I saw this title come up on youtube suggested video list. I nearly ignored it, because, it had to be a stupid joke, right. But for some reason i clicked, and it turned out to be a serious TED video. it turns out that a very serious scientist named lisa Randall has written a book titled “Dark matter and the dinosaurs” in which she makes an improbably plausible case that dark matter actually might have been involved in the extinction of the dinosaurs! (Click the video for details) Aside from that theory(/speculation). She goes over all the latest cosmological reasearch in a way that makes it all seem simple, if not obvious. And she does all this without the cloying self absobtion of some of the better known science media personalities....ahem
I have news for this woman - the dinosaurs were wiped out either by a virus, or bacterial infections. Now that's 'plausible', not effing black holes doing the job. Jesus wept, is she some kind of nutter?
kinda hard to dismiss all the evidence that the impact of a meteor did the job...but if you have a book to sell might as well juice it up with a dinosaur connection, everyone likes a good dinosaur story...
Perhaps she has a plausible alternate hypothesis consistent with the evidence. I will have to watch the video.
The actual lecture is only 45 minutes long. No, it cannot be briefly summarized because it is an intriguing concept that needs to be explained properly. Personally speaking I am glad that I took the time to watch and learn what she had to say.
From my perspective, i thought dark matter basically did not interact with our world.... so it is kind of surpising to me that we might be able to figure out more about this stuff... not only that, dark matter might even be extremely important to our world
It certainly does interact with our world. It has mass and has significant gravitational effects. That is how we know it exists. It doesn't play a role at small scale. But at galactic sizes, the gravitational interaction between regular matter and dark matter is what gives the universe structure. It does not interact with light. It is invisible. We can't see it but we can measure its effects.
only 45minutes! I lasted an excruciatingly 24 dull minutes at that point I suspected where she was going, she juiced up a dull explanation about dark matter with dinosaurs, without the dinosaur hook no one but another astrophysicist would care ...I do respect the research into astrophysics but speculation as to the nature of dark matter is so far removed from my life it's absolutely irrelevant...
She did a terrible job. She clearly wasn't prepared. Only in your mind. You exist because of dark matter. So it is fairly central to your life. But then so are Jupiter and the moon. Jupiter is so massive that it acts like a vacuum cleaner for objects that could be earth killers. Were it not for Jupiter, life on earth may not be possible.. at least not for long. The moon plays a similar role. It isn't massive but it acts more like a dust buster. But that just means you have to pay the bills next month.
A 'crystal ball' foretells the future? You'll forgive me if I discontinue this discussion with you - you'll probably guess why.
No, she is hypothesizing that a disk of dark matter MIGHT play a role in dislodging large meteorites from the Oort cloud every 32 million years and that those could strike the Earth. She made no claim to proving that to be the case. She is hoping that the satellite data might support her hypothesis.
Dark matter interacts with gravity which is about all we know about it at this stage. Her hypothesis is that dark matter is at least as complex as ordinary matter and as such she has conjectured that there could be something called Dark Light. If that Dark Light does exist then it would effect Dark Matter the same way that ordinary light affects ordinary matter. In essence light is radiation which translates into a net loss of matter so that it coalesces into a disk under the influence of gravity. If this hypothetical disk of Dark Matter does exist then as our Solar System passes through this disk every 32 million years then the gravitational forces within the disk are sufficient to dislodge ordinary matter in the Oort Cloud in a similar manner as to how Neptune can dislodge short period comets from the Kuiper Belt. It is a fascinating theory and potentially goes towards our understanding a little more about Dark Matter.
Agreed that she was not exactly the most entertaining of speakers but as far as understanding how our own planet evolved I found it very interesting. If we do have a cycle of dislodging large objects from the Oort Cloud and they end up heading in our direction that would explain why NASA is detecting and reporting on these big rocks crossing our orbit of the Sun. Personally I find that highly relevant.
Jesus is there no **** they can put out that you won't believe? It's so depressing that adults can be so easily brainwashed.
What you thought my reference to teleporting was a serious contribution? You really are gullible aren't you?
Perhaps it's based on his "gut feeling" about science. Wink,wink, nudge, nudge,say no more,say no more.
I have the impression that when he was in school the science teacher was less than magnanimous when it came to marking his "best efforts" to comprehend the subject matter.
