Related papers: The Astronomy and Science Behind the Myth
I will report below on a few examples of raving and insane (or maybe utterly genial) sentences that can be found in famous and otherwise admirable books of physics, because I genuinely believe it is amusing.
Studies in Australian Indigenous astronomical knowledge reveal few accounts of the visible planets in the sky. However, what information we do have tells us that Aboriginal people were close observers of planets and their motions, noting…
Cosmology has come a long way from being based on a small number of observations to being a data-driven precision science. We discuss the questions "What is observable?", "What in the Universe is knowable?" and "What are the fundamental…
Infrastructures are not inherently durable or fragile, yet all are fragile over the long term. Durability requires care and maintenance of individual components and the links between them. Astronomy is an ideal domain in which to study…
This paper explores the evolution of the so called "anthropic reasoning" in a historical perspective. It takes under scrutiny the appearance of "anthropic" considerations in various stages of modern cosmology, focusing also on some very…
Our history of understanding galaxy formation could be traced through the development of individual ideas. A cynic might be tempted to suggest that new catchphrases are developed at a faster rate than genuine progress is made.
In view of the sobering findings of science, theology and to a lesser degree metaphysics is confronted with a humiliating loss, and a need for reinterpretation, of allegories and narratives which have served as guidance to the perplexed for…
In nature there are various pairs of observed phenomena and observing scientific techniques which are elegantly coupled with each other. A very general and well known example is the fact that the metal we use to build telescopes were once…
Examples are presented for appearance of geometric symmetry in the shape of various astronomical objects and phenomena. Usage of these symmetries in astrophysical and extragalactic research is also discussed.
We argue that there was a link between Indus Valley India and the Mayans of Central America which is brought out by astronomical references. The former used a Jovian calendar while the latter had perfected a calendar based on Venus. This…
The standard LambdaCDM cosmology passes demanding tests that establish it as a good approximation to reality. It is incomplete, with open questions and anomalies, but the same is true of all our physical theories. The anomalies in the…
Galaxy morphology is a product of how galaxies formed, how they interacted with their environment, how they were influenced by internal perturbations, AGN, and dark matter, and of their varied star formation histories. This article reviews…
There has been a long standing debate about the existence of maya constellations, but there are several sources of evidences that favour this hypothesis: mural paintings, stelae and codex. In this work, we have recovered and compiled…
The evidence for the dark matter of the hot big bang cosmology is about as good as it gets in natural science. The exploration of its nature is now led by direct and indirect detection experiments, to be complemented by advances in the full…
I shall discuss the history of Indian astronomy, Aurveda (life science), chemistry and metallurgy to illustrate how downgrading experiments from scientific learning lead to the decline of ancient Indian science and civilization. We shall…
Laboratory experiments can shed light on theories of new physics introduced in order to explain cosmological mysteries, including the nature of dark energy and dark matter. In this article I will focus on one particular example of this, the…
Different mechanisms which may possibly explain existence of magnetic fields on astronomically large scales are described. A recently suggested model of magnetic fields generation slightly before hydrogen recombination is discussed in more…
In this note, while giving an overview of the state of art of the well known Hadamard conjecture, which is more than a century old and now it has been established by using the methods given in the two papers by Mohan et al [6,7].
In the distant past, astronomy was often intertwined with religion into a unified cosmos. As science became a distinct cultural enterprise, astronomy has witnessed a variety of rich interactions with other fields. Mathematical statistics…
From an anthropological point of view, the whole concept of a "path of progress" in astronomical discovery is anathema, since it implicitly downgrades other cultural perspectives, such as the many "indigenous cosmologies" that still exist…