The big buzz (Aldrin) of the day yesterday:
EARTH AND MOON 60 MILLION YEARS OLDER
Sixty million years, give or take 20 million years is a really big deal. The push to ever older ages for rocks on the earth by these French researchers is quite a statement.
The discovery of older inclusions of xenon gas in Australian and South African rocks points to a much older earth and moon. 60,000,000 years is a huge deal, even to geologists. Many more years for processes to happen. . .
And this article about Dante and mathematics is worth a look. The question of "squaring the circle" is at the center of Jones' work:
DANTE'S MATHEMATICS
The tie in? Besides the great rota of life?
The look at Dante's poetry from a mathematical perspective points to a time when math/science and poetry/the arts were more intricately linked. My question? How and why did they get so separated? Is it merely the increase of the amount of information so we "can't" keep both parts intricately linked?
Looking forward to a Wednesday meeting here. As always, I appreciate your wisdom and insight...about science, words, squaring the circle, and any and all tie-ins.
Mid-weekly, tri-angling squaring the circle,
Steph
(aka Word Woman)
MAIZIE MAY
On my iPhone at EWR, so I'm not sure what the problem is, but the Dante math link isn't working. I do like the Apollo 8 Earthrise photo, tho Buzz wasn't involved in that.
ReplyDeleteI relinked the DANTE MATH article, jan. Hope you need not be at Newark Airport too long.
DeleteYeah, I knew it wasn't Buzz's but the buzz is it word played itself right in there;-).
Thanks for letting me know about the link.
Steph,
ReplyDelete4.6 billion is the new 4.54 billion?
I understand that, given this new research, Creation Scientists are now readjusting their age-of-the-earth estimate upwards, to 60,006,000 years... although they are not all that enthusiastic about that second "6" creeping into the estimate. If a subsequent earth-age readjustment results in a third "6" coming into play, they will likely become very disillusioned with the entire process and revert to their 6,000-year-old fallback.
Nice Maizie photo. Glad to hear she's doing better.
LegoLucifer
Ha, Lego! 6004 I believe. ;-) It cracks me up that the extra 4 years creeps in there. +/- 20,000,000 years is close enough for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks about Maizie. Still some residual infection but overall she is better.
Steph
At least I got an interesting ad this time, for MathType 6.9, a program that promises equations anywhere and everywhere!
ReplyDeleteMore on squaring the circle:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill
Ah, the mysterious possibilities of a dull pencil. And the mystery of transcendence.
"Hope you need not be at Newark Airport too long" made me chuckle. I was there once years ago. I believe we have a consensus.
Do they make get well cards for dogs? They should.
Paul, the Indiana Pi bill and squaring the Circle was interesting. The NZ references too. . .
DeleteYeah, Newark never inspired much except getting out of Dodge. Hope you are going somewhere fun, jan.
Many thanks for the well wishes for Maizie, Paul. I will pass them on to her so she may take paws ;-).
This June Honey Moon was spectacular here. How about in your neck of the woods?
ReplyDeletehttp://earthsky.org/tonight/june-full-moon-mirrors-path-of-december-sun#.U5tLgRnnbqB
Of course, honey moon for a meadery! Good timing.
DeleteI was in Asheville, NC, which was stormy and overcast, so I missed it. Naturally, my friend with a meadery posted it to his Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteJust learned about ringwoodite today. Sounds like big news. Why is it breaking now?
Ringwoodite was my topic for next week, jan!
DeleteIt's a polymorph of our old friend olivine.
Interesting article. . .Yeah, for something that has been known since 1969, why is it surfacing now ?! More investigation needed.
All that Bowen's reaction series stuff from long ago: (Wiki)
"In Earth's interior, olivine occurs in the upper mantle at depths less than about 410 km, and ringwoodite is inferred to be present within the transition zone from about 520 to 660 km depth. Seismic discontinuities at about 410, 520, and 660 km depth have been attributed to phase changes involving olivine and its polymorphs.
The 520-km discontinuity is generally believed to be caused by the transition of the olivine polymorph wadsleyite (beta-phase) to ringwoodite (gamma-phase), while the 660-km discontinuity by the phase transformation of ringwoodite (gamma-phase) to a silicate perovskite plus magnesiowüstite. "
So at 520 km deep ringwoodite appears. And in a few meteorites...but a whole other water layer deep in the earth--that's amazing!! (worth two !!)
A new Tuesday post is up! Tuesday just didn't seem like Tuesday without it. . .
ReplyDeleteEnjoy...There's even a "Top Ten" list.