Physical Sciences
carlyo | May 6, 2014Congratulations to the Kavli Science in Fiction Video Contest winners!!
1st Prize Winner: Zachary Katko
Video: "Superluminal Communication"
Age : 17
School: Dansville High School, Dansville, Michigan
What are your favorite subjects?
Science and Social Studies mainly, though I also enjoy English.
Can you tell us what inspired you to make this video?
Firstly, my engagingly ruminative English teacher, Ms. Pauline Lee. She introduced me specifically to the Kavli Video contest. Secondly, I drew inspiration from numerous captivating science shows (eg. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, How The Universe…
oracknows | May 5, 2014Dr. David L. Katz is apparently unhappy with me. You remember Dr. Katz, don't you? If you don't, I'll remind you momentarily. If you do, you won't be surprised. Let me explain a bit first how Dr. Katz recently became aware of me again.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a short (for me) piece about something that disturbed both Steve Novella and myself, namely An herbal medicine clinic at the Cleveland Clinic: Quackademia triumphant Steve had blogged about it as well a couple of days earlier. To my surprise, Maithri Vengala over at The Healthcare Blog noticed the blog post and asked me if I…
jhalper | April 29, 2014I’ve heard that for some the experience of undergoing an MRI scan is claustrophobic, but I find it oddly comfy and cocoon-like. OK, there are those gear-grinding screeches and thumps interrupting the music in the earphones. And the cumbersome set-up for imaging breasts, along with the usual admonition to keep perfectly still, does not leave me in a position I would choose for a nap. Still, I’m on the verge of dropping off when the whole table starts shaking under me. They had warned me about this before I climbed onto the apparatus, but for a second I’m not sure whether to laugh (without…
carlyo | April 25, 2014
Guest Blog By Stacy Jannis
Science Media Producer and the Manager of the USA Science & Engineering Festival’s Kavli science video contest
Can science fiction influence science? Many theoretical physicists and astronomers seem to think so, and quite a few scientists say they were inspired to go into science by reading Jules Verne, or watching TV episodes of Flash Gordon and Star Trek. Do you think it’s just a coincidence that NASA’s first space shuttle was christened the Enterprise? At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, a formal partnership with science fiction writers was announced…
carlyo | April 24, 2014Discover the STEM Power of Lockheed Martin at the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo in April
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to pilot the F-35 or a flying robot? Or how cold it is in Antarctica (a region known as the most frigid place on Earth)? In addition to what the next big thing in batteries is, and can medicine really be personalized for every individual? At Festival Expo 2014 you'll experience the answer to these and other questions in unforgettable ways with founding and presenting sponsor of the Festival, Lockheed Martin through exciting interactive,…
carlyo | April 23, 2014
Guest Blog by Adora Svitak
USA Science & Engineering Festival Youth Advisory Board Member
Note: See Adora as part of the Teen Inventors Panel at the Festival on the Lockheed Martin Stage!
When I was little, I hated a lot of things. I refused to practice piano or violin. I didn't eat my leafy vegetables. But most of all I hated math. By extension, I disliked anything that stank of equations: physics, chemistry, technology, engineering. After falling in love with Corinthian columns and the University of Washington's collegiate-Gothic buildings, I wanted to be an architect... until I…
gregladen | April 14, 2014First, as I've mentioned before, there is a Reddit "As Me Anything" (AMA) going on right now with Stephan Lewandowsky, and if you are into Reddit AMA's and climate change related issues you should check it out. Lewandowsky is a co-author of the famous Frontiers Retracted paper, though the subjects being discussed at the AMA range far beyond that particular issue.
Second, there is new paper out that looks very interesting. I'm still trying to absorb it and I've asked the author for some clarifications on some issues, but already the Global Warming Deialosphere is all over it, so it must have…
carlyo | March 25, 2014The 3rd USA Science & Engineering Festival, the nation's largest celebration of STEM, is just one month away! This FREE and open to the public event will take place April 26 & 27 at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. Over 250,000 attendees will experience the weekend of a lifetime with 3,000 hands on exhibits, 150 stage shows, including presentations from science celebrities Bill Nye and Michio Kaku, teacher development workshops, a Festival Book Fair and much much more!
Here is just a sampling of the upcoming stage shows at the Festival Expo Finale:
Learn From Mike Rowe of TV's…
stoat | March 23, 2014I have far too many "interesting" things queued up in feedly, so its time for a dump.
Controversial paper linking conspiracy ideation to climate change skepticism formally retracted. mt is fiercer: Journal’s Mealy-Mouthed Retraction of Lewandowsky Paper. I wasn't terribly keen on the paper myself, though I avoided commenting, but I agree with SL's "the article is fine but Frontiers does not want to take the legal risk" and that this is rubbish on Frontiers' part. See-also Sou.
[Update: the shows goes on: Climate of intimidation: "Frontiers" blunder on "Recursive Fury": Ugo Bardi resigns from…
pharyngula | March 19, 2014Here's another twist on the problematic trend to hire more temporary/part-time/adjunct faculty at universities. It's a disgraceful abuse of skilled academics and good teachers — would you believe that some schools hire adjuncts to teach four courses a semester (a brutal load, let me tell you) and pay them $16,000 per year? Who would be insane enough to accumulate all that college debt, then invest 4+ years in an advanced study program to get a Ph.D., for a poverty-level income? But that's where we stand.
Here's the other ugly side of the problem. The University of Idaho needed someone to…
carlyo | March 18, 2014By Shawn Flaherty
The first ever X-STEM: Extreme STEM Symposium—presented by Northrop Grumman Foundation and MedImmune—kicks-off the 3rd USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo and Book Fair, hosted by founding and presenting sponsor Lockheed Martin. Being held on April 24th at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in DC, X-STEM is a “TED-style” event for kids with talks by 50 of the nation's most noted science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals representing top universities, corporations, non-profits, and governmental agencies.
“X-STEM is the perfect…
oracknows | March 16, 2014I'm sure that a lot of you, like me, are watching the rebooted version of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, with Neil deGrasse Tyson taking over the hosting duties originally handled so ably over 30 years ago by Carl Sagan. I definitely enjoyed the first episode and am looking forward to additional episodes. The only thing that annoys me is that Cosmos is on at the same time as The Walking Dead, but that's what DVRs were made for. The first episode, which is all I've seen thus far at this writing, was quite impressive, and the segment at the end in which Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about the time he…
drorzel | March 4, 2014In which we move out of the original trilogy, and into J.J. Abrams territory. Cue the lens flare!
This week's random assortment of topics includes travel, airports, physics models of loading and unloading planes, uses and abuses of curve fitting, odd stuff we get sent to review, and high-speed video cameras.
Miscellaneous links:
-- Rhett's Atlanta airport post.
-- The airplane loading study I was thinking of is Optimal boarding method for airline passengers, by Jason Steffen, from 2008.
--The Slo Mo Guys, Smarter Every Day, Veritasium.
--Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn by Amanda Gefter.
That'…
gregladen | March 1, 2014The following is also found HERE on the White House web site. I provide it here without comment because it speaks for itself. But if you want more, check out "Global warming action: good or bad for the poor?" by John Abraham, and "Keeping The Carbon In The Ground Elsewhere: Developing Nations" by me.
Drought and Global Climate Change: An Analysis of Statements by Roger Pielke Jr
John P. Holdren, 28 February 2014
Introduction
In the question and answer period following my February 25 testimony on the Administration’s Climate Action Plan before the Oversight Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate’…
milhayser | February 23, 2014Researchers observed tiny voids forming in silicon used for solar panels; these voids provide physical evidence of the Staebler-Wronski effect, "which reduces the solar cell efficiency by up to 15 percent within the first 1000 hours."
Using an online avatar with a skin color other than your own makes you less racist in real life; playing a hero makes you less cruel, and playing a villain less benevolent.
Old mouse muscles exhibit "elevated levels of activity in a biological cascade called the p38 MAP kinase pathway" which prevents stem cells from dividing and repairing muscle damage. By…
carlyo | February 21, 2014
By Stacy Jannis
The Kavli Science in Fiction Video Contest challenges Gr 6-12 students to examine the science in fiction, including science fiction movies, TV shows, and games. Our contest advisors include science educators , scientists, and Hollywood scifi visual effects experts. Follow #SciInSciFi on twitter for contest updates.
Jeff Kleiser is president and co-founder of the visual effects studio Synthespian Studios. His pioneering work in computer animation has spanned the history of the medium. He has contributed to films with groundbreaking visual effects including Tron, Stargate, …
drorzel | February 10, 2014One of the more annoying points of contention back in the days of the Sokal hoax and the "Science Wars" was an argument over social construction. This is, loosely speaking, the idea that our understanding of the world is not strictly rational and objective, but is heavily influenced by interactions with other people, and the culture in which we live. The idea originally arose in literary academia, but expanded to be applied to basically everything, including science.
At bottom, this is probably the best and most useful idea to come out of whatever collective "-ism" you want to use to refer…
stoat | January 30, 2014 Following the brilliant success of my attempt to explain peer review I thought I'd have a go at explaining Science next. Why restrict myself to a small canvas? Lacking confidence in such a large project, I started this post then abandoned it, but have now picked it up again, encouraged in part by ATTP's light-hearted look and also VV on peer review. And by my own unconquerable belief in the value of my opinions.
Explaining Science is difficult, to people that don't do it, because its, like, totally multi-faceted, maaan. And I suspect that explaining it to people that do it would be difficult…
drorzel | January 23, 2014Ashutosh Jogalekar has a response to my post from yesterday complaining about his earlier post on whether multiverses represent a philosophical crisis for physics. I suspect we actually disagree less than that back-and-forth makes it seem-- he acknowledges my main point, which was that fundamental theoretical physics is a small subset of physics as a whole, and I don't disagree with his point that physics as a discipline has long been characterized by a reductionist sort of approach-- always trying to get to smaller numbers of fundamental principles.
Our real point of disagreement, I think,…
pharyngula | January 22, 2014Apparently, Martin Cothran believes that there is no life elsewhere in the universe, and that this unimaginably vast emptiness is evidence that a god created us. I don't understand the logic, but then I don't understand most of his weird leaps in this post on how life on other planets is like believing in the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
First, there is the naive scientific oversimplification.
We are told by many New Atheist scientists in particular (who like to mark their territory) that a belief can only be scientific if it is falsifiable. This is their demarcation criterion of choice and they…