catch up post

Dr. Bruce Margon came to speak to students about being able to write about science even if you're an English major. He is a scientist and was on the team thinking about the Hubble telescope way before it actually became a reality!

It was interesting though listening to his talks (I went to both). He explained that dark energy and dark matter makes up about 96% of the universe! And everything else, like atoms, make up the 4%. We are NOT made up of 96% of the universe--only 4% So since all we physically know is what we know (our world, bodies, etc.), that puts into perspective how HUGE the universe is if we and the world are only 4%! We don't even understand 96%!

He talked some about the expanding universe and how that since it's observably expanding (objects twice away travel away from the Earth twice as fast), it was possible to figure out how long it has taken to expand. Because a year ago, the universe was that much smaller, so there's a way to play the movie backwards and there must have been a time when the universe was at its smallest possible state. This goes exactly along with the Big Bang Theory. (and also contradicts religious beliefs, but he didn't get into that, probably because he so strongly believes in the BB Theory).

He believes that there is weak public science literacy. He thinks scientific knowledge is declining and should be taught more in schools before it becomes impossible to communicate discoveries to people with non-science education.

He explained that from Blacksburg, if you've been to New York City, you've been farther away than the Hubble is. He said it's less far away than NYC, it's just up. It takes 90 minutes to circulate the Earth and goes around about 15 times a day!

A lot of people may already know this, I don't know, but I thought it was interesting... :)

Here is his webpage:

http://www.stsci.edu/~margon/