An epic post on neutron stars, pulsars, King Kong, ice cream, and NANOGrav's stunning announcement that the International Pulsar Timing Array has finally found the Gravitational Wave Background
Literally wept reading your ode to the miraclulous nature of this achievement. I hope the scientists involved in this heroic undertaking read this, they deserve to bask in such validating recognition. Truly grateful to them and to you for making the discovery so exciting and accessible!
Thank you Alaina. Very glad you found my account of their achievements exciting and accessible! That was certainly the aim; it's great to hear I might have pulled it off.
This is my favorite substack. Keep doing everything you are doing. It's amazing to watch and you have a brilliant way of making all this confusing scientific data/jargon easy to understand, even to a simpleton like me. It's still very early on, as you always say, but I'm willing to say that I believe this theory is more plausible than most any other theory of the universe, that I've come across at least. Can't wait for your next post Julian! Joy's post are also great treats while waiting. Egg on. Rock on. Let's keep evolving.
Hey Skylar, thank you. Thrilled to hear this is your favourite Substack. When I put up a post like this one (maybe, what, 8,000 words, and covering a lot of territory), I do wonder, as I hit "Publish", if anyone out there cares as much about this stuff as I do; am I wasting my time; am I simply talking to myself. So to hear that it connects so strongly with you is hugely reassuring. Very glad you like Solana's posts, too... Onward and upward!
Thank you man, your book “connect” has helped me a lot. Its completely impossible to quantitise the value your views has given me. Even writing this comment, I feel better. Thats howmuch of an impact your toughts on the universe has on me. Thank you! And much love to you and your family!
Nice article, and excellent description of that graph showing the evidence for gravitational waves.
My one quibble: neither Manhattan nor Anchorage gives a good visual picture of the size of a neutron star. Cities are basically 2D, while neutron stars are 3D spheres. So if we overlaid a neutron star on Anchorage, it would penetrate 10 km into the ground and extend 10 km into the sky. On a human scale, neutron stars are big, so I don't think it makes sense to compare them to human-sized artifacts. It's only on the scale of stars and planets that they are tiny. Maybe a better picture of their smallness would come from pointing out that 300 million neutron stars could fit inside the earth.
Ragnarok in a parking lot is now my new favorite catchphrase. Thank you for taking the time and effort to break down these things for those of us that love the universe but don’t have a degree in astrophysics!
Yes, that's a lot of different fields, and would require a lot of research! It's quite possible I will cover some of these issues as I go along, but I can't guarantee it. I could certainly see cloning, gene-editing, etc, coming up as topics, as they feed into the idea that DNA evolution speeds up and becomes a directional, agent-led process once DNA organisms can manipulate their own blueprints. However, my focus will remain on the exploration of the idea that our universe evolved at the level of universes, and that our particular universe is, as a result, undergoing a highly directional (evolved) developmental process, rather than just bumbling around aimlessly while drifting towards heat death.
But sure, to the extent that these subjects you mention feed into that story, I may well cover them. I might not be as firmly against them as you would like, though! I recommend you read Kevin Kelly's fascinating first book, Out of Control, which you might find interesting. A quote from it, to give you the flavour:
"The nature of life is to delight in all possible loopholes. Every creature is in someway hacking a living by re-interpreting the rules."
Here's another:
"The capacity to evolve must be evolved itself.
Evolution has been, and will keep on, exploring space of possible evolution is. Organisms, means, the whole bowl of wax are only evolution's way to keep evolving."
And another:
"Life is a transforming flood that fills up empty containers and then spills out of them on its way to fill up more. The shape and number of vessels submerged by the flood doesn't make a bit of difference."
It's a book that might agree with you about some of the changes that are coming, but help you see them in a way that is less fearful, more optimistic. If you do read it, tell me what you think!
Literally wept reading your ode to the miraclulous nature of this achievement. I hope the scientists involved in this heroic undertaking read this, they deserve to bask in such validating recognition. Truly grateful to them and to you for making the discovery so exciting and accessible!
Thank you Alaina. Very glad you found my account of their achievements exciting and accessible! That was certainly the aim; it's great to hear I might have pulled it off.
This is my favorite substack. Keep doing everything you are doing. It's amazing to watch and you have a brilliant way of making all this confusing scientific data/jargon easy to understand, even to a simpleton like me. It's still very early on, as you always say, but I'm willing to say that I believe this theory is more plausible than most any other theory of the universe, that I've come across at least. Can't wait for your next post Julian! Joy's post are also great treats while waiting. Egg on. Rock on. Let's keep evolving.
Hey Skylar, thank you. Thrilled to hear this is your favourite Substack. When I put up a post like this one (maybe, what, 8,000 words, and covering a lot of territory), I do wonder, as I hit "Publish", if anyone out there cares as much about this stuff as I do; am I wasting my time; am I simply talking to myself. So to hear that it connects so strongly with you is hugely reassuring. Very glad you like Solana's posts, too... Onward and upward!
Thank you man, your book “connect” has helped me a lot. Its completely impossible to quantitise the value your views has given me. Even writing this comment, I feel better. Thats howmuch of an impact your toughts on the universe has on me. Thank you! And much love to you and your family!
Oh, you've read Connect! Wonderful. Thanks for the kind words, to me and my family. And lots of love straight back at you! There's plenty to go round.
You are very funny. 😂
Enjoy your ice cream.🤗
Thanks! I will!
🤗
Nice article, and excellent description of that graph showing the evidence for gravitational waves.
My one quibble: neither Manhattan nor Anchorage gives a good visual picture of the size of a neutron star. Cities are basically 2D, while neutron stars are 3D spheres. So if we overlaid a neutron star on Anchorage, it would penetrate 10 km into the ground and extend 10 km into the sky. On a human scale, neutron stars are big, so I don't think it makes sense to compare them to human-sized artifacts. It's only on the scale of stars and planets that they are tiny. Maybe a better picture of their smallness would come from pointing out that 300 million neutron stars could fit inside the earth.
Ragnarok in a parking lot is now my new favorite catchphrase. Thank you for taking the time and effort to break down these things for those of us that love the universe but don’t have a degree in astrophysics!
Yes, that's a lot of different fields, and would require a lot of research! It's quite possible I will cover some of these issues as I go along, but I can't guarantee it. I could certainly see cloning, gene-editing, etc, coming up as topics, as they feed into the idea that DNA evolution speeds up and becomes a directional, agent-led process once DNA organisms can manipulate their own blueprints. However, my focus will remain on the exploration of the idea that our universe evolved at the level of universes, and that our particular universe is, as a result, undergoing a highly directional (evolved) developmental process, rather than just bumbling around aimlessly while drifting towards heat death.
But sure, to the extent that these subjects you mention feed into that story, I may well cover them. I might not be as firmly against them as you would like, though! I recommend you read Kevin Kelly's fascinating first book, Out of Control, which you might find interesting. A quote from it, to give you the flavour:
"The nature of life is to delight in all possible loopholes. Every creature is in someway hacking a living by re-interpreting the rules."
Here's another:
"The capacity to evolve must be evolved itself.
Evolution has been, and will keep on, exploring space of possible evolution is. Organisms, means, the whole bowl of wax are only evolution's way to keep evolving."
And another:
"Life is a transforming flood that fills up empty containers and then spills out of them on its way to fill up more. The shape and number of vessels submerged by the flood doesn't make a bit of difference."
It's a book that might agree with you about some of the changes that are coming, but help you see them in a way that is less fearful, more optimistic. If you do read it, tell me what you think!