Il fisico quantistico Michael Brooks elenca le teorie più interessanti (e affascinanti) degli ultimi anni. Da un articolo su "IL POST" del 17 agosto 2010.
Michael Brooks è un fisico inglese che si occupa di meccanica quantistica. Collabora con la rivista New Scientist e ha scritto per il Guardian, l’Observer, l’Independent. Ha tenuto conferenze all’Università di New York, al Museo Americano di Storia Nature and the University of Cambridge, and regularly takes part in a BBC radio program 6, which explains (or tries to) the mysteries of the universe. New Statesman wrote a list of nineteen new ideas of science - or old ideas that have made progress. The realization of any of these theories seems to close and we can already see the horizon, others seem to still science fiction. Obviously things are often more detailed and complex as are described, and all deserve more and more precise investigations to be described in full. The intention to Brooks, however, is purely layman's goal is reached: the story of how science is changing is very fascinating, even for those without adequate preparation behind.
Humans are still evolving
We do not realize it because it happens slowly, but our genetic code is still evolving. Two examples: the presence of a gene that increases fertility is increasing in Europe, while to digest lactose is spreading from eastern Europe to the world. And of course there are the changes in reaction to disease. People with a particular genetic code are more likely to survive malaria and HIV, and almost all humans are losing the caspase gene, because it makes it more vulnerable alle infezioni batteriche.
Il tempo non esiste
C’è un problema nella coesistenza delle teorie che gli scienziati stanno formulando per arrivare a una “teoria del tutto”: il tempo, che in ognuna di queste teorie funziona in modo diverso. Nella relatività non viene misurato mentre nella teoria dei quanti non si prende nemmeno in considerazione il fatto che questo debba venire misurato. La soluzione radicale al problema è considerare il tempo come una cosa che gli esseri umani si sono inventati, per nulla fondamentale e definita nei processi dell’universo.
Questo è solo uno dei tanti universi
Ci sono cose del nostro universo che sembrano essere così and that's it. It is not known what depends the value of the force of gravity, and this would not be a problem if the value is not the perfect one to allow life to our universe, almost as if someone had decided to table. But since this is clearly an explanation that scientists are not fond of, have suggested another solution: our universe is just one of many - all different from each other - among which we can not move. This would eliminate the "special" conditions of the universe: it is clear that is perfect for us, otherwise we would not be here to see it.
We may be able to stop aging
experiments on different animals such as mice and worms, have shown that blocking or modifying genes can be very slow the rate of aging. And there are less technical ways to do this: to follow special diets or injection of hormones in the body could lead to the same result. The question is of course one of the most controversial in science, but we do not have to worry yet for some, many biologists say that it is still a mirage, and say that we will never counteract cell death. The fight against aging is still gone from "impossible" to "enormously difficult".
They're coming men stepped
Among a generation or two human beings have a choice to make: whether or not to enhance their children? A group of scientists led by Raymond Kurzweil argues that we are entering an era where it will host the Singularity, when our mental and physical abilities can be improved with the use of technology. The research is obviously started with the intent to prevent the emergence of diseases, but were soon extended to overcome our limits: plants in the retina to improve vision or the brain to enhance memory. And the diagnosis of the genetic code of the embryos in vitro damage is already possible to select children che possano poi donare a fratelli malati; da qui a selezioni più specifiche il passo è breve.
Tutto è informazione
L’universo potrebbe essere una semplicissima ma sterminata rete di “atomi d’informazione”. Allo stesso modo del codice binario con cui lavora un computer, i processi della natura potrebbe essere stabiliti da decisioni che hanno come risposte possibili unicamente il sì e il no: “Il fotone passa per questo punto?”. E così via. L’universo sarebbe quindi un gigante sistema informatico, una visione che semplificherebbe e renderebbe comprensibile il modo con cui funzionano le cose.
Comprendere la nostra coscienza non è più a dream
The increasing knowledge of our brain and the computer models could be designed to slowly reveal how it is possible that spongy stuff in our head creates our consciousness of human beings. In particular, observing the consequences of the death of little bits of brain that biologists are trying to understand how it works: depression, schizophrenia and autism are diseases that result from the destruction of small parts of the brain, and studying them could lead us to understand our operation . It might take a hundred years, but it is very likely that the journey is able to discover many interesting things.
We do not know what it is composed of the most dell’universo
L’universo è in buona parte formato da qualcosa che non riusciamo a comprendere. Secondo la nostra concezione delle cose, le galassie girano troppo velocemente per riuscire a tenere aggregate le stelle di cui sono composte. Ma, dato che quelle galassie compatte lo sono, significa che deve esistere qualcosa di extra gravitazionale che le tiene al loro posto. Gli scienziati chiamano questo qualcosa materia oscura, che dovrebbe formare circa un quarto della massa dell’universo. I restanti tre quarti sono formati invece da energia oscura, che spinge l’espansione dell’universo. Riguardo alla materia oscura, gli scienziati sono ancora parecchio confusi: sanno quali sono i suoi effetti, ma non sanno né where it comes from or what it is composed: it is therefore necessary that the dark matter particles should indicate that we have not yet discovered, and this is the objective which is pointing to the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. With regard to dark energy, scientists have made even worse: we only know that does not come from either unknown or particles from space that exists between them.
We may be closer to understanding the mass
The excitement of the physicists of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva is linked to the possibility of discovering the Higgs boson - also called God particle - the only proof that we do not have to demonstrate the best theories of particle physics. The Higgs boson would have to exert a force on particles of some girls, so it becomes mass, the properties of matter responds to gravity and other external forces. What will happen at Cern is crucial: if the Higgs would be discovered the theory is confirmed, but if this does not happen would doubt a good portion of the beliefs of science.
ready aliens
is increasingly likely that our generation is the one that will find life on another planet. Of course, no intelligent life but microbes, and apologize if it is short. With technology advancing more and more velocemente, ogni anno si scoprono decine e decine di nuovi pianeti fuori dal nostro sistema solare, e i mezzi di rilevamento (fotografico e non) in grado di individuare la presenza di vita su un pianeta stanno migliorando. Se trovassimo organismi viventi su un altro pianeta sarebbe evidentemente una scoperta epocale, significherebbe che esiste più di un’evoluzione possibile nell’universo. Scienziati e filosofi stanno già discutendo su cosa dovremmo fare in caso di una scoperta del genere.
Gli esseri umani non sono speciali
Finora i ricercatori hanno trovato solo tre geni che appartengono esclusivamente agli esseri umani. Altri primati hanno le cellule del cervello identiche alle nostre, quello che sappiamo fare in most of them is just an evolved version of their "tricks." Chimps show morality, elephants empathy. Ravens use objects, dolphins have cultural communities, including the salamanders have different characters from each other. No one uses language as us, but the actions of the bonobos and orang-tango we are very close. In conclusion: we are the first class, but we are in another class.
believers are born
neuroscientific experiments have shown that we are naturally inclined to believe in invisible entities. The human brain has evolved assuming a living explanation for any phenomenon, we are descendants of tens of generations that, if behind a bush on the move did not see a predator, instinctively felt the presence of an evil spirit.
Most of the Earth is unexplored
It is likely that there are still many things that we do not know of our own planet. The ocean covers 70 percent of the planet and has an average depth of 4 km. Most are still unexplored, and every time that researchers take to discover new species and new deep geological formations, forcing scientists to reconsider their studies on the conditions that can lead to life.
The Tree of Life is a network
Before we imagine the tree of life as a series of branches that spread to other branches, with the foundation of all one common ancestor. Now instead we have realized that the evolution of life is more complicated than that: the animals do not evolve by creating new branches, but moving from branch to branch, ie forming a network. This means that biology is faced with an interesting future, which will no longer be confined to categorize the species and understand natural selection, but to analyze the mechanisms of nature and their unpredictability.
There is more than one way to get to the final theory
What they are focusing a lot of physical theories is a theory, something short that encloses the explanation for all phenomena. For years the most popular theory was that the strings, trying to explain the world with vibrations of rings of energy, but now other physicists have started to offer other theories. The loop quantum gravity, discrete Lorentzian quantum gravity, the quantum graphity, all theories will be tested in the coming years.
You can do important experiments in small workshops
It was found that the particles in liquid crystals and helium bubbles follow the same laws of some of the fundamental particles in nature. This makes them ideal to simulate large systems, replacing so huge, hyper-technological equipment of physicists. This means that in future scientists working in small laboratories in the basement will undertake work and projects similar to those of their more famous colleagues, work on expensive particle accelerators.
The revolution has arrived graphene
The lead of a pencil will change the future of the electronics industry. Or rather, the discovery that Andre Geim made in 2004 by analyzing the left graphite pencil on paper. Geim discovered that the paper had been a monoatomic layer (ie only one atom thick) of carbon atoms linked with each hexagon. The following tests have shown that that graphene has extraordinary properties: it is ten times stronger than steel and used as a conductor, the street loses a lot less energy than a medium used by computer chip today. When it is refined production, will be used to build transistors that consume little energy. What's more, graphene is also transparent to light, which makes its use ideal in optical fibers and systems to which they relate. Researchers are already working on telecommunications, televisions and solar panels based on graphene.
Language is the key thought
In the sixties Noam Chomsky formulated the idea that all human languages \u200b\u200bare based on settings del cervello già presenti alla nascita. Negli ultimi anni, diverse ricerche etnografiche hanno tentato invece di dimostrare che non è così, spiegando che nulla è pre-programmato. Il modo di pensare delle diverse culture e il loro linguaggio sarebbero legati indissolubilmente, e uno influenzerebbe l’altro.
Gli origami di DNA potrebbero cambiare il mondo
Sembra una ricetta culinaria: prendete qualche centinaia di stringhe di DNA, alteraratele chimicamente e legatele in punti diversi. Poi unitele tutte e usate qualsiasi tecnica disponibile per far sì che quei legami funzionino. Alla base del DNA origami c’è la volontà di costruire macchine e computer molto più piccoli di quelli attuali, right through the construction of nanostructures formed by bonds of DNA.
Personally, I would add to these, a twentieth idea, although that has not yet met the 100% approval of the international scientific community, is fueling an interesting debate, and I am referring to the fact that according to Erik Verlinde, a olandele famous scientist, whose name is linked to M theory of superstrings, "The Newtonian gravity does not exist, his theory is an illusion." And on that topic I made the following post of 09/02/2010.
Best wishes
Alessandra
