Tag Archives: science

Updated scientific comparisons

Funnybone: March 26, 2011
One evening a gaggle of white-smocked scientists started throwing comparative pejoratives at one another, something like this: - He’s as bored as a geologist on the open sea. - Smart as a monkey with a mass spectrometer. - He doesn’t know a cetacean from a cephalopod. - That’s as much fun as a fragile rectal [...]
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New light on solar cycle and Earth’s climate

Impact: Climate Change    October 8, 2010
Occasionally a piece of news comes along to which you can point and say “Now that’s science.” Here’s one: Scientists at Imperial College London (UK) and the University of Colorado (USA), publishing in Nature [October 7, 2010: An influence of solar spectral variations on radiative forcing of climate] have examined the Sun’s radiation data for [...]
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SF Review: Avatar

Review: September 10, 2010
[James Cameron’s Avatar makes a reappearance this fall of 2010 (a 3-D limited theatrical release, a new set of DVD/Blu-ray disks, stories about sequels). It’s a good excuse to write about the movie, and assume that most have already seen it.] Avatar is no more ‘just a movie’ than the first Star Wars episode was [...]
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Close-out Curios from the Little Shop of Science

Funnybone: May 24, 2010
The Little Shop of Science finds inventory bargains. We’re passing the savings on to you! Forever Flywheel Every laboratory and science classroom needs one of these. As a talisman or juju symbol, nothing beats a “Forever Flywheel” the only PMM (perpetual motion machine) ever briefly acknowledged by the AAAS. It’s the perfect reminder for science [...]
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Climate change consensus: An open letter from 255 Scientists

Spun: May 10, 2010
Sometimes…often…many of the scientific rebuttals to climate change deniers amount to pep-talking the base (an Americanism for rallying those who are already loyal to the cause). Well, sometimes the base needs a good pep-talk. Like now, when the voices of global warming denialism are being orchestrated into a general anti-science chorus. That’s what 255 members [...]
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A guide to science as presented by the Media

Spun: March 28, 2010
Are you one of those people who like stories about science? Do you watch the news about volcanoes in Iceland and goggle at the Rings of Saturn? Then you’re one of the consumers of science as presented by the Media – and this is a guide for you. The Media has an awesome task. The [...]
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Technology predictions so awful, they’re good

Spun: March 2, 2010
Making predictions about future technology, or even the impact of current technology is tempting fate. That is to say, you’re fated to be wrong, much of the time…at best. I should know; it’s what this blog does a lot. However, I’ve always liked the definition of an expert, attributed to Niels Bohr or Werner Heisenberg [...]
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Also tracking: Science and tech disappointments

Impact: General    January 13, 2010
Turning the year to a new decade is bound to produce a wide variety of retrospectives. Lists are always popular. I came across an interesting list the other day at the Scientific American site: 10 Science Letdowns of the New Millennium by Katherine Harmon. The original is presented as a slide show. Why, I’m not [...]
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The horse races of science

Spun: November 11, 2009
Is it any wonder that the media love to dramatize science news with the horse-race metaphor? Not when they get fed (from the horse’s mouth) like these quotes from a single breathless University of Innsbruck release: “…thus narrowly winning an international competition between many first-rate scientific groups.” “…have won a tightly contested race between scientists…” [...]
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