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What is the universe made of? (Original Post) yuiyoshida Aug 2015 OP
I thought you posed the question because you wanted the answer! SheilaT Aug 2015 #1
Loved the video, though the mysterious background music is loud and distracting. Xipe Totec Aug 2015 #2
+1000 valerief Aug 2015 #5
Needs more wub wub. AtheistCrusader Aug 2015 #11
Well, we know what the universe is made of now. Noisy, crappy music. nt valerief Aug 2015 #13
Energy! AtheistCrusader Aug 2015 #14
Neat....Interesting Ichingcarpenter Aug 2015 #3
Psh-posh - nothing new except the name packman Aug 2015 #4
Dark matter and dark energy exist in parallel alternate universes.... Spitfire of ATJ Aug 2015 #6
What's it made of? markbark Aug 2015 #7
its made of yuiyoshida Aug 2015 #8
I thought it was made of kittens passiveporcupine Aug 2015 #9
Atoms. nt Bonobo Aug 2015 #10
this is a wonderful journey to undertake and ponder. Phlem Aug 2015 #12
It's made of JELL-O ... nt King_Klonopin Aug 2015 #15
I thought is was snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Kablooie Aug 2015 #16
Dark matter and dark energy are INFERENCES! Peace Patriot Aug 2015 #17
Maybe the only answer is to go out there and explore yuiyoshida Aug 2015 #18
Hear, hear! YES, yuiyoshida!!! Peace Patriot Aug 2015 #19
heh... yuiyoshida Aug 2015 #20
Post removed Post removed Aug 2015 #21
did you forget energy? yuiyoshida Aug 2015 #22
 

SheilaT

(23,156 posts)
1. I thought you posed the question because you wanted the answer!
Sun Aug 23, 2015, 11:00 AM
Aug 2015

I was going to helpfully tell you about dark matter, and dark energy, but the video explains it much better than I ever could.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a lecture by Alan Guth about the Big Bang and the expansion of the Universe. Absolutely fascinating.

Xipe Totec

(43,890 posts)
2. Loved the video, though the mysterious background music is loud and distracting.
Sun Aug 23, 2015, 11:05 AM
Aug 2015

Why do video editors think we need the music to keep up the suspense and attention?



valerief

(53,235 posts)
5. +1000
Mon Aug 24, 2015, 12:10 PM
Aug 2015

I usually HATE the music behind informative videos. It's annoying as all hell. When I see a video clip that has only visuals and music, I turn off the audio. I like music but never the music behind these type video clips.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
3. Neat....Interesting
Sun Aug 23, 2015, 11:27 AM
Aug 2015

Did you know that you are made of atoms which some of them are as old as the beginning of the universe? And others came from dying stars.......

That makes one ponder.

 

packman

(16,296 posts)
4. Psh-posh - nothing new except the name
Sun Aug 23, 2015, 11:30 AM
Aug 2015

"Ether, or luminiferous Ether, was the hypothetical substance through which electromagnetic waves travel. It was proposed by the greek philosopher Aristotle Eric Weisstein's World of Biography and used by several optical theories as a way to allow propagation of light, which was believed to be impossible in "empty" space"

Aristotle sitting on a bench under an olive tree sipping wine came up with the idea a few millennium ago. ETHER was the accepted idea of what space was - until some clever guys disproved that idea. However, I do believe Aristotle had an inkling of the whole concept.

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Ether.html

Phlem

(6,323 posts)
12. this is a wonderful journey to undertake and ponder.
Wed Aug 26, 2015, 12:05 AM
Aug 2015

Scientific American, New Scientist, lots of great articles out there to make sense of it all, as far as we know.

Been riding this ride for a while, puts a lot of things into perspective, I love it! Enjoy!

Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)
17. Dark matter and dark energy are INFERENCES!
Thu Aug 27, 2015, 03:52 PM
Aug 2015

It makes the "Big Bang" theory 'work,' to posit that 95% of the matter in the Universe is UNKNOWN...something. Makes me wonder about the "Big Bang" theory.

For instance, I've yet to see any analysis (that I can understand--I'm no physicist) of black holes permeating the Universe (one supermassive black hole in almost every galaxy, plus zillions of small ones here and there)--which are also INFERRED from the effects of gravity--vs. "dark matter" and "dark energy." WHAT is the relationship?

Supermassive black holes are said to contain the mass equivalents of millions, and even billions, of suns! These super-compacted masses are contained in relatively small areas and exert HUGE influences on the galaxies that surround them. What has this to do with "dark matter" (gravitational flow inward) or "dark energy" (some kind of flow outward)?

And, on the human front, you gotta wonder: Are "dark matter" and "dark energy" WITHIN us? We are made of "star stuff," as Carl Sagan put it. And, since "star stuff" (visible matter) is now INFERRED to be only 5% of the "stuff" in the Universe, what else are we made of?

I have not seen either of these two questions addressed in any science article--and I've read many--and I've been looking for answers to these two questions: What about black holes (re: dark matter, dark energy)? And, what do "dark matter/energy" have to do with life forms (and with consciousness)?

Anyway, my current conclusion is that fundamental science (physics, astrophysics, cosmology) is in a state of extreme flux, way beyond the chaotic state of human understanding in the Galileo/Copernican era. Scientists DON'T KNOW what is going on with NINETY-FIVE PERCENT of the "stuff" in the Universe.

They can INFER. They have theories. But they really, really don't know. The main reason for this bafflement (and exponential growth of inferences and theories) is the sheer massive quantity of information about the Universe (both macrocosmic and microcosmic) that has flooded the human data-cloud over the last, oh, half century, and especially the last few decades, driven by technological breakthroughs and human curiosity (and genius).

Galileo (by looking through his telescope) discovered four bodies orbiting Jupiter, and this triggered a science revolution that is still rippling through humanity.

Current scientists have viewed entire galaxies that are billions of light years away, near the beginning of the Universe (in the "Big Bang" theory). Hubble and other telescopes are revealing simply astonishing images of the visible and infrared and x-ray matter in the Universe. We have a picture, now, of the entire Universe clumped in neuron-like, glittering filaments edging great bubbles of near-nothingness. In addition, scientists have discovered over a thousand planets orbiting suns other than our own, just in a small segment of the Milky Way galaxy near us. They have probed, photographed up close and studied numerous water-bearing moons and other objects in our solar system, plus up-close study of the planets themselves. On the microscopic level, they have viewed the paths of quarks (the constituents of atoms) and the Higgs boson (particle that confers mass on other particles--the so-called "God particle&quot .

These are staggering accomplishments. And the information load is truly massive, and is only going to grow exponentially. This is a revolution--actually, a "super-massive" revolution. (And I haven't even touched on the increasing probability of our discovery of other lifeforms in our solar system, and even outside of our solar system, in the next few decades, nor DNA studies and experiments revolutionizing biology and medicine, and revolutions in other fields.) What is this macrocosmic and microcosmic mega-revolution in science going to lead to?

In physics and astrophysics, what were once bizarre theories, such as String Theory (multiple universes), are being taken very seriously--necessarily, because our understanding of the Universe is in very great flux. We have yet to unify the physical laws of very small and very large masses. We have yet to figure out how the quantum world--where the location of a thing depends on the observer, and where even the definition of a "thing" is, at best, fuzzy, and other mind-boggling reports--with the universe that meets our senses (the solid world) and "makes sense."

One thing we MUST do--and must teach our children--is to question, question, question even the most sacrosanct theories (and inferences). For instance, when a scientist says they have "discovered" 'dark matter,' understand that they have NOT "discovered" anything; they have INFERRED it from what they CAN see (5% of the Universe, according to this inference/theory). Science popularizers (including Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, wonderful as they were and are) tend to present these VERY in-flux findings as "givens." I think the sum total of modern science is that nothing is "given."

Maybe that will be the continuing ripple of this mega-revolution in the human knowledge-cloud: Nothing is "given."

yuiyoshida

(41,831 posts)
18. Maybe the only answer is to go out there and explore
Thu Aug 27, 2015, 05:27 PM
Aug 2015

Space is a dangerous place, but some day I fully believe we may get our act together, and build a fleet of ships that will be able to sustain a crew and have the power to go great distances in space.


There was a story about how someone wanted to build the Star Ship enterprise that would actually work. I don't think the technology is there yet, but it was a sweet idea, imagine taking it on a trip to Jupiter and back.

Response to yuiyoshida (Original post)

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