Content tagged science

Blog Entries

Battling UV in southern Chile: “On a typical day here this month, the solar stoplight was set at orange, the second highest of four levels, and … gulfstream/992

Article by Bjorn Lomborg summarising his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. The book argues that: (1) the threat to the environment isn't as … gulfstream/669

Isn’t science wonderful? Imagine explaining this to someone from another planet: to test a theory about how things move (Einstein’s theory … gulfstream/1405

Audio of Malcolm Gladwell’s Feb 21st talk on a possible prodigies/late bloomers dichotomy. (This reminds me: in A Mathematician’s Apology, G.H. Hardy … gulfstream/2007

Quotes Collected

It may also be urged ... that the equalization of risks which science was expected to bring would be in the long run salutary; that a civilian's life … fortune

But Mr. Mankoff says it is possible to organize cartoons not just chronologically but taxonomically, in relation to four vectors: caption, image and two … fortune

delicious

http://futureboy.us/frinkdata/units.txt

Why did the Tasmanians Stop Eating Fish? : Greg Laden's Blog

SPIEGEL Interview with Craig Venter: 'We Have Learned Nothing from the Genome' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

To the Supercave – Blind Descent – James M. Tabor interview – Random House |

Gravity-defying ramps take illusion prize : Nature News

As Freezing Persons Recollect the Snow--First Chill--Then Stupor--Then the Letting Go | Outside Online

http://xkcd.com/681_large/
Visualising the gravitational force of the planets of the solar system.

Why Wine Ratings Are Badly Flawed - WSJ.com
"The judges' wine ratings typically varied by ±4 points on a standard ratings scale running from 80 to 100. A wine rated 91 on one tasting would often be rated an 87 or 95 on the next. Some of the judges did much worse, and only about one in 10 regularly rated the same wine within a range of ±2 points."

How Grandmas May Give Kids an Evolutionary Edge | Newsweek Voices - Sharon Begley | Newsweek.com
Paternal grandmothers do no share any genetic material with grandsons, and so "In six of the seven societies, having a paternal grandmother nearby improved the survival of granddaughters (50 percent X-relatedness) by up to 4.5-fold, but for some unknown reason decreased the survival of grandsons (zero percent) by 8 to 29 percent."

Well - The Human Body Is Built for Distance - NYTimes.com
Another article following the "humans evolved to run fast, over long periods of time" theme.

Books of The Times - ‘Catching Fire’ by Richard Wrangham - Humans, the Cooking Apes - Review - NYTimes.com
"Apes began to morph into humans, and the species Homo erectus emerged some two million years ago, Mr. Wrangham argues, for one fundamental reason: We learned to tame fire and heat our food. “Cooked food does many familiar things,” he observes. “It makes our food safer, creates rich and delicious tastes and reduces spoilage. Heating can allow us to open, cut or mash tough foods. But none of these advantages is as important as a little-appreciated aspect: cooking increases the amount of energy our bodies obtain from food.”"

David MacKay: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air: Contents
great book on the numbers behind climate change, and what we can do to get energy in the future.

13 things that science cannot explain

eurytopy stenotopy - Google Search
how well (or not) is an organism adapted to its habitat?

NASA presentation
Presentation on why NASA should exist

Born To Run
humans are/might be better at running long distances than any other animal on the planet

The Frontal Cortex : The Anatomy of Basketball Expertise

Cooking For Eggheads
it's temperature that's important, not time

Walruses - Animals - Natalie Angier - Science - New York Times

How does one gallon produce 19 pounds of carbon dioxide? - By Daniel Engber - Slate Magazine
engines convert petrol/gas into gas at a rate of about 1:3 by mass

HeLa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
immortal cell line used in medical research

Gregg Easterbrook: Greatest Living American Ignored - Media on The Huffington Post

Tennis, pressure and the gender wage-gap | vox (beta) - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from Europe's leading economists
seems somewhat dubious but i might want to find this again

Wayne Gretzky-Style 'Field Sense' May Be Teachable

Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist Magazine

LRB | Terry Eagleton : Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching
"Such is Dawkins’s unruffled scientific impartiality that in a book of almost four hundred pages, he can scarcely bring himself to concede that a single human benefit has flowed from religious faith ..."

The Loom : Homo floresiensis: Two Years Out

Very cool illusion

Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - Missile Control Systems

Guardian Unlimited | Life | Deep thinkers

Stranger Fruit: Go USA! We're #2 .... kind of ...

The Space Review: "Spirit of the Lone Eagle": an audacious program for a manned Mars landing

Improbable Research

AOL Money & Finance: WSJ.com - The Journal Report: The Case Against Vitamins

Who Can Name the Bigger Number?

Quantum interrogation | Cosmic Variance

New Scientist SPACE - Features - 13 things that do not make sense

125th Anniversary Issue: Science Online Special Feature

Contents | Science and Creationism: A View from the NationalAcademy of Sciences, Second Edition

Science Now Home

Telegraph | News | Leading scientific journals 'are censoring debate on global warming'

Letter from President Summers on women and science