News happens faster thatn any one organization can keep up with it, this post is my attempt to take a look at how science news has been reported by ordinary people around the world.
The blogosphere (sweet Jesus that word makes me want to claw my eyes out with a hammer) is a big place, this fact is really driven home if you search technorati for all posts containing the word science. Originally this post was going to be a list of links to notable blog posts about science from the past week, but when Technorati turned up over 25 pages of posts about science for the last 24 hours alone, I decided that I would limit myself to that!
I'll start with this very nice post on monzy.com, which details some of the adventures that Google engineers have on 'science friday'. It seems very similar to the Sunday afternoon science stuff I have on this very blog so gets a thumbs up from me.
Darwiniana has posted text written by note futurist Ray Kurzweil. It starts
and only gets more exciting from there!
One of the staple physics undergrad though experiments is Maxwell's Demon. 150 years after being proposed by Maxwell it has been realized by a team at Edinburgh, reports Wired
A post on the LVC forums (a site for luxury vehicles, I have no idea what this post is doing there) discusses the dangers of politicized science with a compelling argument about eugenics.
Slashgear discuss a popular science article on how recent technological innovations may affect our privacy. Welcome to 1984+23.
Don Dodge discusses the recent disappearance of computer scientist Jim Gray at sea, and a distributed computing attempt to find him by harnessing the power of the internet.
Why can't this ever happen to me? Child of Illusion talks about the bribing of scientists by oil companies. As a note for any nefarious astrophysicists out there, I'll gladly sell out and say whatever you want for, say, £10 and a packet of crisps.
The blogosphere (sweet Jesus that word makes me want to claw my eyes out with a hammer) is a big place, this fact is really driven home if you search technorati for all posts containing the word science. Originally this post was going to be a list of links to notable blog posts about science from the past week, but when Technorati turned up over 25 pages of posts about science for the last 24 hours alone, I decided that I would limit myself to that!
I'll start with this very nice post on monzy.com, which details some of the adventures that Google engineers have on 'science friday'. It seems very similar to the Sunday afternoon science stuff I have on this very blog so gets a thumbs up from me.
Darwiniana has posted text written by note futurist Ray Kurzweil. It starts
Consider that the price-performance of computation has grown at a super-exponential rate for over a century. The doubling time (of computes per dollar) was three years in 1900 and two years in the middle of the 20th century; and price-performance is now doubling each year. This progression has been remarkably smooth and predictable through five paradigms of computing substrate: electromechanical calculators, relay-based computers, vacuum tubes, transistors, and now several decades of Moore’s Law (which is based on shrinking the size of key features on a flat integrated circuit). The sixth paradigm–three-dimensional molecular computing–is already beginning to work and is waiting in the wings. We see similar smooth exponential progressions in every other aspect of information technology, a phenomenon I call the law of accelerating returns.
Where is all this headed?and only gets more exciting from there!
One of the staple physics undergrad though experiments is Maxwell's Demon. 150 years after being proposed by Maxwell it has been realized by a team at Edinburgh, reports Wired
A post on the LVC forums (a site for luxury vehicles, I have no idea what this post is doing there) discusses the dangers of politicized science with a compelling argument about eugenics.
Slashgear discuss a popular science article on how recent technological innovations may affect our privacy. Welcome to 1984+23.
Don Dodge discusses the recent disappearance of computer scientist Jim Gray at sea, and a distributed computing attempt to find him by harnessing the power of the internet.
Why can't this ever happen to me? Child of Illusion talks about the bribing of scientists by oil companies. As a note for any nefarious astrophysicists out there, I'll gladly sell out and say whatever you want for, say, £10 and a packet of crisps.
The future will be a turbulent place, just make sure you are prepared:
The Ultimate Home Defence Guide (pdf)
The Ultimate Home Defence Guide (pdf)
Labels: science
This is possibly the best scientology quote I have ever read (taken from this page)
I just tried to run through and highlight some of the funniest parts but the whole thing is pretty much awesome. Also bear in mind that L Ron Hubbard claimed to have a degree in nuclear physics.
By the end of that passage my face looked a little like this
One day I really want to join a 'religion' where I can just say Hey man! That's far too hard for me to grasp and if I don't understand it must be some sort of conspiracy. Seriously! who really gets all those dy and dx thingies anyway? And don't even get me started on those summation signs. Oh man the integral calculus reaLLY GETS ME MAD.
late edit: I hope zombie-Newton escapes from his grave and destroys Tom Cruise in retaliation for this
"Rate of change is this mathematics known as Calculus. Calculus, it's a very interesting thing, is divided into two classes -- there's Differential Calculus and Integral Calculus. The Differential Calculus is in the first part of the textbook on Calculus, and Integral Calculus is in the second part of the textbook on Calculus. As you look through the book, you'll find in the early part of the book on Calculus, "dx" over "dy", a little "dx", and a little "dy" -- and one's above the other on a line -- predominates in the front part of the book, but as you get to the end of the book you find these "dx" and "dy"s preceded by a summation sign, or are equating to a summation sign, and the presence of this shows that we are in the field of Integral Calculus.
Now I hope you understand this, because I've never been able to make head nor tail of it. It must be some sort of a Black Magic operation, started out by the Luce cult -- some immoral people who are operating up in New York City, Rockefeller Plaza -- been thoroughly condemned by the whole society. Anyway, their rate-of-change theory -- I've never seen any use for that mathematics, by the way -- I love that mathematics, because it -- I asked an engineer, one time, who was in his 6th year of engineering, if he'd ever used Calculus, and he told me yeah, once, once I did, he said. When did you use it? And he said I used it once. Let me see, what did you use it on? Oh yeah. Something on the rate-of-change of steam particles in boilers. And then we went out and tested it and found the answer was wrong.I just tried to run through and highlight some of the funniest parts but the whole thing is pretty much awesome. Also bear in mind that L Ron Hubbard claimed to have a degree in nuclear physics.
By the end of that passage my face looked a little like this
One day I really want to join a 'religion' where I can just say Hey man! That's far too hard for me to grasp and if I don't understand it must be some sort of conspiracy. Seriously! who really gets all those dy and dx thingies anyway? And don't even get me started on those summation signs. Oh man the integral calculus reaLLY GETS ME MAD.
late edit: I hope zombie-Newton escapes from his grave and destroys Tom Cruise in retaliation for this
A little tinfoil boat floats on sulphur hexafluoride, a gas that is significantly more dense than air. I especially like it when they sink the boat with cups of gas.
p.s. you can see other interesting science videos from the blog here
p.s. you can see other interesting science videos from the blog here
Labels: science, sciencevideo, youtube
I like non-newtonian fluids, they're pretty cool things.
To understand what a non newtonian fluid is consider water. At a given temperature the thickness, or resistance to flow (viscosity), of the water is always the same. The same is true for most other everyday fluids. Water is therefore defined as a newtonian fluid
A non-newtonian fluid has a viscosity that depends on the amount of shear force it is experiencing. Think, for example, of silly putty or a mixture of water and cornstarch. If you hit a water-cornstarch mixture it feels solid, but the second you stop stressing it, it flows like olive oil. An incredibly weird feeling.
I remember when I was little getting lots of enjoyment out of making little balls of cornstarch solution then hurling them at the wall so they bounce right off then catching them and watching the solid bouncy ball turn quickly turn into a puddle of liquid. (if you have never messed around with cornstarch, go and do it. Seriously)
This is an awesome demonstration of the non-newtonian propeties of a cornstarch and water mix.
It gets extra spectacular at the end when one guy is swimming around in the water and the other is standing on the surface
edit: Also looks like the status of my visit to Australia has been changed from definite to probable. Why can't I get a firm answer about anything at the moment!
To understand what a non newtonian fluid is consider water. At a given temperature the thickness, or resistance to flow (viscosity), of the water is always the same. The same is true for most other everyday fluids. Water is therefore defined as a newtonian fluid
A non-newtonian fluid has a viscosity that depends on the amount of shear force it is experiencing. Think, for example, of silly putty or a mixture of water and cornstarch. If you hit a water-cornstarch mixture it feels solid, but the second you stop stressing it, it flows like olive oil. An incredibly weird feeling.
I remember when I was little getting lots of enjoyment out of making little balls of cornstarch solution then hurling them at the wall so they bounce right off then catching them and watching the solid bouncy ball turn quickly turn into a puddle of liquid. (if you have never messed around with cornstarch, go and do it. Seriously)
This is an awesome demonstration of the non-newtonian propeties of a cornstarch and water mix.
It gets extra spectacular at the end when one guy is swimming around in the water and the other is standing on the surface
edit: Also looks like the status of my visit to Australia has been changed from definite to probable. Why can't I get a firm answer about anything at the moment!
Labels: science, sciencevideo, youtube
This is an absolutely beautiful demonstration of resonance:
The big thing in the middle is a metal plate covered in some white powder. The metal plate is vibrated at different frequencies and intricate patterns of standing waves are observed.
It really is quite creepy and beautiful.
I can't remember who it was that wouldn't believe me when I said that frogs are diamagnetic and will float in strong enough magnetic fields, but here is the proof:
Video
Explanation
The big thing in the middle is a metal plate covered in some white powder. The metal plate is vibrated at different frequencies and intricate patterns of standing waves are observed.
It really is quite creepy and beautiful.
I can't remember who it was that wouldn't believe me when I said that frogs are diamagnetic and will float in strong enough magnetic fields, but here is the proof:
Video
Explanation
Labels: science, sciencevideo, youtube
