Winter is well and truly here in Australia.

[John King]

Scientific papers, actually guesses, go back about 10K yrs. So who has been recording for the last 50M years ?

Tree growth rings in both live and fossil trees and ice cores show Solar maxima and minima very clearly. Both have been extensively studied, and written about in reviewed sources. So have the climatic effects of vulcanism, both recent (Mount Pinatubo) and historic (Yellowstone, 630,000 years ago, and many others).

The only people who have never heard of any of this appear to be on the UNIPCC - a political body, not a scientific one ...

 

[TraamisVOS]

Scientific papers, actually guesses, go back about 10K yrs. So who has been recording for the last 50M years ?

I'm an ex-scientist myself, with a resume that includes previously unknown discoveries and published papers. Biomedical field to be specific, worked with diseases with no known cures.

The Big Bang Theory was extrapolated from current data and knowledge. It's safe to say that no humans existed at the time when the universe (as we know it) came into being.

These are indeed guesses, however they are educated guesses which are (most importantly) open to be debunked as we progress through further research and updated knowledge. But rest assured though, that scientists are not pulling numbers and figures out of thin air. A tiny majority do but they are eventually caught in a lie and exposed.

 

[John King]

I'm an ex-scientist myself, with a resume that includes previously unknown discoveries and published papers. Biomedical field to be specific, worked with diseases with no known cures.

The Big Bang Theory was extrapolated from current data and knowledge. It's safe to say that no humans existed at the time when the universe (as we know it) came into being.

These are indeed guesses, however they are educated guesses which are (most importantly) open to be debunked as we progress through further research and updated knowledge. But rest assured though, that scientists are not pulling numbers and figures out of thin air. A tiny majority do but they are eventually caught in a lie and exposed.

Prof Brian Cox is starting to doubt the big bang theory (along with others). That's a start.

I agree that science is eventually self correcting, but it took a hundred years or so for the phlogiston theory of combustion to die, and about 50 years for geologists and others to accept continental drift (renamed 'plate tectonics', to save face ... ).

Fascinating subject epistemology ...

 

[TraamisVOS]

...it took a hundred years or so for the phlogiston theory of combustion to die, and about 50 years for geologists and others to accept continental drift (renamed 'plate tectonics', to save face ... ).

Par for course in scientific development and progress when it comes to technology and knowledge. Some things take time. The key point is - incorrect science will eventually be replaced by less incorrect science until we reach a point where the ultimate truth (ultimately correct science) prevails. Modern science is also better equipped to react in a more expedient timeframe than during the early days of scientific endeavour which were clouded by other irrelevant things such as superstition or religion.

There are some exceptions to this, however it is really more of a reflection of where we are in our current knowledge and our ability/capacity to understand as a human race. See for example, Harvard Professor Avi Loeb's contemporary propositions for which he has garnered significant pushback from the scientific community in which he belongs.

Once upon a time, humans could never have imagined that we can build machines that will allow us to fly, much less build a machine weighing several hundred tons that can carry several hundred people that can fly across the world in the blink of an eye.

The same people could never have believed that it would take far less than a mere 66 years between the time the Wright Brothers demonstrated the first manned flight, to the time the first humans stood on the surface of the moon.

Science and its methods are the best thing we currently have, as opposed to non-scientific systems of belief, where going against the grain means (to this day) serious persecution or death.

 

[TraamisVOS]

Prof Brian Cox is starting to doubt the big bang theory (along with others).

That's completely fine. Anyone is invited to doubt any current scientific theory, as long as they bring scientific receipts and not a ouji board.

 

[bdbits]

This is quickly veering (has veered?) off into politics and religion. Just sayin' for this forum at least, we might want to head back to photography.

 

[TraamisVOS]

This is quickly veering (has veered?) off into politics and religion.

No it hasn't. The discussion is about the robust legitimacy of science and scientific method.