Homely Scientist

I’m into the weather.  I’m hoping Santa brings me a wireless home weather station this year so I can totally geek out on the weather (and see if I can out forecast the weather reports).  One thing I’m always looking for is live weather data.  Satellite data, radar, everything.  Well thanks to this site I found via LifeHacker, I think I’m part-way to getting my weather data fix.

WeatherBonk is a Google Maps mashup pulling in map data with other weather data like radar images.  The Canadian coverage it’s perfect, but hey I saw that, yes it is raining outside.
Go take …read more

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Via Doc Searles, looks like we’re in for a blow … the Earth that is, and the blow … radiation from solar storms:

Sunspot 930 has just unleashed another big solar flare, an X3-class explosion at 0240 UT on Dec. 13th.

As a result of the blast, a radiation storm is underway. Based on the energy and number of solar protons streaming past Earth, NOAA ranks the storm as category S2: satellites may experience some glitches and reboots, but astronauts are in no danger.

The explosion probably hurled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. (Confirmation from SOHO is still pending.) Sky watchers should …read more

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Remember Space 1999?  That show where the Moon gets blown out of it’s orbit so it and Moonbase Alpha go hurtling across the galaxy?  Oh yeah, I was a big fan as a kid.  Well maybe it will become a reality after all.  Hopefully not the Moon blowing out of orbit part (man that would wreak havoc on the Earth!), but the Moonbase part.  NASA announced a plan to have a moonbase by 2020 and position it (likely) on the South Pole of the Moon.

The plan unveiled by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration this week envisages a manned base …read more

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Remember my post about Mercury crossing the Sun?  Of course you did!  Regardless  Derek Miller’s dad took some really cool pictures of it.  Yes, safely.  Yes through a telescope with the right filters.  Sheesh, you think I’d encourage unsafe science.
Tags: Mercury, astronomy

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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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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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We all knew that mosquitoes are out for blood (the female ones at least), but did you know that they also have a huge sweet tooth?  Yep.  They need nectar and sugar as food (the blood is for egg production and laying).  So some Israeli scientists have found that a sugar solution laced with insecticide is particularly effective and killing the little buggers.  Mosquito comes to lap up some sugar and well, that’s all she wrote.
While I think this is cool and interesting, I’m not a huge fan of insecticides.  I wish they had found a way to spike the …read more

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The recent earthquakes this week probably inspired this post on the Composed Gentleman about dogs and cats as predictors of earthquakes.
This is one of those old science things that has some basis of truth and some basis of skepticism.  This article is rather good at laying out the plus and minus here.  My take away is that if Fido or Frisky start acting stranger than normal (I say this because our cat Ben-Ben is always loopy), it might be a good time to look for cover.  Pets might not be able to predict earthquakes far into the future, but it …read more

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This has been going around the blogosphere this mornnig, but I followed the link from John Battelle’s blog (who I will finally get to meet next week at BBS06). BoingBoing is reporting that Google will use space on roofs and parking lots to put up a ton of solar panels to generate electricity.

The solar firm will build an installation at the Googleplex with a total capacity of 1.6 megawatts ("enough to supply 1,000 average California homes," according to EI’s press release). Equipment will include 9,212 solar panels by Sharp Electronics, to be placed on rooftops and parking lot tops …read more

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