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The “Top Twenty Greatest Hits of Science”

The “Top Twenty Greatest Hits of Science”. The Universe is regular and predictable . One set of laws describes all motion

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The “Top Twenty Greatest Hits of Science”

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  1. The “Top Twenty Greatest Hits of Science” • The Universe is regular and predictable

  2. One set of laws describes all motion • there are actually very few LAWS of nature – Newton’s observations that ‘a body in motion tends to stay in motion and a body at rest remains at rest’ are as fundamental as science gets!

  3. Energy is conserved

  4. Energy always goes from a more useful form to a less useful form • …otherwise known as the ‘it’s hard to get the toothpaste back in the tube once it’s out!’ principle

  5. Electricity and magnetism are aspects of the same force

  6. Everything is made of atoms • …and ultimately nothing BUT atoms. Here metaphysics = physicsif it’s not measurable, predictable and controllable, it doesn’t exist!

  7. Everything-particles, energy, the rate of electron spin-comes in discrete units and you can't measure anything without changing it • Heisenberg’s statement about peering into the atomic world has had ramifications for many other humanistic science too, like anthropology and psychology

  8. Atoms are bound together by electron "glue“ • ....sounds simple enough!

  9. The way a material behaves depends on how its atoms are arranged • Yeah, yeah – orbitals, valences and all that…

  10. Nuclear energy comes from the conversion of mass • Otherwise known as E = MC2 !

  11. Everything is really made of quarks and leptons • What!?!?!Now wait a minute –Just when I thought I knew what the world of science was all about !!!There are SUB-atomic particles?And Quarks come in ‘flavors’ like, “up quarks” and “down quarks” in addition to ”charmed” and “strange” quarks???!!! • You bet.Suddenly the world of physics is revealed to NOT be a naive realism, but a complex metaphysics, not at all different from the comlexities of Aristotle or Aquinas.Be sure to check out those links about “Science Literacy”!!!

  12. Stars live and die like everything else

  13. The Universe was born at a specific time in the past and has been expanding ever since • 13.7 billion years ago, to be as precise as we currently know!PS –it wasn’t a “Big Bang” – you need atmosphere to create sound, therefore, “BigFlash” might be more appropriate” (!)

  14. Every observer sees the same laws of nature • This too is more complicated than you might think – it has to do with Einstein’s theory of relativity

  15. The surface of the earth is constantly changing and no feature on the earth is permanent • Proving the ancient Greek, Hereclitus, right when he held that “you can’t step into the same river twice”!

  16. Everything on earth operates in cycles • Ah – much closer to Natural Law than we thought!

  17. All living things are made of cells, the chemical factories of life

  18. All life is based on the same genetic code • ALL life. You, Me, the birds, bees plants and trees – all made from the same stuff: • A 4 letter alphabet: DNA = ACGT (adenine cytosine guanine thymine) • http://health.discovery.com/minisites/dna/zb_genome.html

  19. All forms of life evolved by natural selection • and a tip o’ the hat to good ol’ Darwin!

  20. All life is connected • Not only a statement about ecology, but our relations to each other, and all sentient creatures.Note – that Utilitarianism seizes on this commonality, that all creatures with nerve endings seek pleasure and avoid pain. THAT’s ‘natures law’ according to them. Thus, Utilitarians are often advocates for animal rights, seeing as animal pain is not qualitatively different form human pain.

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