Discuss science?

How come chewbacca doesn't get a medal at the end of Star Wars: A new hope?

Badalex will be all over this thread

So it's more about generating discussion on the matter.

zing?

Could you start with Biology, Chemistry and Physics?

i like space rockets n stuff

I know dorks who would definitely argue with you on the radio about science. Or tell you about weird squids. Cos squids are fucking weird.

All three of those in a two-hour show... I can try my best. Anything more specific at all Modi?

There will surely be some discussion of space rockets at some point. There are already plans to do a whole special on the Russian Cosmonauts - accompanied by Shag's discoveries in the world of Russian Psychedelic music. Probably not in tonight's show though, Bugsy.

I'm definitely up for dorks that want to argue about science. That usually makes for pretty golden material. Unfortunately we're not allowed to do talk-back on-air, but we can transcribe questions and objections and read them out.

Oh and I didn't mean to ignore your suggestion toadphoney. I actually would love to discuss the relevance of science fiction movies such as Star Wars. Perhaps the fact that Chewbacca doesn't get a medal is some kind of representation of inter-species racism? Specism?

Hahahaha. All three of those are the basis of every branch of science (of course physicists argue it's all really just physics in the end, only to be challenged by mathematicians).

Just maybe suggesting you might want to start with the basics and build up. Maybe, or not. Don't want it to be too much like a science course.

So, you're starting tonight, Ev?

Where?

Only the two white boys get medals. They are descended from the ruling class/cultural elite.

Also I think your first show should be about THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER and you should play the Large Hadron Collider rap on air.

Because it's amazing

Cool the russian cosmonaut one sounds cool!

hey i did aerospace engineering and have heaps of books on astronautics. i can talk for hours on end about this stuff

Hey Bugsy that is awesome! Perhaps you could be a guest on the show sometime! I'll send you a PM.

nyx - You are SO COMPLETELY RIGHT. The LHC rap rules my world. Holy crap. I'm so gonna get it on air tonight. Perhaps that is the good topic to start with. I'm worried I won't be able to do it justice in my descriptions of it though. Thank goodness we have the rap to guide us.

i'd love too !

Everyone likes the Large Hadron Collider!

Except for the people that fear it and believe it will bring about the end of the world. But even they kinda like it a bit.

sounds cool! i would love to hear one on the philosophy of science, but that being ignored is my own particular gripe with science and possibly not that interesting to anyone else.

you'll wanna find some form of dr. karl though, or else it's gonna be pretty shit. it's cool having someone with no science knowledge asking the questions / steering the discussion, but unless you've got an academic with a solid base translating scientific ideas into every day language, it runs the risk of sounding like a high school talk or if done particularly badly, might even actually create and spread misinformation.

Good luck and look forward toi listening!

i want to find out more about the passage of time hey hey

Yeah I agree Danna. We shall be attempting to structure the shows fairly strictly so that we are constantly referencing information.

The philosophy and the history of science is definitely something that I would love to research further and attempt to present on the show. I'm very much interested in the way it's been approached so far. My opinions about how it's been handled by academia that lead me to wanting to create a radio show about it. The reason for presenting it without a designated 'expert' at this point is that I believe that the culture of the 'expert' leaves people often feeling they are not capable of simply researching and learning things of their own accord and simply by discussing things with others. It is an experiment at this point!!... See how it goes.

''My opinions about how it's been handled by academia that lead me to wanting to create a radio show about it.''

What I meant to have put at the beginning of that sentence was ''In fact it is...''

The passage of time. Noted. Thanks La Bomba.

I can come and talk about the LHC. And physics a bit.

if you want.

yeah and it sounds as though you'll be approaching it from a 'let's go find out' perspective rather 'this is how it is' which i think will work in that format. sounds cool!

Cool! Thanks Elaine, I'll send you a PM.

great. maybe you will get a caller in that can tell everyone how to change and/or extend one's passage through the bain of one's loife

oh, that's easy. speed up the world around you to near light speed whilst you stay still.

''Easy''... I mean... The idea is easy, but how does one actually attain said 'near-light speed'?

hop on a plane

even then you are still passing through time arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee this suxs!

Do planes travel at near light speed? I didn't think that they did...

you can talk about the biggest science project in the wurlds happening right now. yeh you know all those sciencce heads playing with the big bang theory and how the universe was formed - creating man made black holes and how all the big wigs are all up in arms scared that a man made black hole will gobble up 'the wurlds' and how problamatic if china finds out how to make black holes because if china finds out they sure as hell won't manufacture black holes to international safety standards and all the hoopla and hazards surrounding that. yes that.

there is nothing man made that has achieved even a tiny fraction of the speed of light.

there is nothing man made that has achieved even a tiny fraction of the speed of light.

wrong!

the protons in the LHC are accelerated to almost the speed of light.

well, the protons aren't man made but the velocities are.

but otherwise, yeah. you are right. maybe not quite that easy :)

Yeah that is what I though also. I think that transporting actual humans at that speed is generally accepted to be near-on impossible at this point. Or actually impossible. For now.

I think the accepted thinking is that we could not stand the forces that would be generated at such speeds, in our current form. But that's assuming it would be like riding a really fast plane/rocket/whatever, which it may not be like at all

poor Einstein a gogo

indeed. maybe they will instead discover that people can just step into and out of one of the other dimensions/planes, allowing them to travel great distances in our world that are really only minute movements in another plane. thereby allowing time/space travel.

the fastest humans ever were the crew of apollo 10 on their return from the moon they reached speeds of around 30,000 km\h

the fastes man made object (actually made by human hands) was the helios 2 probe which travelled at 252,800 km/h (earth moon distance is about 300,000km )

there was a jiont research project by nasa and the us department of energy called Orion in the early 60's that proposed a manned rocket that was powered by exploding nuclear charges behind it. The physicists behind the project (some of the top physicists in the US at the time) pridicted that the rocket would be able to reach a signifigant fraction of the speed of light (this is off the top of my head i think it was a half or a third) .

I think the accepted thinking is that we could not stand the forces that would be generated at such speeds,

modi!

for shame. unless there is an acceleration there is NO force. (F=ma - newton's 2nd law)

if one is travelling at a constant speed or velocity there is no force.

there is nothing man made that has achieved even a tiny fraction of the speed of light.

a light bulb

actually, i just fibbed. on can travel at constant speed without constant velocity. but i know modi meant velocity in his statement.

and LaBom - LALZ.

Well, the travelling at such speeds requires acceleration to get there by most concepts we can get our heads around, so, yeah, we may be able to travel that fast without ill effect, but getting to that point in a physical craft would probably squish us like bugs on a windshield.

depending on the rate of acceleration.

I do accept the point you are trying to make. but as a scientician, you need to be careful with your language! there are enough people who think that force is proportional to velocity without it being incorrectly re-enforced (no pun intended) by people they look up to as knowing about science.

Fantastic idea Evelyn.

woo! conservation of momentum in action!

sweet. what city will this be broadcasted in? love it if you could plonk it online somewhere as a podcast too.

http://einsteinagogo.net/

How come chewbacca doesn't get a medal at the end of Star Wars: A new hope?

Because putting the needle through his skin would have been a bit too kinky for PG audiences?

Evelyn: have you read any of Ben Goldacre's ''Bad Science'' columns? Perhaps something along those lines, exposing misconceptions and distortions of science. Opening a can of righteous whoop-ass on quackery and pseudoscience could be both educational and entertaining.

No pins involved my friend.

Look at him. He is shitty.

Science: sciencey. Tis all you need to know.

Then play a doom medley for the other 2 hours of the show.

That's what I would do, and I have a degree and THREE labcoats.

(but serious, you might find this website useful/funny )

Thanks everyone!

I've actually decided that given the duration of tonight's show is only 2 hours, we will be only attempting a brief introduction to the idea of popularizing science, and therefore with of course we talking much about the late great Carl Sagan.

There's also going to be some awesome spacey jams played and some 50s/60s sci-fi soundtrack moments.

If anyone would like to contribute at all to the conversation, tune in at 12 midnight until 2AM tonight on Triple R and give us a buzz.

Sounds awesome Evelyn!
If you bump the thread around then, some of us non-Melbourneites might try and tune into the net feed too...

ok will do Raven.