There’s a new “Ask a ScienceBlogger” question out: “A question from a friend’s 9-year old son: What is in the air we breathe? What is it’s chemical composition?” The short answer to this is “a little bit of everything.” Pretty much any substance we have on Earth can be found in the atmosphere somewhere. The… Continue reading Ask a ScienceBlogger: What’s in the Air?
Category: Science
FutureBaby Chronicles: Medical Mascot Choice
One of many parts of the FutureBaby! process that I was lamentably ignorant of is the idea of the hospital tour. When I first mentioned to colleagues that we were expecting, many of them (mostly women) asked “Where are you going to have the baby?” My initial response was “How the hell should I know?… Continue reading FutureBaby Chronicles: Medical Mascot Choice
Stability and Pedagogy
(Because nothing brings in readers like a physics pedagogy post…) Out in Minnesota, Arjendu is expressing high-level confusion about the business of lecturing: As I’ve said a few times before in this blog, I prefer to let students read the text to get a preliminary take on physics content on their own, generate questions and… Continue reading Stability and Pedagogy
Science Indicators: The More Things Change, the More They Don’t
Via Sheril, I see that the National Science Board has released a report on Science and Engineering Indicators 2008. It’s chock full of useful and interesting information, particularly if you start poking around with the tables and figures, which are available for download. This ought to produce all sorts of discussion around here, especially given… Continue reading Science Indicators: The More Things Change, the More They Don’t
Framing Stem Cells
With the “Vox Day” business winding down (one way or another), it’s time to unwind with something less contentious and controversial: Framing! No– seriously. Most of the really loud opponents have publically washed their hands of the whole topic, so I expect this will be relatively non-controversial. What could possibly go wrong? Anyway, Janet is… Continue reading Framing Stem Cells
Humorless Scold Smackdown
Inside Higher Ed notes in passing that several NCAA Presidents are complaining about alcohol advertising during the NCAA Tournament. The source for this is a study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest: According to CSPI’s analysis of broadcasts of the semifinal and championship basketball games, the NCAA is exceeding the limits on… Continue reading Humorless Scold Smackdown
Dorky Poll: Calculators
Over at Cosmic Variance, Julianne waxes rhapsodic about her calculator, a HP-15C. This is such an obvious Dorky Poll topic that I can’t believe I didn’t think of it earlier: What sort of calculator do you use? My students, particularly the future engineers, are always shocked by my answer:
What Do You Need to Make a Quantum Computer?
(This is the second of two background posts for a peer-reviewed research blogging post that has now slipped to tomorrow. I started writing it, but realized that it needed some more background information, which became this post. And now I don’t have time to write the originally intended post…) Making a quantum computer is a… Continue reading What Do You Need to Make a Quantum Computer?
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Having brought in a huge new audience at the end of last week– partly through the “framing”/”screechy monkeys” things, but mostly because my What Everyone Should Know About Science post hit the front page on Reddit– I figured I should take this opportunity to… Well, drive them all right the hell away again with a… Continue reading Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
We’re All Gonna Freeze!!!
When I was talking to my parents on the phone last night, my father told me about a guest op-ed in the Press and Sun-Bulletin that might be of interest to some ScienceBlogs readers and bloggers: As if there aren’t enough problems in the world, we are now on the verge of a phenomenon that… Continue reading We’re All Gonna Freeze!!!