The Official MathGeek Blog

Darwin Flunked Math!

British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle: “The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is 10 to the 40,000th power ... It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence.” He further explains his position, using the example of a Rubik’s cube: “At all events, anyone, having even a nodding acquaintance with the Rubik’s cube will concede the near impossibility of a solution being obtained by a blind person moving the cubic faces at random. Now imagine 10 to the 50th power (that’s a number 1 with 50 zeros after it) blind people, each with a scrambled Rubik’s cube, and try to conceive of the chance of them all simultaneously arriving at the solved form. You then have the chance of arriving by random shuffling at just one of the many biopolymers on which life depends. The notion that not only biopolymers but the operating program of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.” He illustrates the probability of spontaneous generation like this: “Supposing the first cell originated by chance is like believing a tornado could sweep through a junkyard filled with airplane parts and form a Boeing 747.” 

Dr. Michael Denton, noted molecular biologist agrees: “Considering the way the pre-biotic soup is referred to in so many discussion of the origin of life as an already established reality, it comes as something of a shock to realize that there is absolutely no positive evidence for its existence.” Dr. Denton also says: “The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable event. Such an occurrence would be indistinguishable from a miracle.”  Comments?

Beam Me Up!

"Scientists have set a new record in sending information through thin air using the revolutionary technology of quantum teleportation - although Mr Spock may have to wait a little longer for a Scotty to beam him up with it.

A team of physicists has teleported data over a distance of 89 miles from the Canary Island of La Palma to the neighbouring island of Tenerife, which is 10 times further than the previous attempt at teleportation through free space.

The scientists did it by exploiting the "spooky" and virtually unfathomable field of quantum entanglement - when the state of matter rather than matter itself is sent from one place to another. Tiny packets or particles of light, photons, were used to teleport information between telescopes on the two islands. The photons did it by quantum entanglement and scientists hope it will form the basis of a way of sending encrypted data.

The teleporters used in Star Trek are said to have been based on the idea of quantum entanglement and the latest study demonstrates that elements of the phenomenon could have a practical use in the real world."  More...

The Face on Mars

Remember the so-called face on Mars?  We now have some new photos: "A perspective view showing the so-called 'Face on Mars' located in the Cydonia region. The image shows a remnant massif thought to have formed via landslides and an early form of debris apron formation. The massif is characterized by a western wall that has moved downslope as a coherent mass. The massif became famous as the 'Face on Mars' in a photo taken on 25 July 1976 by the American Viking 1 Orbiter."

The Antikythera Mechanism

More than a hundred years ago an extraordinary mechanism was found by sponge divers at the bottom of the sea near the island of Antikythera. It astonished the whole international community of experts on the ancient world. Was it an astrolabe? Was in an orrery or an astronomical clock? Or something else? For decades, scientific investigation failed to yield much light and relied more on imagination than the facts. However research over the last half century has begun to reveal its secrets. It dates from around the 1st century B.C. and is the most sophisticated mechanism known from the ancient world. Nothing as complex is known for the next thousand years. The Antikythera Mechanism is now understood to be dedicated to astronomical phenomena and operates as a complex mechanical "computer" which tracks the cycles of the Solar System.  More...

The Moonstick

A moonstick is a slide rule moon phase calendar.  It replaces a conventional moon phase chart or moon phase calculator.  The moonstick can determine the moon phase for any date, past (8000 years), present, or future (8000 years).  It can also perform a variety of "advanced searches" (for example, "On what dates this year are there new moons?  How long until there is a full moon on Halloween?").  The moonstick automatically recognizes all leap years and leap centuries, all time zones, the calendar adjustment of 1582, and years "BC".  The moonstick produces results accurate to 1½ hours in approximately 10 seconds. More...

Nature's Fundamental Laws May Be Changing

Recent research has found evidence that the value of certain fundamental parameters, such as the speed of light or the strength of the invisible glue that holds atomic nuclei together, may have been different in the past.

"There is absolutely no reason these constants should be constant," says astronomer Michael Murphy of the University of Cambridge. "These are famous numbers in physics, but we have no real reason for why they are what they are."

The observed differences are small — roughly a few parts in a million — but the implications are huge. The laws of physics would have to be rewritten, and we might need to make room for six or seven more dimensions than the four — the three spatial ones, plus time — that we are used to.  More...

Space Shuttle Set to Launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. - The official countdown for Saturday's scheduled launch of the space shuttle Discovery got under way Wednesday amid forecasts of threatening weather that could cause a delay.

The shuttle, which will carry seven astronauts for a 12-day mission to the international space station, is scheduled to blast off at 2:48 p.m Saturday, the first day of a launch window that extends through July 19.  More...