Uncategorized
dblum | March 30, 2010A couple days ago, I wrote a post (Tyger, Tyger, Copper, Copper) about the theory that the late, great British poet William Blake (1757-1827) and been killed by copper poisoning due to years of acid-etching copper plates as a print maker.
One chemist promptly wrote to raise the possibility that it might instead have been acid poisoning. Blake used nitric acid to etch his plates and exposure to that corrosive compound, he pointed out, turns the skin yellow. One symptom of Blake's final illness was his deeply yellowed skin.
Nitric acid - sometimes called engraver's acid - has a long and…
grrlscientist | March 29, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is only one week away and as usual, it is seeking submissions and hosts! Can you help by sending URLs for your own or others' well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me or by volunteering to host this carnival on your blog?
Scientia Pro Publica is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment, nature and medical writing that has been published in the…
gregladen | March 29, 2010This video discusses use of animals in dissection in science classes, linking the issue to evolution.
NCSE
gregladen | March 29, 2010Dennis removed the top of the hamburger bun, flipped the meat out of the way, laid down catchup on both sides and reassembled the Cheeseburger Special Agnes had just laid before him as deftly as he always did. And, as expected, the new guy shyly and quietly took note of this culinary quirk, and I knew that starting soon, if he remembered having seen this today, he'd be putting the catchup on both sides of his burger too, as we all did once we saw Dennis do it. It's just better that way. It's not like it's more catchup. The same amount of catchup distributed on both sides of the hamburger…
cortex | March 29, 2010I've always been fascinated by tip-of-the-tongue moments. It's estimated that, on average, people have a tip-of-the-tongue moment at least once a week. Perhaps it occurs when you run into an old acquaintance whose name you can't remember, although you know that it begins with the letter "J." Or perhaps you struggle to recall the title of a recent movie, even though you can describe the plot in perfect detail.
What's interesting about this mental hiccup is that, even though the mind can't remember the information, it's convinced that it knows it, which is why we devote so many mental…
gregladen | March 28, 2010A while ago I read David Mamet's ALL CAPS MEMO and as with most people, thought it was brilliant. But there was one part that kept bothering me. A bit of advice Mamet gives that sounds brilliant but at the same time sounded totally wrong. And suddenly, a few moments ago, it dawned on me that this part of the memo was A BIG FAT JOKE.
In the Memo written to the writing staff of a failing TV show, Mamet says:
HERE ARE THE DANGER SIGNALS. ANY TIME TWO CHARACTERS ARE TALKING ABOUT A THIRD, THE SCENE IS A CROCK OF SHIT.
Ha. Two words: American Buffalo.
An entire play about two characters…
gregladen | March 28, 2010Hey Joe Ratzinger, I don't know what your version of "All the Pussy" is, but you're gonna get all the pussy...
Sell The Vatican, Feed The World - watch more funny videos
grrlscientist | March 28, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is less than two weeks away and as usual, it is seeking submissions and hosts! Can you help by sending URLs for your own or others' well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me or by volunteering to host this carnival on your blog?
Scientia Pro Publica is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment, nature and medical writing that has been published in…
pharyngula | March 27, 2010The NCSE has put out a press release congratulating Ayala for his Templeton Prize, and thanking him for his support of NCSE. It also parrots his defense of the compatibility of science and religion.
You know, I've been a long-time supporter of the NCSE, a vocal crusader for better science education and against creationism, and last year I was awarded Humanist of the Year…but no, I didn't get the tiniest bit of press from NCSE. Was it because I'm not as scientifically reputable as Ayala? Because I didn't get a £1,000,000? Because putting a paragraph acknowledgment on the web was more than I'm…
grrlscientist | March 27, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is less than two weeks away and as usual, it is seeking submissions and hosts! Can you help by sending URLs for your own or others' well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me or by volunteering to host this carnival on your blog?
Scientia Pro Publica is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment, nature and medical writing that has been published in…
cwilcox | March 27, 2010We all get sick. Young or old, male or female, everyone gets sick at some point in their lives. But only some are susceptible to a specialized disease known as the "Man Flu," which somehow causes men to think they have the flu when, in fact, they have only a little cold.
Where did the idea of a Man Flu come from? It's origins are uncertain. In general, a lot of people tend to think they're worse off than they really are when they're sick - a poll by Panadol Cold and Flu, for example, found that 61% of people who went to pharmacists claiming to have the flu didn't. Somewhere along the line,…
cpikas | March 27, 2010let's hope i don't accidentally bring down the whole scienceblogs empire.
\[ \begin{aligned}
\nabla \times \vec{\mathbf{B}} -\, \frac1c\, \frac{\partial\vec{\mathbf{E}}}{\partial t} & = \frac{4\pi}{c}\vec{\mathbf{j}} \\ \nabla \cdot \vec{\mathbf{E}} & = 4 \pi \rho \\
\nabla \times \vec{\mathbf{E}}\, +\, \frac1c\, \frac{\partial\vec{\mathbf{B}}}{\partial t} & = \vec{\mathbf{0}} \\
\nabla \cdot \vec{\mathbf{B}} & = 0 \end{aligned}
\]
within text \(\sqrt{3x-1}+(1+x)^2\)
gregladen | March 26, 2010Ignore this unless you have a cast iron stomach.
Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that the teabaggers have ALREADY fired the first shot? The centrist/progressive/leftist/liberals are simply not responding with violence. But the first shot has already been fired in this culture war. And the second, and the third, and the fourth.
gregladen | March 26, 2010TONIGHT! on Skeptically Speaking! Don't miss it. And if you do miss it, catch the podcast. Details.
cwilcox | March 26, 2010Those of you who follow me on twitter have been flooded with links about the recent United Nations meeting which included a once-every-three-years Conference of the Parties for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). As a biologist, I take conservation issues quite seriously, especially when it comes to regulations. I feel that large scale efforts are not just important, they are necessary to protect species from overexploitation. Up on the slab were a number of key regulations for a variety of species, and I anxiously awaited the results…