Tom Chivers is on top form at the Telegraph.
God help me I have met such ignoramuses.
And yes, I use that term advisedly. My take on Chiver’s piece is not that everyone ought to know science but that it is bizarre - and I think very British - for people to revel in their [...]
Posts under ‘Science’
Science isn’t dull…
Hell
This is for Julie,
Dr. Schambaugh, of the University of Oklahoma School of Chemical Engineering, Final Exam question for May of 1997. Dr. Schambaugh is known for asking questions such as, “why do airplanes fly?” on his final exams. His one and only final exam question in May 1997 for his Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer [...]
Sir Patrick Moore
I know this is late. I know I should have written about his death but I didn’t. I didn’t know what to say. So I shall say what I can now for it is the least I can.
Patrick Moore didn’t make me look to the stars exactly but he fostered on these rainy isles [...]
I break the laws…
… but not of physics. I don’t violate the laws of physics because I can’t. They are the great leveler. I mean if I could break the laws of thermodynamcs I’d be pitching a perpetual motion machine to Theo and Deborah on “Dragon’s Den”. If I could exceed the speed of light I’d be posting [...]
Pignorance
This worries me what if it sets off something awful. I know i dont know anything about it but i tend to agree with why?
-Ri commenting on Wired.
Well the why is possibly explained that the mantle explains earthquakes and the Japanese government is the major funder. One does not wonder why that might be?
Not [...]
Intuition
This is interesting. I do wonder mind. My personal suspicion is that this is to do with the time delay of consciousness. Nobody could drive a car or play football of fly an F-16 (either a real one or a game one) if they had to think about it. It apparently takes 1/2s to consciously [...]
Wow
Much as I question pert near every decision Barry makes, some do leave me feeling good inside…..even if I remain unhappy about spending in general.
L2? Really?
Care of The Reference Frame:
We’ve known since February that the leading candidate for NASA’s next major manned mission is a station located at the L2 Earth-Moon Lagrange Point out beyond [...]
How to get to the stars…
The Alcubierre drive (or Alcubierre metric see: Metric tensor) is a speculative idea based on a valid solution of the Einstein field equations as proposed by Miguel Alcubierre by which a spacecraft might achieve faster-than-light travel, making travel to other stars a possibility. However, it should be understood that this is different from a ship [...]
Cats and Dogs.
In my third year as an undergraduate (at Nottingham) I wanted to do an “animal” experiment. I had to figure-up a couple of 10 creds each experiments. The first was to do with oscillations and bra design and “jiggling” (I was very serious and dear me bloody Loughbrough University did do research a couple of [...]
God Might Play Dice.
Congrats Peter Higgs! It looks like you got it right in 1964.
watch?v=e7t7CWZcZuc
Now this is kinda cool but wouldn’t it have cooler if CERN hadn’t found the Higg’s Boson. I might have to have re-saddled the horse. Because if the Standard Model is true then in a sense that is a bit dull, really. I [...]
Mermaids.
There is no evidence that mermaids exist, a US government scientific agency has said.
The National Ocean Service made the unusual declaration in response to public inquiries following a TV show on the mythical creatures.
It is thought some viewers may have mistaken the programme for a documentary.
“No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found,” the [...]
Adolph for the Tenner…
The ten pound note has to be replaced soonish. There would appear to be a serious rick-rolling of Alan Turing here which made me think “Who else?”. Now don’t get me wrong. Alan Turing would be fine with me. As would, in principle, James Maxwell (a man who is nowhere near as publically honoured as [...]
The Jerem(iad) Hunting of the Snark
According to The Guardian the greatest mystery of modern times has been solved by a cosmetic gynaecologist* from Florida. Yes, he has found the G-Spot of legend! The spot that launched a thousand Cosmos.
An aside: is it just me or are those magazines for ladies getting more bizarre in their sex “advice”. Cosmo or [...]
Vat Burger
Well, there finally seems to be a head of steam behind artificial meat. Time indeed will tell if this is economic nonsense - certainly they’ll have to do an unprecedented number on getting production costs down because this stuff ain’t exactly going to be competing with a bit of genuine Aberdeen Angus any time soonish. [...]
Why I became a libertarian and learned to love…
…the unbridled lust for absolute power.
I first saw the birds flying against the Zulus in the early ’60s (or early ’90s - depending on your view of reality). And I did it, and why not me? I was afterall the President of an English Democratic Empire that spanned three continents (and some strategic offshoots). I [...]
