The Dunning-Kruger Effect

 Introduction

The Dunning-Kruger Effect has been stated in several ways but the basic concept is that the less knowledgeable you are on a topic the more likely you are to overestimate how good you are. This concept has recently become quite popular for attacking anyone who disagrees with the establishment experts on a topic. It is being abused to shut down discussion by simply claiming you don't know enough to be competent on the topic. In many ways, it has become a way for those pushing it to casually dismiss any line of thinking that challenges their worldview. While insisting that you bow the knee intellectually to the priests they call experts and whose claims they accept on blind faith.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is based on a 1999 psychology paper called:

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

by

Justin Kruger and David Dunning

Cornell University

This paper probably would have remained an obscure psychological study had it not been popularized by President Trump's political enemies. It has gone far beyond an attack on him personally to being used against anybody who thinks for themselves and comes to non-establishment conclusions. The funny thing is that most people who refer to the Dunning-Kruger Effect have clearly never read the original paper. Furthermore, even if they have they are taking on faith that the data says what the writers are claiming. They are clearly simply repeating and copying what they have heard or seen elsewhere without a bit of independent thought on the topic.

Video on Science and Politics

Video on Science and Politics

When ever science and politics interact science is more often than not the looser. This does not mean that all interactions between science and government are negative but the overall affect on science is negative. The Reason for this is that politics is about acquiring and holding on to power and not knowledge. In fact politics often is destructive to knowledge since ignorant people are easier to control. Further more politicians are often not really interested is the science but sending money to their districts. The biggest example of this is manned space flight which has stagnated for 30 years under government control. Even worst government often favors some lines of research over others in funding, education, and recognition. Some times government favors one side in a scientific dispute over others. The best examples are in origins research and climate research.

Video About Peer Review

Video About Peer Review

This is a video description of Peer Review

Women seen as the Biggest mystery of the universe by Stephen Hawking

Sounding like doc Brown from Back to The Future, while being interviewed with regard to his 7-th birth day Stephen Hawking called women a complete mystery, suggesting that they are the biggest mystery of the universe. For a man use to pondering things like quantum physics, general relativity, and black holes this is a rather profound statement.

As a fellow physicist I can fully understand his predicament thing like space, time and the vary nature of reality as complicated as they are, are still less mysterious than women. Space time can be understood by way of mathematical equations, but no one has yet found an equation that describes women.

He also referred to the idea that information is destroyed in black holes as his biggest blunder. He was naturally referring to as a physicist, since it could be argued that his biggest blunder is turning his back on God by becoming an atheist.

Alka-Seltzer in water in zeroG

Here is an interesting little side experiment from the International Space Station where and Alka-Seltzer tablet is put in to a sphere of water in zeroG. The results are actually some what surprising. The bubbles collect in the water sphere even coalescing into untimely two big ones.

Now before any one goes writing their congress men about the waste tax payer dollars, note that this in not their mission. This is the type of thing astronauts do to have a little fun after a long hard day of the real work.

Video on Faster Than Light Neutrinos



There’s a common mistake that this is a problem for relativity but it is not. Relativity forbids is accelerating up to and past the speed of light but does not for bid particles that naturally travel faster than the speed of light. Such particles have been speculated about for decades under name tachyons.

The only real difficulty is that neutrinos have a small but real rest mass and so should not be traveling faster than the speed of light. In that case the issue is most likely with our understanding of neutrinos and relativity

Quantum Mechanics allows particles to skip part of space instantly and so could be clocked at faster than the speed of light while going sub-light through the space it actually goes through. This is the most likely explanation of this observation given calculations from India.  See in Faster Than Light Neutrinos Fl aw Found.

Stephen Hawking shows anti-religious attitude.

Science and religion are often seen as being in conflict, but as Stephen Hawking recently demonstrated recently most of the conflict results from the anti-religion position of atheists like himself. It is the insistence of such people on assuming that God and the supernatural do not exist that cusses the conflict. This is because if you start with the assumption that something does not exist you will produce theories constant with that assumption.

When asked if religion and science could be reconciled Hawking said. "There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works." However this not an accurate statement since it is not totally accurate ether science or religion.

For example while Christians see the Bible authoritative, reading and understanding it is up to the individual Christian not just ministers. Nor are Christians required to take a pastor’s preaching at face value but are encouraged to compare it to the Bible. Further more much of the Bible is a result of the observation of events often witnessed by the human authors. The bases of the resurrection of Jesus is not some vision but on the reports of men and women who saw the risen Jesus themselves. Even today we can go to Jerusalem in Israel and observe the empty tomb for ourselves.

On the other hand while science is ideally based on observation and reason. This is not always the case. Stephen Hawking is actually a good example of this because he personally does little if any actual observation, but most of his work is the result of theorizing within his own mind. Furthermore, little if any of his work has produced testable predictions that have ever been successfully tested by observation. Despite this he himself is seen as an authority in science with some people taking his every word as truth with as much unquestioning faith as is seen in the most gullible regions person you could know.

The point is that in his ABC news interview he showed clear contempt for religion, and there by showed the real source of conflict between science and religion. That is atheistic control of establishment institutions.

The Placebo Effect

Here is a YouTube video on the Placebo Effect

Martian Atmosphere found to be Supersaturated with Water.

Mars Express an ESA probe that has been orbiting Mars for several years has measured the water content of the Martian atmosphere using it’s SPICAM spectrometer. IT found that it is above that of saturation a state called supersaturating. This is the first time this type of measurement has been made on a global scale. The result will help in prove our understanding of Mar’s weather.

This result is also consistent with catastrophic Martian geology. If Mars' atmosphere had temporarily been raised to allow surface water by dust from impacts and volcanic activity, when Martian atmospheric pressure dropped as this dust settled the resulting evaporation would supersaturated atmosphere. This state would continue because the low pressure makes rain impossible so the only way to reduce it is for the water to slowly bleed off into space.

Chemistry an Introduction

Chemistry is the field of science that is the study of the interactions of atoms to form molecules and their properties.

Chemistry go back to before known civilization with fire and metal work. Modern Chemistry grew out of Alchemy and its search to turn metals like lead into gold and the so called elixir of life. Chemistry got much from Alchemy particularly its affinity research and experimentation. Once Chemistry broke from Alchemy it lead to an explosion of knowledge about the nature and structure of matter.

Chemistry begins with individual atoms of different elements such as hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. Atoms come together to form molecules such as water which is made of one oxygen atom getting together with two hydrogen atoms, methane which is made of one carbon atom getting together with four hydrogen atoms and carbon dioxide which is made of two oxygen atoms getting together with one carbon atom. These are all different substances with different properties.

The Periodic Table is a list of the chemical elements organized by recurring properties. The information about each element included varies but often includes element’s name, atomic number, symbol, and atomic weight. It is a vary use full took in Chemistry and one the most recognizable things associated with Chemistry.

Chemical reactions are the process by which atoms come together or are rearranged to form new molecules. There are two main types of chemical reactions. Endothermic reactions which use heat energy in forming new molecules and exothermic reactions which release heat energy in forming new molecules. Exothermic reactions are some times explosive which is a common danger in Chemistry.

There are two main fields of chemistry. Organic chemistry which is chemistry based on the element Carbon and may or may not involve life and inorganic chemistry which is chemistry not based on the element Carbon.

In conclusion chemistry is a major field of science and it is the most experiment based field of science. Chemistry embodies the ideal of science stated in the scientific method more than any other field of science.

Moving Things by Force

That which causes a free body to undergo acceleration is called foece.

There are four fundamental forces in Nature. They are gravity which is the mutual attraction of all matter in the universe it is what holds you to the Earth, electromagnetism which is the mutual attraction and repulsion of charged partials, the weak nuclear force is that which regulates types of nuclear decay such as Bata decay by overcoming the strong nuclear force and the strong nuclear force is the binding force that holds the atomic nucleus together against the tendency of positively charged protons.

Force causes mater to accelerate which is the main function of force by definition. It can be used to overcome other forces such as friction gravity. Force also holds things together since the electromagnetic force holds an object together including your body and the strong nuclear force holds atomic nuclei together. It can break things apart such as bombs or the force resulting from ramming two things together which can cause them to shatter and the peaces to fly apart.
Regardless of its source force causes acceleration. Force can also stop acceleration by resisting another force. Force holes thing together so force does indeed bind us together

Quantization in the science of Quantum Mechanics

The situation where physical quantities such as position, energy and momentum can only have certain discrete values are called Quantization.When in free empty space these values are continuous when bound to an area of space these properties can only have certain discrete values. The energy contained in a given frequency of electromagnetic waves is quantized in that it always has the same value at the same frequency. The electromagnetic energy is found in discrete packet called photons.

The quantization of the electron energy inside an atom explains much of the behavior of atoms such as why atoms emit only discrete frequencies of light. An electron in a low orbit of an atom will absorb a photon causing the electron to jump to a higher orbit and then emits a photon jumping back to the lower orbit.

The quantization of space-time has its bases in two of Max Planck’ natural units that are based on five universal physical constants: Gravitational constant, Reduced Planck constant, Speed of light in a vacuum, Coulomb constant, and Boltzmann's constant  The two with physical significance are Planck Length and Planck Time are the smallest possible measurements of space-time according our current understanding of the laws of Physics because of the  uncertainty principle when a plied to these scales. This suggests that time and space themselves are Quantized. The smallest measurement of length that has any meaning with in the laws of physics as we understand them today is called Planck Length and it has a value of 1.616 252 × 10⁻³⁵ m. The amount of time it takes a photon to cross a Planck Length. It is the smallest measurement of time that has any meaning with in the laws of physics as we understand them today is called Planck Time with a value of 5.391 24 × 10⁻⁴⁴ s.

Quantization requires physical quantities like position, energy and momentum to have discrete values explaining much of what goes on in side atom and based on our current understanding of the laws of physics it suggest that time and space are quantized.

Two great places to get free science images

Finding images to use on your website can be hard. On some cases could own but not always. Here are two great places to get lots and lots of images that you can freely use.

Category:Science - Wikimedia Commons 

Photojournal: NASA's Image Access HomePage

Analysis of 500 planets Indicates that Alien life is Impossible.

Alien life deemed impossible by analysis of 500 planets

Dr. Howard Smith said “We have found that most other planets and solar systems are wildly different from our own. They are very hostile to life as we know it,”

 

 

The point is that the planets found outside are just too hustle for life. Even Gliese 581 which is the most Earth like planet ever found is still quite hustle to life since it is probably tidally locked to its star. The simple fact is that the more we learn about other planetary systems the less likely that there are any ET’s out there.

Collisions a Physics Hit

Any event in which two or more bodies exert relatively high forces on each other for a short period of time is known as a collision.

Collision where the total kinetic energy of the particles before and after the encounter is the same is called elastic collision.

Collision where  the total kinetic energy of the particles before and after the encounter is not the same is called inelastic collision.

The danger caused by collisions is a result of the sudden high acceleration whic can damage equipment, cause injuries and even kill. It can cause damage from the deformation of object. It can cause colliding objects to shatter and fly apart at high speeds.

On the other hand collisions can hammer nails. They are used in sports such as pool, golf, and baseball. They have also been used to probe the makeup of matter by way of near light speed collisions inside particle accelerators.

In conclusion collisions are sudden interactions that can be elastic or inelastic. They can be dangerous and destructive but yet they can be useful.

Looking at Astronomy.

The science that studied celestial objects and phenomena originating outside the Earth's atmosphere is called Astronomy.

Astronomy’s main activity is the observation of celestial objects measuring their properties such a mss, diameter, brightness and composition. Observations are usually made by way of some form of telescope. The types of telescopes used include visible light, radio, inferred, ultraviolet, X – ray, and gamma ray telescopes.

The telescope has produced a quantum leap in astronomy allowing observations beyond the rage of the unaided eye. Since its introduction developments in telescope technology have opened up many new ways of looking at the Universe. Professional astronomy has often come to be seen as equivalent to astrophysics

The twentieth century produced a division of astronomy into two main fields. Observational Astronomy is the acquiring of data from observations and analyzing that data using physics. Theoretical Astronomy is the development of computer models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena.

Today Observational and Theoretical Astronomy complement each other. The theoretical Seeks to explain observations and observations used to test the theoretical. Amateur astronomers have also contributed to many important astronomical discoveries making astronomy one of the few sciences that amateurs can still play an active role.

Observation and the Viewing and Recording of. Data

The process of viewing and recording events is called observation. Viewing and recording mainly consist of watching a phenomenon and recording the observation.

The accuracy of observations are limited because real world observations some times miss stuff. An important event may occur when observations are not being mad or outside the range of the observer’s sight. As a result observations can be some what subjective since it is too easy for an observer to see what he wants to see because the observer is looking for what he wants to see So patterns resembling what the observer wants to see are more likely noticed. It is also too easy for an observer to not see what he does not want to see because the observer is not looking for what he does not want to see and patterns not resembling what the observer is not looking for can be over looked. Knowing of such problems helps avoid them.

As important as Observation  is in science it does have its limitations and pitfalls. Being aware of those limitations helps one to avoid them.

The Major Tool of Science, that of Measurements

The process of obtaining numerical values representing physical properties is called measurement. These properties include such things as length, mass, or time, by way of a unit of measurement. A unit of measurement is a magnitude representing a physical quantity by use of a standard for measurement of that physical quantity. A measuring device is a piece of equipment used to measure a physical quantity based on a standard for measurement.

 Measurement and Objectivity

Measurement is the most objective part of science since the resulting numbers are what they are. Using mechanical devices for measurement improves objectivity by removing human subjectivity. The validity of a measurement is only as valid as the theory behind it.

The Burden of Proof; an Issue in Science

The obligation of a party to provide sufficient evidence in support of their side of a dispute or issue is called the Burden of Proof.

Actually the term “burden of proof” is a bit strong implying the need to prove beyond a doubt. As a result it is really more like the burden of evidence since the side that has the burden of proof is obligated to provide evidence to back up their view point. However determining who has the burden of proof is not always easy to do because it varies in different circumstances and changes in the course of the discussion.

Under most circumstances the party making the claim has the burden of proof. However this is not an absolute rule given there are some circumstance that can change the burden of proof to the person denying a claim since a party making the new claim about an accepted idea has the burden of proof. For example those claiming that the Apollo Moon landings did not really happen have the Burden of proof.

The Burden of Proof Fallacy is the process of wrongfully trying to switch the burden of proof to your opponent. However the Burden of Proof can legitimately switch sides if new arguments have been made or evidence presented. If the opposition wishes to dispute the new evidence or argument, they have the burden of proof in doing so. Hence the burden of proof has switched.

A common problem in a discussion is agreeing on who has the burden of proof. It can consume much time and render a debate useless. Another problem is that since each side sees the issue differently it may be hard to agree on burden of proof.

Debate as a Tool of Science

A formal interactive discussion of opposing ideas on a specific topic is called a debate.

In science debate is a way of discussing competing theories where both sides get to make their case. Since both sides get to make their case it is an opportunity to learn about the other side as well as one’s own. However it is critical that both sides are given equal footing and respect which doses not always happen.

Because debates usually does not settle the dispute in practice debate is only useful as long the participants and observers learn from it. If no one learns anything from a debate it’s a waste of time.