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Avi Loeb And Aliens: The Right And Wrong of Science Funding. (Also Bing Image Search Brings up Porno When you Search for him)

Avi Loeb he prolific Harvard astrophysicist, dances on the edge of cosmic controversy. His research...

What Is And Is Not Plagiarism In Scientific Papers? Neri Oxman And Claudine Gay Did Nothing Seriously Wrong. A Basic Guide To Citation.

The online discourse of our time has come to the issue of plagiarism. Now Claudine Gay and Neri...

Asteroid 2007 FT3 Will Not Hit Us, And Other Predictions For 2024. Suppose It Did Hit Us.

In the past I have predicted certain things at the start of certain years.  This is a selection...

UPDATE: Claudine Gay Not Fired By Harvard. Claudine Gay Did Not Plagiarize. Weeks Later Resigns Due To Ongoing Pressure.

Christopher F Rufo has accused the president of Harvard of plagiarism in an effort so clumsy that...

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Hontas FarmerRSS Feed of this column.

Currently I am an adjunct professor at the College of DuPage. My research focuses on astrophysics from massive star formation to astroparticle physics. Born and raised in Chicagoland I have lived... Read More »

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The solution to the issue of dark matter and dark energy may be found by way of modifying Einstein's equations of General Relativity.  Working with Shane Larson of Northwestern University we may have found an analytical and exact solution to one such set of equations.  With this we may be able to test such proposals once and for all using the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, LISA. Exact solutions to the differential equations that describe fundamental physics are rare. So rare they are sometimes called by name.  As one of many collaborators in the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, Fundamental Physics working group, solving such problems is just what I do.

The launch of the new SLS rocket for the mission Artemis I was scrubbed earlier today due to valve issues.  Rocket engines, especially multi engine systems are very complex and dynamic systems in which any sign of a problem means the best policy is to abort.  Especially before launch.  These engines run on hydrogen and oxygen which must be kept at near absolute zero Kelvin.  As such an engine being the wrong temperature can indicate a leak.  

Every physicist knows how nuclear weapons work. However, where our weapons are deployed, our level of readiness to use them, and what we know about other countries’ weapons and deployments would not be common knowledge. Any person with a completed undergraduate and/or graduate education in physics knows how they work. The details of quantum mechanics, radiation, nuclear fission, fusion, electronics and so forth are in our textbooks. These things are well known to us. Many of us have a good idea of the basic engineering behind nuclear weapons. We know what materials are needed, and what type of precautions are needed to work with them.

Without bringing up anything else Matt Walsh has talked about lately anyone around his age would know about the banning of CFC’s and the Ozone hole. The banning of CFC’s changed how we cool our houses, and how we apply deodorant or hair products. They were used as propellants that were not flammable. They were used as coolants etc.

Thanks to banning them and phasing them out we were able to stop the ozone depletion that by now would’ve made going outside dangerous due to exposure to too much UV light.

The pixels of the James Webb Space Telescope's first image just released today, that are the least interesting to the public, will be the most instructive to astronomy and astrophysics. The tinest faintest dot you see is a distant billions of years old galaxy. If an ordinary picture is worth 1000 words when that picture is of a ordinary looking scene here on a single planet, then every pixel of this image from the James Webb Space Telescope will be worth 1000 x1000 words. Without careful analysis of each pixel there is not much that can be said scientifically right off the bat.

Blaire White had an interview with a male to female post op transsexual / transgender who regrets having the operation in part due to complications of having had the operation.  Research has shown the overall satisfaction rate is about 91% with a rate of out and out regret of 2% (Boustos 2021).  The story of Shape Shifter a, detransitoner with regret is not unheard of.