Earth Physics, DNA & Quantum Mechanics

Over the Easter, or Ēostre weekend I have often written about all those religious theological fallacies and rampant mistakes within Christendom that the ancient Greco-Roman Catholic Church covered up, changed, edited, omitted, etc., from the 1st-century CE Jewish reformer Yeshua bar Yosef and then passed down to 21st-century Protestant followers, churches, and seminaries. But this time I am going to skip all that. Why? Because verifiable, authentic history never changes. Why beat a dead horse into oblivion? Faith-followers will either be objective or not, equitable or not, brave and open-minded or not, or worse scared to death, or not. C’est la vie. 🤷‍♂️

No, today I want to write about things that really matter, pun intended. I want to share and comment on a few science subjects, in particular Earth’s physical status—another disruptive affect of Climate Change that is becoming disturbingly obvious—DNA sequencing discoveries, as well as recent atomic findings such as Quantum Entanglement.

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Have any of you noticed that the days on Earth are getting longer now? Yes, it is factually true. You might ask, How is that possible? Believe it or not, Climate Change or a warming planet is contributing to a slower rotation of Earth. Scientists say that this slower rotation has not been seen for at least 3.6-million years. Many decades ago, perhaps century ago, earlier research established an increasingly warming planet affects sea levels and consequently, Earth’s rotation on its axis. However, this change is in a geological context. Geodesist Professor Benedikt Soja of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, states:

One of Soja’s colleagues, Mostafa Kiani Shahvandi of the University of Vienna, explains that the effect is similar to a figure skater spinning more slowly after extending their arms. This is simple high school Physics 101. Ice sheets and glaciers across the planet are more dense and therefore heavier; a slower rotating Earth. However, a warm planet and much warmer seas are less dense, thinner, molecularly more active so less weight has less gravity which means a faster rotating Earth. Despite the simple physics though, what has been uncertain or never before seen was whether or not climate had ever lengthened the day this quickly before. To answer that puzzling question, the research team reconstructed changes in Earth’s day-length going back millions of years.

Relying on fossilized remains of benthic foraminifera, i.e. single-celled marine organisms that preserve chemical signals of past ocean conditions. This method of study, like polar ice-cores, has proven to be highly revealing of Earth’s climate history for many of her past millennia. First, by analyzing these fossils, scientists were able to infer ancient historical sea-level fluctuations and calculate how those shifts would have affected Earth’s rotation. Second, the researchers then applied a type of deep learning algorithm to their findings, designed to reflect sea-level change while accounting for the uncertainty that comes with ancient climate data.

These findings strongly suggest that Earth’s day-length has varied significantly over the last 2.6-million years, in particular during the Quaternary Period, when large continental ice sheets repeatedly grew and melted. Those ice-driven sea-level changes caused Earth’s rotation to speed up or slow down in different eras of Earth’s history.

However, that said, scientists have found that today’s increase in day length is exceptional. More specifically, they found only one period, around two million years ago, showed a rate of change that came close to present-day levels, and even that episode was slightly slower than what has been observed between 2000 and 2020. This only leads scientists to one most plausible conclusion: the current climate trend reflects a broader pattern of unusually rapid climate and oceanic change. And these scientists predict that by the end of the 21st-century accelerated climate-driven domino effects on our length of days could surpass the gravitational pull or slowing by our Moon. In other words, the further ripple-effects upon Earth will be catastrophic.

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Through the methodology of DNA Sequencing paleoanthropologists and geneticists have discovered that the last known remaining Neanderthals stayed totally isolated from other human groups, including Homo sapiens as well as Neanderthals nearby, which alters human history.

Researchers used part of a root of one of Thorin’s molars to determine that he was male and to generate a whole-genome sequence, revealing that he was part of an isolated, previously unknown lineage of Neanderthals. (Image credit: Ludovik Slimak)

Ludovic Slimak, the paleoanthropologist who made the remarkable discovery at Grotte Mandrin, a cave in Rhône Valley, France, had the jaw bone of Thorin analyzed by geneticists and then sequenced showed that Thorin’s lineage managed to stay totally isolated from the rest of the Neanderthal population, “in spite of the fact that other human groups lived close by.Slimak goes on to say:

With this discovery everything about the Neanderthals and their extinction, and by default human history must now be rewritten. Also, with this discovery it further proves that diversity among human populations is highly advantageous if not simply for better immune systems. And those groups of inclusive only religious populations—not marrying or procreating outside of a specific faith—is known to be highly risky and disadvantageous for retardations, weaker immune systems, and higher survivability rates.

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At the Australian National University Research School of Physics, tangibly observed for the first time a pair of atoms existing in two different places simultaneously, i.e. at the exact same time known as Quantum Entanglement. Quantum physicists at ANU said, “It’s really weird for us to think that this is how the universe works. You can read about it in a textbook, but it’s really weird to think that a particle can be in two places at once” when you see it with your own eyes on atomic instruments, says Dr. Sean Hodgman.

Dr. Hodgman goes on to say, “This result confirms the predictions of over a century ago that matter can be in two locations at once, and it can interfere with itself even in those locations.” This means massive, better knowledge of examining how small-scale Quantum Mechanics interact with gravity and General Relativity at the universal scale. This means physicists are one step closer to the “Theory of Everything.” It isn’t as unknown anymore.

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2025 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

Stay or Go?

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Nothing is so dangerous to the progress of the human mind than to assume that our views of science are ultimate, that there are no mysteries in nature, that our triumphs are complete and that there are no new worlds to conquer.
Humphry Davy

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My youth soccer head coach obviously didn’t want me to leave our U-17 team or the south Dallas league in which I had played the last eight seasons accumulating notoriety, awards, and trophies both for myself, him, and the team. But the fact remained:  in 1980 the OCSA paled compared to the NDCCCL of north Dallas-Plano. In south Dallas I was only a semi big fish in a small pond. I knew too well that if I were to have a chance to play at the highest levels possible, I had to travel over 20-miles there and back, 2-3 times a week and every weekend where the top flight players, teams, and coaches were competing; it had to be done.

If my parents and I had listened to many of the naysayers, I wouldn’t have achieved a sizable college soccer scholarship, been mentored and coached by two world-class former pro goalkeepers, started all four collegiate years, awarded MVP and All-Tournament Team in the 1982-83 NAIA National Championship tournament, awarded one NAIA Honorable Mention All-American (sophomore year), one NAIA second-team All-American (junior year), and two first-team All-American awards by the NSCAA and NAIA my final year, then I likely could not have gone on to a rewarding pro and semi-pro career the next 11-years on three foreign continents then back to the U.S., retiring in 1996.

I can gratefully and humbly say through firsthand experience that sometimes (many times?) the rewards are so worth the risks.

In the course of human endeavors of progress, better understanding, advancement, and evolving and promoting our species, we have reached another crossroads:  interplanetary exploration and colonization. Mars. Should we do it? Should we stay put or should we go?

Because of the upcoming 6-part National Geographic Channel  series Mars premiering Nov. 14, 2016, I stumbled into an intriguing discussion with a good friend of mine about colonizing the nearby distant planet. Though he is a big Star Trek fan and all for space exploration, my friend had some valid points. Here’s how the banter went:

Friend:
A crappy Earth with problems would be better than Mars, Moon Colonies, etc. The only viable solution is a nearby habitable planet very similar to Earth. If we had the technology to colonize & terraform, we certainly would be advanced enough to heal our own planet. There are too many things we are interdependent on to leave Earth behind just yet. Besides distance, even an Earth-like twin planet would have many hidden obstacles to colonization.

mars-by-the-numbersProfessor T:
Similar warnings were also given to Magellan, Dias, Drake, Vespucci, Pizarro, Erik-the-Red, Ulfsson, Herjólfsson, Zheng He, and several others. Why did they not listen? (wink)

Friend:
LOL! That’s nowhere close to being equitable. Not apples and oranges! Apples and iPhones! It’s not a warning, it’s simply thinking ahead. I am by no means well versed but I know enough that Space is even less hospitable than Mother Nature here on Earth. If you saw The Martian, read the book, then listen to the author as he explains in interviews what he had to extrapolate technology wise and fudge(!) just to make that story work.

Professor T:
Not really arguing your very valid points. But like the Serengeti wildebeests, gazelles, zebras, buffalos, etc, that annually cross the Grumeti River which they all know is FULL of hungry happy crocodiles and almost certain DEATH… yet they cross it, and many/most of those migrating animals cross multiple times in their lifetimes! Now explain to me why it is human nature and animal nature to constantly take risks, including paramount life-threatening risks!? (wink)

Friend:
You are definitely from the Berenstain Bears timeline.

Professor T:
Bwahaha! Are you implying that I enjoy children’s storybooks and such pleasure might reflect a similar intellectual capacity!!!!? Then if so, you’d be correct Sir. (wink)

Friend:
Ha, ha! No, it’s a “thing”. Google Berenstain/Berenstein Bears, Mandela phenomenon, etc. I’m just joking though.

Professor T:
By the way, as you know, I loved The Martian! Haven’t read the book yet, but the film was excellent!

Friend:
If you lived closer, I’d let you borrow my copy.

atmosphere-mars-facts

from NASA’s website http://mars.nasa.gov/

The history of human exploration is indeed littered with many failed expeditions, fatalities and disasters. Perhaps the more notable ones just on Earth were The Narváez Expedition (1527), Hudson-NW Passage Expedition (1610), The Reed-Donner Party (1846), The Franklin Expedition (1845), and the 1996 Mount Everest Party to name just five. Moving out from Earth we have the doomed space disasters of several Russian Soyuz flights, NASA’s Apollo 1 (1967) and near disasters of Apollo 13 (1970) and Gemini 8 (1966), the 2003 Colombia Space Shuttle, and of course the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle. Why haven’t we learned that stepping outside of our cozy, known (safe?) comfort zones could turn into a debacle or fatal tragedy? What is our malfunction? (laughing)

Is there really a need for further space exploration and interplanetary colonization at the risk of more deaths? Why or why not?

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Live Well — Love Much — Laugh Often — Learn Always

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