tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6977755959349847093.post134558611546609411..comments2024-03-01T21:53:15.921-08:00Comments on The Pith of Performance: The Most Important Scatterplot Since Hubble?Neil Guntherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11441377418482735926noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6977755959349847093.post-61908586521069469822013-08-29T15:40:51.727-07:002013-08-29T15:40:51.727-07:00The weirdness continues.
We all may have a littl...The weirdness continues. <br /><br />We all may have a little Martian in us. <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/we-all-may-have-little-martian-us" rel="nofollow">New research</a> suggests a mineral found only on Mars may have been crucial to the origin of life on Earth.Neil Guntherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11441377418482735926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6977755959349847093.post-37683601633083459852013-07-18T21:49:13.898-07:002013-07-18T21:49:13.898-07:00Curiouser and curiouser. World's Biggest Viru...Curiouser and curiouser. World's Biggest Virus May Have Ancient (and <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/07/18/203298244/worlds-biggest-virus-may-have-ancient-roots" rel="nofollow">non-terrestrial</a>) Roots.Neil Guntherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11441377418482735926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6977755959349847093.post-7027382360675427432013-06-01T23:45:40.846-07:002013-06-01T23:45:40.846-07:00Big Bang Paternity in Question, Physics Today, Jun...<a href="http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v66/i6/p10_s1" rel="nofollow">Big Bang Paternity in Question</a>, Physics Today, June 2013.Neil Guntherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11441377418482735926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6977755959349847093.post-39687152935429245652013-06-01T20:16:11.706-07:002013-06-01T20:16:11.706-07:00And de-bate goes on. If you can temporarily tolera...And de-bate goes on. If you can temporarily tolerate Robert Krulwich's patronizing tone (to get down to your dumb-arse level), <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/10/169047159/the-oldest-rock-in-the-world-tells-us-a-story" rel="nofollow">he reports</a> on January 2013 that analysis of certain Australian rocks (zircons) indicate the presence of water on the planet 4.4 billion years ago. That's within 100 million years of earth's formation, as determined by the most <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_Earth" rel="nofollow">accurate radiometric dating</a>. It also suggests that life appeared earlier than generally thought.<br /><br />Amazingly, both Krulwich and Zimmer seem to miss the possible explanation that water (and life?) arrived on comets, or similar extraterrestrial bodies.Neil Guntherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11441377418482735926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6977755959349847093.post-2053286733202178132013-04-18T21:15:01.685-07:002013-04-18T21:15:01.685-07:00Good thinking but, unfortunately, the real conclus...Good thinking but, unfortunately, the real conclusion is that there isn't one because there's an understandable flaw in your logic.<br /><br />The Hubble plot (Fig. 1) shows velocity (v) on the y-axis vs. distance (d) on the x-axis. That the relationhship is <b>linear</b>, and not exponential, follows from simple kinematics: d = v * t. The regression line(s) on the plot exhibits that relationship as v = (1/t) * d. That's why the slope of the line gives the <i>inverse</i> of the age of the universe.<br /><br />What may have derailed your thinking is the sloppy notation used on the y-axis of Fig. 1. It shows the velocity units as "KM" instead of "KM/S" as I do in my text. To compensate for the poor units notation is does say "VELOCITY" in sideways print along that axis. I don't know if this sloppiness was due to Hubble or the publisher. The modern plot in Fig. 2 shows the correct units.<br /><br />By contrast, the genome plot (Fig. 3) shows "distance" on the y-axis vs. time (t) on the x-axis. That relationhship is <b>nonlinear</b> of the form d ~ exp(t) up to constants, viz,, exponential growth. However, by transforming to a log scale on the y-axis, the regression line becomes linear of the form log(d) ~ t, up to constants.Neil Guntherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11441377418482735926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6977755959349847093.post-52042703918544439152013-04-18T20:11:58.896-07:002013-04-18T20:11:58.896-07:00Both equations show that the distance of galaxies ...Both equations show that the distance of galaxies moving away and Genome size are exponential functions of time, if you realize that the same linear differential equation governs both. The difference may be subtle. In the case of the Genome, complexity is proportional to complexity at a infinitesimal earlier time; in Hubble, recession velocity is proportional to an infinitesimal earlier distance.<br /><br />I don't know what the conclusion should be.AnneHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01488467979134657176noreply@blogger.com