Bubonic plague:\u00a0<\/span>Mass grave shows how Black Death devastated the countryside: Grave in Lincolnshire dates to medieval pandemic of 1348 and reveals rural plague catastrophe\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
A passage from\u00a0Richard Panek\u2019s\u00a0The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality<\/em> that caught my eye. \u00a0He\u2019s talking about roughly December 1965, by which time, he says, the discovery \u00a0by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson of the cosmic microwave background radiation that had been predicted as an after echo of the Big Bang had definitively altered the balance between Big Bang cosmology and Steady State models of the universe:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
You could feel the shift, if you were an astronomer or physicist. \u00a0Both the Steady State and Big Bang interpretations had relied not just on math and observation but on speculation. \u00a0They were modern counterparts to Copernicus\u2019s attempt to save the appearances; they were theories in need of evidence. \u00a0And just as Galileo, with the aid of the telescope, had detected the celestial phenomena that decided between an Earth-centered and a Sun-centered cosmos, forcing us to reconceive the universe, so radio astronomers, with the aid of a new kind of telescope, were now detecting the evidence that decided between the Steady State and Big Bang cosmologies, necessitating a further reconception of the universe. \u00a0(24)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a matter of considerable autobiographical curiosity to me, however, that I<\/em> didn\u2019t feel the shift. \u00a0I was still in elementary school in December of 1965. \u00a0Not only did I hear nothing of the shift then<\/em> \u2014 no big surprise, that \u2014 but I went all the way through high school graduation, if I\u2019m not mistaken, still assuming that the fight between Steady State and Big Bang cosmologies was ongoing. \u00a0I leaned toward the Big Bang, personally, because the idea of isolated atoms of hydrogen popping into existence at intervals out in space didn\u2019t appeal to me at all. \u00a0But I saw it as still an open question, when, in fact, it was closed, or rapidly closing.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, I can\u2019t really recall when it was that I woke up one day to realize that the debate was over. \u00a0Was it before my mission? \u00a0Perhaps not. \u00a0I just don\u2019t remember. \u00a0But I remember that I was surprised. \u00a0Not so much at the answer, but at how long it had taken to reach me. \u00a0Had I been asleep? \u00a0In a coma?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
By then, of course, my interests had shifted to ancient and medieval history and languages, and if popular magazines like Discover<\/em> existed then I wasn\u2019t reading them. \u00a0But still . . .<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
How long does it take \u2014 how long should it take \u2014 for news of such scientific turning points to percolate down to lay people such as myself?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Heck, I think that I was still visualizing electrons, protons, and neutrons as hard little submicroscopic billiard balls forming teensy tiny \u201csolar systems\u201d at the time that I graduated from high school. \u00a0And that image, of course, was at least a generation or two obsolete.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I really hope that this idea will come to fruition: \u00a0 \u201cUtahraptor State Park would protect discovery site of Utah\u2019s namesake dinosaur:\u00a0Lawmaker seeks $10 million to establish Utah\u2019s 45th state park, conserve world-famous fossil treasure trove\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 \u201cClimate change is slowly drying up the Colorado River:\u00a0Average annual water flow dropped more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3790,71,8684,3787],"class_list":["post-83036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-big-bang","tag-cosmology","tag-steady-state-cosmology","tag-steady-state"],"yoast_head":"\n
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