Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
August 5, 2011
March 25, 2011
carbon footprint
check out this interactive website to get an idea of what you're leaving behind . . . and to admire the presentation of information in a really neat way.
http://visualization.geblogs.com/visualization/co2/#/food_banana_kilo
http://visualization.geblogs.com/visualization/co2/#/food_banana_kilo
February 3, 2011
some things never change
the uncertainty and unpredictability of life hit us all pretty hard when "they" declared that pluto was not a planet. if pluto is not a planet, what other stuff did you learn as a kid that really wasn't true? maybe george washington really didn't cut down the cherry tree and it was the first presidential cover-up? maybe my whole life is nothing but a stack of lies?
it made me feel better to learn this morning that the speed of light was fixed in 1983 and that it can never be changed--finally something stable to hold onto that will be true even when most of your generation has alzheimer's. so just memorize this once and you can be the elevator genius forever: speed of light = 299,792,458 meters per second.
and it's not just a fact to show off your vast knowledge --though certainly it could be used that way!-- you never know when seeming trivia could get you out of a tough scrape. imagine a hostage situation and the bad guy says: "i'll let anyone who knows the speed of light go free" or maybe if you inadvertently get embroiled in a CIA plot while on vacation in an exotic resort and the password for all the true agents is the speed of light...really this information could be life saving.
if you're just memorizing it to impress others no one would blame you, but consider taking it even a step further and question aloud whether it is true that all photons must move at the speed of light (per Einstein's theory of relativity)....read details and see cool pictures at http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/03/magic-rays-may.html#more
it made me feel better to learn this morning that the speed of light was fixed in 1983 and that it can never be changed--finally something stable to hold onto that will be true even when most of your generation has alzheimer's. so just memorize this once and you can be the elevator genius forever: speed of light = 299,792,458 meters per second.
and it's not just a fact to show off your vast knowledge --though certainly it could be used that way!-- you never know when seeming trivia could get you out of a tough scrape. imagine a hostage situation and the bad guy says: "i'll let anyone who knows the speed of light go free" or maybe if you inadvertently get embroiled in a CIA plot while on vacation in an exotic resort and the password for all the true agents is the speed of light...really this information could be life saving.
if you're just memorizing it to impress others no one would blame you, but consider taking it even a step further and question aloud whether it is true that all photons must move at the speed of light (per Einstein's theory of relativity)....read details and see cool pictures at http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/03/magic-rays-may.html#more
January 25, 2011
Amoebae farm
NY Times, today, January 25, 2011 -
A certain kind of amoeba, dictyostelium discoideum, can spread seeds, cultivate the fruit, and finally collect - and eat - the crop. The amoebae don't eat all of the food they grow; they save some for later. Within a group of amoebae (a family?), only about 1/3 of the amoebae can serve as farmers. I don't know whether there are boy amoebae and girl amoebae. Hunters and gatherers? The short blurb reports that this kind of amoebae can reproduce either sexually or asexually (so I guess there must be boys and girls).
A certain kind of amoeba, dictyostelium discoideum, can spread seeds, cultivate the fruit, and finally collect - and eat - the crop. The amoebae don't eat all of the food they grow; they save some for later. Within a group of amoebae (a family?), only about 1/3 of the amoebae can serve as farmers. I don't know whether there are boy amoebae and girl amoebae. Hunters and gatherers? The short blurb reports that this kind of amoebae can reproduce either sexually or asexually (so I guess there must be boys and girls).
January 21, 2011
1,000,000,000,000,000
1,000,000,000,000,000 = one quadrillion = # of connections in your brain
come on, how do they know this? how can it be disproved? one of my quadrillion connections must be loose.
come on, how do they know this? how can it be disproved? one of my quadrillion connections must be loose.
January 11, 2011
Waves ... in the ocean
Per an article in Vanity Fair (February 2011), the tallest wave ever recorded to have been surfed was around ninety feet tall - that's maybe 7-8 stories high. And, it was a 45 year old (Ken Bradshaw) who did it. But, he needed some help from a friend on a Jet-Ski who towed him into the 'intercept' of a wave. It happened on Oahu.
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