Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

You are totally not paying attention. Apollo 13 is an example that science is not all-good to absolute precision the way you said. Science can go wrong. Bad science exists and it's necessary to distinguish it from the good. This is a necessary distinction. Moreover, science itself cannot make this distinction. Philosophy can.

Can anything cease to exist simply because nobody's watching?

Hey! probably! Can you remember a user on MyOpera named "payitfwrd" on something like that? He participated in D&D and even had an off-site email -- then he disappeared along with ALL his posts made in the Forums. Remember?

Why are all new towels waterproofed and with what and how do I get rid of it?

Why are all new towels waterproofed and with what and how do I get rid of it?

It was a question I intended to post in the  Silly Question thread and was not intended to be taken seriously.
I must have been half asleep to have posted it here.
Sorry about that.

To observe is a tricky term actually. Sometimes we could think we observe something, which something could actually happen to either not be or be something else.
Science usually resorts to measuring and experiment -- to back up initial observations.

Quote from: Josh on 2014-04-08, 15:51:23

To observe is a tricky term actually. Sometimes we could think we observe something, which something could actually happen to either not be or be something else.
Science usually resorts to measuring and experiment -- to back up initial observations.

Measuring in experiments ain't what it used to be in science.  Quantum physics has turned that 'Arse'n'Sauce' on it's head!! 

Imagine a quasar — a very luminous and very remote young galaxy. Now imagine that there are two other large galaxies between Earth and the quasar. The gravity from massive objects like galaxies can bend light, just as conventional glass lenses do. In this experiment the two huge galaxies substitute for the pair of slits in the famous two slit experiment; the quasar is the light source. Just as in the two-slit experiment, light — photons — from the quasar can follow two different paths, past one galaxy or the other.

Suppose that on Earth, some astronomers decide to observe the quasar. In this case a telescope plays the role of the photon detector in the two-slit experiment. If the astronomers point a telescope in the direction of one of the two intervening galaxies, they will see photons from the quasar that were deflected by that galaxy; they would get the same result by looking at the other galaxy. But the astronomers could also mimic the second part of the two-slit experiment. By carefully arranging mirrors, they could make photons arriving from the routes around both galaxies strike a piece of photographic film simultaneously. Alternating light and dark bands would appear on the film, identical to the pattern found when photons passed through the two slits, which showed that light can act as both particles and as a wave depending on whether the photons were being detected (watched). 

Here's the odd part. The quasar could be very distant from Earth, with light so faint that its photons hit the piece of film only one at a time. But the results of the experiment wouldn't change. The striped pattern would still show up, meaning that a lone photon not observed by the telescope traveled both paths toward Earth, even if those paths were separated by many light-years. And that's not all.

By the time the astronomers decide which measurement to make — whether to pin down the photon to one definite route or to have it follow both paths simultaneously — the photon could have already journeyed for billions of years, long before life appeared on Earth. The measurements made now determine the photon's past. In one case the astronomers create a past in which a photon took both possible routes from the quasar to Earth. Alternatively, they retroactively force the photon onto one straight trail toward their detector, even though the photon began its jaunt long before any detectors existed. 

In 1984 physicists at the University of Maryland set up a tabletop version of the above delayed-choice scenario. Using a light source and an arrangement of mirrors to provide a number of possible photon routes, the physicists were able to show that the paths the photons took were not fixed until the physicists made their measurements, even though those measurements were made after the photons had already left the light source and begun their circuit through the course of mirrors.

The conjecture is, we are part of a universe that is a work in progress; we are tiny patches of the universe looking at itself — and building itself. It's not only the future that is still undetermined but the past as well. And by peering back into time, even all the way back to the Big Bang, our present observations select one out of many possible quantum histories for the universe. 

Does this mean humans are necessary to the existence of the universe?

The entire universe is filled with events where the possible outcomes of countless interactions become real, where the infinite variety inherent in quantum mechanics manifests as a physical cosmos. And we see only a tiny portion of that cosmos. It is suspected that most of the universe consists of huge clouds of uncertainty that have not yet interacted either with a conscious observer or even with some lump of inanimate matter that could record its activities.  The universe could be a vast arena containing realms where the past is not yet fixed. (This last part is not even a theory yet in physics because quantum theory is not yet complete—it is simply food for thought.)  

The source of most of the above? Why? Because credit should be given.

Acknowledge the source of the information, image or data you use in a post and provide a link to the source if available. Do not copy and paste whole articles.