Debunking Astrology (link to 3rd party website)
William & Deborah Hillyard
William & Deborah Hillyard
William & Deborah Hillyard
William & Deborah Hillyard
William & Deborah Hillyard
In 1968, at age 17, I (William) went up to London University to study Physics and Astronomy. Although I did not finish my degree, I have retained my interest through the years, even attending extra-mural courses from London University in the early 1980s; one on Stellar Structure and another on Galactic Structure. My interests range from the very small, Quantum Physics, to the very large, Cosmology. What I aim to do here is to give some basic introductions to the topics in which I am particularly interested, try to dispel some misconceptions and provide links for those interested in following up. I plan to keep the information as up to date as possible, but inevitably, I will miss some new ideas and theories, as well as include some content that has been refuted. Hopefully, I will catch all these quickly.
Please feel free to let me have comments, suggestions and corrections, to any part of this section, but please keep it scientific. You will find no pseudo-science here except for debunking and generally mocking it! While I respect peoples religious, or any other, beliefs, here I have a zero tolerance policy towards creationism, intelligent design, Quantum mysticism, and just about every other "ism". The Earth was NOT created 6,000 years ago, or 10,000 but 4.54 billion years ago ±1%. Also, humans did not evolve from apes, monkeys or chimpanzees. The human species and chimpanzees had a common ancestor somewhere around 5 to 8 million years ago from which both species evolved separately. I am also suspicious of the "anthropic principal". In its weak form, I consider it vacuous, and in stronger forms it approaches intelligent design.
Please feel free to let me have comments, suggestions and corrections, to any part of this section, but please keep it scientific. You will find no pseudo-science here except for debunking and generally mocking it! While I respect peoples religious, or any other, beliefs, here I have a zero tolerance policy towards creationism, intelligent design, Quantum mysticism, and just about every other "ism". The Earth was NOT created 6,000 years ago, or 10,000 but 4.54 billion years ago ±1%. Also, humans did not evolve from apes, monkeys or chimpanzees. The human species and chimpanzees had a common ancestor somewhere around 5 to 8 million years ago from which both species evolved separately. I am also suspicious of the "anthropic principal". In its weak form, I consider it vacuous, and in stronger forms it approaches intelligent design.
Science
"All science is either physics or stamp collecting" Ernest Rutherford, 1871-1937.
Science Topics
The background is from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field survey. Courtesy NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team. This is where the images originated:
Details of the terminology I use, links to various on-line sources of information plus some books that would be useful in gaining more detailed knowledge.
Brief Description
The history of the Hubble Space Telescope, some of its achievements and lots of wonderful astronomical pictures.
Early physics; pre relativity. Currently, we cover from the 16th century up to the very beginning of the 20th century.
Einstein's special and general theories of relativity. There is also a note about how relativity affects GPS positioning systems. Still think it is just a theory?
This section covers Quantum mechanics, both in its early manifestations and with later enhancements, Quantum electrodynamics, and Quantum chromodynamics.
The Standard Model of particle physics that covers the fundamental, indivisible particles and the forces acting on them. Essentially, this includes the various quarks, leptons and bosons.
This section covers the plethora of compound atomic particles constructed from the various quarks. Mainly hadrons and mesons, we also cover some of the more exotic, and hypothetical, particles like tetraquarks.
While special relativity and Quantum Physics have seen some successful merging in QED and QCD, this section looks at the ways physicists are trying to merge Quantum Physics with general relativity to produce a comprehensive theory of Quantum Gravity.
A high level look at what occurred in the Big Bang, which remains the best theory to date for the origin of the universe.
I discuss the period from the birth of the Universe up to the point when it is about a billion years old, approximately.
I discuss the period from the birth of the Universe up to the point when it is about a billion years old, approximately.
All about stars; how they are born, how they live and how they die, and what is left over after their death.
All about galaxies. Looks at how they form, the different types of galaxy, and how they evolve from one type to another. We also look at the affect of galaxy mergers, and some exotica like active galactic nucleii and lyman alpha blobs.
While galaxies are huge agglomerations of stars, they themselves form groupings; clusters, super-clusters, filaments and walls. There are also huge empty areas called voids and super-voids.
A highly speculative section that disusses dark matter, dark energy and topological defects.
Another highly speculative section that looks at what there is beyond the observable universe. Could there be multiple universes; a multiverse? What about the possibility of a dark flow causing non-random motion of galactic clusters?
Quick links to some of the very latest resarch that has been published.
Brief details of some of the interesting people in the world of science, although this is mainly physicists, string theorists and cosmologists all of which disciplines overlap.
Just what it says; my contribution to debunking the garbage being disseminated about the "end of the world" on December 21st 2012.
Apparently, something like a third of American adults believe astrology is scientific! Sorry guys; you are wrong. Astrology is unmitigated claptrap without a thread of scientific data to back it up. I have linked here to a website that does a splendid job of debunking this crap. It is better than I could write.
A basic introduction to the Solar System. This is a work in progress, so not all the sections are complete. There are some nice pictures.