SCI-ART LAB

Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication

Q: What is ailing science and its communication?

Krishna: How about explaining it by giving examples?

1. Recently one person submitted a blog to my science communication space: Science Communication 

His science blog has many words like 'research has shown that', 'studies have identified that', 'it has been proven that'.

I always fact check the submissions before accepting them. So I ask for citations to authenticate the submissions.   

When I asked this person who submitted a blog to provide citations, he just added a link to his blog. Then I asked him what studies he ' s referring to. To my shock he told me there were none.  He just wrote it that way because scientists and science communicators write it that way!

When I told him that is cheating and he cannot do that, he told me to delete his submission and disappeared.

So?! Don't believe everything people quote as studies or research. Only if genuine citations are provided from high standard scientific journals to authenticate what people say, should you  trust what  the bloggers or writers say.

2. Please visit this page: Everybody is creating science groups these days. 

https://www.quora.com/q/sciencevolution/Science-is-beyond-limits

A 'student' created this group and when an art student asked, 'Hey, can a arts student join this group?'. 'He' said yes and added ,  'I have invited you to be a moderator'. 

Making an art student 'moderator' of the group can bring you lots of people but  how can an art student realize how to distinguish between genuine science and junk science? So junk science is being added recklessly tot eh group. And lots of people who promote junk science  are supporting this group but not the genuine ones run by scientists! 

That is what is ailing science and science communication.

Need we say more?

Q: Why don't we feel gravitational force gravitational force?

Krishna: You can test gravity by dropping something.

If you think "feeling" gravity as perceiving its effects on our bodies it gives a different picture. But gravity is basically curvature in spacetime. So according to some people, when you're in freefall, you simply follow a geodesic through the curved spacetime in your vicinity. Your body is simply following a geodesic that is curved by the presence of a massive body. In the relativity formalism it curves space-time, and this curvature is fairly uniform over your body near the Earth. Again it will affect every part of your body equally.

You can experience gravity near an extremely strong source of curvature of spacetime, Like a blackhole.

You don't 'feel' gravity because your nervous system is differential, according to some (1).

The human body really registers a force only when there is a higher level of deformation or stress in any part of the body than it is normally accustomed to. Your body measures contrasts and adapts to constant values. Since you're always experiencing the same gravitational force, your sense of 'down' is constant and not reported to your brain as anything to take notice of. Take off in a plane or ride a roller coaster and suddenly your nerves report the change.

And you can get an intense feeling of gravity when you spend enough time in a zero gravity environment.

Humans are never aware of the Sun's gravity pulling them, because the pull is so small at the distance between the Earth and Sun. Yet, it is the Sun's gravity that keeps the Earth in its orbit! Neither are we aware of the pull of lunar gravity on our bodies, but the Moon's gravity is responsible for the ocean tides on Earth (2).

You can't feel the gravitational force between you and other objects because the masses of the objects are very small. Even you exert a gravitational force on other objects. Because your mass is so much less than the mass of the Earth, you can't feel your gravitational force.

But you can ‘feel’ it indirectly. Weight– the amount of gravity acting on (pulling down on) an object (or mass). If you try to lift a heavy object, you are acting against gravity and you feel the pain or some sensation. Don’t you? Lifting weight opposes the action of gravity by exerting supporting forces. Since supporting forces only act on you where you are in contact with the surface, the result is compression that you can sense.

Footnotes:

  1. Do you feel gravity?.
  2. What is gravity?

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