Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
December 14, 2006
From Gordon via Chad Fermilab is claiming single top quark decay to b quark + W
ie the accelerator produced a t-quark as part of some quark/anti-quark ensemble, without simultaneously producing an anti-t-quark.
So what does this all mean...
well, there are three generations of quarks - the up and…
December 14, 2006
Apparently someone heard that soy has estrogen mimickers and over-extrapolated their conclusion, the Chimp Refugee has all the details you need to know
Got to look on the bright side though, this might significantly boost breastfeeding in a segment of the population which could do with…
December 12, 2006
the Saudi ambassador to the US has resigned suddenly
wazzup with that?
is he going home to spend more time with the family?
is he going back for a promotion and needs to consolidate his position internally?
does he know something we don't? a kossack speculates
if Turki really resigned on Sep 4th…
December 12, 2006
Grauniad Science Weekly has a Creationism Special podcast this week.
Wolpert, Conway-Morris and Buggs are up.
December 11, 2006
Apparently space shuttle Discovery, currently in orbit, had two sensor anomalies from the left wing tip.
Could be thermal flexing, or could be impacts.
EVA planned to inspect for damage.
space.com says first inspection shows no damage
also on NASA shuttle page (dynamic page, updated frequently)
December 8, 2006
Thanks to Chad I will now be humming this for the next two weeks.
Stop the Cavalry! With added bonus inadvertent political symbolism!
Jona Lewie
Ah well, maybe it will flush "Silver Bells" from my brain for a while.
December 8, 2006
Cold and snowy friday, and we ask the iPod: wazzup with the water on Mars thing?
Are the intermittent outbursts really liquid water, and what does it all mean?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: King Rocker - Generation X
The Crossing: Leysum vind - Stuðmenn
The Crown: The Hunters…
December 6, 2006
Earlier I argued that religion is axiomatic, rational and wrong, and that science methodology pushes religion either into allegorical distinct domains through heterodoxy, or it faces direct conflict with orthodox religions.
I want to argue that any particular religion really is axiomatic and that…
December 6, 2006
As I suspected today's announcement from NASA is on evidence for
current liquid water flowing on Mars
Nice result, hopefully to be confirmed soon.
Increases imperative to get more wheel on the ground at Mars, and hopefully some boots in the finite future, if properly funded.
Click for high-res…
December 5, 2006
I had a conversation about war
"...IF this was representative, the army has 18 months, in my estimation, to get out of Iraq, or they will be done for for a decade"
Not actually all that prophetic, go read Steve Gilliard he's on a roll.
December 5, 2006
NASA HQ has a press conference wednesday at 1 pm on news on Mars discoveries from the now defunct Mars Global Surveyor.
Not coincidentally, perchance, NASAwatch has a pointer to Aviation Week news snippet on MGS having seen evidence for current flowing liquid water on Mars
This would be very very…
December 1, 2006
Religion is ubiquitous, rational, adaptive and wrong.
It is not inherently in opposition to science in general, but it often is.
Science needs to figure out how to deal with this, because most religions will not.
Most all human societies are religious, in the sense that there is a general semi-…
December 1, 2006
Wet and windy friday, and we ask the Mighty One a sexy topical question: is XTE J1739-285 really spinning at 1122 Hz?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Long Time Gone - Dixie Chick
The Crossing: We Do What We Can - Sheryl Crowe
The Crown: Catch - The Cure
The Root: Litirnir - Edda…
November 29, 2006
Aaaaarrrrrgghhhh!
Powder Day declared with 24 inches of fresh powder!
Aspen
One of the most wonderful places to do science is the Aspen Center for Physics, it runs a series of summer multi-week meetings and winter one week workshops which are amazingly productive and fun.
Sounds like this season…
November 29, 2006
Acephalous is trying to measure meme speeds, but we are theorists, dammit, a model prediction is needed!
So what is the asymptotic speed of a free small meme in the wild web?
1, of course.
In natural units.
The derivation is left as a trivial exercise for the reader.
November 29, 2006
Astrobiology journal is making available for free the recently compiled Student Primer for Astrobiology
Aimed at graduate students or advanced undergrads.
It is good.
Full text (79 pages) PDF link
November 29, 2006
The Astrophysics Enabled By the Return to the Moon Workshop is on right now at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
It is webcast (link above).
The program looks reasonably interesting, meetings like this have been held before, and the issues look to tbe much the same.
You can do astronomy from…
November 29, 2006
Archeologists think they have found the ruins of the Great Hall of King Harald I Fairhair (Haraldr Hárfagri) at Avaldsnes in west Norway.
It was the site of the halls of local chieftans and then the Kings of Norway for almost 3000 years until the settlement was burned by the Hansa Merchant League…
November 29, 2006
What's the funniest lab accident you've ever had?...
What is this "lab" thing of which you speak?
Does a spilled diet pepsi on a brand new keyboard count?
I got a papercut once... nah, Not Funny!
Hey, once when we were walking our neighbour's lab, the leash wrapped itself around the Big Kid's…
November 28, 2006
For some strange reason the book I grabbed for the latest travel is a paperback of "Who Dares Wins", Geraghty's anecdotal account of Special Air Service (UK) history from 1950 (Malaya) to 1982 (Falklands) and the regiment's involvement in some select actions, as well as their selection and training…
November 28, 2006
The US consumes about 385 million gallons of motor gasoline per day
That is about a gallon and a bit per day per person.
Or 140 billion gallons per year.
Coincidentally, the off-budget cost of the war in Iraq is roughly $70 billion per year. Approximately.
Or $0.50 per gallon.
We should probably…
November 28, 2006
Interesting IHE article on NCAA problems and how it is, apparently, all the faculties' fault
Of course.
An interesting point in the comments is that anything goes, as long as the football team wins (or basketball or whatevah).
But, in the nature of the game, precisely half the teams lose each time…
November 28, 2006
Chad spreads contagious concepts.
if this were a real meme you would now be getting ideas
Acephalus wants data on meme propagation speeds through blogs for the MLA.
Read, link and accelerate. Don't want to be a deadender, now do we.
November 27, 2006
The Litvinenko murder brought to mind an old sophomoric debate that floated among my acquaintances for some time.
The physical sciences enable killing. That is their core realism, that scientific knowledge is real in so far as it can be applied to kill.
The philosophy of science has an interesting…
November 25, 2006
As widely reported, Polonium 210 was used to murder former russian spy Litvinenko
A pure alpha emitter, Po-210 is a curiously elegant and vicious assassination method.
It has to be handled with extreme care, but as a pure alpha emitter with short half-life (138 days) it can easily be shielded, and…
November 24, 2006
Yikes, thank Thor it is friday!
We stay on topic, and ask the mighty iPod: oh Mighty iPod, will the LHC find anything interesting beyond the Standard Model, like a nice Higgs particle or two?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Funky Days Are Back Again - Cornershop
The Crossing:…
November 23, 2006
Something to be thankful for this thanksgiving...
It started last night when a friend of ours, 9 months pregnant, called. She was picking up the kids from the sitter, she was in labour, her husband was at work, could she come to our house?
Ok.
We already had a play date, and another heading over (…