Geologic Time: more than dinosaurs and rocks

Let's learn something about geologic time. 

            The intention to learn can better one's chances for learning something great. Come let's begin to learn something right now. If you already know a lot about geological time this may not be for you. I am just a beginner at this big topic. Perhaps the only thing I will do quickly here is to blunder. Still I will try to do well.

            Just know it seems that learning about geologic time seems a bit like learning biology and some other such topics. People who know a lot about the topic seem to develop a language of their own, so just to begin, it looks like there is some new vocabulary to learn. It's like one has to know the magic words to work the magic spells.

            We can begin by getting into the meaning of some of those words it does seem like magic sometimes, but more realistically it is just science. Still those words can carry a lot of meaning, and so can we. It can be great to discover or rediscover that often we find that the more meaning that comes into our lives the more satisfaction we find there.

            Okay here we go. Geologic time has a different kind of time scale than we are accustomed to. Remember that I am just now learning these things so am not a great authority, but I am pretty honest. Anyway these geologic time people still use years, centuries and like that. Time that comes in equal units, each hour has the same number of minutes. Geological time is not all like that. Also even when they use the time we do, they tend to use some big numbers. Soon you won't be surprised to to hear talk of a time 541,000,000 years ago. But, in that amount of time one can find some surprising and interesting happenings.

            I said that there would be some new vocabulary. We will want to get them into order and get to understand them. Here are some words which name divisions of the geological time scale: an Eon is an important one; other names for divisions or sections of time are Periods, Epochs, and Ages. We'll get them in some useful order and learn a bit about each.

            The longest period of time which is "measured" seems to be the eon. Measured may not be exact here. The beginning of the eno is marked, but as of yet, it has no end. It has been divided into four eras, the Hadean, the Archean, the Protozoic or Protozoan, and the Phanerozoic. The beginnings and ends of these eras are marked by events or happenings. Geologically humans are part of this Phanerozoic era, which has not yet come to an end. The oldest era is the hadean, which is sometimes referred to as the Precambrian Super-eon.

            Don't despair; it is a new language, but is not one of the hardest to learn. How long has it taken you to learn your native language? Are you still learning?

How old were you before you learned your language well enough? Have you found your work or street language differs from your home language? Have you found a sport which has a language of its own? You may have noticed that I am a bit like a three year old in the Geologic language. We are learning together.

            I am not a teacher of this language, but I do know something about learning. It seems that no matter how we are taught we seem to learn by bits, mostly little bits. In time we come to see that some bits tend to stick together, that some seem to hang together pretty well. From there we often begin to learn more and better. So, long as we attend just a bit we grow in learning.

            Now I got to thinking that I could have made a better start at learning about geological time. Maybe I should or should have started with the phanerozoic era which the largest time where we are. Still, if geologic time knowledge were like a big round ball that we wanted to learn about (never mind why!) we could begin anywhere we could and begin there and go on from there.

            I expect to get things in more useful order as we go along. Soon you may see some bits seeming to tending to go together. I suspect that about now we are beginning to get familiar with some of the most useful vocabulary for understanding this kind of time.

            We will begin to discover that there are six important measures of geological time and that they are: Age, Epoch. Period, Era, Eon. Oh, oh! that's only five. Well we have named five measures of geological time and it looks to me that we have named them in a useful order. Age is the shortest, epoch is longer, Period even longer, An era is longer than a Period, and a Eon is the longest and contains all the others.

            So, it seems right to say that there are several Ages in an Epoch, several Epochs in a Period, several Periods in an Era, and several Eras in an Eon. Well, I think that we are wll on the way to knowing more about the subject than most people on Earth. I want to get us to a place whereat our understanding is even more useful.

            We jumped to eons from its most recent age the Phanerozoic and know that an en on is full of it, that is that its full of its ages and alsoof epochs, periods, and eras. Did  mention that the Phanerozoic began about 541,000,000 years ago or about 541 Mya and that it is still going on today. Mya stands for million years ago, and often saves us from writing so many zeros. Geologic time extends to times before we have discovered life. However, in many ages we look at age names often end in -zoic. Zoic seems to indicate cells, especially animal cells. We have a lot to learn. I can make mistakes and it is fair for you to correct me. This is an invitation for you to tell me of my mistakes to correct me.

           Continuing our look at important vocabulary for this topic. Ihere review the times and indicate that there are indeed six are used:

A Super Eon is made up of eons. This is the sixth time which I left out earlier.

Eons are divided into Eras.

Eras are divided into Periods.

Periods are divided into Epochs.

Epochs are divided into Ages.

Ages can be measured chronologically, as in years.

            So now, if you are smarter than I am, you may now be pretty sure that Ages are the smallest units of geologic time.

            Well, I think we have made a great start even though I do not remember that Periods are made up of Epochs. It may be time to check out some important and interesting detail. It is good to remember as we go along this geologic road, that geological time study is a kind of science. Like science it begins with observation. An important observation in geology is that there are layers of earth and rock on earth. That much of the upper layers of earth are stratified has an importantly useful observation. Geologic time is a work in progress, and so details will change and major concepts may change.

            Okay, here is a little more about eons, Eons have names. There geologic times like enos are sometimes begun with capital letters, and not just at the beginning of a sentence and sometimes they are not. And I do not know why.  I do remember that an Archean is a specific eon and it names a specific set of happenings. The Archean begins with an especially notable event  and ends with another such noteable event. We can check out those special events and may find them very interesting.

            Eras and each and almost ever geological time is divided for the next geological time and is one good place to look for interesting happenings. The name of one particular erais the Mesozoic. It may already possible that we can already guess that the mesozoic begins and ends in especially interesting events and that it is very likely that those  events will deal with some kinds of animals. Where is the animal event?

            You would not really have to be a genius to understand that the geological time scale divides up the past of our Earth into scientifically meaningful periods, but you be pretty observant and smart too. If you are close to being a genius with special interests you might find an interesting, pathe, trial, or highway to orient you by checking out the dynamical time scale used in astronomy and physics. But that is an other story. If you are interested in this geologic time scale and find yourself learning stuff related to it, please share a bit of that which you learn with us. I could use your help and most of us would really enjoy a different point of view being expressed here.

            Okay most of us may be interested in the stories; here we are interested in true stories. However, time can be important and interesting. Timing in a story can be very important. In a fiction detective novel change in our view of the timing could change our view of motive. In our geologic time ''scale'' the past is often more about order than about clocklike chronology. Often is about first this and then that or, first came the Flood and then came Abraham.

            I will close this introductory piece with some reminders and no stories. This essay includes some notion of how to evaluate the stories this time scale canorient us to. The idea here is to try to get to true stories. True stories may be beyond us. Honest stories are easier to find, but still golden. I am grateful that so many individuals in this field are capable of such a find degree of honesty and practice it to our benefit. But in this field more than a notion of logic is needed. Those who wish to communicate well in this field must also have some command of the scientific method.

            We can remember that the Phanerozoic eon is the current eon. It is notable that in this eon there is abundant animal life. In earlier eons there may by only cellular life. In the earliest eon we have not observed life. In the present of our Phanerozoic we it is possible to find our great variety of life. Life was not like this in earlier times it was very different, but may have had the great variety we benefit from.

            We can find out what BP means and remember what Mya means. We can find out that was in Cambrian Period strata where we first observed the earliest development of animal life, in what we have called the fossil record, in the form of hard shells. So,as in all science, study and understanding in the geologic time scale depends upon observation and the development of evidence,

            You can go to the following timelines and find many items and happenings from the Geologic Scale which point toward stories and hint of stories. Stuff that a significant number of  individuals find interesting, but no stories. Will we have to make our own stories?

             Go to Associated Blog Sites in left hand column of the top of this site.

We Have a Lot to Learn

Earth Water

                There is a lot that we can learn about taking care  of ourselves. A first step of our learning as a we is the politics of co-operation. A close second step is understanding the nature of our home. When we keep our senses and our minds open our learning seems automatic and effortless. So, we do not have to encourage ourselves to learn anything. However, co-operating with our learning process has paid large dividends. Another important learning is a better understanding of the words we use in communicating with one another and in our personal thoughts. This piece is about how our understanding of our home develops.

                                                                                                                    rcs

A Very Brief History of CO2 on Earth

Not too hot and not too cool, control that CO2

 Adding co2, carbon dioxide, into our atmosphere could save us from a devastating Ice Age.  Adding too much could cook our goose    and not in a good way. We need a nice balance. We already have some power to keep that balance nice.

                                                                                                                RCS

Our Ethics Add Value to Our Science: page one through page

Ethics               

                        I have posted about the scientific method on this blog and intended to write on scientific principles here now. That is I intended to write on the doing of science. I might have included material like: principles of validation and reliability, data management principles, principles in scientific research and the like.

                    However, in starting this post the words "ethics" and "ethical" arose. I began to consider how much shared ethical principle we need in common in order to co-operate effectively. I am sure that we do need enough enough ethical similarity to to maintain our effectiveness. I believe that the more quality and quantity of ethic we share the better our chances for abundant effectiveness. We may need to communicate a great deal to discover the nature of our shared ethics.

                    We need to do a good job of passing useful ethics on to our youth.

                    I was assailed by thoughts of how science and ethics are intertwined. I feel that there is much to be taken into account. For example, the effectiveness of our research practices depends on the quality of our ethics. 

                    C0-operation in our scientific endeavors effects the results of those endeavors. In working with another, or others, difficulties may arise because we are uncertain of the nature of on another's ethics. Even though scientific principles have become useful and prevalent in many areas of our culture, I have begun to suspect that too many of our ethics do not prevail in our scientific endeavors. Adults working in science too often seem not to have their ethics high in their consciousness. Youths in the life such adults learn from them. Those learners could develop high scientific abilities and lowered levels of ethical consciousness.  

                    I have been slow to add to this post. I want to accentuate the positive and believe that ethics and science both have great deal of positivity. I believe that much of our use of ethics and science is positive, but upon contemplation I  see legions of negatives. I try to be sympathetic and generous, but continue seeing that too often we don't measure up very well.

                    I have become more aware of how the value of science to us depends upon our ethics. Science and ethics are intertwined, and so they ought. All of our doings effect our health and general well being. We are wise to take our ethics into account. For example, the effectiveness of research practices in science depends upon ethics in the scientific field and the ethical practices in our total culture. Our principles of integrity of: knowledge, collegiality, honesty, objectivity, subjectivity, openness, etcetera make for dependable and effective co-operation and for our general well-being. There has been a valuable ethical platform working with the features of the scientific method such as: Formulating a hypothesis, collecting  and interpreting data, the communication of scientific knowledge, and the training of young scientists which has done much for the effectiveness of our science. Scientists are responsible for the effects science upon us and so are we all.

                Much of our well-being has depended upon our code of ethics. Perhaps that code needs to be more written about and so be more supportive of our well-being. Perhaps it needs to be taught as an expected part of our doing of science and so to be more supportive of our well-being. We seem to have expected ethics to arise a grow among us without our support. Our expectations have not been supported. It seems, that if we want ethics to be a part of our common culture, that we must provide opportunities for it to be observed, to more carefully teach it to our children and youth, and to practice being mindful of our ethics ourselves. 

                However our ethics are little in many homes, ethics has seldom bee a required course in college or university, and I suspect that our well-being has suffered. Children may lack enough opportunity to observe the workings of ethics in their home. Children and youth often lack opportunity to observe  the workings of ethics at their parents place of business. When do not learn of ethics, when we do not learn to observe ethics, when we are not tutored in ethics, when have been taught little ethics informally and formally our individual well-being is stunted as is that of our society. When this lack of observation, instruction, and practice continues for just a couple of generations a society and culture degenerate.

                 Understanding of, practice of, and alertness to our ethics can do much to keep our science safe and potent as well maintaining a well functioning culture and society and our general and individual well-being.

                One way to begin anew is to relearn the vocabulary of ethics. With that vocabulary we can better speak of ethics. We have perhaps begun to learn a bit right here. We already know some useful opposites. When we do not use them as places or location but rather more as pointing a direction or as orienting us. Examples of such pairs can include: better and worse, useful and useless, better yet might be more helpful and less helpful, or more and less honest, all of which can be used to point us toward the better direction or help us to avoid the worst. One could say that an important use of ethics is to help us to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative appropriately.                 

                Page two may be on its way soon.

                Thank you for reading!

Please continue on to page two.

Lost Ethics, Lost knowledge? Page Two

                It seems that once more children and youth received wider exposure to ethics through observation of the adults they lived among. Youths now seem to live more among youths. Often adults once found. Adults seem once to have found opportunity to purposefully present youth examples of the use of ethics. Now often both mothers and fathers are working full time. Among some of us there was discussion of ethics. I cannot remember the last time I had such a discussion. Youth and children were more exposed to an informal education in ethics. Now it seems that many are left with much less of that informal education. Seems a bit unethical.

                Now, it seems to me, that once a greater percentage of us received a wider appropriate exposure to ethics through example and opportunity to observe. There seems to be less discussion and other informal learning available to us. The once popular Bachelor of Arts degree at colleges and universities where classes related to ethics are no longer common. How are youth to learn? How are even our professionals to learn? Mandatory classes in ethics seem less present as part of advanced degrees. How are doctors and scientists to gain a good foundation in ethics? Some do so late in their careers.

                For a time a sort of scientific attitude along with some ethics was passed on from mature to young from experienced scientist to disciples. It seem centered on integrity and a perfecting of honesty. I seem to remember it being implied that the pleasurer and profit of scientific investigation was enhanced by the wide honest sharing of findings and learnings. Science was known as an important and useful way of communicating certain understandings and I believe that it is that today. It seems our best way to share many new and more demanding understandings.

                Some of my understandings may seem to some to be so far from the actualities of today as to be of little use to discuss now; and they may have good reasons for their perceptions. Even so, experience and thoughtful persons have thought them useful and and upon consideration you may see that they could continue to serve us well.

                it is good when we are willing to teach one another; it's better when we actually do. Is good that a doctor of medicine is willing to teach a patient who is willing to learn. I believe that it is important that when we see something which is wrong which may impact others, that we communicate that which we see. When we make such a communication, we may well be expected to be asked, "What makes you think so." So, it is useful to consider what makes us think so.  we may also consider that we are the best authority on "that which leads us to think so.

                When a scientist proposes a theory I believe he ought to tell concerned parties of the values and nature of his theory, but also of facts he has encountered which may run counter to his theory or precepts and may not be in agreement with it. The ideas is to provide others with data they may use to better judge the information received. Its a sort of intellectual honesty, a respect for humanity, and of utility for fellow scientists.

                It seems correct that the work of a scientist be shared with other scientists to aid those others in their work, their understanding of his science and of his particular findings. It seems correct to share their results with society in general for the well-being of all. As another example, it seems correct that a doctor share with his patient that which he has learned of his patient's condition. I believe that doctor should aid an interested patient to interpret the information the doctor has provided.

                Our culture is vulnerable, humanity is vulnerable to the lose of vital knowledge. Our very survival may depend on the quality of our ability to share our knowledge among ourselves. Those who know have the responsibility to pass on to others that which they know. You may believe that it is good to encourage those who know to pass on that knowledge to others. You are not alone. Each of us knows of that which is worth passing on.

                It seems right that we each willingly share the information and knowledge we have, which could be helpful to others, with others. Doing so preserves the quality of our lives and may preserve our very lives.

                A basic value of science is its practitioner's ability to accurately and honestly pass on information to us for distribution among us. That is the science I willingly support. 

                It seems to me that the work of a scientist can be very satisfying to her, but that it can also be very demanding. The doing of science calls for ongoing study, practice, care, and integrity. Designing a truly useful experience is not easy and neither is the doing of it.

                We are getting into the nature of science, the scientific method, and the ethics of science; the relationship between ethics and science.

                Thank you for reading.

                You can now go on to page three.

Scientific Methods Can Be Used Anywhere By Anyone

                But, but when is the last time you observed science being done? Most of us can pass months without observing scientific methods in action. A great deal of science can be done in the mind and goes unseen. A great deal of science is done in the field. Geology is a example of that. Even when watching that geologist in the field we cannot be certain that he is actual doing science at that time. Much science is done by employees within institutions large and small. Many of those institutions are corporations, others are universities, and some are governmental. We haven't asked for much oversite of them. It is difficult even for professionals to observe the quality of their methodology. We can more effectively observe their results and understand their explanations. We can demand and exposition of their results and their best estimates of probable and likely effects on society and sometimes have done so.

 Doings of  Scientists are Affecting Us Now

                We need to see that knowledge and understanding of science and the doings of scientists is available to us, our youth, and our children; that is up to us.

Its up to us to receive that information. It is or responsibility to see that our schools and teachers are ready, willing, and able to share their knowledge with our youth, our children, and us. School boards, state and local governments can be encouraged to help us. Independent citizen groups and organizations may help us more.

            Ethics of the people in organizations, groups, governments, schools, businesses, and scientists is a positive contribution to the well-being of us all. Our ethics can help all of us to better share in our society and its doings.

             We can benefit from a better understanding of ethics. Ethics is a branch of philosophy which can help us to choose more useful and helpful actions. It helps us to be more rational. It directs to the more positively productive act. Much of ethics has been dedicated, or directed, to the benefits of society, but that which benefits our neighborhood often benefits you and me as well as others.

                Feel free to offer corrections to my mistakes. You can use the "comments" app below.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                                                   rcs

                                                                                                     

Earth Changes

Survival Related                     

                   The following are science related notes of mine from two or three years ago that still seem pertinent. They could be called survival related. 
                   

                     We can be alert. Wecan learn. WE can adapt . We can survive and give our selves and others a better chance to thrive. We can act. To our list of appropriate actions we can benefit by adding co-operation collaboration, and love of reality. Yes "love" is active.

                    

                A very few years ago a 30,000 year old, non-dangerous, virus was revived. An 8 million year old virus is said to have been revived too. Recent studies suggest that some very old antibiotic resistant are reviving! Holy Moly! Still we have learned from the covid 19 pandemic and we have begun to realize that we have some more rapid Earth changes to adapt to.

Adaptations: 

                   We are making some adaptations to expected changes in the agricultural situation. Some of those changes may be so big that some of us may find ourselves growing wheat where bananas once grew. Some experts have been collecting and saving seeds and storing them in safe places. They expect that we may need them to replace lost seed and lost harvests. They suspect that some Earth changes now in progress may be so great as to lead crops that were once grown on one continent may no longer grow well there and need to be grown on another continent. Changes may not be that great in our time, but it looks like they will be big enough to call for major adaptations. We may see changes large enough to cause significant movements of crops and of people.

                    We may find it life-saving to have seeds which will produce crops where the people are. A large and famous sites set up to safely store seed for our use was once called the Doomsday Vault. That vault adapted to safely preserve seed in the far north was invaded by destructive melt water. Melting of snow, ice, and permafrost is melting faster than many have expected and has brought on the need for adaptations. We can benefit by more learning an better actions right now.

Useful Action:                 

  You can take useful action now by checking out our situation now and consider possible adaptations. It seems for enough valor to better understand what is happening to our Earth which will effect our social, economic, political and health situation much more and more rapidly than we have learned to expect. Not all is bad different parts of  our Earth are changing indifferent ways, perhaps many for the better. Some say that the expected happenings are mostly neither good nor bad, but just are.

                    Change seems to be a constant, but the changes of today are happening faster than they have in several hundred years. So expect changes to continue to quicken. It may be well to consider how we shall take care of ourselves. Some of us have been learning a lot and developing adaptive practices. But, perhaps most of us are not doing enough. More of us may come to suffer and die in rather short order. We speak of global warming, but parts of the globe may experience freezing which it has not seen in  a thousand years. Flooding and drying are already in the news.

                    A lot is happening which many of us have chosen to ignore. More metals are being released into our air and water. Mercury is among them. Mercury is among them. Mercury is toxic and causes brain damage. It accumulates in fish, fowl, cattle, etc. Once it gets into us it is difficult to get rid of. We have experience with mercury, but seem to be coming to experience much more than usual. We use seaweed for many things including fertilizer. We also use it to make ice-cream. Mercury accumulates in seaweed, I'm told. It is possible to adapt to the situation without taking ice-cream from kids and pregnant mothers. Our we could just have a generation of brain damaged ice-cream eaters. One of us or a few of us cannot do everything, but every one can do something and there are still a lot of us.

Adapt:                   

                 We can do little to effect the massive Earth changes occurring now. But we can consider how we shall adapt to them. We can survive. We may even thrive. We are the people responsible for us. We can help our children to a better chance to learn and thrive.

                    Frozen fungi spore, bacteria, virus, and and more is being released after being  frozen for 75 years, for 500 years, a 1,000 years, 10,000 years. Some life forms are reviving after being froze for 20,000 years, and 30, 40, and 50 thousand years of frozen sleep! Many are reviving! I could be wrong. Check it out for yourself and tell us about it. I believe that most of the reviving life is of no direct danger to us, even when they are very much alive. Some may prove to be of great value to us! A few others can kill us.

                We need to help each other to keep track of what researchers are learning now However, a very few years ago researchers experimenters experienced reviving a virus, in laboratory conditions, which had be frozen for more than 30,000 years. It was one which almost certainly was harmless to humans.

Get clear about that which we can do:                

    We can do much to protect ourselves, our children, and our children's children. We can get clear about that which we can do. We all have some common aims. We all have some useful information. We each have have some skill. Most of us have some knowledge of and experience with co-operation. We can use that knowledge and experience to establish a conversation about how we can collaborate in adapting to these faster than usual Earth changes. We can share information about the nature of those changes and of how we can best adapt to them. An ongoing dialogue makes our sharing and co-operation more effective. With co-operation we can do a lot; with co-operative origination we can do more. Family, friends, and neighbors can share information and even work together. We can connect with students of the problem. We could better understand the nature of the related problems by finding out what sociologist and scientists are are saying about them. We can clarify the questions we have. Questions like: What can we do with large undocumented migrations across national borders by people escaping droughts, floods, hunger? Or, How are such migrations likely to effect us right here? What can we do avoid bad effects from such migration?

                Climate changes and some other Earth changes have become more extreme than we have expected or experienced and are now expected to continue and worsen. Canada may soon have the best far north seaports seen in our history. The are experiencing competition from Russia. The south of Canada and Russia may become excellent places to grow tropical and semi-tropical fruit. should that happen what may happen to their wheat crops?

                I'll repeat some of that which know about that which is happening. For example, much of our Earth's surface is permafrost. Permafrost is what we call earth which has long been frozen to great depths. It is mixed with water and a lot of vegetable matter and other stuff. Permafrost has now melted more than it ever has in our history and longer

                 A while back we found that in shallow seas and not so shallow seas at their bottom there is soil and plant matter which has frozen deeply like permafrost. We believe that it has been frozen there for long and long. Now we find that it is melting quickly and releasing large amounts of methane gas and much else. The gases are bubbling up and mixing up with our air. Methane burns well. It does not seem likely that our sea or air will catch fire. You may hear of some cases. However co2, virus, bacteria, fungus heavy metals and more are being released. Much of the virus, bacteria, and fungus has revived and so is alive!

                Isn't this fun? It seems time to learn more. The sun shines east and the sun shines west. The sun shines best on that part of Earth tipped or turned most toward that good old sun. All the Earth is effected, each part a bit differently. The Earth tips, turns, spins, and wobbles continually. Over time the orientation of the Earth continues to change. The tip and wobble seem to change more and effect us more notably. The tip we are now experiencing is one of the more extreme for a long time and may continue for, what seems to us, a long time. We might take this as a learning experience. We could learn to better use our ability to adapt.

                We know there are massive emissions of co2 and methane here now and increasing! At this same time ancient and new sources of disease are being released. So, we may expect more health problems. The recent outbreak in covid virus could be called an early practice for what is to come. We have some learning to do. We have preparing to do. We have adapting to. We really have to do much of this together.                                                  

What is going on:                

Each one of us is limited I what we can do, but every one of us can come to understand more about what is going on. Fault finding and name calling does not help. Increased awareness can usually be very helpful, even life saving. No one can do everything. Each person can do something. Each doing is helpful. Even it is mistaken doing, it may inform many.

                There is a lot to learn just about melting and thawing. Northern ice in contact with sea water is melting and releasing ancient matter into the sea. Mercury is being released. Mercury accumulates in plants and animals and often does them harm. Some call us top feeders. We eat plants and animals. We eat fish and fish accumulate mercury from sea life. The process can do us greater greater harm. We can find out, or figure out, what to do bout that. By doing that promptly we prevent pain, sorrow, and death. We ought to share that which find out and figure out.

                There is plenty you and I can do right now.

                I the long run, with luck, we can help our interested youth to learn more about chemistry than we did. We could learn critical bit right now. There is a lot to learn much of it is interesting, useful, and good for us. There is a lot of chemistry going on in our sea and atmosphere right now. Whole lot of shakin' goin' on.

                    Methane and other stuff, being released mostly from melting permafrost, can be made useful. Methane is the main part of natural gas widely used for cooking and heating. Right now most of it is moving into our atmosphere and the air we breathe. It is colorless, odorless, and suffocating. Some say that it has already begun the suffocation of some of us. The fact is that the percentage of our air which is methane is increasing. I am pretty sure that our sky will not burn. However, I do remember it being called swamp gas and causing mysterious fires in swamps.

                Some of us know that things are mostly doings and most of us believe that one thing leads to another. Still we have a lot to learn, much of it pleasantly exciting and wonderous.

                We already know a lot that seems somewhat interesting. We are pretty sure that burning releases stuff. We have seen smoke rise from a fire. Old wives that some woods released a lot of soot which blackened their kettles and more.  the burning of gas, oil and wood sends soot into the atmosphere. Volcanic activity may do the same. What goes up must come down. A significant amount of that black soot comes down on white snow and ice. It may not blacken the ice and snow but it can darken them. The darker they get the more heat from the sun they absorb and then more they melt. The melt runoff mostly goes into the sea. That runoff can do more than raise the level of the sea. There are books about that; Youn Tube videos too. Oh, much of this process, effects permafrost too, and methane that not only traps sunlight to warm our atmosphere and also suffocates us. Ah, the wonders of chemistry!

                Haven't we heard that methane burns releasing co2, our biggest greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases lead to warming of the earth which leads to more rapid melting of our snow, ice, and permafrost. Which continues a great round of cause and effect. Many of us have heard the saying, "don't" mess with mother nature." The balance of nature is to be protected because it helps us to a safe and comfortable life. But there are other forces beyond humanity which effects that balance too. So humans need to adapt to changes which they cannot control.

                So what can we do to help our youth to a comfortable life or at least to survive? Talk with another or others about our Earth condition and situation. There is a "comments" app available just below this essay. Use it to make suggestions, ask questions, tell us something interesting and useful, say something to help me to correct the errors and mistakes I have made in writing  this essay, or make a comment of some kind. We need all the help we can get.

                I will publish this and will write more soon along similar lines. I am nearly praying for some volunteer proof reading type help. Even my spell check app has disappeared.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                                             rcs

Astronomy 0.001

                 Science is among our subjects here and astronomy is certainly a science even if it is often up in the stars. This is just a little piece to warn you that I expect to try to write a bit more about it at a later date.

                I am new to the subject so we will be learning together and you may teach me more than I teach you. I am finding out that can be much about cycles. Cycles are predictive. Prediction is a part of science. We have a way to tell the future! But then, doesn't a calendar tell the future, sort of?

             Our Earth moves through a 26,000 year and is half of 52,000 cycle approximately. The 52,000 year seems to be called the Great Year. Maybe we can find out what the cycle predicts and may help to predict. If you know something about please tell us as much as you can. You can use the "comments" section below.

            This cycle is marked by the precession of the equinoxes. In this cycle the wobble of our Earth's axis draws a counter-clockwise circle in the heavens (so to speak) and points to different north stars in the process. If there were a pole at, say, the north pole and if you were watching it for decades it may seem to wobble. This wobble makes seasonal contrast more extreme in one hemisphere and lessin the other. 

            This precession deal is not easy. It seems we could lean a bit from movements of a spinning top. Let me just say for now that precession is a change in the orientation of the rotation axis of a rotating body.

            The story of equinox may help our understanding of precession of the of the equinoxes. Humans observed the sunrise discovered that it occurs between two extreme locations at the horizon and eventually noted the midpoint between the two.(what a nice story). Later some realized that this happened on a day when the duration of night and day are practically equal.

            The Earth's axis seems to be mostly an imaginary line running through the center of  the Earth from one pole to the other. It does not just sit there, it moves around in the form of circles. It is tilted about 24 degrees as it swings around in circles, which include on at each pole. The resulting wobble or tilt causes the seasons. Those changes become greater as one moves from the equator toward the poles. 

                I would like to know the causes of the changes and happenings noted above. I would like to more of the implications of those changes. I would like to how they can effect the Earth, our world, and me. 

                                         rcs

         

                

                

Science: An Introduction

  RCS Posts science: An introduction. Science as a method of communication and for gaining understanding and knowledge.              

                Science is the practice of a method of understanding and of communication. It may be called the scientific method. This method can be a great help in self-development and in being a successful human being.

                As you become better acquainted with this method of understanding you become a more effective person. You will also develop a better understanding of the sciences in general and of each individual science, even ytterbiumology.

                The scientific method generally includes the following doings: observation, identification/recognition, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena. So, a scientist observes a doing or happening and begins to explain it. The method is much about how she does this. That is, how you do it may be more important than what you do.

                To start well, lets try to define some of our terms. We can begin with the word 'science.' Starting at the beginning we see that science means knowledge, the business of knowing. Just how one knows is a serious subject. A subject we could check into later. Early in its history science became knowledge gained  by study. Science brings its history with it. It still means knowledge and it still means knowledge gained by study. The science quickly came to be the study of particular and specific subjects. In its more modern meaning it has come to mean the technical and mathematical study  of a subject. However the basic method of doing science is both a simpler and more powerful attitude then one might suppose.

                We already know that "method" means "the way how." So, science is a particular way of understanding, a particularly effective way of understanding. It may be useful to remember that the suffix -ology means study. So anthropology is the study of human species, of humanity in most of its aspects. It has often been a comparative study of behavior, biology, societies. Whereas biology is the natural scientific study of life and of living organisms. It is one of the more nicely developed sciences. Cells and genes are now important factors in this study.

                It is important that a person interested in science develop a good grasp on the nature of scientific: observation, identification, explanation, knowing, researching,  and theoretical description. Also to develop their ability to recognize and observe natural phenomena is helpful to their use of scientific methodology.

                To gain and to communicate scientific knowledge one needs to become familiar with its concepts and vocabulary. As interest is shown, I hope to write more on the topic. I believe that you already have an understanding of the scientific method as a way many have found useful for gaining practical, productive knowledge and of communicating that knowledge.

                You probably already have the understanding that science is well begun and carried out with studied and practiced observation. 

                The ways of scientific observation are important to the development of knowledge. My dictionary says this about "to observe:" to notice, to perceive, to watch attentively, to make a scientific or systematic observation. "Systematic," that implies that there is a system to be learned. It seems that the way of a scientific doing is, at least, as the what.

                Observation is the act of observing; that is the act of noting and recording of a phenomena, doing, or happening, perhaps with instruments. Observation might lead to developing a judgement or inference. What are the methods for developing a judgement or an inference!

                "Identify" could be our next term to examine. If you would like me to continue some sort of exposition of science, please leave a comment to that effect in the "comment" window below.

                Identifying a phenomena is, in large part, for the purpose of being able to recognize the phenomena yourself and to enable others to also recognize it. There is more to say about the recognize/identify part of of our scientific process,  but I will leave it for another time.

                Oh, yes. Ytterbiumology is beyond my present knowledge; still it can be studied, known, and used. Its a chemical element with the symbol Yb and atomic number of 70. I may not live long enough to get deeply into the study of this element. Perhaps you can tell us more about it.     

                Thank you for reading

                                                            RCS

Science: First Words On

RCS Posts: A method of understanding five powerful actions, science is a way to knowledge.        

 

        Science is a way one may use to better everyday life. Science is a doing. It is a method of understanding. It is the practice of a method to understand and to communicate that understanding. It may be called the scientific method. This method can be an aid to one's personal self-development. 

            As you become more acquainted with this method of understanding you will become a more understanding person. You will also come to have a better understanding of science than do most people on earth. You will also have begun a better understanding of any of the sciences even ytterbiumology!

            The scientific method includes the following 5 powerful actions: 

~ observation

~ identification

~ description

~ experimentation

~ explanation.

               These are four actions one may take to know. They are what one can do. This "what" is important but "how" may be more important. I will say a bit about this "how" right here. Observation may be the careful watching of a process, doing, or happening you have good reason to believe is real. Identification is being familiar enough with what you have observed to be able to recognize it again. A description enables you to tell another how to recognize the phenomenon and to help you to recognize it again later. Experimentation is a way to further investigate that which you have observed. Explanation is a theoretical explaining of what you are coming to understand from your observation of the phenomena you have identified.

            Just taking the above steps and so becoming more aware of your observations has empowered you. So, we might say, a scientist carefully observes and begins an explanation of her observations. The method, is how she does this. That is, it is done carefully and systematically. The scientist can tell another the system and theoretically that other should be able to duplicate the original observations and experimentation and get similar results. The quality of what is done is important, How well you observe is important. How you do it is as important as what you do.

           To understand a subject it is good to clarify the words used to describe it. Let me begin to begin to define some our terms here. The word "science" seems a good place to start. Simply, science means knowledge, the business of coming to know. Just how one knows is a serious business. Science became knowledge gathered by study and still contains that meaning. Study is a name for careful observation and interpretation within a specified field. That now often includes study of the work of others, Now science has come to include the technical and mathematical study of a subject. We will not go as far as the uses of math or the techniques if a specific science. However, the basic methods of doing science both simpler and more powerful than one might suppose. Some come to see it as an attitude.

            "Method" refers to the way an act is accomplished, how it is done. So, science is a way to understand. A particular science is a way to understanding in a particular field. Anthropology is a particular science. "Anthro- refers to humanity and -ology refers to study. So anthropology is the study of humanity. It is often about the comparative study of societies. Study is an important part of the life of most scientists. They want to know about what others in their field have learned.

                In doing their science they usually begin with observation and identification; then on to describe and investigate. Experimentation in this field has not been easy, but anthropologist are finding ways of testing their observations. Their explaining of the phenomena of their field has proven interesting and useful. They have their own way of doing their work, but they also use the basic steps of the method we are learning about (I learn as I write.).

    `        "Biology" names another science. Its about life. It is the natural scientific study of life and living organisms. It is one of the more nicely developed sciences. So nicely developed that some of its practitioners some times seem to forget that its development is dependent on the method we are looking at. Cells and genes are important aspects of this science. Understanding them begins with observation and identification and then on to explain their finds to their fellows and humanity. Biologists use the scientific method.

            You have seen that it can important that a person interested in science to have a good grasp on the nature of the scientific method. Knowledge of that method can be a great aid to one interested in knowledge. The following vocabulary points to activities useful to one who would know: observation, identification, recognition, explanation, probability, knowing, understanding, researching, theoretical description. Also, to remember that an ability to recognize and observe natural phenomena is a great aid to understanding and is part of scientific methodology. If you are interested in math you may find that solid geometry may prove an interesting way to keep your science real and less difficult to communicate.

            I believe that you have an understanding of the heart of the scientific method as a way many have found useful for gaining practical, productive knowledge.

            The ways of scientific observation are important to the development of understanding. Often it is carried with the use of technical instrumentation, but that need not be the case. My dictionary has this to say about "to observe:" to watch attentively, to notice, to make a systematic or scientific observation. I have heard that good observation may be like seeing with a new pair of glasses. "Systematic" implies that there may be a system or systems to be learned. It seems that the way of a scientific doing is as important as the what of it. I have heard that is not so much about what you but rather how you do it.

            So observation includes the acts of looking, seeing, noting, and recording of  phenomena. All this done as a step toward communicating your work to another. Your observation might be better done with instrumentation, but this is often not a necessity. 

            Observation may lead to developing an a judgement or inference. Wow! We may have stuff (good important stuff) to learn about the development of a judgement or an inference. If you can tell us anything about judgement or inference as relates to science please use the "comments" section below. You may have to click on "no comments!"

             There is more to learn about the way science is done.  However this seems about enough for now. I'll end by saying a bit about identification. Identifying a phenomenon, is in large part, for the purpose of being able to recognize it yourself in the future and to an enable others to find it, and to recognize it.

            Oh, ytterbiumology, it is beyond my present knowledge. Still it may be studied and know well enough to make us some cash. It seems that ytterbium is a real element known to many chemists and physicists. It has the symbol of Yb and the atomic number of 70. I am willing to be taught.

                                                             RCS