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April 2008 Archives
No, Not A Doomsday Device
by When the LHC in Geneva switches on later this year, is the earth going to be destroyed? Fear not - The odds are hugely in our favour.
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How can infections in a mom-to-be affect her fetus later in life?
by Can mom's influenza lead to mental illness 20 years down the road in the child? Researchers investigate...
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Beauty and Truth
by "Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty" said the poet. I am not sure that is as true as it is beautiful, but scientists do find their work beautiful.
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Jimmy Kimmel: looking to go science-y
Bonus points if you incorporate Matt Damon...
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Carolyn Porco on Titan
Carolyn Porco gave an excellent talk at TED last year. I recommend it. You'll learn about some of the wonderful things that were learned about the Saturn system using Cassini and Huygens. She focuses on the moon Titan, which can teach us a lot about ourselves.
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A Rocking Good Sunday
by As temperatures reached triple digits here in Los Angeles, I retreated to a friend’s pool to cool my heels and other parts. The heat so drained me of motivation, it was all I could do to make dinner and mix my adult beverage. But hey, who does anything worthwhile on a steamy Sunday? Turns out, scientists, that’s who.
COLOSSAL SQUID!
by On Wednesday, a 30 foot long, 900-pound colossal squid hauled up from the Antarctic last January will be studied by a team of scientists... but the catch is, they'll only have FOUR hours!
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Darwin Online!
Want to have a place where you can find all things Darwin? Notebooks, diaries, books, even recipes - to download and to view? Well, the Darwin Online Collection is the place you've been waiting for. Share it with your friends and your students!
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The Black Mallet :: Beyond the Supermarket
by There are no words in this documentary, but the images speak volumes about the role that technology plays in modern agriculture. If you've ever wondered just where your food comes from then you owe it to yourself to watch Our Daily Bread. It documents a slice of life that we seldom get to see beyond the doors of the supermarket.
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Galaxy Bumper Cars
Galaxies are, quite often, far from the safe places that they are usually portrayed as. They're not just the places where the universe keeps its stars. Among other things they've been seen getting up to, they can collide and merge with each other. NASA recently released some images of some of these events...
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Book Awards - Summer Reading
What are you reading this Summer? Time to start planning. The LA Times Book Festival is this weekend. Maybe their lists of notable books, prepared for their awards ceremony, might give lots of ideas. We can start with the Science and Technology category, but don't stop there...
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Join Me At The AAAS Forum!
On May 9, I will speak at the AAAS Forum On Science And Technology Policy about 'Science and the New Media' so I've decided to bring readers, science writers, and bloggers along to my presentation--and I want you!
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The Black Mallet :: Animal Pharm
Zoopharmacognosy and Chemo-ornithology are both pretty big words. 7 syllable words in fact. (I counted). But don't let that scare you. These two scientific disciplines basically take a look at how birds & animals in the wild self-medicate. As we'll see in today's doc Peculiar Potions from the Weird Nature series, some animals appear to have a distinct knowledge of which plants, herbs and chemicals in their natural environment can treat & prevent disease. And some animals, well, they just do it for
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Thank You for Smoking
Confusing the public about evidence that matters to the society is lying on a very large scale. Just like individual lies, though, it takes two to tango. Somebody has to do the lying, and somebody has to do the believing.
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"Expelled" fizzles
Earnings for the Intelligent Design film were much lower than creationists had hoped; are they enough to make an impact?
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A Bright Future
Saturday night I attended North Carolina's 'Celebration of Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education.' If the ceremony reflects the future for math and science, there is certainly reason for hope in tomorrow's leaders.
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Science Doc Series :: God-men vs Scientists
I'm guessing I'm not the only one here with a crack-like documentary addiction. And with literally hundreds of docs popping up each day, trying to spot the good ones online feels a bit like playing Whack-A-Mole. So dear readers, since I've got the "habit", the blog and the wherewithal, I've decided to share some of my favorite online science documentaries in a brand new blog series called: The Black Mallet (after all, I have won a mini-stuffed toy ;>)
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Taking Precocious Too Far
A famous mathematical thorem about the number of colors needed to cover a map has been solved since, but I took it up seriously in my childhood. Or so I thought. A cautionary tale for those who think they "know better"...
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Infectious disease and the birth of the modern city
The modern city, circa 1830: where the sewers overflow with human filth, and outbreaks of water-borne disease wiped out a tenth of the city's population in a matter of weeks.
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"I'd rather be smart than be a movie star"
..says actress Natalie Portman!
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Erratic Boulders
Over a hundred thousand years ago on a normally quiet tropical island, a multi-thousand ton rock, the size of a large house, was suddenly transported a half mile horizontally and about twenty feet uphill. What natural force could possibly account for this?
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Science Policy Forum
"Science and the Candidates" will appear in tomorrow's April 11th issue of the journal Science laying out out how ScienceDebate2008 began, its implications, and where it's going.
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The water problem
Clean water and adequate sanitation are real problems in many areas of the world--World Water Day seeks to raise awareness of the issues surrounding this critical global health tragedy.
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Do the Math
Fifty years after a landmark psychological study into the human propensity to rationalize cognitive inconsistencies, an economist has revealed that the measuring procedures used were flawed. I know you must be shocked that a social scientific study had some failings. No? Okay, me neither, but let’s take a look at what went wrong and why doing the math is so important.
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Time in your Eyes
Last night I watched a great reality-style documentary on the philosopher Derrida, and was struck by something he said; that as we age, our eyes are the only parts of our bodies that remain unchanged. I was curious about what scientific research might be out there to support the notion, so I googled "eyes & age" and came across an interesting study that was conducted recently by Danish scientists.
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The Psychology of an April Fool
Today is the day to make people (temporarily) believe in something they shouldn’t. Okay, maybe that's better stated as: today is the day to remind people that they should know better. April Fool’s Day tests our skepticism, our self-perception, and (often) our patience. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
The Bard of Evolution
Marine paleoecologist Geerat Vermeij is blind. And yet, he sees what others do not...
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