[lbo-talk] Astronomy

[Chuck Grimes]

Below is a link to a lecture with three astronomers from Berkeley: Saul 
Perlmutter, David Schlegel and Alexie Leauthaud. They talk about their 
speciality, cosmology, dark energy and dark matter, respectively. The talk 
is heavily weighted on observation. It is from Oct 2009, so it is pretty 
recent. It's an hour and a half, with the last approximately thirty or more 
minutes answering questions, which are well informed questions, since most 
of the audience are other scientists.

The nice part is that each panelist says I don't know, when they don't know. 
They are also willing to speculate with the question when the question calls 
for it. There are animated shorts most of which are compiled with data, and 
not artist renditions. The best is from Schlegel who assembled a series of 
slices from as far away as current observation goes, then moves toward us in 
planes or slices. The other series of slides is not animated, but does use 
illustrations, then superimposes observation images. It shows the texture of 
the dark matter at various distances and pans inward until the visiable 
images are seen imposed on the dark matter webbing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YezKsgsPM24&feature=related

(I decided after my mistake last night between Beinart and Brietbard, I 
needed to get out more, and especially away from the news. Astronomy, 
cosmology, math, or the math I can grasp, gives me some sense of promise for 
a future beyond what seems utterly bleak.)