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gregladen | September 25, 2010Caroline Phillips cranks out tunes on a seldom-heard folk instrument: the hurdy-gurdy, a.k.a. the wheel fiddle. A searching, Basque melody follows her fun lesson on its unique anatomy and 1,000-year history.
gregladen | September 24, 2010Official opened floodgates on two dams causing flooding that required over two million people to move. It is not clear that residents were warned in advance. The dams are normally opened this time of year to track rainfall patterns in the region.
Details.
gregladen | September 24, 2010A National Academies report Thursday warned of a crummy economic future unless fixes are made to U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
Included below are longer reactions to the "Rising Above the Gathering Storm," report:
here
gregladen | September 24, 2010After all, the distance between the bits my coffee cup is made of and the distance between the bits the coffee table is made of is absolutely hugemoungous. If you were a person standing on one atom of my coffee cup, scaled so the atom was the size of, say a Sofa, and you looked out in the direction of the next atom, it would look like a distant star. Or something.
Perhaps there is some kind of force working, I dunno.
Anyway, this is the kind of question that arises when you look at this thing. Teachers, you can use this to freak out your students!
gregladen | September 24, 2010Stagnant scientific education imperils U.S. economic leadership, says a report by leading business and science figures.
Released Thursday at a congressional briefing attended by senators and Congress members of both parties, the report updates a 2005 science education report that led to moves to double federal research funding.
source
gregladen | September 24, 2010Tonight's skeptically speaking will be on Improbable Research:
Marc Abrahams
We look at the stranger side of science with Marc Abrahams, the editor of Annals of Improbable Research and creator of the the Ig Nobel Prize. Is science that makes us laugh better at making us think?
and
Speaking up
Neurobiologist Dr. Richard Wassersug explains his research into the relative tastiness of Costa Rican tadpoles.
Details here.
And, don't forget to listen to the podcast from last week:
Bad Research
Cognitive psychologist Barbara Drescher joins us to discuss the common mistakes scientists make, and…
jgoldman | September 23, 2010Below the fold, you'll find a complete listing of all tweets from #SMWUSC, in reverse chronological order.
@jgold85 Thus concludes "Biomimicry" @USCedu #smwuscThu, 23 Sep 2010 23:32:58 +0000 - tweet id 25352854351 - #1tweet details
@JessikaWalsten Wrapping up the biomimicry event at #smwusc. It's been fun!Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:30:34 +0000 - tweet id 25352672665 - #2tweet details
@LisaRau Rar! RT @laura_nelson: Meet TRAKTAR, a mole-worm-kangaroo/tractor. Alan Alda wants one! #smwLA #smwUSC http://twitpic.com/2rayftThu, 23 Sep 2010 23:28:10 +0000 - tweet id 25352486577 - #3tweet…
gregladen | September 23, 2010When I finished reading the sixth book, I turned to Julia, then about 12 years old or so, and said "Oh crap, now we have to wait for the next book to come out" and she said "Welcome to my entire life, Dad!"
Anyway, we all love the movies, and here's the trailers for the next one:
mspringer | September 23, 2010Whew! Back from a very successful wedding and honeymoon, moving into a new apartment, writing thank-you notes, and all the fun jazz that comes with being newly married.
But hey, we've got to get this blog cranking again at some point, and now's as good a time as any. We'll kick things back off with a letter from a reader,
Scott writes in with a question:
If you have a cubic meter of nothing but highly condensed photons, what would the upper limit on its energy density be? (If there is even a limit.)
Classically there's no theoretical limit on the field strength, though radiation pressure…
gregladen | September 22, 2010Once again, I have been awarded an Editors' Choice award on Peter Janiszewski's Research Blogging Blog. They tell me that this is somewhere between an Academy Award and a Nobel Prize. Thank you thank you thank you. And, I'd like to point out that I share this award with several other excellent bloggers and their blog posts, including those on creativity and mental illness, sports injuries, modernization and dietary issues, and the link between stress and suicide. Click here to see summaries and links to all these wonderful posts!
gregladen | September 22, 2010A piece by Historyguy Five Three Seven One Six:
Did I mention this was the most boring job in the world? Mind-numbingly, soul-crushingly, stab-yourself-in-the-leg-with-a-pen-to-get-them-to-call-an-ambulance-so-you-can-escape-this-meeting- boring. If she wins this seat, she will spend days in meetings discussing the logistics of textbook acquisition, and politely sitting through hours of public comments from people who think Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to listen to Jesus preach the Sermon on the Sanctity of Tax Cuts for the Rich. Now, for some reason, she actually likes this kind of…
gregladen | September 22, 2010Christien Meindertsma, author of "Pig 05049" looks at the astonishing afterlife of the ordinary pig, parts of which make their way into at least 187 non-pork products, from bullets to artificial hearts.
We seep pigs all the time on the highways. Of course, we live near Iowa.
gregladen | September 22, 2010That's me!
The article opens by acknowledging that 66 percent of Americans believe creationism is definitely or probably true from a recent poll. Yet the article turns to biological anthropologist Greg Laden for how to squelch the opposing viewpoint to evolutionism.
And so on and so forth.
That's on the Answers in Genesis web site as part of their newsletter.
gregladen | September 22, 2010In today's world, balancing school, work, kids and more, most of us can only hope for the recommended eight hours of sleep. Examining the science behind our body's internal clock, Jessa Gamble reveals the surprising and substantial program of rest we should be observing.
Quiz: Name all the two-celled organisms!
gregladen | September 22, 2010On this day in 1862, the following proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln:
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then…
dolittle | September 21, 2010I just watched a re-run of the movie March of the Penguins...so cute! The movie documents how emperor penguins survive their long winter fast while incubating eggs. In fact, researchers have shown that penguins spend about half their time huddling with other penguins. This allows them to lower their metabolic rate by as much as 25%. To better understand this, Drs. Caroline Gilbert, Yvon le Maho, Andre Ancel (Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Strasbourg) and Martine Perret (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, France) measured the deep…