RockOn #1

You get some stuff, and start taking it apart. But, you are restricted to the use of "ordinary" means (fire, sunlight, your digestive system) and you cannot use atom smashers or atom bombs. What is the smallest piece that you are likely to be able to produce:

An atom

Which of the following is NOT a job that geology graduates commonly get hired for:

Cloning new biological organisms for use in international terrorism.

Your job depends on you finding the best available information on a particular technical topic. Where should you concentrate your search if you want to do it right and keep your job?

Find and study refereed scientific articles in learned journals.

You find two neutral atoms. Each has 8 protons in its nucleus, but one has 7 neutrons, and the other has 8 neutrons. It is correct to state that:

The two atoms are from the same element, but are different isotopes of that element.

Scientists receive government funding primarily because:

They help humans do useful things.

When scientists agree that a particular scientific theory is a good one, and the scientists use that theory to help make new things, cure diseases, etc., that "agreement" came about because:

A number of different experiments by different people all had outcomes that were well-predicted by the theory.

Humans (and our crops and pets and farm animals) now use:

Almost half of the things the planet makes available and that we like to use.

The peer review process, in which scientists submit write-ups of their ideas and experiments to a set of colleagues who judge how good the ideas are before the ideas can be published, is:

A useful and important, even if imperfect, mechanism of quality-control for the scientific literature.

The law that established the National Parks gave them a hard job, because it required that they:

Help people enjoy the parks today, but also save the parks for the future.

A scientist gains knowledge about how the world works, and uses that information to successfully predict what will happen in an experiment. This proves that the scientist's knowledge is:

One or more of True, lucky, or close to being true (or cheating), but we can't tell which.

Ignoring good manners, you start rooting around in the nucleus of a poor, unsuspecting atom, to see what is in there. What are you most likely to find?

Protons, usually with some neutrons hanging around among the protons.

The Earth has a fascinating history, which this class has just begun to explore. Which is more nearly correct, according to the scientific interpretation presented in the text?

The Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago, well after the Big Bang, as materials made in stars fell together to form the planet.

The great scientist Alfred Wegener proposed that continents have moved, while other scientists such as T.C. Chamberlin argued against Wegener. Wegener's ideas eventually won, and are now widely accepted, because:

Wegener's ideas did a better job of predicting the results of new observations and experiments.