Actually it doesn’t matter what you think, I know I am a geek. And frankly, I’m proud of it. Geeks now hold a pretty interesting position in today’s society. It’s like we’re the glue that keeps a lot of the behind the scenes stuff running. And that’s pretty cool. So for a bit of fun (thanks to Maryam for linking to this) … here’s a geek video for you …
Tags: geeks, geek power
This has been making the rounds on the tech news circuit today, but I saw it on the BBC first. This is so amazing that I just had to let it sink in a bit before I could blog it, okay I’ve been busy today too. Anyway, this is the way it works:
The answer the team came up with was "resonance", a phenomenon that causes an object to vibrate when energy of a certain frequency is applied.
"When you have two resonant objects of the same frequency they tend to couple very strongly," Professor Soljacic told the BBC News website.
[snip]
Hence, a …read more
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Hsien-Hsien sent this YouTube video my way last week. Okay the cuteness factor can be a little much, but the experiment is very cool and shows one of the weird science things that is also fun for kids: corn starch and water. Here’s the video:
Okay corn starch is just some wild stuff. In solution is has the property of when hit hard it acts like a solid, when pushed gently a liquid. You can add more water and make slime (little food colouring makes it even more fun) … I hear a little liquid soap in the mix makes for …read more
Yes. Of course it does. It has too, it is sound after all. It has been an urban legend for years though that a duck’s quack doesn’t … proof? Lot’s here …http://buzz.smm.org/buzz/blog/does_a_ducks_quack_echo
SPOILER: Yes, a duck’s quack, like any other sound, echoes. But the WAY a duck quacks, with the long "AAAAAACK" sound at the end of the call, tends to mask echoes, making them hard to hear.
Tags: urban legends
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One of those big questions that has been hanging around for a long time in Physical Anthro (long before Quest for Fire and Clan of the Cave Bear) is the whole Homo sapiens and Neanderthal question. Originally it was thought that Neanderthals were part of our genetic/evoloutionary line. Then it turned out we were all hanging around at the same time. So … how did Neanderthals (a dead-end on the whole Homo sapiens line) influence our genetic makeup? Was there significant interbreeding and intermixing? Looks like … no. Sure it appears to have happened (this should come as no surprise), …read more
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Part of this answer is rather cool, leaves don’t actually turn red (or yellow or orange) … they are always that colour it’s the green chlorophyll that masks it. As trees stop photosynthesis in the fall, the chlorophyll goes away and reveals the "true colours".
There is a greater science question here though. Things in nature don’t just happen for now purpose or reason. The reason why leaves turn, what was the physiological or adaptive strategy in play here, is something of a mystery. ScienceBase linked to a Wisconsin U. article with one theory. In order to store the nutrients and …read more
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From Quirks and Quarks last week (this is a time-sensitive post) …
Elusive Mercury, the fastest, most difficult planet to spot in the sky, will make a rare appearance November 8 as it crosses the face of the sun. Transits of Mercury happen roughly every seven years, although the last one took place in 2003.
These events are not visible to the naked eye, and even with a telescope, they’re not easy to see. But if you can see the sunset next Wednesday, and if you have a telescope with a proper filter (and don’t even think about trying to look at …read more
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Is it too late the change the course we’re set on? Is it too late to turn back the tide of global warming? Maybe, yes, for now. While this post from Sky Watch highlights the real severity of the problem:
Relatively small temperature changes have disproportionately large effects. I have heard people wonder why we should be worried about an increase in the average temperature of, say, 4°C or 5°C during the present century. One answer is that the resulting rise in sea levels would put cities such as New York and London as well as most of Bangladesh and Vietnam …read more
The Hubble space telescope has got to be one of the most amazing pieces of space tech in our lifetimes. From being a piece of busted space junk to an invaluable research tool, Hubble has worked well beyond its planned lifetime. So, one final trip is planned to fix her up before NASA calls it quits.
"Launched in 1990, it was the butt of jokes at first when it wasn’t working properly [the mirrors were improperly installed --Ed.]… In the 13 years since Hubble got a major focusing problem fixed, the telescope has changed the field of astrophysics and what scientists …read more
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Ah Fall. The leaves, the change in the air, the frost. Frost is cool. Okay cold, but what I mean is that it looks cool. In fact the whole process of frost forming is really interesting.
So frost forms when the dew point (the temperature below which water comes out of the air) is below freezing. Now the interesting thing about frost is that it doesn’t form well (if at all) if it’s windy … even a light breeze can stifle frost from forming on surfaces. The next thing is that dew/frost settles down. For example, I park my car in …read more
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