The Lounge

Imagine civilization gets a positive feedback mechanism for wasting resources, like cryptocurrencies: “one gets $100 banknote if burning $99 worth resources”, leading to exponential growth of waste at individual gains. We can observe exponential growth of their energy consumption, worsening shortages of electronics, simultaneously these cult-like societies are growing in power/influence, can buy politicians (e.g. El Salvador) … further taking control of chip manufacturers and power plants, in a few years growing to 50%, 90%, 99% of world energy production? Can such positive feedback be always balanced at a reasonable level, instead of approaching 100% of resourc…

For some reason ww1 either does not happen or is limited to being Third Balkan War Do you think the world would be more technologically advanced than today? Some things to consider 1. Much less death. UK lost 700,000 young men in ww1, France, Germany, Austria and Russia over 1 mln. Many of them could have become scientists, inventors or engineers. All countries would also have much less debt. 2. Russia is in much better shape without ww1, the civil war, the Holodomor and the Gulags. It probably becomes a developed country in early 1940s and has a population of 300-400 mln in 2021 3. no ww1 = no ww2. Enough said 4.In China the communists never tak…

I am thinking that theoretical theorists analyse scientific journals and theorize an explanation for the experimental results and make predictions also. I looked on arXiv and saw that people already uploaded theories related to the recent muon g2 experiment and said that dark matter had something to do with it. So is this what theoretical physicists can do in their spare time or for their job, look at scientific journals/experimental results and try mathematically explain it? Also what is the learning process like? For example if someone who did specialized in condenesed matter physics wanted to work on high energy physics, what would be their way to do that? edit: s…

Do you ever feel like people who are non white trying to fit in a western country feel like they have to put on a fake act of trying to be "white". I'm a non white person and I couldn't imagine myself working in an office or being in a meeting where professional white people are discussing things or even worse having an opinion expressed in front of them. But lucky the internet exists and seems to bring us all together to get a taste of what people can be like. Some of my feelings towards this is instilled in me through my father who always talks about how this is a "white mans" world and we have to live like them in order to survive in this modern world.

Tell me in the comments

For somebody with a passion for science, it can, in my opinion, be a very rewarding career. Also, there's lots of wealth in a career as a scientist, indeed you can make mountains of money. Something that is inaccurate, I believe, about the fictional character of Sheldon Cooper, is that he isn't rich. He lives in an apartment that he shares with Leonard. A good scientist should be rich enough to be able to live in a mansion. Im not saying a scientist necessarily would live in a mansion, just that a good scientist should be able to afford to live very well if one wants to. Take for instance Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates. There you have it, scientists make moun…

hi, could someone help me on the qualitative properties of education in these specific countries: (specific issues: in which cases do teachers come across with problems ,the types of problems (general speaking: risks) and how are such problems being resolved or results) * china (specific states: hong kong,peking) * russia * dubai (uae) * finland * oman

hi, I have several queries about this certification and need help. 1) which authority / association carry out this exam? 2) what are the prerequisites (for instance whether I have had to have a defined range of toefl exam score) for this exam? 3) how does this exam is being carried out (e.g.: whether an active application ,for instance, telling lessons would be made) I am currently official teacher here in turkey but may consider to work abroad. thanks

Do engineers, scientists, physicists, MIT students, Caltech students, and STEM professionals in general despise geeks, nerds, eccentrics, and introverts and want to fire them? The article in the link below says that geek clubs should be disbanded. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/05/im-a-woman-engineer-and-i-love-science-stop-calling-me-a-geek/%3FoutputType=amp

I have tried to contact wiley online library customer care and requested permission to use some parts in some of the books published by this publication but they still have not responded although two mails forwarded.(I mean,the same request two times sent) So, can I decide that they have already allowed me to use as they do not care or are in silent mode?

In our lives many things we are used to using "possibly" shouldn't have been made due to long term problems> IMHO plastic bottles are something that could have done without and the world would be a better place if they were invented.

In a video where an old abandoned mine was being explored the people with a death wish type curiosity (the explorers) noted that the mine was cut into what had been a volcanoes pyroclastic flow. I'm not sure what had been mined but it looked like a conglomerate rock bed, lots of large rocks with smaller and even dust type grains holding it all together. The commented the eruption had been many millions of years ago but later on they found remains of trees in the rock. Would these wood fragments still been wood? They asserted they were but they didn't get samples which almost made me think they should have been beaten to death with a volcanic rock. The material cert…

Like if your life depended on it to survive. Deez is said to be scientifically proven but is only know by a small group of people.

I am Grade 9 right now, and I felt that I might be forgetting a few things since it's lockdown, and our school came from 5 schooldays to 2 call days and 2 homework days (friday is free :D) so I decided to use my time to study. thing is, what should I study? where do I start in relearning things? thanks!

I remember reading a small physics book on light and Einstein when I was a young boy which was pretty much where it all started. Then I went to high school learnt about basics of electromagnetism and thats when I was most passionate. I read up on Nikola Tesla about his inventions such as the AC motor and fell into the trap of wanting to know more about "free energy" that Nikola Tesla may have done work on and that kind of spiritual mix of science stuff as well . Then I got psychosis and stuck on antipsychotics which make me feel like a zombie. And that's my story. What's yours

Neal deGrasse Tyson made and amateurish post ( which he should have qualified ), and was soundly rebuked by Steak-Umm's social media postings. I actually find it kind of humorous. Steak-umm's Twitter Account Feuds With Neil deGrasse Tyson Over Science: 'Log Off Bro' (msn.com)

Seems like it was yesterday. Promise of jobs for physicists, a new era of almost limitless energy, and what not. The goose that laid the golden eggs died without a bang, and after months-long whimpers. And the world never recovered from it. Or did it? We lost a lot of our former innocence anyway. I did. Very interesting Nature article on it: Lessons from cold fusion, 30 years on https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01673-x Reflections welcome. Sorry that the topic is a bit old. It's not the anniversary that I'm interested in.

My condolences to all my British friends, on the passing of the Queen's husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

I could swear on a stack of bibles that I just posted a news item. Now it's gone. Puff, vanished. It's not in trash, just ghosted away into thin air. Did it get moved by staff? Did I even post it? edit: Ok worked it out, it's the same as studiots post. ignore the pissy remark that was here before if you read it please 😬 No problem, thanks.

Use to frequent scienceforums (on an old acc i Can't remember) in the past and it was much more lively from what i remember. seems like new members just get negged out to the ban list and the same old farts just pointlessly argue the same old stuff lol... maybe if the forums made some changes/improvements things would do well.

Hello you all! Brass instruments (labrophones) use to have a cylindrical portion before the flare. The longer cylinder and short flare give trumpets and trombones a brilliant sound, the cornet is intermediate, and the flugelhorn and lower saxhorns have a short cylinder and a long flare for deep mellow sound. A air column conical right from the beginning gives also the natural harmonics in tune. But these instruments are rare. The Alphorn is endemic to the Alps, more present in Switzerland, and is normally made of wood. The straight 3-4m are an eyecatcher, but a French horn is as long. It's a natural instrument played on modes 2 to 12 and more. Groups of ins…

What if the people who make antipsychotic medication actually injected it into themselves to see how bad the side effects are and then maybe they would think twice about releasing it to the public. I see a bunch of 90 year old men discussing on YouTube the medication I'm taking and all they have to say from their old wrinkly asses is how good it is for people and the comments and google reviews BY PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY TAKE IT SO UNDERSTAND have nothing but bad things to say. What's even a bigger joke is the way they diagnose psychosis which is basically by asking you a bunch of questions that you say yes or no to. A lot of room to just make mistakes and misdiagnose and nex…

About the universe, ideas, people, the world etc

The physics section specifically. Can you read it like most people are able to read the newspaper? Do you understand what they are writing. Is that like a news place for scientists? Has anything big come from arXiv? Thanks

Dear All, I am going to take a hiatus from the forum from today. As some of you might know, the natural sciences are not my only area of interest; in particular, I am committed to a form of spiritual practice as well, and have been living in a Buddhist monastery as a lay person for the past few years. I have made the decision to deepen this practice further by ordaining as a monk in the Theravadin Thai Forest tradition, and for various logistical and monastic-political reasons this should ideally happen at a traditional training monastery in Thailand. So tomorrow I will be departing for Thailand to seek ordination there. I think it doesn’t need pointing out that…