In case you missed the news, the first images came in from the James Webb telescope, a nail-biting feat of engineering. Launched on Dec. 25, 2021, on an Ariane-5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America, the James Webb Space Telescope completed a complex deployment sequence in space, where its mirrors were aligned, and its instruments were calibrated to the space environment. Now, the first images of our universe that has ever been taken. As astrophysicist Jane Rigby marveled about SMACS 0723, "We took that image before breakfast." In 12.5 hours, NASA changed the way we see the universe. If Hubble images were mind-blowing— the Webb images are transcendent. “Today, we present humanity with a groundbreaking new view of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope – a view the world has never seen before,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “These images, including the deepest infrared view of our universe that has ever been taken and show us how Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don’t even yet know to ask; questions that … [Read more...] about James Webb Space Telescope Unfolds the Universe
Panpsychism: Do Stars have Consciousness?
The Native Americans had a more sophisticated view of consciousness. According to the mythology of the scattered tribes, everything was conscious, animals, insects, rocks, water, earth, and sky. All creation was a living, breathing conscious being, not inert, dead, or mechanical. The doctrine that material objects possess some type of consciousness is known as panpsychism. Storytellers have explored the idea for millennia and now scientists are weighing in on the question. Could the universe be alive and possess a type of proto-conscious awareness? According to Gregory Matloff, Ph.D., Professor of Physics, the answer is yes. Matloff has worked as a propulsion scientist for NASA, and an emeritus associate and adjunct associate professor of physics at New York City College of Technology. Inspired by the philosopher and science-fiction author Olaf Stapledon whose novel, Star Maker (published in 1937) explored the concept of a consciously aware universe, Matloff wondered whether that concept could be proven. In a paper titled, Can Panpsychism Become an Observational Science? Matloff … [Read more...] about Panpsychism: Do Stars have Consciousness?
