Post details: Universe: Arguments against flatness (plus exposing sloppy science writing)

05/20/09

Permalinkby 09:37:24 am, Categories: Commentary - OpEd, 283 words   English (CA)

Universe: Arguments against flatness (plus exposing sloppy science writing)

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

According to the always entertaining New Scientist, "Flat universe may be the new flat earth (Eugenie Samuel Reich, 18 May 2009). We are informed,

FOR centuries the ancients believed the Earth was flat. Evidence to the contrary was either ignored or effortlessly integrated into the dominant world view. Today we dismiss flat-Earthers as ignorant, yet we may be making an almost identical mistake - not about our planet, but about the entire universe.
Which centuries were those? The fact that Earth is a sphere was determined by Eratosthenes in the third century B.C.

"Flat" just means that light beams travel parallel to each other, instead of converging or diverging - these conditions would imply a negatively or positively curved universe. Most astronomers currently believe the universe to be flat, but ...

(Note: Of course, it was always possible that Earth was a donut. But the examples of the sun and the moon would deter most reasonable people from thinking so.)

Also just up at Colliding Universes (my blog on competing theories about our universe)

Neutrinos: Sudbury Neutrino Observatory does the sun's bookkeeping

Origin of life: The live cat vs. the dead cat

Cosmology: Wow. It takes guts to wage war with Stephen Hawking ... he appeared in Star Trek

Origin of life: Latest scenario gives RNA world a boost

Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).

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