The AIP news feed features a story about a paper suggesting that the universe is ellipsoidal. Or at least, that it was, back in the early days. The work is based on the famous WMAP picture of the microwave background (and no, it’s not because the picture is oblong): As you know, Bob, the picture… Continue reading That, My Liege, Is How We Know the Earth to Be Banana Shaped
Category: In the News
Free the Tripoli Six
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor are currently facing execution in Libya, charged with deliberately infrecting some 400 children with AIDS. An independent scientific study of the matter found that most of the children were infected well before the “Tripoli Six” even entered the country, but the study was dismissed by the court. The… Continue reading Free the Tripoli Six
Take the Bad with the Good
So, the good news is, Gregg Easterbrook is writing about football for ESPN again. His “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” columns are some of the most entertaining football writing around. Here’s hoping he can make it through the whole season without saying something stupid to get himself fired. The bad news is, Gregg Easterbrook is writing about… Continue reading Take the Bad with the Good
Stupid Infinite Universe!
The New York Times has a story about yet another weird extrasolar planet, this one a gigantic fluffy ball of gas bigger than Jupiter, but less dense than water: While gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are made primarily of hydrogen and helium, they also possess rocky cores and crushing pressures within that squeeze the… Continue reading Stupid Infinite Universe!
Cold Atoms for Gravity Probes
This is nearly a month old, now, because I keep saying “Oh, Idon’t have time to do this justice– I’ll write about it tomorrow.” I really need to stop doing that. Anyway, Physics News Update has a story about a scheme to measure gravity using Bloch oscillations, based on a paper in Physical Review Letters.… Continue reading Cold Atoms for Gravity Probes
Pluto Is Not in Genesis
The American Institutes of Physics run an occasionally updated news feed, Physics News Updates, that I have in my RSS subscriptions. Yesterday, for some reason, it coughed up a squib about last week’s Pluto news, which starts: Just as in the Bible Adam achieved dominion over the objects of the earth by naming them, so… Continue reading Pluto Is Not in Genesis
Death and Body Mass Index
In the comments to the recent post on BMI, commenter Colst pointed to another study of mortality and BMI that found significantly higher risks for overweight people. Today, I see that Kevin Beck at Dr. Bushwell’s Chimpanzee refuge has a post describing what I think is the same study, with the title Risk of death… Continue reading Death and Body Mass Index
Pick a Definition, Already!
This morning’s Times bring a story saying that astronomers are still dithering about Pluto. The latest plan would create a new category of “dwarf planets,” and presumably get the International Astronomical Union eaten by Cthullu. My immediate response is: “Jesus, people, make up your frickin’ minds!” Look, the joke is over, ok? The Pluto story… Continue reading Pick a Definition, Already!
What Do You Mean by Normal?
Over at Pure Pedantry, Jake has a nice post about a study showing that the ever-popular Body Mass Index measure is not a good predictor of the risk of heart disease. He’s got a lot of details about the study, including this graph of risk vs. BMI: Now, here’s the thing. This is the second… Continue reading What Do You Mean by Normal?
Relativity and Tiananmen Square
there’s a fascinating article in the TimeS this morning about Chinese physicist Xu Liangying, a man who has led an interesting life, to say the least: The first time he was purged, Xu Liangying was 27, an up-and-coming physicist, philosopher and historian and a veteran of the Communist underground. He had to divorce his wife,… Continue reading Relativity and Tiananmen Square