Environment
Category archives for Environment
Sigma Xi Talk: Tropical Glaciers Are Weird
Posted by Chad Orzel on May 27, 2009 Tuesday night was the annual Sigma Xi induction banquet on campus (I’m currently the president of the local chapter, and have been scrambling to organize the whole thing in between all my other responsibilities these past few weeks). Sigma Xi, for those not familiar with it, is the scientific research honor society– like Phi Beta…
Uranium in Drinking Water?
Posted by Chad Orzel on May 11, 2009 A former student asks about water contamination: My mother went and had our water tested and discovered that we have high uranium and radon levels. Radon is not a big deal, its a gas, and as I have read you would need to take a shower for somewhere around 4 hours to suffer damage from…
Restoring the Office of Technology Assessment to Its Rightful Place
Posted by Chad Orzel on April 4, 2009 Over at his new digs, Chris Mooney talks about efforts to re-launch the OTA: I?m starting to detect some buzz on this very important front, which I wrote about in detail in 2005?s The Republican War on Science and elsewhere. Basically, the story is this: In 1995 the Gingrich Republicans, looking to slash budgets?and looking…
Obligatory Freeman Dyson Link
Posted by Chad Orzel on March 26, 2009 As a scientist with a blog, I am apparently contractually obligated to link to the New York Times Magazine profile of Freeman Dyson. If I don’t, they’ll take away my privileges as a scientist. (Of course, since those consist mostly of the right to review grant applications for the NSF, maybe it’d be worth the…
Martin Rees Against Fundamentalism
Posted by Chad Orzel on March 12, 2009 There’s a really good article from Martin Rees in the latest issue of Seed, on the scientific challenges that won’t be affected by the LHC: The LHC hasn’t yet provided its first results, the much-anticipated answers to questions we’ve been asking for so long. But they should surely come in 2009, bringing us closer to…
“Global Warming: Facts and Myths (an All That Jazz)” On the Web
Posted by Chad Orzel on March 4, 2009 A couple of weeks ago, I moderated a global warming panel at Boskone. The panel was recorded by Richard Amirault, who has now posted the video on his Boston fandom website (Episode 41, if it moves off the front page before you click that link). I haven’t watched the video, but I listened to the…
Why “Clean Coal” Matters
Posted by Chad Orzel on March 3, 2009 Back before things went pear-shaped this weekend, Jonathan Zasloff had a good post about why “clean coal” is important: I think it’s terrific that the Coen Brothers are making funny, effective ads against relying on “clean coal” as part of the US energy program. But I worry that the clean energy community is really missing…
Global Warming at Boskone: Not That Awful
Posted by Chad Orzel on February 16, 2009 Sunday morning at Boskone, I moderated a panel on “Global Warming: Facts and Myths, (and all that jazz)”, featuring James Morrow, Mark Olson, and Vince Docherty. As noted previously, I was a little worried that this would turn out to be absolutely awful in one of a couple of obvious ways, but it wound up…
How to Moderate a Discussion of Global Warming?
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 29, 2009 As noted in the previous post, I’m supposed to be moderating a panel at Boskone the weekend after next, with the title: Global Warming: Facts and Myths, (and all that jazz) This is not my usual line, but then, I don’t have to provide expert commentary, I just need to steer the discussion. Still, it…
Jesse Ventura Is to Blame for This
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 27, 2009 I realize it’s been several years now since the World Wildlife Federation won their lawsuit against the World Wrestling Federation, forcing Vince McMahon to re-brand his whole preposterous enterprise. Still, when I see a press release with the headline: WWF seeks innovative solutions to bycatch through worldwide competition I expect the “competition” to be settled…
