General Science and Philosophy

1310 Submissions

[3] viXra:1310.0227 [pdf] submitted on 2013-10-25 10:49:14

The Root Assumption in all of Astrophysics and Astronomy

Authors: Jeffrey Joseph Wolynski
Comments: 1 Page.

The most basic assumption in all of astrophysics and astronomy is the consensus that stars and planets are mutually exclusive. There was never any evidence to show this assumption to be true. The reality is that a star is a young planet and a planet is an aging star, they are the exact same objects.
Category: General Science and Philosophy

[2] viXra:1310.0071 [pdf] replaced on 2013-11-30 10:05:16

The Phases of Matter

Authors: John A. Gowan
Comments: 8 Pages. numerous small changes

In this deeply thoughtful, informative, and rewarding book, Laughlin, a physics Nobel laureate (1998), discusses the emergence of natural law from organizational/collective principles in nature and in various phases of matter - as in (among many other and more exotic examples) the familiar shift from the laws of crystalline order to those of hydrodynamics and finally to the gas laws, as ice melts to water and water evaporates to vapor. He is at pains to point out that most of the phenomena in our daily lives are produced by the higher-level emergent principles and laws of phase organization due to the collective action of vast myriads of atomic constituents whose individual properties count for very little in the final social milieu - and not just because an individual atom is only one among many, but because totally different organizational principles are at work in the different phases of bulk matter, in contrast to those operating between small numbers of individual particles: for example, the quantum behavior of atoms vs the Newtonian behavior of bowling balls. Laughlin raises the question: which laws are the more fundamental - the quantum laws of the individual atoms, or the emergent laws of the collective? Although he identifies this as a semantic distinction that cannot be definitively answered, as a practical matter of survival (in biology), he comes down in favor of the collective.
Category: General Science and Philosophy

[1] viXra:1310.0025 [pdf] submitted on 2013-10-05 10:50:42

Some Comments on Modern Physics.

Authors: Jeremy Dunning-Davies.
Comments: 6 Pages. It is sincerely hoped that these comments will provoke serious thought and discussion about the specific issues raised, as well as about other similar issues in present day physics.

Considering the manner in which many students are introduced to some of the accepted pillars of perceived scientific wisdom, it seems appropriate, in view of recent developments associated with the theories of both Special and General Relativity, to look at the present basis for this accepted educational approach.
Category: General Science and Philosophy