THE TRUE REASON WHY THE UNIVERSE IS GETTING BIGGER WAY FASTER THAN PREDICTED

Sooo dear reader, scientists have found out that, at the moment, the universe is getting bigger and bigger waaay faster than predicted.

It may depend on some new kind of dark energy, or on some new unknown particle, ooor on some new physics in need to be discovered altogether.

Those are all good hypothesis, indeed.

But this dumb blog has a different one...

The true reason why the universe is getting bigger way faster than predicted by @sciencemug [Credits: Space pic is a Public Domain image; Author: NASA, ESA; Source: WikiMedia Commons. Burger free pic by amirali mirhashemian; fries free pic by Louis Hansel; source of both pics: Unsplash. All pics adapted by @sciencemug]

HAPPY B-DAY MR GEIGER!

Happy birthday Hans! (by sciencemug)

[Hans Geiger's picture is adapted from a Public Domain image by sciencemug (source: wikia.com)]

Hans Geiger [pdf is here] is the "ilovephysics" guy who, in 1908, invents the first detector for ionizing radiation (you know the bastard right, it's the kinda radiation which shatters your chemical bonds giving you funny presents like cancer etc). Geiger's detector '1908 edition' is a counter for the alpha particles, namely just one of the existing forms of ionizing radiation. Hans dude makes it with future Nobel prize winner "ilovephysicsevenmore" Ernest Rutherford.

Later, in 1925, HG does it again (oops!) and, in collaboration with "ilovephysicstoobutdamniwon'tgetoneofthosefancysvedishprizesnono" Walter Muller, he perfects his device so that now it can sniff also beta particles and gamma rays (ie the other two, along with alpha particles, of the three most common types of ionizing skunks). 

The XXth century world now has its "Geiger-Muller counter", a tool that is basically identical to the one the XXIth century world's still using.

Happy birthday, HG!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mr 'SPECTROSCOPY' ANGSTROM!

Happy b-day Anders Jonas Ångström (by sciencemug)

[A.J. Ångström's picture is adapted from a Public Domain image by sciencemug (source: wikia.com)]

AJ, the 10^-10 metre guy...

(Wanna know something 'bout AJ's creature, miss spectroscopy? Go here) 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GALILEO!

Happy b-day Galileo! (by sciencemug)

Galileo Galilei (born: 15-2-1564), physicist, Italian, genius.

PS: the tool is the telescope

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR ISAAC NEWTON!

Happy b-day Sir Isaac (by sciencemug)

[The picture of Sir Isaac Newton is adapted from a Public Domain image by sciencemug (source: wikia.com)]

 

*The exact date of Isaac's birthday depends on which calendar one refers to.

HAPPY B-DAY LORD 'WHY THE SKY IS BLUE' RAYLEIGH!

Happy B-day Lord Rayleigh! (by sciencemug)

[The picture of J.W. Strutt-Lord Rayleigh is adapted from a Public Domain image by sciencemug (source: wikia.com)]

John William Strutt (aka Lord Rayleigh) was born this day in 1842. The man, a physicist, found out that the sky is blue 'cause the tiny molecules that compose the atmosphere do a trick, called scattering, to the sunlight. It's something that has to do with the fact that light is an electromagnetic wave, colours have different wavelenghts, molecules in the air are mean little things that manage to mess up only with colours with short wavelenghts, like our friend, Mr. Blue (aka 'Shorty'). So the other colours pass through the atmosphere like pros, while Shorty, here, it is all 'scattered' around... 

That's the story, more or less...

But maybe it's not like that, maybe it's just that you, human beings, you all are poets, in the flourishing, clumsy, bizarre depth of your chests. So when your self-consciousness emerged along the puzzling misty path of evolution and your eyes were fuelled for the first time by this new prodigious gift from semi-casuality, you, human beings, you poets and chanters, you simply decided that your sky is blue, 'cause blue fits it. Not too strong, as a colour, to burden the spectacle of it, not too dull to lessen its simple, pure, absolute majesty. 

Well, I said may be, no? Bhà...

Ah, by the way, my lord Rayleigh, there, he won a Nobel Prize in 1904 for he (and this dude, Sir Ramsay) discovered the gas argon (you know, that stuff that is used in lighting and is less than 1% of the above mentioned atmosphere of yours). 

Ah, by the way 2 the return of the bad jokes, what else a Lord and a Sir could have discovered if not a noble gas...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EINSTEIN!

Happy birthday Einstein! (by sciencemug)

[The picture of Einstein is adapted from a Public Domain image by sciencemug (source: Wikimedia Commons)]

Guess who said: "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I assure you that mine are greater"... Go here if you want to know more about him and read other quotations of his.

WAS REALLY CURIOSITY THAT KILLED THE CAT?

by @sciencemug

[The picture of Curiosity is adapted from a Public Domain image by sciencemug (source: Wikimedia Commons)]

Curious about Curiosity (hahahah, I've made a joke...)? Go here!

"CAT'S" is a joint by the way, only the foam of red space-cats hang out at that place... Yes, as you probably already suspected, cats are indeed aliens who a long time ago decided to do humanity 'a favour': to hypnotize it and exploit it. And they did. Quickly. And relentlessly. Then, our new furry lords from outer space thought they had fulfilled their plan and decided to show us their benevolence and to thank their gods with two ancient sacred rituals of theirs: the 'vomit slimy balls of hairs over precious carpets and inside expensive shoes' ritual and the 'sharpen the nails on couches and/or courtains and/or human skin' ritual. In short, humanity's will was annihilated. We were cats' puppets. But in 1935 a man came, his name was Erwin Schroedinger. He was born normal, dominated by cats as the rest of us, only, after an incident with a radioactive book of quantum mechanics, his brain was re-wired so he could overcome the feline hypnosis. Erwin then became conscious of our situation, he rebelled and created a wapon. 
A weapon that finally allowed humanity to fight back.  
A box. 
The rest is history and PiPs passed me the flu so I'm under medications and uuuh, look at that... A huge flock of banana peels is migrating west!

BUON COMPLEANNO GALILEO!

Happy birthday Galileo!

[Adapted from a Public Domain image by sciencemug (source: Wikimedia Commons)]

Curious about Galileo Galilei? Try this, and this.

WHO SAYS QUANTUM PHYSICS CAN'T COME IN HANDY?

A Schrodinger's box for mailmen (by sciencemug)