science

Science Art: The Known Universe by AMNH The American Museum of Natural History revisits “Cosmic Zoom”, starting at the Himalayas and moving outward (and, as far as we can see, backwards in time – through older and older sources of light) to the afterglow of the Big Bang, then back again. The visualization of man-made satellites around Earth at around 1:30 is especially lovely.
Post Date:12/19/2009 23:22:33
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Howard Dean, Wendell Potter, Mike Lux health-care blogger call: Fighting for the public option DOWNLOADS: 285 PLAYS: 305 As you know from Susie's post, on Friday Howard Dean and Wendell Potter held a blogger conference call to address their concerns about the Lieberman/Nelson Senate Health care bill. Mike Lux was the moderator and a host of bloggers asked questions about the bill. What followed was a detailed discussion debating Gov. Dean's problems about the Senate bill. As much as the Villagers try to smear Dean, it's all about policy and not ideology when it comes to health care. It's a long call that features more actual policy debate than what you would find on most political TV programs that are supposed to actually carry the same type of substance, but often fail to do. They are more interested in shouting matches than a substantive debate. You can go to DFA's website where they want you to call Harry Reid's offic
Post Date:12/19/2009 15:30:20
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Bacteria Assemble in Mario Form to Battle Bowser Virus [Science] Here's Mario, and he's ready to rescue that pinky amoeba called Princess Peach. Or give you a food intoxication that will tie you to the toilet for a day. It can go either way, because he's made of glowing bacteria. Those pixels are really genetically engineered bacteria, modified to "express fluorescent proteins and carotenoid pigments" by Team Osaka, at the nanobiology laboratories at the University of Osaka, Japan. [Microbial Art via New Scientist]
Post Date:12/19/2009 14:23:13
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How the poll on global warming was conducted (AP) AP - The Associated Press-Stanford University Environment Poll on global warming was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media from Nov. 17-29, 2009. It is based on landline telephone and cell phone interviews with a nationally representative random sample of 1,005 adults. Interviews were conducted with 705 respondents on landline telephones and 300 on cellular phones.
Post Date:12/19/2009 13:30:33
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Muted UN welcome for Copenhagen climate deal UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says a US-backed climate deal is a good beginning, but critics dismiss it as a failure.
Post Date:12/19/2009 12:08:02
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Startling discovery: Explosions of light in Northern Lights NASA’s THEMIS spacecraft, high in the sky, and a camera network, on the ground, has recorded an explosive phenomenon that caused the jaws of its scientists to drop. A movie...
Post Date:12/19/2009 09:57:33
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In 100 Heartbeats Jeff Corwin tackles causes and costs of species extinctions Conservationist Jeff Corwin is known for often bringing a goofy passion to his television projects for Animal Planet and other networks. His latest effort displays no less passion, but switches out most of the jokes for gravitas. [More]
Post Date:12/19/2009 09:00:00
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2 amplifiers NOT strapped running 1 DVC subwoofer, what's the big deal? I'm not 100% sure this belongs in the SPL Science section, but it seems to make sense. So I have a pair of the short fin Cadence TXA3002 amplifiers that I've been running my 12's off of for a while now. A while back I was planning to swap in a single 10in WMD in a vented enclosure, but I haven't sprung for a mono amp yet. The other day I was tempted to just bridge an amp to each voice coil (DVC 4 ohm) but apparently a bunch of people think this will kill the sub. I see no possible way for this to happen. Even if you were to wire the amps backwards which would effectively keep the sub from moving, you would still have to feed it a bunch of power for a while to burn a coil. If each of the sub amps are set the same or close, or I could even DMM them as close as I can get, I see no reason why this wouldn't work like a charm. I've seen OEM systems with DVC subs running off the right and left channel so I know it's been done, really I'm just wanting to figure out why people say this w
Post Date:12/19/2009 05:36:36
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Draft text of new "Copenhagen Accord" Here is the latest draft text of the " Copenhagen Accord " put forward on December 18 by the U.S., China, India and South Africa, among other countries, at the climate summit in the Danish capital. Copenhagen Accord [More]
Post Date:12/18/2009 17:43:00
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The year in nonsense Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Saturday 19 December 2009 It?s been a vintage year for dodgy science in government. We saw reports on cocaine that were disappeared, dodgy evidence to justify DNA retention, and some government advisors who estimated the cost of piracy at 10% of GDP, to media applause, and then failed to tell everyone they?d [...]
Post Date:12/18/2009 17:01:00
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New Map Reveals Tsunami Risks in California SAN FRANCISCO--Just days before the fifth anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, California officials on Thursday released a new map of the state's tsunami hazard, which details how an event could affect 350,000 people who live along the coast and cause tens of billions of dollars of damage. [More]
Post Date:12/18/2009 17:00:00
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More independent views: Myles Allen and Ben Santer Three more commentaries by experts not associated with RealClimate. Ben Santer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Ben Santer again Myles Allen, University of Oxford It’s worth noting that Allen has published commentary that is critical of RealClimate. Comments on this should be posted under the Hansen post.
Post Date:12/18/2009 13:36:26
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Shining Examples: 10 Bioluminescent Creatures that Glow in Surprising Ways [Slide Show] Beetles whose flashes punctuate summer skies; killer fish that lure prey with an enticing light; algae that rat out their attackers with a telltale glow. These ominous organisms might seem like creatures from out of this world, but thanks to some clever chemistry , such beings are in fact abundant on our planet. Examples of creatures that generate their own light--a capability known as bioluminescence--are especially common in the ocean, where filmmaker James Cameron purportedly drew inspiration for the glimmering alien life in his new sci-fi flick Avatar . [More]
Post Date:12/18/2009 10:00:00
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How Santa Does It: Clones, Wormholes and Memory-Elimination Devices Perhaps you--like me--are disappointed by the amateur calculations done every December that purport to show how Santa couldn't possibly deliver presents to all the good boys and girls in the world. Okay, fine: if Santa were just a dude in a sleigh (even one powered by some very fast reindeer), his task would be very hard, perhaps even impossible. And yet! These are the holidays; I do not want to be burdened with what is impossible. I want to know how it can be done. I want to know how--without resort to magic, that lazy storytelling crutch--the good Saint Nick runs his global one-night present-delivery operation. [More]
Post Date:12/18/2009 09:25:00
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Copenhagen and Everywhere Else ScientificAmerican.com 's David Biello is in Copenhagen at the climate conference, and he'll tell us what's going on there. [More]
Post Date:12/18/2009 08:37:08
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Mayon close to erupting Philippines' most famous volcano has been raised to alert level three as the mountain threatens to erupt.
Post Date:12/18/2009 08:30:00
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Eyes Wide Shut: Earth's Vital Signs Soon to Go Unmeasured as Satellites Fail Satellites aren't built to last forever, so it's not a big surprise that the third and last laser on NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) quit working on October 11, outlasting its designed mission length by three and a half years. Since its launch in 2003 ICESat has been a critical instrument for continuously monitoring how much ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland are contributing to the rise of the world's oceans and how much the swath of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is thinning--both of which are occurring faster than projected. [More]
Post Date:12/18/2009 08:00:00
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Grain Use Well before Modern Agriculture Some of our early ancestors weren’t just scavenging fruit and nuts and hunting animals. That’s the conclusion of scientists who discovered evidence of the grain sorghum on hundred-thousand-year-old stone tools. The tools were discovered deep in a cave in northwest Mozambique. The research appears in the December 18th issue of the journal Science .The general belief had been that these ancient people in southern Africa preferred to concentrate on more accessible foods, such as fruit, nuts and roots. They wouldn’t have bothered with seeds and starchy grains, it was thought, because those foods were too difficult to get and prepare. In this scenario, grains would become a regular part of the diet much later in history. [More]
Post Date:12/18/2009 07:10:08
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The "Problem" with a Public Interest in Science In October a blog post circulated widely in the science journalism community. Larry Husten mused at CardioBrief.org about the potential benefits to society if only mainstream newspapers covered science with as much dedication as they cover baseball. Indeed, it might be wonderful. But as a big sports fan, I know that there could be unexpected consequences of heightened media interest in science. For example, imagine all-science talk radio: [More]
Post Date:12/18/2009 06:00:00
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Kool-Aid Psychology: Realism versus Optimism I am, by nature, an optimist. I almost always think things will turn out well, and even when they break I am confident that I can fix them. My optimism, however, has not always served me well. Twice I have been hit by cars while cycling--full-on, through-the-windshield impacts that were entirely the result of my blissful attitude that the street corners I had successfully negotiated hundreds of times before would not suddenly materialize an automobile in my path. Such high-impact, unpredictable and rare events are what author Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls “black swans.” Given enough time, no upward sloping trend line is immune from dramatic collapse.A bike crash as a black swan is, in fact, an apt metaphor for what the investigative journalist and natural-born skeptic Barbara Ehrenreich believes happened to America as a result of the positive-thinking movement. In her engaging and tightly reasoned book Bright-Sided (Metropolitan Books, 2009), she shows how the positive-psyc
Post Date:12/18/2009 06:00:00
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