, except for the solstice, which happens every year. None of the "predicted" happenings for 2012 hold up under close scrutiny. "Planet X" and "Nibiru" simply don't exist. The Mayan calendar ends a cycle, but there were no predictions of the end of the world. The Sun doesn't line up with the galactic centre; it's 6 degrees off. No asteroids or comets are actually predicted to hit Earth. All of this stuff was put together by crackpots in order to promote their books and TV shows, and shamelessly promoted by the History Channel. Don't take any of it seriously! The best way is to _inform yourself_ about 2012 by reading factual sites about it, rather than sites that are trying to sell you something. Here are a few: http://www.2012hoax.org/ http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/6977... http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/?p=59 http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/intro/nibiru-and-doomsday-2012-questions-and-answers Or, if you want a video, here's David Morrison of NASA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQqn-zZzbLw
Do earthquakes affect an aircraft flying above?
There are a few earthquake disaster films out there, 2012 is one, that depict an airplane madly attempting to takeoff while the quake makes it’s way down the length of the runway, but just in time, the aircraft grips air and arises over the turmoil on the ground. That scenario would really be the only issue that might affect a flying airliner especially one at cruise altitude. You need a flat, hard runway to both land and takeoff whatever damage an earthquake might do could have a bearing on both. Let’s hear from the experts who get into the seismic wave stuff.After all, earthquakes release seismic waves in the form of pressure and shear waves (or P and S waves). When P waves leave a solid object, like the crust, and enter the atmosphere, they take the form of sound waves (S waves can't travel through liquids or gases). However, P waves typically register below the 20-hertz threshold for human hearing [source: USGS]. Scientists describe waves that fall in this range as infrasound.When people "hear" an earthquake, they typically don't hear the seismic waves at all. Rather, they discern the sound produced when seismic waves move through solid matter -- such as the rumbling of a building and its contents. You wouldn't be able to detect these sounds from a flying airplane, nor would you be able to feel the infrasound waves we just mentioned. Thanks to what physicists call attenuation, the waves gradually lose intensity as they move through the medium of the air. It's the same reason a radio speaker sounds quieter from across the room and why sunlight intensity dims when it has to travel through layers of atmosphere or ocean.So even if seismic waves reached the typical cruising altitude of 30,000 feet (9,144 meters), they would be so diminished by their journey through the mediums of rock and air that the noise and motion of the airplane itself would overpower the waves. You wouldn't hear the earthquake from the aircraft, and you certainly wouldn't feel it.
How do scientists respond to attacks of "scientism" by philosophers and the social sciences?
This is the first time I've ever heard of scientism. Having skimmed the wikipedia article (Scientism), I can see why my more philosophical friends have never brought up such an issue with me: Like many earth scientists, I am well aware of how little we understand and how incomplete our scientific models are. I don't worry about whether science and what is measurable is or is not the fundamental way of percieving truth. I'm too busy trying to figure out how to use what we can measure to improve and/or save lives. There are so many aspects of this planet we do not understand, on every time and length scale, that there is room for an almost infinite amount of scientific exploration. How could I ever assert whether or not there is a fundamental point at which another approach to truth is required? The point of science is to describe the world in a measurable, repeatable manner. From such an understanding, we often attempt to change the world in small, predictable ways. I leave anything beyond that to the philosophers (and, occasionally, the mathematicians). Science often relies on math, and math often starts from proofs and logic, rather than experimentation. Theoretical physics is sometimes indistinguishable from advanced philosophy. How a single outcome replaces a probablistic field of possibilities is fascinating. But many scientists choose to focus instead on the questions we think we can answer. I know there are big questions I will never answer, but there are so many important questions that I *can* pursue. Earthquake research, tsunami models, aquifer maps, contaminant transport models, erosion studies, etc. can all save and/or improve lives. Many scientists focus so heavily on the measurable because we are pragmatists. Most of us would not say that science currently encompases all degrees and types of knowledge, and have also never really worried about whether it ever could. We know that science does give us useful knowledge, and we have much still to learn. So we do science, and we learn.
The recent trend towards anti intellectualism where people are rejecting arguments by experts (eg Brexit).? Why do you think this is happening?
There is an old but wondrous tale of how in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.That’s what it feels like at this juncture: we live in a world with an endless stream of “experts” all saying the same things over and over, reading the same research, believing what they read or view in mainstream media and they have a consensus (which is I would have to say anything but intellectual).Moreover, they mostly represent vested interests, these ‘experts’ of which you speak.In the case of the Brexit referendum, they represented big firms (who love the EU as they have the scale to lobby it and influence opinion to get what they want - usually regulations which help squeeze out smaller, often innovative, competitors). Or, they are just paid directly / indirectly by the blob itself.In many cases, these haughty and arrogant (they are anything but intellectual - unless you regard, say a schoolyard bully as an intellectual of some form) folks demand that the “lesser folks’ listen to them. I call that snobbery. It’s also a very clear form of stupidity, let alone arrogance.Moreover it is is difficult to justify just why this ‘expert’ cadre ought to be listened to because they have overall a poor track record. One example among many: a lot of folks arguing for the EU in the recent referendum were saying Britain would collapse if it threatened to leave… Yet these were broadly the same people who said the UK economy would collapse if Britain didn’t join the Euro.(If all else fails always try to apply my simple law of economic clustering: “If more than 100 economists write a newspaper letter advocating anything, presume they are incorrect).The concept of an anti-intellectual trend of which you speak can only have been started by those elitists who believe themselves superior (by birth, race, education, nationality, whatever…) to ‘ordinary’ people. (Given their track record, one might add that they don’t do self-analysis well either).So:In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.The current “expert” caste is made up of broadly self-interested, linear thinkers bereft of much perspective on life beyond their own echo chambers. They are therefore not intellectual (unless by their own inflated opinion) but they are blind.Thus the average every day one-eyed person has a material advantage, as they can see life free of the dogma polluting a self-professed “expert” class which clearly is anything but…
What is the importance of science in the world?
There are literally hundreds of things you could write about. Take your time, and cleverly map out what you're going to write. Here are some considerations : How has science helped banking and the management of money, religion, architecture, economy, thoughts on philosophy, transport, agreculture, food sources, fuel production and so on. There are many industries in our world. Pick the most popular ones and write about them.
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