Daily Popular
- Hoogsteen base pairs: An alternate structure in DNA
- Histones: DNA packaging and much more
- Back to the Future: Cars with hub motors
- Fukushima Meltdown
- Loricifera: Larger life without oxygen
- Rethink the brain: More evidence for the tripartite synapse
- Prions: Not alive but they can evolve
- Oil production from living bacteria
- Government Internet censorship on the rise
- Enhancer RNA (eRNA): More powerful than previously thought
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Category Archives: Commentable
Disk space to burn, literally
The hard disk manufacturer Seagate announced last week (March 23, 2012) that it has achieved the ability to store one terabit of data per square inch of disk. (Sorry about the measurement in inches, but that’s what Seagate, an American company, likes to use in its PR.) In more normal terms, that means relatively soon [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged computer storage, data storage, disk space, HAMR, hard disk, Seagate, TB, terabit per inch, terabyte Leave a comment
Planet GJ1214b remembered
Back in December of 2009 I noted the discovery of a particular exoplanet that might have water, which would make it a candidate for an ‘Earth-like’ planet and therefore a candidate for having life. [SciTechStory: Another Earth: Will we even remember the planet GJ1214b?] I wondered if it’s completely forgettable name would have any meaning [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged Earth-like, exoplanet, GJ1214b, HARPS, Hubble, superfluid water, waterworld Leave a comment
SciTechStory resumes
This isn’t the kind of blog to mention much about personal activity, but as some have noticed, the posting has been spotty to non-existent for almost two months. The cause is the end sprint to finish a book on artificial intelligence, which is now completed. Full daily blogging resumes, and as time allows there will [...]
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Off to Mars. Yes and no.
It hasn’t escaped notice that the Russians (with a Chinese probe) tried sending a mission to Mars, Fobos-Grunt-Yinghuo, which spluttered into low Earth orbit and presumably will fall back to Earth. Meanwhile, NASA the U.S. space agency lofted another Mars mission, MSL Curiosity, that is happily on its way to the Red Planet. If this [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged ESA, Fobos, Grunt, Mars, Mars Curse, Mars mission, NASA, rover Leave a comment
Stem Cells: An excellent coverage of the medical reality
I’ve posted before about the most unusually frank, thorough and intelligent postings on current health issues by the British National Health Service (NHS) called NHS choices, [SciTechStory: Behind the headlines, a systematic source of science candor]. This time I’m drawing attention to a longer piece made available through the site, called Hope and hype: stem [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged Media, medical application, National Health Service, NHS, stem cells, tourist medicine, UK Leave a comment
Mars 500: The simulation ends
The Mars 500 facility, in a parking lot….Credit: ESA, Wikimedia Commons It was, as so many jokingly put it, a real down-to-earth mission to Mars. As in, the mission never left Earth. Beginning June 3, 2010 and ending November 4, 2011, the Mars 500 mission took place in a facility at the Russian Academy of [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged Biosphere, cosmonauts, ESA, Mars 500, Mars mission, microgravity, NASA, space psychology Leave a comment
One voice: Paul Krugman, fracking and solar energy
At best, when an individual such as Paul Krugman (International Trade Economist, Nobel Prize winner in economics and columnist for the New York Times) opine in a public forum, it’s an insightful piece of analysis, a useful expression of sentiment, or an effective way of providing sorely needed background on important issues. Occasionally, however, important [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged alternative energy, energy industry, fracking, Krugman, natural gas, New York Times, Nobel Prize, solar energy, solar panels, solar power 1 Comment
The seven billionth baby
At a relatively arbitrary date, October 31, 2011 at a relatively arbitrary time of 11:58 PM in Manila in the Phillipines (near the International Dateline), a relatively arbitrary baby (Danica May Camacho) was born – the seven billionth person alive on Earth. That is according to the United Nations Population Fund. The U.S. Census Bureau [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged global warming, nuclear holocaust, overpopulation, seven billion, world population Leave a comment
Dennis Ritchie 1941-2011
Not many people outside of the computer industry know of Dennis Ritchie. Most programmers know who he was because whatever their programming language of choice, they know about the continuing influence of the “C” programming language and the Unix operating system. Dennis Ritchie was the primary developer of both. Together “C” and Unix underlie much [...]
Steve Jobs, entrepreneur, artist
Forest Gump, the paragon of grace under incomprehension, remarked about making a great deal of money “from a fruit company.” He had no idea, but the audience did. Everyone saw the image of the colorfully striped apple and knew what it meant. Steve Jobs and his company, Apple Computer, touched almost everybody. Jobs and company [...]
The Nobel Show
There is nothing else like it in science, the annual awarding of the Nobel Prizes for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry and economics. I wish the awards were as eagerly anticipated by the world’s populations as say the Super Bowl or the World Cup; but this is the biggest show in science. I also wish [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged chemistry, economics, medicine, Nobel, physics, physiology, PR, show Leave a comment
The Prestige: China orbits practice unit
The Heavenly Palace is in orbit, or at least the first practice piece – Tiangong 1 – is in orbit. CNSA, the Chinese National Space Agency reports that the 10.5 meter cylinder is designed to practice docking and other aspects of orbital navigation over the next 3-5 years, with the ultimate goal being a functioning [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged China, CNSA, Heavenly Palace, ISS, NASA, space platform, Tiangong Leave a comment
Kindle Fire ices the future of pads
Many moons ago Apple brought forth the iPad and it was well received. This was a minor miracle as all the pad or tablet computers that had gone before it were great disappointments, each failing to bring excitement or even utility to the tablet format. The iPad, as usual the slightly eccentric somewhat overpriced Apple [...]
Posted in Commentable Tagged Amazon, Bezos, E-Books, Jobs, Kindle Fire, media player, pad format Leave a comment
Faster than light neutrinos: Heads roll