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U.S. duo win physics Nobel for backing up Big Bang
Reuters ^ | Tuesday October 3, 2006 | Patrick Lannin and Sarah Edmonds

Posted on 10/03/2006 8:59:06 PM PDT by FFIGHTER

By Patrick Lannin and Sarah Edmonds

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Americans John Mather and George Smoot won the 2006 Nobel prize for physics on Tuesday for work on cosmic radiation which helped pinpoint the age of the universe and supported the Big Bang theory of its birth.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awarded the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.37 million) prize, said the two men were instrumental to the success of the cosmic background explorer (COBE) satellite program launched by NASA in 1989.

Their work took Big Bang theory, which contends the universe began 15 billion years ago as a tiny dot that exploded into today's huge system of stars and planets, out of the realm of mathematical equations and into the world of precise science.

(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: nobelprize; physics; science; tvf

1 posted on 10/03/2006 8:59:07 PM PDT by FFIGHTER
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To: FFIGHTER

Shoots. Way over my head.


2 posted on 10/03/2006 9:05:27 PM PDT by dbqer4life
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To: muawiyah; DaveLoneRanger

Uh, oh. This is real science; muaibowwow, lonelyranger, and other IDists are not going to like it.


3 posted on 10/03/2006 9:24:53 PM PDT by thomaswest
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To: FFIGHTER

I guess my paper on "The Sex Life of a Golf Ball" didn't make it. Oh well. I'll try again next year. If Jimmah and Yassir can win one of these Nobel things, anybody can.


4 posted on 10/03/2006 9:35:10 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (When was the last time you heard a DemocRAT say something positive about America?)
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To: FFIGHTER
"Smoot told Reuters the Nobel committee called him at 2:45 a.m. Pacific Time after first dialing the wrong number."

Whoops.

George Smoot works at Cal-Berkeley. Just think, Kate Raphael-Bender nearly won the Nobel Prize for Physics!
5 posted on 10/03/2006 9:43:43 PM PDT by decal (Building a wall on the border is like treating lung cancer with cough syrup.)
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To: FFIGHTER
"The radiation they looked at, so-called blackbody radiation, allowed the laureates to show the universe had cooled from its initial fiery state of 3,000 degrees centigrade (5,000 F) to a chill 2.7 degrees above absolute zero, which is minus 273 degrees centigrade."

3000C doesn't seem all that hot; the sun is much hotter.

Did the article leave off a few aughts?
6 posted on 10/03/2006 9:45:33 PM PDT by decal (Building a wall on the border is like treating lung cancer with cough syrup.)
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To: decal

Lots and lots of them.


7 posted on 10/03/2006 9:53:50 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: FlingWingFlyer

The Peace Prize and the science prizes are awarded by totally different committees. The science prizes are held in deservedly high esteem.


8 posted on 10/03/2006 10:25:29 PM PDT by Alter Kaker ("Whatever tears one sheds, in the end one always blows one's nose." - Heine)
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To: thomaswest
Nice to see confirmation of a theory proposed by a Roman Catholic Priest... Atheists fought against it, including the one who tacked on the "Big Bang" moniker to belittle it.

Big Bang speaks of there being an origin, but maybe I only see things that was because I'm an "IDist". Where do you think the energy that that set things into motion came from?
9 posted on 10/04/2006 1:04:33 AM PDT by GoLightly
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To: Alter Kaker; FlingWingFlyer
True, AK. The physics & chemistry are awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the medicine (physiology) by the (Swedish) Karolinska Institutet, and the Literature prize by the Swedish Academy.

The Peace Price is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The science prizes this year have all gone to Americans, perhaps a first? The winner of the prize in medicine is the son of the 1959 winner in that category.

The Peace Prize and the science prizes are awarded by totally different committees. The science prizes are held in deservedly high esteem.

10 posted on 10/04/2006 4:11:17 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy (Hey, look man, I didn't mean to shoot the son of a b!tch. The gun went off. I don't know why.)
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To: Alter Kaker

Muslims ever get ANY kind of Nobel Prizes? For idiocy maybe?


11 posted on 10/04/2006 4:18:19 AM PDT by MrLee
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To: MrLee
Nobel's will speaks of prizes for inventions or discoveries of greatest practical benefit to mankind - you do the math. ;>)

Muslims ever get ANY kind of Nobel Prizes?

12 posted on 10/04/2006 5:47:03 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy (Wake up and smell the jihad)
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To: Alter Kaker
The Peace Prize and the science prizes are awarded by totally different committees. The science prizes are held in deservedly high esteem.

If the science prizes were awarded as slap-dashedly as the peace prizes, Al Gore would have gotten one for inventing the Internet.

13 posted on 10/04/2006 6:02:11 AM PDT by steve-b (The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.)
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To: MrLee
Muslims ever get ANY kind of Nobel Prizes?

2005 Peace Prize: jointly to International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed Elbaradei

1994 Peace Prize: jointly to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin

1978 Peace Prize: jointly to Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin

The Sadat one is deserved, IMO; he went up against (and was ultimately murdered by, IIRC) the nutball Islamofundies.

14 posted on 10/04/2006 6:06:54 AM PDT by steve-b (The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.)
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Comment #15 Removed by Moderator

To: FFIGHTER
this is the only scenario that predicts the kind of cosmic microwave background radiation measured by COBE

This is the kind of science NASA should be focusing on; not political boondoggles like the Space station..

Its good to see" theory" backed up by scientific discovery...

16 posted on 10/04/2006 7:39:51 AM PDT by Nonstatist
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To: GoLightly
Where do you think the energy that that set things into motion came from?

Colliding branes, quantum strings, take your pick.

Oh, I'm sorry, you were implying God? Cute.
17 posted on 10/05/2006 2:42:26 AM PDT by UndauntedR
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To: UndauntedR
Colliding branes, quantum strings, take your pick.

Any time I ponder the question, I always come back to the question about whether or not the total amount of energy in our universe, in all of its forms is a constant.

Oh, I'm sorry, you were implying God? Cute.

A belief in God doesn't prevent me from thinking about how He did/does it. Guess you didn't understand the point I was trying to make earlier.

18 posted on 10/05/2006 4:56:56 AM PDT by GoLightly
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Big Bang's afterglow fails intergalactic 'shadow' test
University of Alabama in Huntsville | 01 September 2006 | Staff (press release)
Posted on 09/01/2006 11:10:03 AM EDT by PatrickHenry
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/1693816/posts


19 posted on 03/31/2007 10:16:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Saturday, March 31, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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Nobel Prize awarded to Big Bang proponents as evidence vanishes
by Tom Van Flandern
Meta Research
Our regular members and readers will recall that the simplest explanation of the microwave radiation is the "temperature of space", as correctly calculated by Eddington in 1926 and verified with greater accuracy by later authors: 2.8°K. This is the minimum temperature that anything bathed in the radiation of distant starlight can reach. No Big Bang proponent ever came close to predicting the correct temperature of this radiation, its dipolar asymmetry, or the tiny size of its fluctuations... The blackbody character of the microwave radiation was an important observational finding, and its discoverers deserve credit for that (despite trying to attach religious significance to it themselves)... [T]he following new results about the microwave radiation were just released in September... "In a finding sure to cause controversy, scientists at the University of Alabama in Huntsville found a lack of evidence of shadows from 'nearby' clusters of galaxies using new, highly accurate measurements of the cosmic microwave background. … Taken together, the data shows a shadow effect about one-fourth of what was predicted - an amount roughly equal in strength to natural variations previously seen in the microwave background across the entire sky... [B]ased on all that we know about radiation sources and halos around clusters, this kind of emission is not expected, and it would be implausible to suggest that several clusters could all emit microwaves at just the right frequency and intensity to match the cosmic background radiation." ...Just over a year ago, published results of another study using WMAP data looked for evidence of "lensing" effects which should have been seen (but weren't) if the microwave background was a Big Bang remnant.

20 posted on 03/31/2007 10:23:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Saturday, March 31, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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