The Washington Post has an article this morning headlined Navy Wins Exemption From Bush to Continue Sonar Exercises in Calif.: The White House has exempted the Navy from two major environmental laws in an effort to free the service from a federal court’s decision limiting the Navy’s use of sonar in training exercises. Environmentalists who… Continue reading The Importance of Connotations in Headline Writing
Category: Science
The Race for Absolute Zero
The second half of the NOVA special on “Absolute Zero” aired last night. Like the first installment, it was very well done, avoiding most of the traps of modern pop-science television. There were some mysterious shots of amusement park rides when they started talking about quantum mechanics, and I’m not sure why, but they kept… Continue reading The Race for Absolute Zero
Important TV Reminder
The second part of the NOVA program Absolute Zero airs tonight on PBS stations. The first part, “The Conquest of Cold” covered the theory and technology of refrigeration, while this segment, “The Quest for Absolute Zero” will include all the fun atomic physics stuff leading up to the achievement of Bose-Einstein Condensation in 1995. Check… Continue reading Important TV Reminder
True Lab Stories: The Oaf Effect
It’s been a while since I did one of these (see “How to Tell a True Lab Story” for an explanation), but yesterday’s laser tech story reminded me of one. The lab next to mine in grad school also used an argon ion laser to pump another laser, but they were much more cramped for… Continue reading True Lab Stories: The Oaf Effect
The Conquest of Cold
The first half of NOVA’s Absolute Zero program aired last night, and I was able to watch the whole thing. Well, more or less– it was a long day, so I was drifting off a little bit about fifteen minutes in, and didn’t get all of the Michael Faraday story, but a phone call woke… Continue reading The Conquest of Cold
Abstinence Doesn’t Age Well
I occasionally joke that some of the articles passing through my EurekAlert feed ought to be published in the Journal of “Well, Duh!”, but I think this one takes the cake: Teens find the benefits of not having sex decline with age: The study, reported in the January 2008 issue of the “American Journal of… Continue reading Abstinence Doesn’t Age Well
Tachyon Movies
Via a back channel, the Gardner Project of EniTech Research. They have an argon laser, so you know it’s science!
An Overabundance of Answers
As nearly everybody with a blog has already noted, the annual “World Question Center” question has been posted, with answers from the usual huge range of thinkers. This year’s question: When thinking changes your mind, that’s philosophy. When God changes your mind, that’s faith.
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.
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… Continue reading Scientists and Indie Rockers