I believe there were some cases in southern California in the 80's. I seem to remember it affected some migrant farm workers who were camping out in coastal estuaries.
I just can't wrap my mind around stuff like this: Quasar 'clocks' show the universe was five times slower soon after the Big Bang. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-quasar-clocks-universe-slower-big.html
I guess that makes "sense." The oldest/farthest quasars recede at like one-third C, which slows time in the relative sense. But most cosmological distance/time scales have around a 40% margin for error, I think. They've alternately pegged the age of the universe from ~14 billion to ~24 and then back. And they go back and forth as to whether the universe will expand forever or eventually contract. Things get hinky when you chain those estimations together, stacking margins for error. I'm not sure how the math works there, but eventually they add up to 100%. But in a cosmological sense, once you hit 300% margin for error, it inverts to an absolute certainty.
So scientists now officially know that time appears to speed up with aging. I figured that out when I turned forty, then went from forty to sixty-eight in 5.3 seconds, nevermind what the calendar said. Quasars, schmazars.
I knew it when I was a teenager, looking back at when I was a kid and ten minutes of sitting still (in your best Sunday clothes) felt like literally three hours. A day seemed to last about a year when I was a tyke. Now they pass like minutes. Oh damn, it's Tuesday again? Already? Wasn't it Tuesday like the day before yesterday? It's entertaining to watch science slowly come around to things we've always known are true and then tout them as something revolutionary and exciting.
Sitting in a classroom five minutes before school let out, and watching the second hand. The second hand that took hours to tick. Now the calander moves like the second hand is supposed to. That is the true relativity.
I've been thinking lately about those lazy, hazy summers of our childhood. Do you remember how long they seemed? Outdoors all day until the lights came on. Now time surely flies. When you're ten, one year is equal to 10% of your lifetime, but at the age of 50, it's about 2% of your recallable life. And something else I've read, is that time moves more slowly for kids because they are learning more. So to slow down time, treat yourself to new and novel experiences. And: Why Time Goes By Faster As We Age
One thing that happens is as we get older we learn to be patient. I think it's partly the unmitigated exuberence and excitement of youth, but also the brain is far from complete yet, and some of the important brain structures have yet to develop. That surely makes a huge difference. At 3 you've only got about half a brain, and the last parts that grow in are the neocortex and the rest of the parts required for full intellectual development (the "smart parts"). Plus there are major differences in hormones at various stages of life, health, and on and on.
That's actually very different from what I wrote. They're talking only about neural networks, as if the brain is complete, but just smaller. I'm saying many brain systems actually haven't finished growing in yet. Not only is the brain small, but it's incomplete. And not only that, but the conscious mind is very larval in youth, only appearing in small sporadic bits amd pieces. We live mostly unconsciously as children. As we get older those bits and pieces grow and begin to join together and eventually we have a fully functioning conscious mind through which we can process just about everything. The conscious mind functions very differently from the unconscious. The conscious mind is extremely time-aware and anxious, whereas the unconscious is unaware of clock or calendar time and lives entirely '"in the present moment".
The brain is a mysterious thing. We've made some headway, scientifically, understanding its function, but much remains unknown. I tend to subscribe to the theory that we are born with our brain fully intact but connections between neurons incomplete. Those connections are made in response to stimuli we experience as we grow. So it's not new regions that form, but rather connections between regions that develop as they are stimulated. Whether this make us more "conscious" I cannot tell. That would require a definition of consciousness/unconsciousness that is open to too much interpretation. The brain is an organ that develops in response to stimuli. This involves making connections between existing neurons. Very little neurogenesis goes on.
Wasn't sure whether to put this article in the art thread or the science thread, but seeing as how it was written by an astrophysicist and is more about science than art, I put it here. It's a little bit of science about how the pigments and materials used by artists begin as elements made in stars, and make their way "from the palette of the universe to the palette of an artist." Some of Earth’s Most Famous Art Started with Stardust Astrophysics reminds us that earthly beauty has stellar origins
Basically, hydrogen is the only element not produced in stars and supernovae - so just about everything is made of 'stardust'.
Yup, literally everything besides hydrogen, which is like 89% of all matter, I think. And anything heavier than carbon from supernovae. The "carbon flash" is the star's death knell. Once that starts fusing, run! I think a star only produces carbon for a matter of hours before it goes ka-boom, but I could be wrong. And those are the type II supernovae, but I could be wrong about that too.
You are not taking into account the size of the star. A carbon flash only occurs in stars of 1-6 solar masses explosively. Larger stars, it is non-explosive, because the core is not degenerative.
Is culture the ability to learn from others? Then, by this definition, animals definitely have culture, especially those living in social groups. Yes, Animals Create Culture and Pass It Along for Survival
Sweden has one of the highest recycling rates in the world. 99.5% of household waste is diverted from sanitary landfills and recycled in one way or another. Why Does Sweden Import Waste from Other Countries?
If you haven't read On the Origin of Species I recommend it. It sound that like me you will find a lot of it familiar. Very influential work indeed. I have been contemplating questions like this through a stronger lens. My writing has recently been influenced by my contemplating the Origin of Human Civilization, and its relation to Corvid and Orca culture.
Are you going to see the movie Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy in the lead role? J. Robert Oppenheimer reluctantly took the lead on the Manhattan project to develop the atom bomb. He was a complicated, troubled individual who, although he felt he had blood on his hands, thought it necessary to defeat fascism to preserve Western civilization.
Alternatively, you could read American Prometheus - the book on which the film is based. Also, on the BBC i-player (not sure if everyone can get it) - the documentary The Trials of Oppenheimer and the biopic Oppenheimer in six episodes no less. To ramp up the intrigue, it seemed that 'blood on his hands' was the least of his troubles!
My dad credited The Bomb with saving his life. He was in the Philippines training for the invasion of Japan when it dropped. I have a different attitude and we rarely discussed it. He spent the last twenty years of his career in the construction of nuclear power plants.
My father also was preparing for the invasion of Japan and agreed with your father. Instead he served in the occupation forces and was originally stationed at Nagasaki less than five months after the bomb was dropped there. He eventually died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma which took out a lot of people who were exposed to radiation.
