Telescopes have been troublemakers for centuries. They’ve revealed that the Earth is not the center of the universe, not even the center of the solar system. They showed us our sun was just one of many stars in our galaxy, then showed us our galaxy is just one of many in the universe. They provided the evidence that the universe is expanding, which in turn implied the beginning of the universe in the Big Bang. Now the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is adding wrinkles to our understanding of how those galaxies formed in the wake of the Big Bang.
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astrophysics
Science Corner: Thanks for Swinging By!
I promised some science of a less immediately relevant nature, so here we go. You may recall the story of ‘Oumuamua (more formally, 1I/2017 U1), an object which briefly visited our solar system in October of 2017. It was the first time we observed something from outside the solar system pass by, an exciting development all by itself. Even more remarkably, it had an unexpected shape and some surprising moves. Where most objects in space tend towards the spherical, ‘Oumuamua was oblong. And where gravity generally explains how those objects move, this one shifted around in ways that suggested other forces were also involved. Could it have been a spacecraft? The possibilities for spacecraft are limited largely by our willingness to ascribe advance technologies to their makers, so we could easily imagine a ship that fit the bill. Trickier is imagining an explanation in terms of what we know about space rocks, but this week brings a paper offering just such an explanation.
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Week in Review: Kuyper at the World Cup Edition
What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.
1. Christian Philosophy, Anyone?
I spent a week in May with about fifteen other people, reading and discussing key sections of a four-volume tome with the forbidding title A New Critique of Theoretical Thought. Most of those present confessed that they had great difficulty understanding the assigned passages, yet everyone agreed at the end that the week was a great success, and perhaps worth doing again. … What kind of philosophy could attract the interest of such a varied collection of intellectuals [? The answer is that it was the philosophy of the Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1977), whose disciplinary specialty was actually not philosophy at all, but jurisprudence. He taught for many years at the Free University of Amsterdam, the Christian university founded by Abraham Kuyper, the leader of the great revival of culturally engaged Calvinism known as neocalvinism. … — Christian Philosophy, Anyone? (Al Wolters. Comment. 6/11/2010)
2. Free speech in a public, academic forum. What can we learn from the on-going discussion at UC-Irvine with regard to how voices are to be heard and how they are to interact? Any suggestions with regard to how such situations are to be addressed, in advance, during, afterward? Comment from Tom: The international world is on many U.S. campuses and most campuses lack the framework to engage in real, gritty cross-cultural conversation, let alone reshape perspective on the issues, the idealism is fading. Will shouting replace it on campus (including the administration/faculty) and the responses to incidents such as UC-Irvine?
The University of California at Irvine has suspended the campus’s Muslim Student Union for one year and placed the group on disciplinary probation after members of the group repeatedly interrupted a campus speech in February by Israel’s ambassador to the United States, according to a letter released on Monday.
The hecklers shouted down the ambassador, Michael Oren, at times calling him a “killer” and scuttling parts of the speech. Video of the event drew international attention and sparked a debate about the tactics of the protesters, who said they were angry about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. — UC-Irvine Suspends Muslim Student Group for Disrupting Speech (Josh Keller. Chronicle of Higher Education. 14/2010)
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