Monkeys perform arithmetic as well as college students I knew that. (tags: academia education biology math psychology news science) Merck Manual for Pet Health – Ferret Hit by an Arrow? Here’s a Book for You – New York Times The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health: Home Edition: Because hypochondriacs have pets, too. (tags: animals medicine […]
Month: December 2007
Lazy Particle Physics Query
I could probably tease this information out of the Particle Data Group website, given enough time, but somebody with a background in particle physics can probably answer this in two seconds, so I appeal to the Internets: What is the shortest lifetime of a particle that has been directly detected? By “directly detected” I mean, […]
Kate and the Dragon
There’s a chance that, if I make a serious push this week, I can have a first pass through the book complete before Christmas. So, of course, I’m procrastinating madly. I understand it’s traditional to post pictures in these circumstances, so here’s one of my favorite shots from the Japan pictures: This is Kate getting […]
The Year in First Sentences
2006 Was Just This Year, You Know: I lost a lot of weight, read a lot of books, taught a lot of classes, did a bit of research, and oh, yeah, I got tenure. Dorky Poll: Favorite Tool: In the comments to the post where I noted how many more people had least favorite textbooks […]
Tree of SCIENCE!!! #6
Today’s ornament from the Tree of SCIENCE!!! is in honor of the cold water dripping into our kitchen cabinet yesterday: That’s a glass icicle, with bonus dramatic shadows. If you’re a homeowner, you might think that this stands for ice damming, but this is about SCIENCE!!! not property mishaps. This ornament stands for phase transitions.
links for 2007-12-18
Video Clip – The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony 2007 If you have 86 minutes to kill, go ahead. I watched the 1997 ceremony, which is where I learned that you don’t need to speak the language to identify a boring speech. (tags: Nobel video) St. Lawrence University: All-Nighters Equal Lower Grades ‘ “The data indicate […]
Scientists and Indie Rockers
Chris Mooney posted a couple of things last week– one article at ScienceProgress and one blog post— talking about the supposed shortage of scientists in the “pipeline.” Following an Urban Insitute study, he says that there’s really no shortage of scientists being trained, but rather a shortage of jobs for those scientists. Coming as he […]
Non-Dorky Poll: Distressing Public Art
A quick photo poll question: Which of these statues seen on the street in Japan is more disturbing? This chubby nude saxophonist from Himeji: Or this small child riding a giant carp from Takayama: Leave your answer in the comments. You can only pick one.
The Two-Fork Toothpick Trick, Explained
Last week, GrrlScientist posted a cool video showing a trick with two forks and a toothpick: http://view.break.com/410281 – Watch more free videos It’s a nifty demonstration of some physics principles, so I thought I would explain how it works, with a couple of pictures (several of her commenters have the right idea, btw).
Tree of SCIENCE!!! #5
I’ve been scanting the physics content so far with the Tree of SCIENCE!!! posts, so here’s one from my own branch of science: This one is a little Santa/ elf guy with a one-man-band rig, which of course stands for the venerable science of acoustics.