COSMOLOGY
by Tony Heyes
Manningham U3A and Nunawading U3A
Jump to the MenuThis U3A course was inspired by the late Dr John O'ConnorManningham
For 2023 we have two class representatives:
Michael Howard temah6108@aussiebb.com.au
and
Susan Leong susanleong888@gmail.com Tel. 0401 649 515and an Assistant Tutor
Graeme Hollis hollis4886@gmail.com Tel. 0408 305 385
Astronomical things happening NOW
A couple of tips
The Sky Tonight in Melbourne or Anywhere REMEMBER to set your location. When and where can we see the International Space Station (ISS)?
The ISS has a webcam pointing at the earth. However it is not always switched on!
Reset your sundial using today's Solar Noon
Two short tutorials - just in case you did not know!You can look for a specific text string on this (or any other) web page. To find out how, go to   How to jump to a text stringArtificial Intelligence: If you would like to try ChatGPT, Here's how
Alternatively you may...Skip to
Watch Listen PowerPoints Giggle Useful links or Notes for TutorsFor example: To download Stellarium go to Useful linksThings to Read : (Links are underlined)
Tony's U3A bio: or
Do we need to bring Gym Shoes to a Physics Class?Tony's tribute to an old friend An Epitaph for Stephen HawkingAll scientists should be skeptical. but what exactly is Scientific Skepticism
Australia's Energy Crisis
If you favour renewable energy but have not done the maths read The Pitchforks are ComingFrom Aeon What is a Law of Nature?
From Nature Is Fukushima wastewater release safe? What the science says
What Oppenheimer the film gets wrong about Oppenheimer the man
The Expanding Universe Baryon Acoustic Oscillaions, a new 'standard candle'
One Two Three FourBrad Tucker Why is the universe ripping itself apart? A new study of exploding stars shows dark energy may be more complicated than we thought.
Darwin Day: (12th Feburary 1809) the OUP blog offers Ten things you didn't know about Darwin I suspect you did know most of them!
An Earthcentric view of Venus The 5 petals of Venus and its 8-year cycle
In 1716 Edmond Halley (1656 -1741) proposed a method for measuring the Astronomical unit (the distance to the Sun) by observing the Transit of Venus from two different places on the opposite side of the Earth. Watch the video to see the mathematics involved Halley always knew that he would not live long enough to see his technique put into practice. On 3 June 1769, navigator Captain James Cook, naturalist Joseph Banks, astronomer Charles Green and naturalist Daniel Solander recorded the transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti during Cook's first voyage around the world.
Polar ice melt caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
Australia's inventor of Television Henry Sutton
and lots of other things.Victoria's fossil emblem Koolasuchus cleelandi
(Cool-a-SOO-cuss clee-LAN-die)Carbon Sequestration Just maybe it might work
A Wikipedia article PeridotiteScientific American
How Star Collisions Forge the Universe's Heaviest ElementsAn Update on C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures"Read ahout the great personal debt owed to Lord Snow. Without Snow's intervention, I, Tony, would be totally blind (see Tony's bio)The Big Think:Read or listen:Lawrence Krauss:There is very much more to Oppenheimer than the development of the Atom Bomb. This splendid article gives us an insight. Oppenheimer's forgotten astrophysics research explains why black holes exist
The surprising origins of wave-particle duality
Do gravitational waves exhibit wave-particle duality?
Surprise: the Moon outshines the Sun at the highest energies
10 surprising facts about the Big Bang Theory
The James Webb Telescope the first image and how it was obtained.
Einstein and his concerns about Quantum Mechanics
How Einstein challenged quantum mechanics and lostThe weirdness of quantum mechanics forces scientists to confront philosophyQuantum mystery: Do things only exist once we interact with them?
Cosmology without DesignIf it were not so, it would not be thus.
Or as our recent President, Geoff Sheldon says, "If King Cnut's son, Harthacnut, had had a son we would all be speaking Norwegian."Paul Davies What is life?
Fact or Fiction? NASA Spent Millions to Develop a Pen that Would Write in Space, whereas the Soviet Cosmonauts Used a Pencil
Niels Bohr could out-draw almost everybody The Gunslinger Effect!
Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff Orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) a biological philosophy of mind that postulates that consciousness originates at the quantum level inside neurons
Katie Mack writes in Aeon Big Space Our cosmic horizon is both unreachable and closer than ever.
Quantum Spin the Stern-Gerlach experiment The (Often) Overlooked Experiment That Revealed the Quantum World
Dark Matter
Ramin Skibba asks in Aeon Does Dark Matter Exist?.From Physics World: Radio telescopes could give us a new view of gravitational wavesDavid Merritt asks in Aeon MOND a non-standard model.
From the OUP Blog: Super Massive Black Holes: monsters in the early universe
From The Conversation
Vulcanologist Raymond Cas delves into sci-fi and explains problems with an episode in Rings of Power:Michael Howard, our resident acturary, presented The Australian Actuaries Climate Index; developed to measure whether the frequency of extreme weather conditions is changing over time.
One cannot simply detonate a volcano to produce Mordor!Introducing Australotitan: Australia's largest dinosaur yet spanned the length of 2 buses
Binary Pulsars: We counted 20 billion ticks of an extreme galactic clock to give Einstein's theory of gravity its toughest test yet
Paul Kyberd of Brunel University, London writes:: Explainer: what are fundamental particles?
Eric G. Cavalcanti of Giffith University writes: A new quantum paradox throws the foundations of observed reality into question
This web site is somewhat demanding but it is well worth the effort.If you are a little uncertain about the concepts of Normal Distribution, 99% Percentile and Standard Deviation have a look at
this short Wikipedia articleMichael's own Power Point presentaion may be downloaded here.
Our tribute to one of Tony's old student friends,
Stephen HawkingVideo: Deriving Hawking's most famous equation:
The Temperature of a Black Hole
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Videos to Watch: (Links are underlined)
An animation See the planets rotateTony.Heyes@gmail.com
What is a Synchrotron
What is ITER An experimental Fusion Reactor
A most remarkable video: take a tour of Mars in High Definition
The James Webb Space Telescope Seeing The Universe Like We've Never Seen It Before
A great video Physics Girl How Rainbows Work
NASA
The Mysterious 30 Year Journey of Apollo 12The Pale Blue Dot Cosmic CalendarExplains how Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the Earth
Olbers' Paradox
Why is the Sky Dark at Night?What makes Legrange Points Special Locations In SpaceYale University, Brian Thomas Swimme takes us on the Journey of the Universe: the Unfolding of Life
String Theory a short cartoon.
Brian Greene
String TheoryThe Whole History of the Earth and LifeOn The Concept of ENTROPY
Over Time Everything That Gives Us Meaning Will Be DestroyedCOMOS: South Australia's own Burgess Shale The new national park preserving Earth's earliest life
CERN, the biggest machine ever built: the Large Hadron Collider and Particle Fever.
Sir David Attenborough
Address to the United Nations Security Council Climate and Security 23 February 2021From Bacteria to Bach and BackHumans and Apes: the Chromosome mismatch.London's Natural History Museum
Bill Bailey on Alfred Russel Wallace at London's Natural History Museum where he discusses Wallace's specimens collected from each side of what is now called the Wallace Line.Bill Bailey 's Jungle Hero: Alfred Russel WallaceBill Bailey unveils a portrait of Wallace next to Darwin's statue at the Natural History Museum.
David Attenborough and Bill Bailey give brilliant talks at London's Natural History Museum at the unveilling of Wallace's Statue
David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive :   Part 1 of 2 Part 2 of 2
Bill Bailey on Alfred Russel WallaceAlexander Von Humbolt Expedition in South AmericaThe two long films Bill Bailey's Jungle Hero
Part 1: Wallace In BorneoBill Bailey unveils portrait of Alfred Russel Wallace at London's Natural History MuseumParr 2: Wallace In The Spice Islands
Bill Bailey unveils portrait of Alfred Russel Wallace at London's Natural History Museum
BBC Walking with Monsters :
Water Dwellers Reptile's Beginings A Clash of TitansBBC Walking with Dinosaurs :
New Blood Time of the Titans Cruel SeaGiant of the Skies Spirits of the Ice Forest Death of a Dynasty
BBC Walking with Beasts :
New Dawn Whale Killer Land of GiantsBBC Walking with Cavemen :
First Ancesters Blood Brothers Savage Family The SurvivorsThe Royal Institution (RI) have a youtube channel full of good stuff including:
Anthony Zee presents: A Brief Introduction to General RelativityDavid Tong The Standard Model The Most Successful Scientific Theory EverJohn Spence presents: How Einstein Abolished the Aether
David Tong presents: Quantum Fields: The Real Building Blocks of the Universe
Continental drift Fred Vine explaining Paleomagnetic reversals
Raymond Cas presentation to the Royal Society of Victoria
Understanding Climate Change: All the natural and human causes.Panspermia Did Life on Earth Come From Space?Ray's talk assesses the impact of long term geological processes, asteroid impacts, Earth's orbital change behaviour, volcanic gas and ash emissions, biological processes, oceanographic and atmospheric circulation processes and how the moving continents affect these, as well as the impacts of anthropogenic gases over the last 250 years relative to the effects of normal/natural greenhouse gases (and how we know this).
Evolution of the Peppered Moth by Natural Selection
Arvin Ash present a number of interesting videos under the title: Complex questions explained simply For example:
How did life begin? Abiogenesis. Origin of life from nonliving matterSteven KooninWhy do atoms form molecules? The quantum physics of chemical bonds explained
Quantum Mind: Is quantum physics responsible for consciousness & free will?
Hydrogen Bomb: How it Works in detail. Atomic vs nuclear bomb
and lots more.
The Limitations of Climate Change ModelsGyroscpes without moving partsHot or Not: Steven Koonin Questions Conventional Climate Science and Methodology
The Fibre-optic gyroscopeThe Whole History of the Earth and Life
Suzie Sheehy Discoveries that changed our World
GPS, How does it work?
Lewis Dartnell
A Short History of TechnologyAlex Philippenko
A TED Talk on The accelerating expanding universeDiscovery: The Inside of The Earth.
A guide to the inside of the International Space Station .
Leonard Susskind
The World as HologramBrian Cox
Adventures in Space and TimeEpisode 1 Episode 2Brian Cox asks where are they? The Fermi ParadoxJim Al-Khalili
Jim Al-Khalili asks What is Everything? and then What is Nothing?.Richard DawkinsJim Al-Khalili on The Beginning and End Of The Universe
Jim Al-Khalili: The Secret Life of Chaos.
Jim Al-Khalili: The Secret Of Quantum Physics: Einstein's Nightmare.
Jim Al-Khalili: The Secrets Of Quantum Physics: Let There Be Life.
Jim Al-Khalili: Atom: The Illusion Of Realit.
Jim Al-Khalili: Gravity and Me.
Jim Al-Khalili: The Forgotten Legacy of Arabic Science.
Jim Al-Khalili asks: Is Time Travel Possible? Determinism, Relativity and the Arrow of Time.
Jim Al-Khalili: Having fun and hamming it up: The Double Slit Experiment at the Royal Instition, London.
Jim Al-Khalili: The World According to Physics.
Jim Al-Khalili: Entropy (Order and Disorder) Energy.
Jim Al-Khalili: The Story Of Energy: Order and Disorder .
Jim Al-Khalili: The Story of Information Order and Disorder
Jim Al-Khalili: Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity
Jim Al-Khalili: Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili: The Secret Of Quantum Physics AKA: Spooky Action
Einstein's NightmareJim Al-Khalili: TED talk. How quantum biology might explain life's biggest questions.
Jim Al-Khalili: delivers the 2014 Voltaire Lecture: Lessons from the past: science and rationalism in medieval Islam to the British Humanist Association.
Jim Al-Khalili: interviews Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Brian Cox meets Jim Al-Khalili.
TED Talk Why the universe seems so strange.Denis NobleRichard explains NeoDarwinism.
Why Dawkins is wrong better title would beLawrence Krauss
Why Darwin would not have been a neoDarwinist?In conversation with Richard DawkinsMax Planck and Quantum PhysicsAt Arizona State University: Something from Nothing.interviews with Steve PaikinAt the Australian National University: Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss: Something from Nothing. nbsp; Filmed the day after Richard's disasterous encounter with Cardinal George Pell on the ABC program Q&A.
At the Richard Dawkin Foundtion: A Universe from Nothing
A Universe from NothingA short 4 minute explanation Krauss explains how something can come from nothingScienceClic video channel
A new way to visualize General RelativityGalaxcy, Star and Solar System formationWhat would we see if we fell into a Black Hole?
Professor Dave explainsStar and Galaxy Formation in the Early UniverseKant and Laplace: Nebular Hypothesis - Origin of the Earth Solar systemThe Formation of the Milky Way Galaxy
The Formation of the Solar System and the Structure of the Sun
Andrew Prentice from the School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University:
Modern Laplacian theory of Solar System originThe Moon and Tides
Tidal Locking: Why Do We Only See One Side of the Moon?Philip Ball Science writer and presenter and for over twenty years the editor of the journal NatureAt the Royal Institution (RI)Dame Jocelyn Bell BurnellAn Introduction to Quantum BiologyOn Aeon either read or listen to Life with PurposeWhy Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics is Different
Jocelyn Bell discovered pulsars. The Nobel Prize went to her supervisorPaul Lasky's Monash WebinarA short video Jocelyn Bell Burnell describes how she discovered pulsars
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell's Institue of Physics Webinar on Transient Astronomy
Bursts, bangs and things that go bump in the night.
What can a proposed high frequency gravitational wave detector tell us about neutron stars?.Fine Structure
Fine Structure Constant Explained in 60 SecondsCloser To Truth hosted by Robert Lawrence KuhnEugene Wigner's question Why the "Unreasonable Effectiveness" of Mathematics?Paul Davies:Sir Roger Penrose
Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered?Gravity, Hawking Points and Twistor Theory
The Big Bang was not the begining
Quantum mechanics and consciousness
His Orch OR theory of consciousness. His Mind-Bending Theory of Reality
Stephen Wolfram, Seth Lloyd, Lee Smolin, Francis Collins, and Frank Wilczek: Complexity from Simplicity?
Lee Smolin: How Can Space and Time be the Same Thing?
Is the Universe fine-tuned for life and mind?
Does a Fine-Tuned Universe Lead to God?
Michael Shermer Fallacies in Proving God Exists
Paul Davies: What is the Origin of the Laws of Nature?
Paul Davies: Are the Laws of Nature constant?
David Chalmers: What are Observers?.
Where do the laws of physics come from?Michio Kaku:The Universe in a NutshellFrancis CollinsThere are 2 types of god. Only one is within the boundary of science.
Asks Is religion a threat to science? and makes the distinction between deism and theism.Nobel Prize winner, Brian Schmidt, discribes The Accelerating UniverseHere he explains Why he became a Christian and, in the first half, gives a very good explanation as to why we should not dismiss deism, then, in the second half gives less than convincing reasons as to why we should embrace theism.
The Mathmatics of Tipping Points by Thomas Bury.
Bryan Magee on the Philosophy of Science one has to admire Magee's clarity of expression.
Kirk Sorensen on Thorium reactors:
LFTRs in 5 minutes.and LFTR vs nuclear waste. - Plutonium, americium, curium (transuranics) can be fissioned ie. consumed.and the latest news Chinese molten-salt reactor cleared for start up .Sabine Hossenfelder
Hydrogen Will Not Save Us. Here's Why.Climate ChangeRainforest Carbon Offsets Ineffective, New Investigation Reveals.
Nuclear Fusion: Who Will be the first to make it work?
Is nuclear power really that slow and expensive as they say?
Carbon dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect
Steven Koonin Questions Conventional Climate Science and MethodologySergio Pellegrino Space Solar Power: A New Beginning.A brilliant series of short films The Energy Transition Crisis outlining the problems with wind and solar and pointing the way forward.
David Eagleman
David Eagleman's TED talk Can we create new senses for humans? in which he makes reference to the pioneering work of Paul Bach-y-Rita.Andrei Linde on Universe or Multiverse.David Eagleman asks Brain over mind?.
David Eagleman makes a plea for humility in science in this somewhat misnames TED talk God vs No God.
NOTE: The first 14 minutes are welcome speeches. if you switch on the sub-titles, you will notice that they are computer generated and hence have some very curious spelling!Derek Muller from Veritasium the element of truth.
Black Hole: How Scientists Took This Impossible Space PhotoGeneticsHow One Supernova Measured The Universe
How Trees Bend the Laws of Physics
Why the Fahrenheit scale is so wierd
The Magnus Effect Backspin Basketball Flies Off Dam.
The design of the Mars Helicopter
Spooky Action at a Distance the best explanation I have ever seen of John Bell's inequality.
Half the universe was missing... until now
Neutron Star Merger Gravitational Waves and Gamma Rays
The Most Radioactive Places on Earth
The Baysian Trap Everyone should watch this, it is so interesting because it is counter intuative
Everything That Happens Has Already Been Determined.
The Big Misconception About Electricity
The wind powered car, 'Blackbird', and The $10,000 bet
The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History
What Actually Expands In An Expanding Universe?
How UV Causes Cancer and Aging
Your Mass is NOT From the Higgs Boson
Why No One Has Measured The Speed Of Light
Is This What Quantum Mechanics Looks Like?
Immune System: Innate and Adaptive Immunity ExplainedSpooky Action at a Distance: The Universe Isn't Real - Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 Bell's inequality.The 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry went to two young ladies who invented CRISPR
TED talk by Nobel winner Jennifer DoudnaTED talk by Ellen Jorgensen What you need to know about CRISPR
bozeman science.com presents What is CRISPR?
Helen Czerski
The Science of Bubbles Yet another Physicst with a Mancunian accent. Both interesting and entertaining.Suzanne Simard: TED talk How trees talk to each otherThe Incredible Science of Temperature
1 Frozen Solid3   Playing with Fire
Iain Stewart: Scotland's Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell The Man Who Changed the World.
Richard Feynman: Way of Thinking The Cosmological Reality
Allan Duffy ANZAAS lecture Dark Matter
BBC: The Sky at Night: The Real Star of Bethlehem A Christmas Special.
Engineering
Millau Viaduct: World's Tallest BridgeIntelligent Design
Tantamount to "God of the Gaps": a theological concept that emerged in the 19th century and revolves around the idea that gaps in scientific understanding are regarded as indications of the existence of God.
Well known historical candidates: Newton - aspects of the solar system, the complexity of the eye.
These days the main candidates are complex molecular machines and the values of the fundamental constants. The history of science tells us that, in time, these 'gaps' will be filled. Notwithstanding, the God of the Gaps argument continues to thrive, as George Santayana put it, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."DNA Replication: Is it evidence for Intelligent Design?
By all means watch these four guys getting excited about things we do not yet uhderstand Darwin DEBUNKED: Using Modern Science wait and see.
The Paradigm Project: Intelligent Design
Stephen C. Meyer Senior Fellow and Director for the Center for Science and Culture in the Discovery Institute puts The case for Intelligent Design
An example of poor design The stupidest nerve in the mammalian body the Laryngeal Nerve and especially in the Giraffe.
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Audio links for us to Listen: (Links are underlined)Melvyn Bragg tells the story of the Nobel-winning physicists William and Lawrence Bragg.
The Science Show
Sir David Attenborough His 97th Birthday.The Boyer LecturesRoger Short tells Robyn Williams of his surprise on learning about The God Gene.
A brilliant raconteur, one of the very best Science Shows: The full Roger Short Interview. Almost an hour but every minute a gem.Science Show Biographical specials
Beatrix Potter an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist; she was best known for her children's books featuring animals. Less well know she was an amateur pioneer mycologist (the study of fungi)Hedy Lamarr the actress and inventor who helped develop the modern world - Frequency Hopping.
Sir John Eccles the Australian Nobel laureate who devoted his life to unravelling the complexities of the human brain
Sir John Eccles one of the big brains in neuroscience
Sir John Eccles and the invaluable work of his daughter Rose
Howard Florey the Australian Nobel laureate who developed penicillin.
2023 Professor Michelle SimonsIn Conversation with Richard Fidler1. The Atomic RevolutionPaul Davies The mystery of the hole in the universe Paul's new book.Islamic science, Medieval medicine and the history police: When fake facts go viral a podcast from the ABC's "Science Friction".Palaeontologist John Long discusses missing links: How a fish with tiny fingers changed history
Palaeontologist Diego Garcia-Bellid Ancestors like aliens: Clues from the Cambrian explosion
The COVID Conversation from The NewDaily
Facing up to the ethical challenges of who survives, and who keeps their jobs, Dr Simon Longstaff - Executive Director of The Ethics Centre - says there are no easy answers, or certainties, when looking to do the right thing.Our famed Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty talks about why we will get a vaccine and what happens if we don't. He teases apart why our immune system so often lets us down and explains some of the complicating factors of a virus that he says isn't so mysterious. He also lets fly with what's making him angry.
Tony's Radio Talks
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PowerPoints: (Links are underlined)
Assessing the factors that cause climate changeAlexander (Sandy) RobbEmbedded links:Volcanoes Why do they form, what are the hazards, and - Do we have any in Australia?Plate Tectonics, 540Ma - Modern World - Scotese AnimationNuclear Power What is it? Where is it now? Where is it going in the future?Tony HeyesMeasuring the UniverseEmbedded links:The Star That Redefined the UniverseThe age of the Universe and Hubble's Constant
If the universe is only 14 billion years old, how can it be 92 billion light years wide?
Standard Candles
Cepheid variablesThe Galaxcy Song from Monty PythonEmbedded links:Gravity Waves: the first detectionThe Science of Renewable Energy
Embedded and related links:Unobtainable: What's Wrong with Wind and Solar?Community battery renewable energy storage
Rolls-Royce Small modular reactors
LFTRs in 5 minutes - Thorium Reactors
LFTR vs Nuclear Waste - Plutonium, americium, curium (transuranics) can be fissioned / disposed
See also this TED talk by Michael Shellenberger Why renewables can't save the planet
And this TED talk by Kirk Sorensen Thorium can give humanity clean, pollution free energy
China's Molten Salt Thorium Reactor
Sabine Hossenfelder asks Is Nuclear Energy Green?
Tony's essay The Pitchforks are Coming
Radio Carbon and other Dating
DatingA video explaining The Isochrone Plot
Dating the Viking Settlement in Newfoundland
From The Big Think World's oldest trees reveal the largest solar storm in history
The Adams Event Film: Stephen Fry on PaleopocalypseVelocity of Light and the Doppler Effect
Velocity of LightThe Doppler Effect
How to find the speed of light The Fizeau experimentVideo explaining Stellar Aberration
Stellar Aberration used to measure the velocity of light Read how Bradley did it
Our Restless Earth: Plate Techtonics etc.
Our Restless EarthThe Philosophy of Science
Embedded links:Paleopocalypse! - Narrated by Stephen Fry. also known as The Adams EventPlate Tectonic animations
How Ice Ages Happen:
Sheldon debunks Astrology
Our Changing View of Reality A Scientific PerspectiveThe Physics of FatEmbedded links:Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific RevolutionsTony's Power Point and Rubin Meerman's Ockham's Razor Program that inspired it.
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Videos to make us Giggle: (Links are underlined)
Moments of Wonder Philomena CunkOn PhilosophySir Simon Rattle and Mr Bean Chariots of Fire
Michael Shermer's amusing TED talk Why people believe weird things
The Two Ronnies nothing to do with Cosmology but a fine example of British humour Four Candles
David Mason plays the trumpet for Penny Lane
Clarke and Dawe The Energy Market Explained
Dave Allen explains Cosmology and The Garden of Eden
Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl The Philosophers' Song
The Griswolds at Stonehenge
Symphony of Science - the Quantum World!
Who needs a goldfish in a bowl when you can stare at this all day A decade of Sun Ten years pf tbe Sun, each second represents a day. From NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Totally mesmerizing.
Victor Borge
Inflationary Language
Tom Lehrer
The ElementsCanadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield singsDavid Bowie's Space Oddity} recorded in the International Space Station.That great Russian mathematician Nicolai Ivinovich Lobachevsky
Chris Hadfield's ABC interview on how David Bowie responded to Space Oddity cover and what it takes to be an astronaut.Sheldon, from Big Bang Theory, debunks Astrology.
The Galaxcy Song from Monty Python and the DNA Version
Cosmologist John waxes lyrical over his cornflakes ON OPENING HIS COMPUTER, OVER HIS BREAKFAST CORNFLAKES, OUR LOCKED-DOWN HUMAN FRIEND CHECKS HIS INBOX
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Useful Links: (Links are underlined)
The Feynman Lectures on Physics, the most popular physics book ever written, are completely online:
University of Central Florida clear and comprehensive Course on Astronomy
University of Cambridge, Cavendish Physics Laboratory has a publication devoted to its research called CavMag
Right Ascension & Declination: Celestial Coordinates for Beginners
Australian National University Library of Resources ANU TV
Planck Units well, what are they Find out here
Stellarium the best astronomical software we know:
a Download Stellarium for Windows. (a free download - I think!)Stellar Photography
or
Download Stellarium for an Apple Mac. (a free download - I think!)
or
Download the Stellarium App for an iPad. (Not free $14.99 well spent)An advantage of having the iPad version is that is has a setting whereby one can hold the iPad up at arms length and see, on tbe screen, the stars in the sky in that direction - with their names.A good friend who has moved to the outback is taking great pictures having followed this Youtube course: Nightscape images .Stellar MagnitudeWhat is stellar magnitude? Ancient to modern .If you are an iPad owner we can strongly recommend the following Astronomical Apos:SunSeeker also available for Android usersPeople on Quora who answer some tricky questions:John Mark FerneeDr Becky's astrophysics Youtube Channel
John Maddox was to the BBC what Robyn Williams is to our ABC. The John Maddox Prize recognises the work of individuals who promote science and evidence, advancing the public discussion around difficult topics despite challenges or hostility. See the list of Previous Prize Winners.
The Institute of Physics History of Physics Group.
Astronomy at Swinburn University.
Click to see which Planets are visible from Melbourne today.
Do visit the MorningtonPeninsula Astronomical Society, they have monthly open evenings, the first Friday in the month.
To see videos of some of their lectures go to the Mornington Peninsula Astronomical Society YouTube site.The Institue of Physics (UK) YouTube Channel. Interesting things to do on the kitchen bench
The Royal Institution (UK)
YouTube Channel a huge number of splendid videos.Dr Derek Muller's splendid short videos from VeritasiumChristmas Lectures in which eminent scientists present their field of study to a young audience. Suitablle for children of all ages.
Sean Carroll presents a series of informal videos talking about the biggest ideas we've come up with to describe our natural world. The Biggest Ideas in the Universe.
What every Cosmologist needs a Pocket Sundial. And, yes, they tell me it works in both hemispheres.
An on-line Calculator for the real nerd.
Look in detail at the surface of another planet; a great film taken by the Mars Rovers.
Read about the making of this film here.
If you are interested in a scientific view of Comlimentary or Alternative Medicine, and a host of otber things, visit The James Randi Foundation.
Find more medical good sense here: Friends of Science in Medicine.
Since it is becoming increasing obvious that very few countries will achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions without the inclusion of nuclear energy within the mix, it behoves us to keep abreast of what is going on in the outside world. I recommend signing up for a weekly, free, email copy of World Nuclear News
They also have a Podcast with same name.
Did you know:
In our galaxy of a hundred billion stars, only three supernovas have been recorded by astronomers: in 1054, in 1572, and in 1604.
If you have grandchildren or young friends who are looking for a different party idea, how about a Cosmology Party. Look at: Stones, Bones and Stars
The children will get to handle crystals, a meteorite, dinosaur teeth and to see rock from the moon.
And a very clear definition: Scientific Theory
An interlocking and consistent system of empirical observations and testable hypotheses that has never failed scrutiny.And a homage to science from Bertrand RussellIt is science that has destroyed the belief in witchcraft, magic and sorcery. It is science that has made the old creeds and the old superstitions impossible for intelligent men to accept. It is science that has made it laughable to suppose the earth the center of the universe and man the supreme purpose of the creation. It is science that is showing the falsehood of the old dualisms of soul and body, mind and matter, which have their origin in religion. It is science that is beginning to make us understand ourselves, and to enable us, up to a point, to see ourselves from without as curious mechanisms. It is science that has taught us the way to substitute tentative truth for cocksure error.Bertrand Russell, The Art of Philosophizing (1968), Essay One, The Art of Rational Conjecture (1942), p. 11
Arguments for atheism Russell's Cosmic Teapot.
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Notes for Tutors/Lecturers: (Links are underlined)
It is possibleto stream these links live to the class but it is frought. It is much better to download the link to your own computer prior to your presentation.The best download software I have found is Airy It is available for use both on PCs and the Apple Mac.
Hybrid Zooming
Small Meeting Hybrid Tech SetupLarge Meeting Hybrid Tech Setup
Going Hybrid: Buying Guide
Inviting Guest Speakers
To enable guest speakers to find their way to Manningham U3A copy the following URL and paste it into an email...Any comments or suggestions, or if you spot any spelling mistakes, please contactTo see the URL for yourself go to HERE www.SonicPathfinder.org/U3A/Visit.html
Tony Heyes by email:
For parsimonious reasons I have tacked this web page on to my existing web site.
http://sonicpathfinder.org/U3A/Cosmologyif this is hard to remember simply go to
www.sonicpathfinder.organd follow the links starting with the link to "U3A Resources" in the cyan box very near the top of the page.
HOWEVER: Manningham U3A has a New Web Page and a link to this page - and other Class Posts - can be found at the top.
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