The official science thread.
- Thread starter Boozeroony
- Start date
- Status
OttomanScribe
Member
Anyone here into Quantum Physics? I hear its how psychics work?
OttomanScribe
Member
As soon as I hear 'Quantum Physics'. I reach for my revolver.sinxtanx said:
i thought this was an interesting doco
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/everything-and-nothing/
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/everything-and-nothing/
Veidt said:
not all theories are created equalSolKane said:
Boozeroony
Member
meadowrag said:
Cellular biology or cytology are pretty versatile when it comes to job perspectives. It takes little effort to understand papers about biochemistry, genetics, immunology or oncology. Before going into one of these fields, be sure to read up on important topics. Go to the library and take a week to get familiar with important concepts, preferably from books like this (Biochemistry) or this one (cell biology).
Evolved1
make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
Currently majoring in biological science and marine science w/ chem and geography minors... it's my last year and now I'm researching grad programs (at good schools) and thinking about GRE's.
I started pretty late --I was 26-- and it's taken a year longer than it should have... though I think the double major and all the extra classes for minors helps explain that away.
It's been great, but a real grind. There's this feeling of being like a hamster on a wheel... I hope I have it in me to get through grad school.
Love science though. Love it. And the beach. And bikinis. Marine Science FTW! ;P
I started pretty late --I was 26-- and it's taken a year longer than it should have... though I think the double major and all the extra classes for minors helps explain that away.
It's been great, but a real grind. There's this feeling of being like a hamster on a wheel... I hope I have it in me to get through grad school.
Love science though. Love it. And the beach. And bikinis. Marine Science FTW! ;P
OttomanScribe
Member
niceSirius said:
yankeehater
Member
I have a Masters in physics. I completed all of the PHD coursework, and qualifying exam, but had to leave school before finishing my dissertation due to my wife's grandparents falling ill. My Masters thesis was on Kaon Nucleon Scattering in Lattice QCD. My field in general was nuclear theory. Great idea for a thread op.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
A Physicist, an Engineer and Statistician are drafted into the army to fight in a war, and they are all assigned to the same artillery piece. During combat, the targeting system breaks, and they are forced to aim the gun manually.
The Physicist says "No problem guys, I've got this". He breaks out his equations of motion, aims the gun accordingly and takes a shot. The shell lands 100 meters too short of the target. The Engineer laughs.
"You fool! You calculated for ideal conditions!" He shoves the Physicist out of the way, makes some back-of-the-envelope calculations, adjusts the gun and fires it. This time, the shell overshoots the target by 100 meters.
The Statistician stands up and shouts "we got 'em!"
The Physicist says "No problem guys, I've got this". He breaks out his equations of motion, aims the gun accordingly and takes a shot. The shell lands 100 meters too short of the target. The Engineer laughs.
"You fool! You calculated for ideal conditions!" He shoves the Physicist out of the way, makes some back-of-the-envelope calculations, adjusts the gun and fires it. This time, the shell overshoots the target by 100 meters.
The Statistician stands up and shouts "we got 'em!"
yankeehater
Member
recklessmind said:
No, I am teaching high school math and physics and I love it, so I am happy with the way things worked out. I did love do research but the long term job prospects seemed a bit shakier, I also have an ungodly amount of student loans that I need to get paying on.
Gorgon
Member
Yaweee said:
I'm not in the US, so my case is different. Getting a salaried position right now is difficult for me. I can easily get a professor to take me as a PhD researcher but getting a scholarship or direct funding by the department is a pain in the ass. Unless the department was already searching for someone for a salaried position, of course, but that's not the case.
I've graduated in Geology (more or less what in the US/UK you would call a masters degree) and then I went for a PhD in Geoarchaeology/Arqueometry. We had problems with the research partners and we ended up cancelling the project since we were just wasting our time. Then I recently decided that I wanted to move into Biology instead, which is far more to my linking (my big passion is Astrobiology). So now I have a position available in Aquatic Ecology/Fisheries Science at a univ department BUT no funding to start. I'm thinking about what I should do right now, since I'm unemployed too.
Tornado Condor
Member
I took a little bit of it in a course. Shit was complicated.OttomanScribe said:
Boozeroony said:
I would disagree with both of your books
Biochem
Cell Bio
The Cell Bio book is probably one of the best written textbooks I have ever read, but the truth is they all pretty much have the same info in there it's just a matter of author writing style and pretty pictures
Also, I think it is extremely important to know that simply having a bachelors degree in any field of biology (with the exception of biomedical engineering) does not mean you will get a good job after college. In fact, you will most likely have some entry level lab tech job making < $50k. If you truly love the field, be prepared to pursue a doctoral program, or use it to pursue a graduate program in the health field (medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, etc).
edit: BS Biochemistry & Cell Biology
yankeehater said:
Nice field to go in. I took one single physics course in first year before switching tracks to medicine. Always found the concepts of quantum physics to be fascinating, like we're on the verge of discovering something that will literally render everything we know irrelevant while at the same time introducing an entirely new realm of thinking.
I just wasn't smart enough.
So I changed majors to med instead.Dogfacedgod
Member
I have a question...
E=MC^2, or Engery = Mass times the speed of light squared.
I'm no physicist but I've read some books (A Brief History of Time, The Elegant Universe, etc.) and my question is this.
From what I understand, the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second in a vacuum. But, according to the theory, time passes at different rates in the proximity of mass.
So in Einstien's theory, is the "speed" of light a variable that can change depending on the circumstances?
Basically, how can the speed of light be a constant if time itself can fluctuate?
E=MC^2, or Engery = Mass times the speed of light squared.
I'm no physicist but I've read some books (A Brief History of Time, The Elegant Universe, etc.) and my question is this.
From what I understand, the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second in a vacuum. But, according to the theory, time passes at different rates in the proximity of mass.
So in Einstien's theory, is the "speed" of light a variable that can change depending on the circumstances?
Basically, how can the speed of light be a constant if time itself can fluctuate?
Boozeroony
Member
RevDM said:I would disagree with both of your books
Biochem
Cell Bio
The Cell Bio book is probably one of the best written textbooks I have ever read, but the truth is they all pretty much have the same info in there it's just a matter of author writing style and pretty pictures
Also, I think it is extremely important to know that simply having a bachelors degree in any field of biology (with the exception of biomedical engineering) does not mean you will get a good job after college. In fact, you will most likely have some entry level lab tech job making < $50k. If you truly love the field, be prepared to pursue a doctoral program, or use it to pursue a graduate program in the health field (medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, etc).
edit: BS Biochemistry & Cell Biology
I agree with The cell. Essential cell biology is the summary of the Cell. First year of my Bachelors I had to purchase Essential Cell Biology and the second year we had to buy The Cell. The Cell is the book to read for any molecular/cell biologist. Mine is pretty damaged though... Need to buy the newest edition some time.
edit:
Indeed, bachelors is pretty useless if you want a scientific career. Get a Masters and build a network along the way. This will help you in your further career.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Dogfacedgod said:
The speed of light is the same speed relative to all observers. So if you are going at 99% of the speed of light, light still travels the same speed away from you as it does when you are "at rest" (n.b. "at rest" is not really a good concept to use in relativity).
In very simple terms, you can think of length contraction and time dilation as the "enforcement" of the invariable speed of light - in order to make sure it seems like the same speed relative to you nomatter what your velocity is, time slows down or speeds up for you and you become longer/shorter so you always measure it the same regardless of your situation.
1. Currently knee-deep in the stuff for a sophomore-level physics course.OttomanScribe said:
2. Dear goodness no. There are many charlatans who make outlandish claims and try to justify them with a flawed, simplistic notion of how quantum physics work, and they always fail spectacularly. "Quantum" should definitely set off your skeptical radar when you hear it attached to anything that sounds like snake oil, but QM really does work, just not in the ways the hucksters would have you believe.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Orayn said:
Boozeroony
Member
RevDM said:
Actually, Essentials is pretty lame. Might as well buy the full version as it is slightly more expensive.
I found Janeway's Immunobiology a good read too. Although I had a hard time with Advanced Immunology last year, I enjoyed reading this one.
Dogfacedgod
Member
ThoseDeafMutes said:
I think I get it. Makes me think of another question I have regarding the twin paradox. I get that time slows down when traveling at high speeds. Now suppose one twin hops on a ship and travels at 99% of the speed of light to visit Alpha Centauri (which I think is about 4 light years away)for a week and then comes back to earth. For the twin on earth, it takes a little over eight years for his brother to return, right? How much time does the twin in the ship experience passing?
I ask this question because in all these sci-fi moves there's some sort of deep sleep or hibernation for space travel. But if time slows that much than maybe a week on a ship can get you to there even if the relative time on earth is much much more than that.
Of course, this is assuming those sci-fi ships can go close to light speed.
Boozeroony said:
I recently finished a medical immunology course and we used The Immune System. It was fairly simple to read (though immunology is far from simple) and seemed to contain most of the important information. The book was written in a way to give you all the information and then be able to answer clinical vignettes if given a particular patient history with lab values
edit: adapted from the Janeway book
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Dogfacedgod said:
If you can go fast enough, you can travel across the entire visible universe in a single human lifetime, but of course to people who stayed at home it will have taken you billions of years. Regarding cryosleep and variations in SciFi, there are different reasons for it. The classic scene in Aliens is an interesting case because in that film series, the starships actually do go Faster Than Light. However, they experience inverted time dilation, where the faster past lightspeed they go, the faster they experience time relative to the ouside. So even though to people on Earth they took 2 weeks to warp out to Alpha Centari, to the crew it took several years. So they use cryosleep to get around this limitation.
Crew hibernation and generation ships are two solutions to getting your crew across interstellar distances when you can't go fast enough.
fredrancour
Member
Dogfacedgod said:
At 0.99c I think it'd be a little over a year for the twin that travelled. It's not anywhere near a linear ramp-up as you approach c. If you wanted to make that 8 lightyears take a week locally, you'd have to tack on a few more nines to that.
Boozeroony
Member
I've got a question.
I have a huge amount of bacterial species I want to test for. The idea is to probe sequences complementary to 16S rDNA sequences and test them on microarray. What is a good way to translate my species to 16S probes? I am struggling with full sequences and such, but I feel there should be an easier way.
I have a huge amount of bacterial species I want to test for. The idea is to probe sequences complementary to 16S rDNA sequences and test them on microarray. What is a good way to translate my species to 16S probes? I am struggling with full sequences and such, but I feel there should be an easier way.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Halycon said:
Whoosh.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Halycon said:I don't get it explain
You experience time differently based on the velocity you move relative to other bodies. To an observer watching your journey through a telescope on earth, going at 0.999 c you will take ~4 years to reach Alpha Centari, since it is 4 lightyears away, but to the man on the rocket, you will take far less than this time, perhaps weeks or days (I haven't crunched the numbers to work out exactly, but you can use equations of relativity to work out precisely).
RevDM said:
http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/Me...lar-and-Molecular-Immunology-Updated-Edition/
Best book out there for Immunology.
Time dilation goes by the following equation.Dogfacedgod said:
t' = t/Sqrt[1-(v²/c²)]
In your question, t' is the time experienced by the twin in the reference frame, 'v' is the speed of the sci-fi ship relative to the reference frame, c is the speed of light, and t is the amount of time experienced by the twin in the ship.
Bulbo Urethral Baggins
Banned
Boozeroony said:
I'm not sure I understand your question. So you are spotting your own microarrays, right? And you know the species you are testing for?
Can't you just search genbank and find a consensus sequence among strains for each species and design oligos?
Yaweee said:
yea, I am working on related stuff. i mainly focus on how to make use of entanglement as a resource for certain processes. however, the technological and conceptual hurdles for quantum computing is HUGE. don't hold your breath for a quantum computer any time soon.
there is great potential though. there are examples of algorithms that are exponentially faster on a quantum computer compared to a classical computer (imagine something like 10 billion computations on a classical computer done in 10 steps in a quantum one), but such algorithms are unimaginably difficult to design. it is quite an exciting field.
yankeehater
Member
Raist said:
The paradox comes from the idea that identical twins should always be the same age. You are right that it actually has nothing to do with the two people being related, it is just eaiser for people to visualize what is going on if the 2 people whose ages they are comparing are the same.
MadraptorMan
Member
What happens when an electron and a positron meet?
- Status