The great questions

[Crassus]

Why is right-handedness the dominant trait in humans instead of left-handedness?

Was it a matter of chance? Or was there there an evolutionary advantage to being right-handed? Anyone know if right-handedness is a dominant trait in animals with opposable thumbs (e.g. some monkeys)?

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Shadow Sandrock:
<STRONG>What was there before Newton discovered gravity?</STRONG>

Gravity.

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Crassus:
<STRONG>Why is right-handedness the dominant trait in humans instead of left-handedness?

Was it a matter of chance? Or was there there an evolutionary advantage to being right-handed? Anyone know if right-handedness is a dominant trait in animals with opposable thumbs (e.g. some monkeys)?</STRONG>

Handedness is a part of what is called "lateralization" in the human brain. This is indeed believed to have certain advantages in an evolutionary perspective. Among other things, it's believed to be connected to the development of abstract language in humans.

Other primates does not seem to be right handed in the sense as 90% of humans are. Instead, studies show they use different hands for different things. There a lot of research done in the area. Check out this essay if you are interested, it's a nice summary:
[url="http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant570/Papers/Schmidt.htm"]http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant570/Papers/Schmidt.htm[/url]

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Darkpoet:
<STRONG>So what you are saying is; there's oooooohhhhhhhhhhh and then there is OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH. </STRONG>

OOOooohhh, I see

[Nightmare]

Re on the universe: There was a Time magazine article a while ago that had the latest stuff about the universe.

According to the latest evidence, the universe is full of dark energy (different stuff than of what you, me, the earth, and stars are made up of). According to a pie graph chart in the magazine, this is the amount of matter in the universe (an estimate, of course):
Heavy elements- 0.03%
Neutrinos- 0.3%
Stars- 0.5%
Free hydrogen and helium- 4%
Dark matter- 30%
Dark energy- 65%

According to Einsteinian theory, the universe can take on one of three shapes:

A sphere (positive curvature): We are on the surface of a sphere. Travel far enough and you will return to your original starting point. A triangle will have more than 180 degrees. Without dark energy, it will slow down, stop, and recollapse; with it, expansion will continue.

Flat: You will never return to your starting point. Triangles have pricisely 180 degrees, like in school. Without dark energy, the universe will expand forever, more and more slowly. With it, expansion gets faster. This is the shape of the universe, according to recent observations.

Negative curvature: Travelers never return, triangles have less than 180 degrees. Expansion will barely slow, even without dark energy. Until recently, most evidence favoured this shape.

Whent the big bang happened, something "blew up" from something smaller than a atom in the size of a grapefruit in {10 to the exponent of -32} of a second. Helium, deuterium, and lithium are forged in the first 3 minutes of cosmic history.
Right now, we are about 14 billion years after the big bang. This era of the universe right now, one of young stars, life, and phenomenia, has last since when the universe was a million years old. It will last until 100 trillion years from now.
The next era will range from {10 to the exponent of 14} (100 trillion years) to {10 to the exponent of 45} (10 trillion trillion trillion) years after the big bang. The universe starts expanding exponentially. Planets will detach from stars, and stars will evaporate from galaxies. Almost all stars will die in this era. Over a great deal of time, protons them selves decay.
The next era will range from {10 to the exponent of 45} to {10 to the exponent of 100} years after the big bang. The only larger objects left are balck-holes. They eventually decay into photons and radiation.
The last era will range from {10 to the exponent of 100} years to infinity. Only photons, neutrinos,electrons, and positrons remain, wandering through a universe bigger than the mind a concieve. Electrons and positrons occationaly meet and form "atoms" larger then the visible universe is today. The universe forever remains a cold, dark, and dismal place.

Earth will remain habitable for the next 2-3 billion years, after that, the Sun's brightness and intessaty will have increased so much that the water will boil off the earth. Life cannot survive.
After 5 billion years from now, the Sun will become a red giant, expanding to the size of Venus's orbit. Earth will become completely molten rock. 700 million years later, the sun will fall back down into a white dwarf, no bigger than the earth. The gas giants of our solar system will be featureless blue-green spheres. The Sun will cool to 63 degrees Kelvin. the earth will be 1 degree Kelvin, a single degree above absolute zero.
Six billion years from now, the Andromeda Galxy will collide with the Milky Way, although it is likely no stars will collide (because of the immense amount of space inbetween stars). The new galaxy will now have a gravational pull that will make the white dwarf sun have an elliptical or random orbit in the football shaped galaxy.

Hope this answers a few questions, as it took me an hour to write. I know quite a bit about astronamy.

[Sailor Saturn]

Originally posted by Gaxx_Firkraag:
<STRONG>Earth will remain habitable for the next 2-3 billion years, after that, the Sun's brightness and intessaty will have increased so much that the water will boil off the earth. Life cannot survive.
After 5 billion years from now, the Sun will become a red giant, expanding to the size of Venus's orbit. Earth will become completely molten rock. 700 million years later, the sun will fall back down into a white dwarf, no bigger than the earth. The gas giants of our solar system will be featureless blue-green spheres. The Sun will cool to 63 degrees Kelvin. the earth will be 1 degree Kelvin, a single degree above absolute zero.
Six billion years from now, the Andromeda Galxy will collide with the Milky Way, although it is likely no stars will collide (because of the immense amount of space inbetween stars). The new galaxy will now have a gravational pull that will make the white dwarf sun have an elliptical or random orbit in the football shaped galaxy.</STRONG>

Last I heard, the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies would come within a few hundred million kilometers of each other, causing some destabalization in both galaxies due to gravitational fields.

IIRC what I've read, the Sun will, in a few billion years, either go nova or collapse into a White Dwarf, though the Earth would not know about either until at least 8 minutes later.

[Darkpoet]

Originally posted by C Elegans:
<STRONG>OOOooohhh, I see </STRONG>

Um, is it getting warm in here or is it me?

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Gaxx_Firkraag:
<STRONG>Hope this answers a few questions, as it took me an hour to write. I know quite a bit about astronamy.</STRONG>

Very nice work, Gaxx. It's very difficult to write about scientific stuff in a popular fashion, understandable to laymen.

As far as I can see, everything you've written is a correct description of current theories. A reservation though: I haven't studied astrophysics since my first year at university, so I'm not updated with the latest.

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Tom:
<STRONG>maybe you are right. we should expect to see high rates in places such as scotland and canada as well. i dont know if thats the case.</STRONG>

I don't have any reliable statistics handy, but suicide is indeed high in the Scandinavian countries, lower in Norway though than in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. In Sweden, suicide is more frequent in the North parts than in the south, supporting Grunt's idea.

Canada has a rather high suicide rate, Scotland I don't know. But there's a massive problem with comparing suicide rates, and that's the national differences in reporting.
In the US for instance, suicide in elderly has been shown to be underreported and is instead reported as death by natural casues. Also, for insurance reasons, suicide in general in underreported.

Events such as single car accidents, falls from heighs, drowning etc are difficult to assess. How this kind of events are reported varies widely from country to country. So, to test this hypothesis, we must first obtain a standardized measurement of suicide rate.

I'm quite sure equivalence methods exist, like only comparing deaths by the same causes etc, but I don't remember any specific such studies right now.

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Darkpoet:
<STRONG>Um, is it getting warm in here or is it me? </STRONG>

It's getting warm It's an effect of local decrease of entropy

[Rob-hin]

@ Gaxx_Firkraag

I enjoyed reading what you wrote, so I think it's time well spend!

About the earth and when it's not a place to live anymore, I don't know if what I'm about to write will happen sooner but I'll write it anyway.

I heard that because the universe is expanding, planets get further apart from one and another. This is also happening with the earth and the moon, the moon is getting 1,75 cm further from earth a year (tru, they calculated this with a mirror on the moon and a laser). If the moon breaks away from earth we will lose all seasons ect. and earth will be an impossible place to live.

But when this happents we (mankind) will probably be able to do something to keep the moon from drifting away from earth.

Just tought I'd share this interesting fact with y'all.

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Rob-hin:
<STRONG>I heard that because the universe is expanding, planets get further apart from one and another. This is also happening with the earth and the moon, the moon is getting 1,75 cm further from earth a year (tru, they calculated this with a mirror on the moon and a laser). If the moon breaks away from earth we will lose all seasons ect. and earth will be an impossible place to live.

</STRONG>

The moon and the earth is indeed moving away from each other. It's an effect of kinetic energy loss in earth-moon system. The friction caused by the tide, slows down the rotational speed of both the earth and the moon. Thus, the gravitational force between the two will decrease, and they will drift apart.

I'm not very good at explaining this stuff in English. Hope it's clear enough

If earth and moon separate, we will loose tidal effects. We will not loose seasons I think, since this depends on the angle of and the earth's orbit around the sun. However, since I would sorely miss the beautiful moon reflecting the sunlight at night, I suggest we catch a new moon if this one should leave us

Did the text you read explain why a loss of the moon would make earth inhabitable? I don't understand why that would be the result.

<STRONG>But when this happents we (mankind) will probably be able to do something to keep the moon from drifting away from earth.
</STRONG>

Or we will all be dead The average longevity for a species is about 20 million years.

[Sailor Saturn]

Originally posted by Rob-hin:
<STRONG>If the moon breaks away from earth we will lose all seasons ect. and earth will be an impossible place to live.</STRONG>

Actually, the seasons are caused by the combination of the tilt of the Earth's axis and the revolving of the Earth around the sun, resulting in different parts of the earth being closer one part of the year and farther another part of the year from the sun. If the moon broke away from the Earth, there would be effects from the gravitational changes, including a loss of tides and a change in atmospheric pressure, theoretically causing an increase in atmospheric pressure worldwide, though whether this would be a noticeable amount or not, I do not know. The seasons however, would not be lost due to the loss of the moon.

[Sailor Saturn]

Originally posted by C Elegans:
<STRONG>The moon and the earth is indeed moving away from each other. It's an effect of kinetic energy loss in earth-moon system. The friction caused by the tide, slows down the rotational speed of both the earth and the moon. Thus, the gravitational force between the two will decrease, and they will drift apart.</STRONG>

I do not recall what is causing the Moon to move away from the Earth, but I am positive that it has nothing to do with the roations of the Earth and Moon. It is because of their Gravitational fields that the two are adjusting in their rotational speeds so that eventually they will always show the same side to each other. Gravity is not the result of rotation, though this does seem to be a common misconception. The rotation of the Earth actually counters the Gravity of the Earth with centrifigal force which, without gravity, would throw us off the Earth. The idea of a rotation space station to provide "artificial gravity" is actually simulating gravity by using centrifigul force to pull us to the outer walls of the space station.

[Nightmare]

@Rob-hin: The universe is expanding in the sense that galaxies are speeding away from one another. And also, with CE and SS, the moon is distancing its self from earth from the gravational pull of the earth. If that happens, we will loose tides, but not seasons. The tilt of the earths axis relative to the sun is what causes seasons.

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Sailor Saturn:
<STRONG>I do not recall what is causing the Moon to move away from the Earth, but I am positive that it has nothing to do with the roations of the Earth and Moon.

</STRONG>

??? This is really basic physics. Are you familiar with Newton's 3rd law? Are you familiar with kinetic energy? The earth-moon gravital force cause tidal effects. The sea floor acts as an interface between earth and the ocean water that is affected by the gravity from the moon. (And sun, to some extent.) You get friction. The resistance transfers energy from earth to the ocean water. The earth spins slower, and the ocean water get warmer. The earth also transfers energy to the moon because of the torque that is exerted. This further causes the earth to spin slower, and the moon to increase its orbital speed.

Any basic text book in physics would explain this much better and more pedagogic than I can, so try the library if you don't believe me

<STRONG>
It is because of their Gravitational fields that the two are adjusting in their rotational speeds so that eventually they will always show the same side to each other.

</STRONG>

That's the predicted result of the process I described, yes.

[Gwalchmai]

Originally posted by C. Elegans:
<STRONG>We will not loose seasons I think, since this depends on the angle of and the earth's orbit around the sun.</STRONG>

Originally posted by Sailor Saturn:
<STRONG>Actually, the seasons are caused by the combination of the tilt of the Earth's axis and the revolving of the Earth around the sun, resulting in different parts of the earth being closer one part of the year and farther another part of the year from the sun.</STRONG>

Originally posted by Gaxx_Firkraag:
<STRONG>The tilt of the earths axis relative to the sun is what causes seasons.</STRONG>

Wait a minute. You mean the Earth is tilted? I thought it was flat!

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Gwalchmai:
<STRONG>Wait a minute. You mean the Earth is tilted? I thought it was flat!
</STRONG>

According to some fundamentalist christian organisations, the earth is indeed flat There are some passages in the bible that indicates this. And why not? After all, there's no proof that the earth is round. Have you seen, with our own eyes, that the earth is round? Has anybody seen with their own eyes that earth is round? No, nobody exept a handful of people who claim to have done so. But the moon landing could be a hoax, and the photos of earth from outside could be fakes. There are some well known anomalies on the NASA footage, shadows going in different direction and dust clouds that doesn't move.

It could all be a conspiracy. Think about it...it makes sense. The US was under heavy pressure since the USSR was ahead, the had put up the Sputnik and the first man in space outside earth. And the there was the murder of JFK. Vietnam was starting to heat up, and the fear of communism was great. What could be more efficient than faking a moon landing to show off the superiority of the US?

It's certainly possible You just have to be open minded and have the guts to question the so called authorities.

Remember, my real identity is Jimmy Hoffa, you know

[josh]

I've heard that the earth swaps the magnetic poles around periodically. This means that the north pole will become the south pole and vice versa. There will be a period where there will not be magnetic poles so we will lose our magnetic shield thus leaving us exposed to large amounts of cosmic radiation. I would like to know when this swapping of the poles will next occur?

[Sailor Saturn]

Originally posted by C Elegans:
<STRONG>??? This is really basic physics. Are you familiar with Newton's 3rd law? Are you familiar with kinetic energy? The earth-moon gravital force cause tidal effects. The sea floor acts as an interface between earth and the ocean water that is affected by the gravity from the moon. (And sun, to some extent.) You get friction. The resistance transfers energy from earth to the ocean water. The earth spins slower, and the ocean water get warmer. The earth also transfers energy to the moon because of the torque that is exerted. This further causes the earth to spin slower, and the moon to increase its orbital speed. </STRONG>

Aye, but I was refering to what you said about the slowing down of the Earth's rotation decreasing the Earth's gravity. As the moon increases its orbital speed, it gets closer and closer to escape velocity at which point the centrifigal force will win out and the moon will break free. The Earth's gravity will not have decreased. In fact, because this also results in the slowing of the Earth's rotation, the effect of gravity which we feel would increase because centrifigal force is decreasing.

If you have a ball on a string and you continue to spin it around you, gradually increasing speed, the ball would eventually reach a speed at which it would break the string because the ball is trying to travel straight, but the string is redirecting the ball around a circular orbit. The Earth's gravitational field causes a similar effect. The Moon tries to go straight, and if you look at Gravitational physics it technically is going in a straight line, but because of the curvature of space-time caused by the Earth's gravitational field, the moon orbits around the Earth, until it eventually reaches escape velocity at which point, baibai moon.