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Is ENCODE All That?, Spinning Supermassive Black Hole!, Bacula Get Smaller, Colonic Antibiotics?, Rat Mind-Meld, Chemotherapy – Better Than Ever, Retire On Mars, And Much More…
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22:22 What is it moving, when it’s moving space?
22:50 When they say space is warping, it always really confuses me.
23:00 Does that mean space is a thing? It’s “stuff”?
In general relativity, the metric tensor is the fundamental object of study.
Yes, it’s a thing, as real, to the theory, as the matter it interacts with.
The curvature of the metric tensor can be expressed as a soluble equation.
A non-zero solution for this curvature is precisely what is meant by “warped space”!
You’ve heard this from me before, but you’ve never seemed quite convinced.
It’s like you object to the treatment of abstract, mathematical objects as real.
In order to be free from confusion in modern physics, you must overcome this hang up.
That’s just how scientific theories work. And they do work!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_tensor_%28general_relativity%29
Couple things on the otter bacula(um):
1) Blaire briefly mentioned that the researchers are trying to sus out the source of the POP’s, of which rain was an option. To expand, this is from a phenomenon known as global distillation. You have POP’s (like pesticides) applied in a part of the word that does not regulate them (i.e. South America) where they can vaporize due to warm temperatures. This puts them in to the atmosphere and subject to atmospheric currents. Eventually they will come down through condensation/solidification upon reaching colder temperatures or scoured by rain and/or snow. Because of global weather patterns, POP’s are biased to move towards the poles, albeit slowly. So it is very possible that these COC’s could be rain based. 2) Blaire seemed to indicate that waste water treatment plants are not actively looking at treatment of pharmaceuticals and related metabolites. This is an area of intense active research. Unfortunately the problem is a very sticky widget. 3) EDC’s have been known to be in the water for some time now. EDC’s have been shown to have drastic effects on fish (thank you CU Boulder), birds, and mammals. One has to wonder that given the broad reach of EDC’s their effect , why this has not occurred as a possibility to our animal ‘specialist’ as to why giant pandas are having difficulty in breeding.