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   Table of Contents for Science Label SCIENCE INTRODUCTION (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Climate Change, Effect of Carbon Dioxide (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Climate Change, Effect of Atmospheric Moisture (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Climate Change, Effect of Pollution (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Climate Change - Data Considerations (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Climate Change, Logical Considerations (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Paradigm (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) The Psychology of Innovation (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Focusing On an Algebra Problem (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Accomplishing the Impossible (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) The Power of Positive and Negative Thinking (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Man In Space (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com) Exploring Other Worlds (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com)

  SCIENCE INTRODUCTION I don't intend to make this label highly technical, but rather a series of posts that will be accessible to the average reader. Some technical terms may be used, but an understanding of them will not be required to grasp the message of each post. In view of the current high level of interest in the subject of climate change, we'll start with a few relevant facts that appear to be ignored in most of the discussions on the subject. Then we'll discuss and compare the various concepts of science. Then we'll consider the important role of personal psychology in innovative research. Return to table of contents for Science label: Table of Contents for Science Label (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com)

  Climate Change, Scientific Considerations: CO2 Much of the discussion about the effects of green vegetation centers on the advantageous effects of trees because they provide shade and they “sequester carbon” by absorbing CO2, which is deemed to be a greenhouse gas. This line of thinking leads to the logical conclusion that the ideal goal is an atmosphere entirely devoid of CO2. Actually, if that goal were achieved we would all die. And anyone who passed his high school course in biology should know that. Green plants cannot exist without the CO2 that is emitted by animals, and we cannot breathe without the O2 that is emitted by the plants. Furthermore the food that we eat ultimately derives from vegetation. Even if we don't eat the plants themselves, we eat the herbivores that eat the plants, or the carnivores that eat the herbivores that eat the plants, or the carnivores that eat the carnivores that eat. . . etc. However, at present (2019) it appears t...

  Climate Change, Scientific Considerations, H2O To understand the role of water in atmospheric physics, we need some understanding of the basic chemistry of water. The molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Thus, the molecule is somewhat smaller than a carbon dioxide molecule, and for that reason it has been argued that it is less important as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. However, that argument neglects a fundamental property of the water molecule: its polarity promotes bonding with other water molecules. This bonding results in the formation of aggregates of water molecules that can become so large and heavy that they become water, which is a relatively heavy liquid. Thus, water doesn't consist of separate H2O molecules, but of large aggregates that behave, insofar as their physical properties are concerned, like large heavy molecules – one could say, “super-molecules”. We know that nearly all of the w...

  Climate Change - Scientific Considerations, Pollution Atmospheric pollution has been a concern for the past several decades because it affects our health through the air that we breathe, and also because it affects the weather – specifically, the temperature of the air. Several sources of pollution have been discussed, including industrial emissions, vehicular exhaust, and acts of nature, like dust storms and volcano eruptions. Toxic emissions from vehicle exhausts have been brought under control by means of catalytic converters and other devices, and industrial pollution (in America) has been greatly reduced, as required by increasingly strict federal requirements. At present, man-made pollution is relatively small compared with the gases and particulates exuded by nature herself. There is a limit to what man can do to make the atmosphere cleaner, but much has been accomplished, as can be testified by those who lived in the times of coal fired steam loco...

  Climate Change - Data Considerations It is sometimes reported that global temperatures have risen steadily for more than 100 years. We know that cannot be true, because in the 1950's and 60's temperatures were falling and we were threatened with an impending ice age. However, in the more recent decades, reported temperatures have risen. These temperature records are the daily high temperatures at the recording stations. We now know that these data cannot be trusted – for several reasons. First, the older data has been altered so as to indicate a rise that did not exist in the unaltered data. This data tampering has been documented in several Real Climate Science articles: https://realclimatescience.com/61-fake-data/ https://realclimatescience.com/climate-scientists-rewriting-the-past/ https://realclimatescience.com/no-excuse-for-data-tampering/ If we seek to determine the global variation of surface temperatures over the past...

  Climate Change, Logical Considerations When I try to study the pro's and con's of the climate change problem, I would like to see a scientific analysis of the various factors that affect energy exchange between the earth and the extraterrestrial sources and sinks of energy. However, I find instead a repetitive stream of arguments, nearly all of which reflect little knowledge of the basic scientific processes or of the fundamentals of logic. I want to point out some of the more glaring violations of logic; but I do realize that violating a law of logic does not prove that an argument is not valid. It just calls into question its validity. The first example is that often stated argument for anthropomorphic global warming is that “a consensus of climate scientists agree”. I have a multitude of problems with this statement. Having been educated, trained, and experienced in the kind of basic math and science that actually has to work in real world e...

  SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS For many years I was under the impression that if someone’s knowledge had acquired recognition – in the form of university tenure, awards, publications, a position of authority, or respect of his peers – then that knowledge was beyond question, and I could accept that person’s teachings as “gospel”. That trust in expert knowledge was rapidly dissipated when I entered into a career as a NASA research scientist. Within the first few months of my employment, I was called into a presentation on helicopter aerodynamics to be given by the head of the chemistry department of a large eastern university. He proceeded to inform us with a straight face that helicopter lift was actually due to an agitation of air similar to the water motion induced by the agitator in a clothes washer, while he displayed a series of equations to support his theory. Apparently, he did not realize that the theory of helicopter ...

  The Paradigm The mental conditions that are conducive to innovation had become of interest to me when I found through experience that there were times when I would go for long periods without significantly increasing my knowledge and without inspiration, and then there were times when creative ideas would flow forth freely. One way that I gained some insight into the creative process was through a couple of seminars that were taught by guest lecturers at LRC. One of these lecturers was Joel Barker, who gave an informative course on the paradigm problem as it applies to scientists. A definition of paradigm is: “ a framework containing the basic assumptions, ways of thinking, and methodology that are commonly accepted by members of a scientific community. This problem was brought to light by Thomas Kuhn in his insightful study “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”. By attending scientific conferences and administering tests to t...

  The Psychology of Innovation Many of us have heard the story of Archimedes’s reaction when he thought of a way to determine the gold content of an object by measuring its specific gravity. It is said that he jumped out of the bath and ran naked through the streets shouting, “Eureka!”. It is this kind of sudden illuminating insight that distinguishes the innovative scientist from those that, while perhaps quite competent in their fields, rely entirely on “tried-and-true” ideas and procedures. I suspect that most of us (including scientists) believe that such moments of glorious inspiration are once in a lifetime events that bless the work of a few fortunate scientists. That belief is erroneous. The creative scientist experiences many of these moments throughout his career, and they are not the result of luck, but of the way that he approaches his research. Once I came to a full realization of the power of this paradigm situation to p...

  Focusing On an Algebra Problem My first real experience with mental focusing was with an algebra problem that I confronted. I had taken pre-algebra in the eighth grade and was a few weeks into ninth grade algebra when the teacher called our attention to a particular problem in the textbook. "If any of you can work that problem," she said, "I will give you an extra A on your test record. I have never had more than one student in a class that could solve it." With that announcement she glanced meaningfully at a boy named Clay, who had been the star of her pre-algebra class. My ego would not let that pass. If Clay did solve that problem, this would be the first year that she would get two solutions. At that time our cooking range was a woodstove placed diagonally across one corner of the kitchen, so that there was a triangular space behind the stove and between the two walls that met at the corner. This small, warm cubbyhole was one of my favorite hiding pl...

Accomplishing the Impossible The movie Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, opens with the Kobayashi Maru test being administered to an aspiring starship captain. This test is a simulation of an attack on the student's ship, to test the student's responses to the various calamities resulting from the attack. As each difficulty is dealt with, the simulation computer issues a new, even more difficult, problem until it is no longer humanly possible to handle the situation. It was impossible to win the simulation game. And yet one person, James Kirk, had won it. It was impossible, but he did it. How? He hacked into the simulation computer the night before the test and reprogrammed it. He cheated, but he won. Anything that seems to be impossible is only impossible within the conditions, rules, laws, hypotheses, assumptions, that limit the means that may be taken to accomplish the desired effect. This set of conditions define the paradigm, or “box”, that restricts the mental act...

  The Power of Positive and Negative Thinking In the previous posts we discussed the effectiveness of focused thinking, as described by the French mathematician Jacques Hadamard, and others. What is actually going on in the subconscious throughout this process is debatable. One theory is that, once the subconscious grasps the problem it searches through the brain's data banks until it finds a means of solution; but it has to wait to reveal it until a time comes when the conscious mind is not focused on anything in particular, and so becomes available to receive the solution. That theory may seem reasonable, but it doesn't explain one mysterious aspect of the phenomenon. The problem that often arises is that the missing link – that one critical bit of information that is needed to complete the solution – can't be found in the researcher's subconscious because it isn't there. If he has never studied that particular field of science the information was never in...

  Man In Space When someone finds out for the first time that I am a retired NASA scientist, the conversation will almost always turn to his enthusiasm for space travel. And then I have to face his disappointment when I have to admit that I don't share his enthusiasm. Part of my negative attitude toward man in space is due to my experience when NASA first began sending satellites into orbit. On learning that it takes about 10 pounds of fuel to put one pound of payload into space, a few of us decided that we were faced with an ideal opportunity to develop the robotics needed to perform the observational functions required of the satellite. However, the government opted to set a goal of putting a man on the moon. For this project, the spaceship would require nearly a much greater fuel/payload ratio. The project was justified as a kind of national honor goal in the ongoing Russian – American space race. And its success was loo...

  Exploring Other Worlds The idea of colonizing other worlds has been sold to the public not only by the appeal of science fiction movies and TV series, but also by fear generated by apocalyptic movies that forecast that the earth would become unliveable due to radiation resulting from nuclear wars. It can't be done, in the true sense of colonizing, because there is no body (other than the earth) in the solar system that has an atmosphere that will support life. Of course, life is now sustained artificially on the International Space Station, but even though water is recycled, and some plants may be grown, there is still a need for additional life-sustaining supplies from earth. Those supplies would not be forthcoming if there were no life on earth to provide the supplies. We would run into the same problem if we should attempt to build a structure similar to the ISS on the moon. The general public has yet to be disa...