|
|
|
|
Dik-Dik Van Dik
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
 Posted - 04/14/2005 : 21:06:16
|
Seems people enjoy pseudoscience because the crazy ideas enrich their lives by making the world seem all the more mysterious and fascinating, compared to comparatively slow, complicated and minor advances in real science.
So what in your opinion is the most fascinating/interesting/unbelievable real science fact/theory that i probably don't already know about?
|
DARWIN 3:16
"The simple believeth every word." - Proverbs 14:15
|
Edited by - Dik-Dik Van Dik on 04/14/2005 21:10:11
|
|
|
Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2005 : 21:31:02 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by Dik-Dik Van Dik
So what in your opinion is the most fascinating/ interesting/ unbelievable real science fact/ theory that i probably don't already know about?
There are a number of ideas out there about who the original speakers of the Uruk IV proto-cuneiform. Some would argue that it wasn't Sumerian. Others would.
And since cuneiform is our earliest writing, that's an important question: what it Sumerian, or something else?
(Edited for spelling) |
| Edited by - Cuneiformist on 04/15/2005 05:27:23 |
 |
|
|
Dik-Dik Van Dik
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2005 : 22:25:28 [Permalink]
|
| what are the alternatives to Sumerian? If they argue it isnt Sumerian do they have alternative theories, or is it just a case of having evidence against Sumerian? |
DARWIN 3:16
"The simple believeth every word." - Proverbs 14:15
|
|
|
|
Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
|
|
dv82matt
SFN Regular
760 Posts |
|
|
filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2005 : 23:54:59 [Permalink]
|
Call me biased, but I'll say herpetology and icthyology, especially now that genetic testing is in common use. Few other disciplines are such that dedicated non-professionals make so many contributions, sometimes literally at the risk of life and limb.
quote:
Originally posted by Ricky
The Mpemba effect
Edit:
Well, when I first heard of it, it was. But it is fairly easy to understand why it happens.
I seem to recall that Cecil, over on The Straight Dope did a piece on this some years back. I wonder if it could be done in a home freezer.
 |
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
|
|
|
|
woolytoad
Skeptic Friend
313 Posts |
|
|
Dik-Dik Van Dik
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
|
|
Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 06:30:25 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by Dik-Dik Van Dik
what are the alternatives to Sumerian? If they argue it isnt Sumerian do they have alternative theories, or is it just a case of having evidence against Sumerian?
No one would argue for another language that could clearly be distinguished. Furthermore, it's clear from certain words, e.g. place names, or the names for flora or fauna, that there was a (or perhaps many) "substrate" languages that dies out ot were subsumed before ever being written down.
The argument that the language of the earlies cuneiform wasn't Sumerian is complex so I won't go into it except to say that it has to do with the graphic representation of signs and their phonetic values. There are plausible answers to such questions, however, and most would hold that indeed, our eariest cuneiform does represent Sumerian. |
|
|
|
BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 09:36:09 [Permalink]
|
| In the new skeptic they talk about the non-zero pobability that powerful accelerators could cause a strangelet incident which would destroy the universe, theoretically. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
|
|
|
Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
|
|
H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 10:41:53 [Permalink]
|
That the reason geckos are such amazing climbers is that their feet bond to surfaces on the molecular level.
|
"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 04/15/2005 10:42:09 |
|
|
|
Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 12:23:15 [Permalink]
|
| Quantum physics. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
|
|
|
|
GeeMack
SFN Regular
USA
1093 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 20:43:51 [Permalink]
|
Low Society -- Slime Molds -- Plant or Animal?
quote:
From the article in the link
It's not plant or animal -- or bacteria or fungus, for that matter -- but it's living. Take a walk outside, and it's all around you. The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a social amoeba belonging to the neglected sixth kingdom of life, the Mycetozoa. In the labs of Rice University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, this unlikely little creature is fast becoming to social and evolutionary biology what the fruit fly has long been to developmental biology -- a model organism with which scientists can pry open nature's secrets.
As a mushroom hunter with a general interest mostly in edible mushrooms, I have come across many interesting types of fungus and related living things. The "slime molds" take an interesting position in biology that doesn't quite fall into the category of plants, but isn't quite considered an animal either.
|
| Edited by - GeeMack on 04/15/2005 20:51:17 |
|
|
|
Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2005 : 21:50:18 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by GeeMack
Low Society -- Slime Molds -- Plant or Animal?
quote:
From the article in the link
It's not plant or animal -- or bacteria or fungus, for that matter -- but it's living. Take a walk outside, and it's all around you. The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a social amoeba belonging to the neglected sixth kingdom of life, the Mycetozoa. In the labs of Rice University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, this unlikely little creature is fast becoming to social and evolutionary biology what the fruit fly has long been to developmental biology -- a model organism with which scientists can pry open nature's secrets.
As a mushroom hunter with a general interest mostly in edible mushrooms, I have come across many interesting types of fungus and related living things. The "slime molds" take an interesting position in biology that doesn't quite fall into the category of plants, but isn't quite considered an animal either.
I am now a slime mold fan. Yay slime mold! |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
|
|
|
filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/16/2005 : 01:28:29 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by GeeMack
Low Society -- Slime Molds -- Plant or Animal?
quote:
From the article in the link
It's not plant or animal -- or bacteria or fungus, for that matter -- but it's living. Take a walk outside, and it's all around you. The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a social amoeba belonging to the neglected sixth kingdom of life, the Mycetozoa. In the labs of Rice University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, this unlikely little creature is fast becoming to social and evolutionary biology what the fruit fly has long been to developmental biology -- a model organism with which scientists can pry open nature's secrets.
As a mushroom hunter with a general interest mostly in edible mushrooms, I have come across many interesting types of fungus and related living things. The "slime molds" take an interesting position in biology that doesn't quite fall into the category of plants, but isn't quite considered an animal either.
Yeah, but they're still slime molds, therefore Darwinism has been proven wrong again! Fie on Darwin's silly, religious philosophy -- it's nothing but a theory; a blasphemous attempt to deny God under the guise of so-called "science!" :sneer:
Thanks, GeeMack for a very interesting and enlightening read. Slime molds rock!
I haven't done any mushroom hunting in too long a time, beyond a good sized and tasty puffball I rescued from the lawnmower last year.
|
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Topic Locked
