James Webb, Naomi, Spitzer discussed on The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
Where you're going. Good. I'll let you finish. Yes. Thank you, did the best job ever. We love them because the fuel that we needed to get to where we went was minimal and that means that we have over 20 years of fuel and that was the major limiter to our time frame. And now we just have to wait for one of those single point failures to fail and that's probably going to be it's going to happen before the fuel runs out. So yeah, we're looking at maybe hitting 20 years. That's fantastic. It was a 5 year mission. 5 and a half years, maybe ten, and now it's 20. Yeah. So Naomi, what's your biggest hope for the James Webb with regard to your research specifically? What is it that you think in ten years, you'll be looking back and go, this is what we discovered. Yeah, so my PhD was using the spitzer space telescope and that kind of asked the question why is as Uranus spins? Why is it changing in its brightness? Like what's happening? And we can't answer that question until we have James Webb. So my specific research will gain a whole paper about why it was changing when it was spinning, hopefully. And that's going to be a big deal. And then hopefully that kind of thing is going to ask more questions that can only be answered with these missions, hopefully, that are going to happen soon. And so in ten years time, I'm hoping that there'll be a mission on the way to Uranus and actually to answer those questions. Awesome. Well, Naomi was wonderful talking with you. We love talking about the scientists who are excited about their work. And we're all excited about James Webb. Maybe once you do get that next paper out, we'll have you back on the show to tell us what you found. Yeah, that would be great. This is a great fun. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Take care. It's time for science or fiction. Each week I come up with three science news items or facts to real in one face in the next challenge by panelist skeptics tell me which one is the fake. You guys remember the theme from last work, which one is bigger? I like that so much. I decided to similar themed this week, which one is older, which is older. Okay. Okay. Here we go. Yeah. Item number one. The first cities predate evidence for iron use by about 5000 years. Item number two, the first dinosaur walked the earth 40 million years before the emergence of the first true trees. And item number three, the first firearm was invented about 900 years after the first steam engine. Jago first. The first cities predate evidence for iron use by about 5000 years. I mean, can I ask you what your definition of a city is? That's a very good question because the experts that don't agree on what the definition of a city is, there's no very specific operational definition, and it actually is also a little bit depending on context, but the first generally agreed upon cities. We'll say. I mean, I could imagine that that is possible. I'm just thinking about early cities. I mean, iron, I wouldn't say as a requirement, but I don't know. I just feel like at that point in a civilization when they're manipulating iron. It helps. Anyway, you know, there's a lot to unpack there. Let me just move forward now. The first dinosaur walked the earth 40 million years before the emergence of the first true trees. What I do know is that sharks predate trees and there might be a dinosaur version of a shark. I love that stamp. Right? I mean, it's pretty providing a version of a shark. I would love therapy. You know, I would say it's a shark a sore. You know what I mean? They're basically dinosaurs right now. You know what I mean? Like they're that old. But yeah, so when you say dinosaurs, Steve, you're talking about the clade dinosaur, the evolutionary glade. Two blade. All right, so the only thing that saying something is a dinosaur would refer to probably gotcha. All right. That one does have a technical operational definition. That's why when I think about the creatures that we're living 40 million years before trees came around. I don't know if that was the time of the dinosaurs. So that's another one. That's one like, wow. At the really put a lot more a lot more time than I have right now, that a good last one here, the first firearm was invented about 900 years after the first steam engine. I think that one is science. Wait, 900 years? Yeah, you see? This is a good Steve. This is really, really good. I don't have a toehold anywhere on any of this. The first firearm was vented 900, almost a thousand years after the first steam engine. Wow, now I'm doing a complete reversal on that one. All right, I have to make up my mind. Yes, you do. I'm going to say that I think that the dinosaur one is the fiction because I of all the reading that I've done on dinosaurs. I don't think that they existed that long ago because trees are incredibly old. Okay, Evan. Okay, cities versus iron use, 5000 years, huh? Yeah, because I think Jay kind of hit on it. The definition of cities that can be kind of nebulous, so I think it could make a case in which that would be a span of time that would be 5000 years. The other two I'm having problems with both of them. Dinosaurs walking the earth 40 million years before the emergence of the first true trees, true trees, I think is, you know, what kind of you have to know there. What were there like Proto trees before true trees, something like that? So that gets very messy. And then the first dinosaur walked the earth, you know, so what crawled out of the muck and technically walked and it was 40 million years before the emergence of the trees, what the hell did they eat? I mean, if not each other. So that's the problem I'm having with that one. But I'm also having a problem with the first firearm invented about 900 years after the first theme engine. That sounds reversed to me. Wouldn't the first, when the first firearm? You define firearm. We think 900 years after the first steam engine. So what the steam engine, there was a steam engine in if the first firearm was in the 12th century or something like that, the first theme engine was, what, 300 for 400? Is that right? That can't be right either. Both two and three are fiction, both. But which one is more? I don't know. I guess I'll go with the firearm one is the fiction..