Homely Scientist

Ever wonder if your computer and your Net connection could do more for the world than saving on stamps and paper?  Well, yes it can.  While donating your “spare” CPU cycles is actually not really doing what you think it is–the computer can’t switch into a low-power state with minimal CPU resources with those screensavers going–there are other ways to use your computer and the net for good.  This list of seven things is a great place to start.

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About 10,000 years ago humans started domesticating plants and animals–commonly called the Agricultural Revolution.  In doing this people had to stop their nomadic/hunter-gatherer ways and settle down.  Yes, animals were domesticated first in all likelihood–much easier to move your cow/sheep/goat/horse/dog with you as you move than a patch of grains growing.
Settling down and the development of agriculture is generally seen as the first step to modern human society.  People found they had time to do other things and the need to invent things (plows, pumps, more and different tools)–it all started from there.
One of the big questions has always been …read more

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We all know that TV and movies often don’t jive with science, as Star Wars turns 30 this week Bob MacDonald of the CBC reflects on how lots of Star Wars really didn’t jive with science.

Don’t get me wrong: Science fiction is wonderful. The imaginations of fantasy and fiction writers carry us beyond the ordinary to places where the good guys wear white, the bad guys are cloaked in black, good triumphs over evil, hero and heroine make a perfect couple … it’s Roy Rogers riding a white spaceship, the Three Musketeers with light sabres, what fun. But Star Wars, …read more

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I had a little fender bender last week. Nothing major and no one hurt (very low-speed thing), but I had to get an estimate done for the repair. While I was chatting with the guy doing the estimate I mentioned how my mom used to say “bumpers are for bumping” … sorta in reference to parallel parking…now a days though, not so much. In fact your car bumper is more for esthetics than collision protection. The protection parts are behind the bumper. The bumper, in fact is designed to shatter and therefore disperse the energy …read more

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Tony over at Astronomy Buff went to see Spidey 3 recently.  I haven’t seen it yet, but will probably go soon–maybe even this weekend.  Regardless, like a lot of SciFi, sometimes the “sci” is way to “fi”, if you catch my drift.  How many times have I been watching a TV show or movie and just groaned at the science (or shear and utter lack there of) in the program?  I’ve lost count.  I think the same thing happens to Tony:
I love science fiction and, to a lesser extent, the comic book stuff. I see all the movies and read …read more

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Well I was in San Francisco covering the Web 2.0 Expo for the Blog World Expo.  SF is an awesome city and I wish I had more time there because I would have checked out the Exploratorium, earthquake stuff (though I got a tweet today I think that there were some quakes there recently) and other major SF coolness (come on the cable cars are just awesome).
But … I did get to be geek dad this weekend with A.  She needed a simple machine that could go 2 meters (6.5 feet).  Actually it has to use two simple machines.  And bonus …read more

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You know what yesterday’s post about the kid who made a fusion rector in his basement reminded me of?  Star Trek: First Contact.  Wait, stop shaking your head and hear me out.  Okay the premise of the movie is simple.  Picard, et al must travel back in time to keep the Borg from stopping the first warp drive test (and thus preventing first contact and what would become Starfleet).  Fine, so what’s this have to do with a 17 year old making a fusion reactor in his basement with parts from eBay?
Don’t get it yet?
Think about it.  One person with …read more

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When I’m in the right mood, I like to watch those shows that tell you how consumer products are made.  It’s kinda geeky, but sometimes pretty interesting.
Just watching this afternoon I learned that it only takes 5 minutes for paper to go from hitting the conveyor belt to being cellulose insulation.  Five minutes!  Holey smokes!
Anyway, no matter what my favourite “how is it made” topic is how the ancient Greeks and Romans pressed olives for oil.  See I had to take an “Ancient Technology” class as a part of my Anthro major (I also had to take Chem for my …read more

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To bodly go where no one has gone before … a five year mission …   Okay let’s stop there.  Five year mission!  Yikes!  As NASA is working on getting back on the Moon and establishing a colony there, Mars is in their sights too.  Sending people to Mars.  The dream of many young, potential space traveller (and some older ones too).  Turns out that (with current propulsion technology) the six month trip out, time there, and time back NASA is pretty concerned about how the astronauts themselves will fair.  From the Discovery Channel News…
Anxiety, loneliness and tensions with crewmates, a daily …read more

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This is Tris your favorite geek scientist.  Well at least I hope on your favorite geek scientist.  So I’m not actually writing this blog post, I’m dictating it!  One of the great new features in Windows Vista is speech recognition, so I’m dictating this post into windows live writer instead of typing it.
Speech recognition software as been around for a long time, but until recently computers haven’t been fast enough to really make it worthwhile for most people.  Not only that, you had to buy extra software, in addition to a microphone, to make it work.
This got me thinking about …read more

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