Practical Cosmology: Examples of How it Helps Our Ventures

[narrator]

Not sure if this is OT for the cosmology forum.. pls move if so.

I'm wondering about examples of where cosmology science has helped in a practical way. Not being facetious.. genuinely curious (and I think knowledge for knowledge sake is almost always a good thing).

Cosmology has helped with our space travel ventures. Transpolar flights know to be guarded against solar radiation. And we know the effects that solar radiation has on electrical/electronic devices, weather and to some extent geological activity. We also know that solar radiation plays a part in evolution and genetics.

Physics on the other hand can be credited with many inventions and refinements.

In what other ways has cosmology had a practical outcome?

 

[Vanadium 50]

I don't think anything in the second paragraph is an outcome of cosmology.

 

[cepheid]

I agree with Vanadium 50. The things you have cited, narrator, can reasonably be claimed as benefits from astronomy, since that is a more general and encompassing term. But none of them stemmed from the study of cosmology in particular. I supposed it could be argued that the industry of CMB observations has led to advances in cryogenics and millimetre and submillimetre-wavelength detector technologies. But those are about the only things I can think of. The reality is that the study of cosmology has very little tangible impact on the day-to-day life of the average person.

 

[zhermes]

Cosmology has helped with our space travel ventures. Transpolar flights know to be guarded against solar radiation. And we know the effects that solar radiation has on electrical/electronic devices, weather and to some extent geological activity. We also know that solar radiation plays a part in evolution and genetics.

Hi narrator, I think you're confused about what 'cosmology' is specifically. "Cosmology" is generally a subset of astrophysics which describes the large-scale structure and evolution of the universe. This can be anything from soon after the very beginning of the universe, to the formation of the first stars, to the formation of galaxies and galaxy clusters etc.

Cosmology can also refer to a subset of theoretical physics, when applied to the very beginning of the universe itself: inflation, the creation of particles/matter, and dark matter/energy.

It sounds like you're referring more to 'astrophysics' in general (actually, it sounds like you're referring to another subset of 'astrophysics' generally referred to as 'space physics' which deals specifically with things like Earth's particular local environment, the solar system, etc.)

Wikipedia is always a good place to start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmology"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysics"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_physics"