Science

Fri - July 13, 2007

Lunatic Stalks my Alma Mater

The crazies weren't so threatening when I was working my way toward a biology degree at CU. In fact, the crazies were on the left; one time, a group broke into our lab and opened several freezers where years worth of research in the form of frozen microscopic nematode worms were stored, promptly killing them all in some misguided effort to save the planet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure we all want to save the planet, but if you're crazy, you'll likely only make things worse.

Like the guy who's currently making death threats against CU biologists.

Posted at 03:49 PM

Wed - July 11, 2007

Underground Laboratory

My old home state South Dakota has been chosen to host the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab at the Homestake Mine in the Black Hills. More analysis here at Cosmic Variance. Click on the picture below for a much bigger version.

Posted at 12:39 PM

Sat - June 9, 2007

If it Sounds Science-y, is it?

In my last post, I sounded loud the trumpet call for the scientific method, while in an earlier post, I decried pseudo-science.

What's tricky is that not all purveyors of pseudo-science are obvious nit-wits. Some pseudo-scientific charlatans come across as reasonable, likable, and apparently conversant in a wide range of official-sounding facts. Even those with open eyes can be fooled into accepting pseudo-science and propaganda as real if deceit is applied craftily enough.

Take for instance, Michael Chrichton. He is fast earning himself a reputation as a a master of half-truths, logical errors, and straw-men to persuade others to his pseudo-science-supported point of view.

Unfortunately, he's a very persuasive man; I imagine many scientists wish they could come across half as smoothly. Being right is hardly a consolation when the vapid media sound-bites reality to conform to the will of the most charismatic.

Posted at 09:15 PM

Fri - June 8, 2007

Reason's Dilemma

Most people accept the fruits of the scientific method that result in cars, iPods, telephones, cell phones, polio vaccinations, the internet, lap-tops, antibiotics, pictures of the Andromeda galaxy, and cancer treatments that work slightly better each decade.

However, some people turn around and question results using THE VERY SAME SCIENTIFIC METHOD that produced all the foregoing when that method turns its iterative truth-finding lens on evolution, climate, the unsupported claims of alternative medicine, and even the age of the earth.

Essentially, it comes down to people being happy to accept the scientific method when its application does not challenge their pre-conceptions and they don't have to think about it.

But when the scientific method produces a finding that disrupts a cherished world-view, a surprisingly large population of supposedly rationale human beings stand blithely in the face of every other example of the scientific method's validity to claim, with no evidence for their counter-claim other than what they WISH were true, that the science is wrong.

The scientific method is NOT a body of knowledge; it is a formalized system for investigating reality. It peels away layer after layer of obfuscation to get closer to the truth.

Even better, the scientific method is a self-correcting set of procedures that reveals even the fabrications and mistakes of its earlier iterations. In time, science eventually overturns even the most cherished notions of scientists themselves.

Science doesn't want to make you happy or feel secure. Science doesn't want anything--its methods simply allow us to get closer and closer to reality.

Posted at 10:08 AM

Tue - June 5, 2007

Waste heat Into Electricity

Lately I've been wishing there was some way to capture the waste heat that comes off my Xbox 360, or for that matter, my lap-top. Apparently, other people have been doing more than wishing; they've been working on a solution.

Orest Symko, a U. of Utah physicist and his doctoral students have developed small devices that turn heat first into sound and then electricity. "The technology holds promise for changing waste heat into electricity, harnessing solar energy and cooling computers and radars."

Symko says that he foresees his devices as being a viable alternative to expensive photovoltaic cells within "a few years." Wow.

I hope that promise is fulfilled.

And, on a less serious note--could noise-cancelling headphones one day be powered by noisy offices?

Posted at 04:44 PM

Mon - May 7, 2007

Can You Tell the Difference?

Pseudoscience masquerades as science, but it doesn't use any of the mechanisms of the scientific method to reach conclusions.

When you see those ghosthunters on the scifi channel waving around devices to measure electromagnetic spikes and what-not, you're seeing people who've merely appropriated the trappings of science to lend unearned credibility to their enterprise.

Examples of pseudoscience posing as actual science abound, and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the two.

Here is a handy chart included in this article, Distinguishing Science and Psuedoscience, that highlights examples between the two:

Science	Pseudoscience
Their findings are expressed primarily through scientific journals that are peer-reviewed and maintain rigorous standards for honesty and accuracy.	The literature is aimed at the general public. There is no review, no standards, no pre-publication verification, no demand for accuracy and precision.
Reproducible results are demanded; experiments must be precisely described so that they can be duplicated exactly or improved upon.	Results cannot be reproduced or verified. Studies, if any, are always so vaguely described that one can't figure out what was done or how it was done.
Failures are searched for and studied closely, because incorrect theories can often make correct predictions by accident, but no correct theory will make incorrect predictions.	Failures are ignored, excused, hidden, lied about, discounted, explained away, rationalized, forgotten, avoided at all costs.
As time goes on, more and more is learned about the physical processes under study.	No physical phenomena or processes are ever found or studied. No progress is made; nothing concrete is learned.
Convinces by appeal to the evidence, by arguments based upon logical and/or mathematical reasoning, by making the best case the data permit. When new evidence contradicts old ideas, they are abandoned.	Convinces by appeal to faith and belief. Pseudoscience has a strong quasi-religious element: it tries to convert, not to convince. You are to believe in spite of the facts, not because of them. The original idea is never abandoned, whatever the evidence.
Does not advocate or market unproven practices or products.	Generally earns some or all of his living by selling questionable products (such as books, courses, and dietary supplements) and/or pseudoscientific services (such as horoscopes, character readings, spirit messages, and predictions).

Posted at 09:02 AM

Thu - March 15, 2007

Herbertsmithite: A New Form of Matter?

What if what we consider to be fundamental particles really arise from a deeper structure in the universe? And what if a form of matter associated with this deep structure had the unfortunate name of herbertsmithite?

-http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19325954.200&feedId=online-news_rss20

Posted at 10:26 AM

Wed - February 21, 2007

Characteristics of an Alien World Discerned

The Bad Astronomer describes how we've discerned specific characteristics of an alien world. Holy crap!

[We have discovered] planets more massive than Jupiter yet only a few million miles from their stars. They have one face locked toward their star, and the other forever facing away. They have deeply buried clouds of steam, high altitude bands of dust, and a lot of wind which whips around the planets, warming up the night sides and keeping the atmosphere from literally freezing out.

Posted at 02:23 PM

Thu - February 15, 2007

Science, Enemy or Ally?

Seth Shostak provides us a lucid analysis of why the overwhelming majority of people prefer news of Anna Nichole Smith to newly snapped images of entities whose size is unmatched in this universe. If what I just said doesn't describe you, then apparently you're one in a thousand.

Posted at 11:12 AM

Tue - January 2, 2007

SEED magazine

I've been a long-time subscriber of Scientific American magazine, and a short-time subscriber to Wired magazine. I've enjoyed them both. But for Christmas I was given a subscription to Seed magazine. It was love at first read. This year, I'm afraid I'll allow those other subscriptions to lapse, at least for the time being. I want to see if Seed can keep me as engrossed over the whole year as its Nov and Dec issues.

One of the reasons I am enjoying Seed so much (beyond the novelty of merely having a new magazine) is because of its inclusion of cool little features I haven't seen in other publications. Take the spine. Funny color code on both my issues. Sort of look like a rainbow. A rainbow with dark lines. Reminded me of something... something you'd get with a diffraction grating? I put the magazines spine by spine and saw the dark lines on each did not match. Ah ha! I realized these might be spectrographs, each one the chemical signature of a different element. It turns out November is Nitrogen, December Oxygen. It was a fun little discovery to make.

This and other interesting layout surprises in the magazine, along with the articles which are interesting while not overdosing on details a lay person doesn't have the background to fully appreciate (I'm talking to you here, SA), have me sold. If you're looking for a new magazine to pick up for the new year, give Seed a shot.

-http://www.seedmagazine.com/

UPDATE: one free issue

Posted at 09:32 PM

Thu - October 12, 2006

RuBot, the Rubik's Cube-Solving Robot

In a world where robots can solve Rubik's cubes, can human servitude to our new overlords be far behind?

Posted at 11:54 AM

Mon - September 11, 2006

Freaky Thought of the DAY

David Brin brings us today's Freaky Thought(TM):

The first genetic map of colon and breast cancer shows that nearly 200 mutated genes -- most of them previously unknown -- help tumors start, grow and spread. The findings could lead to new treatments for cancer and better ways to diagnose...
"The vast majority of these genes were not known to be genetically altered in tumors and are predicted to affect a wide range of cellular functions, including transcription, adhesion, and invasion," they wrote in their report published in the journal Science. "We anticipate that as The Cancer Genome Atlas scales up, we may be able to identify the majority of genetic changes that cause the most important and common forms of the major cancers," I mean dang. When the process becomes this involved, this complex, this inter-dependent, you have just got to start wondering in extremely science fictional ways. These mutations are starting to look less and less like “accidents” and more and more like something meaningful, as in some Greg Bear novel.
What if you turned ALL of the mutations on... AT ONCE??? Hm...

Darwin's Radio, anyone?

Posted at 04:41 PM

Thu - May 4, 2006

Albert-bot

I've seen photos of the Einstein robot before, but the video sort of creeps me out. This bot falls directly into the Uncanny Valley, in my opinion.

-http://www.geekland.org/the-einstein-robot/

Posted at 04:28 PM

Thu - April 13, 2006

Transitory Species, I Wonder?

Take a look at this 135 foot long web page, where 1 pixel equals 30,000 years, and be amazed at the vast tract of time the fossil record indicates life on earth languished as mere single-celled organisms. Multicellular life had its hundreds of millions of years, too, without being bothered by the presence of higher orders. If you scroll ALL the way to the right, you'll see how briefly we've been walking around thinking, planning, and doing whatever it is humans will end up being known for on some future 270 foot long web page-analogue.

-http://andabien.com/html/words/evolution-px.htm

Posted at 11:33 AM

Tue - March 28, 2006

42 Really Is the Answer to Life, Universe, and Everything?

So, prime numbers are sorta weird, right? Only divisible by themselves and 1. They don't seem to appear in the landscape of numbers according to any equation, though the famous Riemann Hypothesis predicts one regular pattern primes might display in their distribution--which turns out to correspond with quantum properties of atoms! You know, atoms, the building blocks of matter and our discernible reality.

-This article explains why 42 was so important to this discovery.

And we've known this since 1972? I was never clued to this in school--the idea that prime numbers, as random and unconnected as they seem to be, might actually be a manifestation of physical reality... Well, in my second career, I think I'll go back to school to get a double major in physics and mathematics :-)

Posted at 08:39 AM

Dark Energy Stars and Quantum Critical Shells

Quantum Computer Answers Question Before It's Asked?

Accelerating rate of innovation=immortality?

getCategoryName("C203738037");