hmm...mmmmm...mmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Interesting.

It's always a great time to get busy!

True dat!

Well... it's a great time to get busy.

hehehehe

I'll admit, I'm not excited about the concept of water on Mars... I'm really not.

But the moment they do find microbes, or evidence of life having existed on Mars, I will get excited.

I will be ecstatic, I will go fucking whacko.

As he tried to say at the beginning, water is just a stepping stone to those hints that life is present.

I get why people don't care though, definitely not for the same reasons I don't care but I get it.

As soon as I saw that NASA had a "big announcement" I knew it was going to be water. It's been long theorised that Mars had water and long suspected if such is the case there would be remnants. Yay they confirmed it... I keep thinking it's not that big of a thing really...

If we could get some plant life there, like a designer fungus or something, we could theoretically create an oxygen rich atmosphere on Mars if given enough time.

I'm sure we could manage creating an algae or fungus that lives off minimal water and creates oxygen as a byproduct of existing.

It would just be super slow.

A protozoa that contains chlorophyll and produces a rich oxygen by product is more likely... I'm sure they're either searching for one, or there's one being genetically engineered.

I guess it depends on how cheap they are.

Hnn... I think I get it. So, they only have charges when the opposite force is acted upon them and they react?

No, they always have a charge, the charge is superfluous when they are the same, because whether they are positive or negative, the same thing happens.

But lets say you have two electrons and a proton: 

The net forces that react on these three particles will be that one electron will repel the other and attract the proton, and the same for the other electron and the proton will be attracted to both electrons. The system of the three particles will also be negatively charged, because we've determined that p=+ and e=-.

Then why the FUCK are we all taught that protons = positive and electrons = negative?

Essentially, this model helps figure out the proper sign with the math involved, whether or not the charge produced will result in a negative, or a positive outcome.

Can someone please explain this bit:

 

Electrons are positively charged...

 

I was under the impression that electrons carry a negative charge. Does something change when a great force is issued on them?

That's a fallacy, electrons and protons are inaptly named, the charge is actually redundant, and is only there to determine that there are two different charges and they interact in particular ways when placed near each other.

The reason he says Electrons are "positively" charged is because a point electric field produced by an electron emits out and produces repulsion when in the presence of another electron. This is only in the case of electrons being near each other, in the case of one placing proton, this particular model changes, the point electric field produced by the electron points inward making an attraction point charge, making it negative. Essentially, this model helps figure out the proper sign with the math involved, whether or not the charge produced will result in a negative, or a positive outcome.

The only thing I really have to gripe with this is: "If you put 10⁵² electrons together—to build a Moon—they push each other apart really hard. In fact, they push each other apart so hard, each electron would be shoved away with an unbelievable amount of energy."

While he's probably right, I'm not sure I entirely agree. He's transferring concepts from a quantum universe to a macro universe, which is a difficult thing to do.

Much will have changed in the 15ish (I assume) years since that time in school... People are way more informed and way more paranoid.

Crowd logic, stupid logic, whatever you want to call it becomes a whole lot more dangerous with (mis)information and propaganda.
 

Lookin' really lovely there Elfie.

https://youtu.be/cILZ_cB3_so

OMG I want a freaking Porcupine as a pet!

I would not argue an IQ test being required to own a firearm.

I would argue that somehow natural selection has failed us...

http://imgur.com/gallery/Ih9Eh

I've always wanted to do a katara cosplay with her hair loopies

or

a Kyoshi warrior cosplay with real metal fans. The only problem with that is that cons tend to have many rules about items that can be used as real weapons.

Just make sure that when he comes 'round you have your shot guns in plain sight.

I don't think I've ever seen a chipmunk that hasn't been cartoonized before...

I thought there was no centre? The whole thing about the expansion of the universe is that it isn't expanding from any one 'point', yes?

No... From all the theories that I've read universes begin at a crucial point in space as quantum universes (unless you subscribe to a particular multiverse theory that gets pretty freaky with quantum universes expanding in universes that were once quantum universes). There are and have been many scientists that have been looking for the nexus point in the beginning of the expansion because the centre point would tell cosmologists so much about the beginning of the universe.

There is a lot of speculation about this and it's so hard to pinpoint it down that it almost seems pointless at times. The biggest point to stress is that the universe is still expanding and the leading theory as to why the expansion is still happening is because of dark energy fueling the expansion.

I'm spiritualistic and a scientist. I don't think there's an issue with being both.
Energy changes constantly, it is never created nor destroyed, it's not beyond the possibility for energies to interact and have weird shit happen (quantum physics guys!)

So being a Buddhist or Hinduist isn't beyond reproach while being a scientist... also some aspects of paganism or wicca.

Have it, haven't had the chance to watch it yet, but have seen snippets from my brother watching it. I will get around to it eventually, it looks good.

1. The universe has survived for that long without collapsing because the expansion is increasing at an exponential rate. The energy produced during the big bang is still being used in expansion.

2. Where are you getting your information that the older galaxies are in the outer rim? How could we even know where the outer rim is when we don't even know where the centre of the expansion is?

3.Hawking is a scientist, I don't care what his religion is.

Dude!!!! I eat my emotions like its gum!! It's such a crappy habit. I'm feeling you girl!

I made pancakes, I could only eat one... At least I ate something...

This is more of a I'm so depressed I don't want to eat when I'm hungry moment

and I'm kind of getting tired of it.