06 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) photograph

Here we go again, one of the epic documents of our time, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) photograph, the deepest look into space ever. A random part of the sky, so small it could be covered by a pinhead held at arm's length. A part of the sky -- as NASA says -- that you'd see looking through an eight-foot-long soda straw. A photo exposed over 400 orbits of the Hubble, a total exposure of 11.3 days. The telescope pointing precisely to the same point in space even as it whizzes around the Ear...
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It would take 12.7 million such photos to cover our night sky, and there are 10,000 galaxies in this image.

05 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 If We Could See the Night Sky With Eyes Like the Hubble T...

Imagine that we could see the night with eyes the size and sensitivity of the Hubble Space Telescope. How paltry then would seem our terrestrial gods, our shabby deities with human faces. How ridiculous our intolerances, how hollow our claims to have privileged access to the mind of God.
Folksonomies: wonder night sky grandeur
Folksonomies: wonder night sky grandeur
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The grandeur of the Universe would let us know our place.

06 JUL 2011 by ideonexus

 Experimental Methods for Understanding Babies

But why should you believe us instead of those benighted experts who thought babies couldn't really see? How can we say we actually do know what babies think? With the help of videotape, scientists have developed ingenious experimental techniques to ask babies what they know. One whole set of techniques has been designed to answer two simple questions: Do babies think that two things are the same or different? And if they think they're different, do they prefer one to the other? You can prese...
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Methods for knowing what's going on in a babies brain when exposed to various stimuli.