Category: science

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Science Continues to be Unsettled

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Local geology doesn’t yield such a sight, so Frank went back a few weeks later and crawled inside. It was a single shaft, about 15 feet long; at its end, while on his back, he found what looked like claw marks all over the ceiling. Unable to identify any natural geological explanation for the cave’s existence, he eventually concluded that it was a “paleoburrow,” dug, he believes, by an extinct species of giant ground sloth. Continue reading Science Continues to be Unsettled

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Name your poison, pardner

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So I was glancing at the American Council on Science and Health article The Environmental Defense Fund’s Silly Food Chemical Claim, and came across an unfamiliar term, the threshold of toxicological concern (TTC). A bit of link-chasing landed me in the midst of a delightfully geeky set of toxicology tutorials at the ChemSafetyPro website. Probably more than you or I would ever want to know, but it’s all in plain view for the interested. Cool stuff. Tip from Maggie’s Farm. Continue reading Name your poison, pardner

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Some Wu Flu Hacks

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We’re all getting into social distancing big time, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.  And everyone knows about wash-your-hands-don’t-touch-your-face-sneeze-into-a-tissue precautions. But here are four more behavior changes to help avoid infection: avoid those hot-air hand dryers in public restrooms, they’re germ blasters use disposables instead of  reusable shopping bags, they’re mobile petri dishes clean your freakin’ cell phone periodically, it’s a crud collector ditch the face mask, it may increase your risk, and it just makes you look like a poser a$$hole Oh, a pilon:  THE FIVE SECOND RULE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY. Over at Breitbart, John Nolte unleashes a … Continue reading Some Wu Flu Hacks

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News Flash! Men and Women are Different…

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..despite the fact that some folks wish is wasn’t so Neurosexism: the myth that men and women have different brains https://t.co/OOtJaICQ0t — Gina Rippon (@ginarippon1) February 27, 2019 In fact, the National Institute of Health requires that sex be included as a variable in all studies: Sex can influence health & disease in many ways, which is why NIH requires that researchers consider sex as a biological variable (SABV) in all stages of research: https://t.co/G2fy2PxLrJ. Visit @NIH_ORWH for #SABV research tips. #WomensHealthInFocus #ThisIsNIH — NIH (@NIH) January 8, 2019 My favorite line from the review: “The mammalian brain is clearly … Continue reading News Flash! Men and Women are Different…

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Hunting the Wild Placebo

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The New York Times’ Gary Greenberg asks “What if the Placebo Effect Isn’t a Trick?” and gets some interesting answers.  Along the way, he tells the interesting history of the placebo and how it has become a standard in FDA=approved clinical trials.  My only question for the FDA is this:  if someone were to attempt to certify a placebo effect, what would you compare it to? Tip from Drudge, who, like a blind squirrel, occasionally finds a fresh nut, and never leaves a permalink. Continue reading Hunting the Wild Placebo

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The Fourier Transform, explained beautifully

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At the Better Explained blog, Kalid Azad hits another home run with An Interactive Guide to the Fourier Transform. Here’s a plain-English metaphor: What does the Fourier Transform do? Given a smoothie, it finds the recipe. How? Run the smoothie through filters to extract each ingredient. Why? Recipes are easier to analyze, compare, and modify than the smoothie itself. How do we get the smoothie back? Blend the ingredients. Here’s the “math English” version of the above: The Fourier Transform takes a time-based pattern, measures every possible cycle, and returns the overall “cycle recipe” (the amplitude, offset, & rotation speed … Continue reading The Fourier Transform, explained beautifully

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Our National Blind Spot

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Want to save the planet?  How about starting by saving the birds.  Here’s a Pareto graph that gives a strong hint of where to start: That’s right, get the cat population under control.  Eradicate feral cat colonies, and euthanize cat collections (oh, and institutionalize obsessive cat ladies).  The whole country needs to grow up and get that “cute little kitty” lie out of their heads, and replace it with something more realistic, like “bird murderer.” Tip from Bird Note, by way of Sarah Hoyt at the Instapundit. Update:  One Dallas suburb is infested with feral cats, protected by a well-connected … Continue reading Our National Blind Spot

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Science is getting exciting!

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Five very interesting articles recently popped up on the web, suggesting that current science is much more interesting than the average Joe might think: At FiveThirtyEight*, Christie Aschwanden’s Science Isn’t Broken gives a great exposition on scientific fraud, p-hacking, and why science is much more difficult than most folks realize. Robert Matthews, writing in UAE’s The National, says Lone researchers with radical ideas may hold the keys to science’s unanswered questions.  One of those “loners” is “Eleonora Troja, an astronomer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who studies X-rays, had hoped for years to detect the light from a neutron-star … Continue reading Science is getting exciting!

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Deus ex Machina, on steroids

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…is the tagline I’d use to describe Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds’ The Medusa Chronicles, the startling sequel to Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “A Meeting with Medusa.” Baxter and Reynolds are up to their usual tricks of piling wonder atop wonder in their usual over-the-top scenarios, while cleverly maintaining Clarke’s style and tone, AND sneaking in episodes strongly reminiscent of 2001, A Space Odyssey.  An added bonus is the introduction of a “new physics” based on the Mach Principle, which is still puzzling serious researchers today. …local physical laws must be shaped by the large-scale structures of the universe.  … Continue reading Deus ex Machina, on steroids

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Art Meets Science

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On a day that I’m overbooked, running around campus doing minor, but essential chores, and feeling a bit grumpy about the whole academic enterprise, I stumble upon a jewel like this: Not in a gallery or the administration building, but in a hallway between classrooms.  Where thousands of students, and the odd faculty member, can marvel at what talents sometimes pop up where we least expect them. Continue reading Art Meets Science