Myuncle

I suppose it's both: most passages to gene level are both natural and they happen by chance. I am not an expert about how the passage takes place. In any case if you have big muscles for examples, thanks to a healthy physical activity and not thanks to steroids, your kids have more chances to grow up with big muscles as well (but if you lose one leg, your kids are going to be born with both legs of course). I hope experts will chime in.

Do you mean if these mutations happen naturally? Yes absolutely, nature is the best inventor, nature invented wheels, wings, DNA, fire, electricity, and we just observed and learned how to use them to make life more comfortable or defend ourselves against rivals. Our DNA is not something stable at all, even within your lifetime your DNA will change slightly. Do mutations happen accidentally? Absolutely yes, think about kids, they will never be identical to their parents, they can be born with a longer neck, smaller nose, smaller heart, six fingers, six arms, two heads, this happens everyday, you can imagine all this in millions of years, everything started with bacteria, bacteria are our farthest ancestors. Who created bacteria or who created atoms? We don't know.

No matter how useless or irrational a theory is, as long as is accepted by the mainstream media, the students start believing that that theory is somehow true, and the brainwashing mechanism keeps going on and on and on.

Since every clock is affected by gravity or speed, you can't eliminate or compensate those causes. Any variation in atomic clocks has got nothing to do with time. You don't need an atomic clock on a satellite to see those effects, if you want stupidly confirm Relativity you just need to run an atomic clock on a table and raise the table by a foot. After a long observation, they found that the time on the raised clock was slightly ahead of the time on a second clock kept below. Which means that according to relativity, time is slowing down in our heads compared to our feet...I ask you this: does it make any sense?

So what? Still dodging the issue. Let's go back to Ionesco... "All cats die. Socrates is dead. Therefore Socrates is a cat". Clock is speeding up, therefore time is slowing down. Is it logic?

No matter which clock you are using, even an atomic clock will never be perfect. Time dilation is not real at all, since "time" exists only in our fantasy, but not in reality, deal with it. For centuries we have been taught a wrong definition of time. In science time is defined as "that which gets measured by a clock", it doesn't make sense at all (it would make sense only in a human social way of speaking, but not in a physics context). It would be more precise to define time as a human concept used to keep track of the atoms and subatomic particles movement in their sequence and progression.

Yes, that's what I remember, the common ancestor of the lemur was a squirrel-like or mouse-like creature. In fact if you look at the mice, their paws resemble so much our hands.

Watching the latest petman I can't stop thinking that we will see humanoid robots in our streets within 10 years, they will work for us and will do all the unpleasant jobs, poverty will be history. You just need to make one and you make them all, since they will build themselves.

Evolution is slower now, everything you see around you has been more or less influenced by men (sea, mountains, forests), there is not the same degree of competition like before, if there are too many rabbits we kill them. The passage from ape to man has been very slow, so slow that the first human being never existed, what existed was just a monkey with a bigger brain and especially a bigger muscle in the thumb, how did it happen? Thanks to a simple genetic modification. Every animal that you see is just a branch from the same tree, is the result of millions of years of accidental genetic mutations, some of them are positive and make you thrive, and some of them are negative (deseases that kill the species). Monkeys can't speak like us just because their larynx is not low enough, but if you train them they can speak very well through sign language. Check the documentary about Koko on youtube, is very interesting, you see the gorilla using sign language, it's quite funny the scene when the woman gives Koko a bottle to feed a doll, and Koko tells her that the bottle is empty... it's in 8 parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmuu8UEi2ko

I wouldn't worry too much about having one, we don't need it, especially now. Give me stem cells, give me humanoid robots, take me to a colonized Mars, but please don't give me any final theory .

I have no problems if you put it this way, but: 1) most relativists will argue that not just clock is speeding up, but time is slowing down for real, and time travel is even possible. 2) You are violating relativity at its core, you are just going back to Newton: clock is speeding up just because of gravity.

If It's just semantics, I would agree with you, but at the same time semantics here is very important. After so many years there is too much confusion over what Einstein means when he talks about time as a dimension and slowing down of the time. It looks like the Relativity supporters give a different interpretation, most of them say time is slowing down for real, some of them say the opposite, there is too much confusion, it sounds like a theory without coherence and clarity. If the clocks on a satellite are running faster because of gravity, and there is no slowing down of time then ask you: what's the big deal of relativity? We are going back to Newton then, and that would be better, because his theory is holding up very well even after centuries, and it doesn't give any space to misinterpretation. If the supporters themselves are so confused there must be a strong problem with relativity itself. In science time is defined as "that which gets measured by a clock", it doesn't make sense at all (it would make sense only in a human social way of speaking, but not in a physics context). It would be more precise to define time as a human concept used to keep track of the atoms and subatomic particles movement in their sequence and progression, that would solve a lot of complications. If all physics including relativity supporters would agree on this definition of time there wouldn't be any space for misinterpretation, nobody would disagree on semantics, and the anti-relativity threads would disappear. But in this case, if relativity is without a sensational fourth dimension, it wouldn' be trendy at all, and it would be ignored. It looks like, now, even four dimensions are not enough, it's not trendy enough and you are not going to sell any books with four dimensions, the more dimensions you add the "cooler" you become. That's why I would like to see some clarity, not about Einstein (he was a genius anyway just for the light bending discovery), but about Relativity.

Still not addressing my question. Anyway I wasn't expecting any clever answer, just the same old parroting of the lesson. So I just invite you to think with your head not with the head of someone else. Whether you reject my invitation or not it's another story, at least I tried, and my conscience is clear.

thanks, as I expected, no shred of proof or evidence from a standard theory at all. Clock is speeding up therefore time is slowing down. Let's go back to Ionesco... "All cats die. Socrates is dead. Therefore Socrates is a cat".

I gave my explanation on post #6, I copy and paste so you can't ignore it or pretend to ignore it: "When I say time doesn't exist, I mean only as a dimension, I have no doubt that time exists as human idea, it's a very useful one, just like all math is based on the idea that something can be identical to something, but in reality we have never found two things identical to each other. Both the idea of time and math are very useful for us humans, by agreeing on these concepts we make our lives much more comfortable. Time exists only in our mind but not in reality. "Time" it's just another convenient practical idea and convenient agreement (exactly like the concept that in math every "unity" is identical to another unity), but this is just in our mind, not in reality. Time is a measurement of movement and chemical change, is nothing more than a tool created by men to keep track of movements/changes, to describe the passing of events. Time is essentially nothing (apart from being a human idea). You cannot add, subtract, slow, or speed up time. That's why I see no substance in Relativity theory. Of course I have the maximum respect for Einstein, initially he made a brilliant discovery by proving the light bending effect during the eclipse. After this amazing discovery all the media hype for Einstein began, and the Relativity is a result of that media hype, we are still clapping our hands for a theory without substance. Regarding the clock on the satellite, the reason that happens is again not because of time but because gravity distorts the fabric of space. You would be right absolutely if you just mention gravity and keep the fabric of time away. If we see the stars in the sky 100 light years away from us, does it mean that time is running slower for these stars only because we can see only their 100 years old light? No. And, again, imatfaal, I am not putting the cart in front of the horse, I just want to be shown some substance from the theoretical physics." This is my clarification, no numbers, no useless equations are needed. I don't want the "burden" of proving time=clock to fall on you, it can be anyone to prove this of course. I ask again: how can you prove that time is slowing down for a satellite only because its clock it's running faster? I haven't dodged any question, I hope you (or anybody) don't feel like a fish out of water only because I didn't provide any useless equation. I am not good with math, if you ask me 6x8 I don't even remember, I need the calculator for that. But at least I made the effort to explain what time is. I am still waiting for any proof from anyone, feel free to dodge it, that's what happened for so many years after all, nothing new. I love science, but I am very disappointed by big part of theoretical phisycs and their brainwashing approach.

I didn't start this topic just to turn it into another "Relativity sucks" thread, it wasn't my goal. My intention was really to see some reactions and opinions about string theorists approach towards the recent neutrino experiment. I am not the one supposed to provide any proof, you should provide some proof and clarification since you are claiming that time does indeed slow down when you move faster. So how can you prove that time is slowing down for a satellite only because its clock it's running faster? You are defending the mainstream science (maybe because as a moderator that's what you have to do, I don't know), and you should provide some proof for that, and you didn't, not because you don't want, but because you can't.

Exactly, do whatever measurement you want but make clear if you seriously are confusing time with our clock, if you believe that time is a fourth dimension and can be slowed down, if you are confusing science fiction with science. That's all I am asking as a layperson. That's all.

I don't even think about it, I just don't care. I told you already I am not here to be your teacher. I am here to debate and learn, not to teach. Take it or leave it. It's up to you. So what? Does it mean that you can predict the movement of every atom? What's the point you are trying to make?

I don't know how atoms will move in our three dimension, most of them are unpredictable, so I can't know the next week lottery numbers. Why such a question anyway?

Ranting? Me? I don't see any ranting in my posts, just a polite debate. I tried to explain time throughout this thread in my own way, if it doesn't help, I can't do anything else for you.

I am a layperson, I am not your teacher nor a scientist and you will find so many books and people to explain the subject much better than me, but as a layperson I can encourage you not to be brainwashed by the media or professionals who play the "it's too difficult for you to understand" card, and they end up clapping their hands for a theory, without understanding even the most simple things. I agree with Newton's Three Laws of Motion. That doesn't mean I am a sucker for the relative motion, and of course I am not so gullible to believe that time is a dimension or can be slowed down only because you can measure it with a clock. Anyway no matter how good is your clock, it can be an hourglass or an atomic clock, it will never be perfect. You know you can measure a distance covered over a period of time with a clock. You can measure the distance with a ruler or an odometer, the speed with a speedometer, the velocity and direction witha vector. I just hope you are not going to answer me that since you can use the clock therefore time is a dimension and can be slowed down. You can measure gravity, is gravity a dimension?

It's not just fair, but it's evidence. Saying that time is slowing down for a satellite it's like saying that if we live longer with cell stems therapy then time is slowing down. Is like saying that if you put your food in the fridge time is slowing down because the rotting is slower. This just reminds the silly syllogism of a Ionesco’s play: "All cats die. Socrates is dead. Therefore Socrates is a cat".

You can quantify love with a formula, the problem is that too many people would struggle with it, too many people would disagree on this. It's easy to agree on a formula regarding time because it's based on atoms moving under the eyes of everyone: the spinning of our planet is easy to agree on. Love it's based on atoms moving inside our nervous system, and nobody can see them or quantify them, so it's impossible to agree on them.

thanks, you made my day I said clearly that time doesn't exist in reality and it's not a dimension at all, but it's just a useful human idea, you can draw the coordinate only because of the reality of motion. If you ask me any proof, then you should ask me to prove that "love" "God" "justice" are not a dimension. You can draw the coordinate of love if you want, does it make it real as a dimension?

If it works and it's not a hoax why the global economy is going to shit?