Reality is always more complicated than you think.
Profile
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
Jake is joined periodically by two wonderful guest bloggers: Kara Contreary and Kate Seip. See the About Page.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own or those of my co-bloggers. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments we currently attend.
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Physics:
Dennis Overbye of the NYTimes had this to say of cosmologists who are speculating about disembodied brains spontaneously generated in empty space: If you are inclined to skepticism this debate might seem like further evidence that cosmologists, who gave us...
Posted on January 15, 2008 11:09 AM • 4 Comments •
I am not even close to qualified enough to critique this paper, but I did find it interesting. The authors speculate about how you could create a warp drive -- an engine for faster than light travel -- by creating...
Posted on December 13, 2007 1:21 PM • 5 Comments •
I had not thought that water was a poorly understood substance. Here are two interesting water articles that show that there is still more to learn. Who knew. First, if you put water in a high DC current it can...
Read on »
Posted on October 2, 2007 10:33 AM • 2 Comments •
Photons can carry enormous amount of information, but one of the problems in using them to encode information is that they are difficult to store for even short periods (they are moving at the speed of light after all!). University...
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Posted on February 6, 2007 10:26 AM • 0 Comments •
German scientists have created a metamaterial with a negative refractive index for far red light: The trick is to assemble an array of electronic components that resonate with the electric and magnetic fields of the light waves as they pass...
Posted on December 20, 2006 10:26 AM • 1 Comments •
Hydrogen is great, but I feel like there are some structural and technical issues that have to be solved before...you know...the angels fly down to save us and hugs and bunnies abound. Popular Mechanics introduces a note of realism to...
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Posted on October 20, 2006 10:22 AM • 0 Comments •
Chris from Highly Allochthonous -- say that five times fast -- has a great post summarizing the geological issues of the North Korean nuclear test (how deep? how do we know that? etc.) Check it out....
Posted on October 13, 2006 6:19 PM • 1 Comments •
I expressed a certain level of skepticism about North Korea's nuclear test this week because of the low estimated yield and the failure of the earlier test of their Taepodong-2 missile. Basically, I question the ability of North Korea to...
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Posted on October 13, 2006 5:39 PM • 6 Comments •
News@Nature has the best summary of what is known about North Korea's missile test that I have read thus far. How big was the blast? Estimates for the bomb's yield (the amount of energy discharged when the weapon is detonated,...
Posted on October 10, 2006 5:34 PM • 2 Comments •
I love YouTube -- so many ways to waste time at work. Check out this video of a popped balloon in zero gravity....
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Posted on September 28, 2006 10:33 AM • 0 Comments •
Lee Smolin -- author of The Trouble with Physics -- was interviewed on the Leonard Lopate Show (on WNYC) talking about string theory and why he thinks we shouldn't change scientific standards because of experimental difficulties. A really interesting interview....
Posted on September 27, 2006 2:11 PM • 0 Comments •
Right: An Irish company has thrown down the gauntlet to the worldwide scientific community to test a technology it has developed that it claims produces free energy. The company, Steorn, says its discovery is based on the interaction of magnetic...
Posted on August 22, 2006 10:37 AM • 8 Comments •
Dark matter definitely exists: New observations of a great big cosmic collision provide the best evidence yet that invisible and mysterious dark matter really does exist. The collision, between two huge clusters of galaxies, is the "most energetic cosmic event,...
Posted on August 22, 2006 1:44 AM • 2 Comments •
