1+1+1 for 365, day 20: A life in science

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." -  Albert Einstein

TODAY'S BOOK:

Einstein - A life in Science,  by Michael White & John Gribbin

Anyone who knows anything about science or the history of the 20th Century, knows about Albert Einstein. Numerous biographies have been written about this giant intellect and interesting personality. Indeed, more books have been written about his work and various aspects of his life than probably about any other scientist.

1+1+1 for 365, day 13: Things that make your brain hurt

TODAY'S QUOTE:

“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.” - Stephen Hawking

TODAY'S BOOK

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking has been in the news a lot this past week.  This follows the release of his new bestseller, The Grand Design  (co-authored by Leonard Mlodinow, with whom he had also written A Briefer History of Time).  Specifically the words "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going," are being quoted widely.

Well done to the SpaceX team on Falcon 9 launch

One of the best "good news" stories of the past week has been the successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

If their programme continues to be this successful, it will indeed start a new era of spaceflight. It is already helping to stimulate new ideas about how to approach launch vehicles for spacecraft and may help to go further into other aspects of space exploration.

The Case of the Missing Ring and the New Bright Spot

Well no, this is not a whodunnit story (although it might easily be one!), it is a real science mystery.

The case of Jupiter's missing South Equatorial Belt is one that even professional astronomers are finding hard to explain. Although it has happened before on this planet with its turbulent weather, it is relatively rare for us to see the gas giant without that belt. Generally it is a rather baffling event.

The greatest threat?

Recently I was contemplating the significance of Earth Day (today, 22 April) and asked people on one of my websites what they thought of as the main candidates as the “greatest threat to Earth”. The answers included global warming (and related factors such as the ice caps melting and major coral reefs and forests dying), over-population, the lack of (or limited use of) renewable energy resources, a strike by a major asteroid or comet, some other major event in the Solar System, a nearby supernova and of course also the Sun.

My original question had been a bit misleading, because I wanted to see to what extent people equate the future of the planet with the future of life on Earth, and specifically the future of the human race. It is natural that we see the universe from the one point of view with which we can identify – the human perspective.

Although natural disasters may play a role, modern man is the probably the greatest threat to life on Earth - or to sustain life for beings such as the human race. There is no agreement on the time scales involved, but the majority view seems to be that, unless we act fast, we are heading towards destroying the environment to such an extent that in time to come, only very resilient life forms (and man might not be one of those!) will survive.