science

Primordial Soup

September 24, 2009
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I found this video of Julia Child explaining the Miller-Urey experiment, and thought I’d share it with you. I don’t know about you, but I wish more of my science teachers had been as enthusiastic about their subject as Julia is. When I first read about this experiment, I got all fired up and was [...]

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five-five-FIVE

September 22, 2009
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Today’s post is about music and science. In this video, a lecture from the World Science Festival, singer Bobby McFerrin demonstrates how humans seem to be hardwired to generate a pentatonic scale. The great thing about the presentation is that it’s not passive. I’m sure you found yourself anticipating the next interval just as the [...]

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Meet a Real Scientist

September 15, 2009
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Before my career path diverged toward web design, multimedia, and other computer-related geekery, I was a biologist. It was something I knew I wanted to be from an early age. When I read about the discovery of the genetic code at MIT, I knew where I wanted to go to college to learn biology. And [...]

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He Fed the World

September 14, 2009
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Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, died this past weekend at the age of 95. I had written about him not to long ago, and now he’s gone, one of the greatest  – and virtually unknown – benefactors of humanity. My headline isn’t hyperbole, it’s fact. Borlaug is singlehandedly responsible for preventing mass famines [...]

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Science is Real

September 1, 2009
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Who knew that the Johns Linnell and Flansburg – aka They Might Be Giants – were pro-science skeptics? I didn’t until I placed an order for their new CD/DVD Here Comes Science on Amazon, where I saw this video: I was so impressed I transcribed the lyrics: Science is real From the Big Bang to [...]

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Galileo’s Telescope

August 25, 2009
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I didn’t need to see the Google home page to remember that today is the 400th anniversary of Galileo constructing his first telescope. That date has been burned into my brain since the sixth grade, and, like many things remembered from grade school, there was a certain amount of suffering involved. I was already a [...]

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Long-Term Thinking

August 1, 2009
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She Who Must Be Obeyed presented me with an early (three months early) birthday present today. Knowing about my fascination with the Clock of the Long Now, she found the sculpture pictured above. It’s a numbered, lost-wax-cast replica of the cam that will be used in the Clock to calculate the plus or minus fifteen [...]

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What They Really Said

July 20, 2009
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This is the conversation I always figured NASA had with Neil and Buzz:

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Thinking About Rethinking Autism

June 17, 2009

“Autism. It’s all over the media. The conversation is focused on causation and cure. It’s time to change the conversation toward hope, support, respect and understanding. The facts are not sexy. So, we got someone who is to explain them.” Using a hot babe to direct attention to autism issues is a stroke of genius. [...]

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Singh for Your Science

June 5, 2009

Simon Singh, British author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Code Book, and Big Bang, is being sued by the British Chiropractic Association for daring to suggest that there is no evidence supporting the use of chiropractic to treat childhood conditions. He is, of course, correct. Chiropractic is utter bullshit with no theoretical framework to support [...]

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