Sand that is always dry
An evening pause: As Arthur Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Tag: science
Eight of the world’s most incredible swimming pools.
Eight of the world’s most incredible swimming pools.
The first is the most astonishing.
The Crab Nebula has flared again.
The Crab Nebula has flared again.
The Russians have announced that their samples from Lake Vostok, buried deep under the Antarctic icecap contains life, one of which is new.
The Russians have announced that their samples from Lake Vostok, buried deep under the Antarctic icecap, contains life, one of which is never before seen.
A sunstone, used by mariners to judge the position of the Sun when it is cloudy, has been found at a 16th century shipwreck.
A sunstone, used by mariners to judge the position of the Sun when it is cloudy, has been found at a 16th century shipwreck.
A previous study showed that calcite crystals reveal the patterns of polarized light around the sun and, therefore, could have been used to determine its position in the sky even on cloudy days. That led researchers to believe these crystals, which are commonly found in Iceland and other parts of Scandinavia, might have been the powerful “sunstones” referred to in Norse legends, but they had no archaeological evidence to support their hypothesis—until now.
Touching the underground ocean of Europa, from Earth.
Touching the underground ocean of Europa, from Earth.
The search to find and understand the Chelyabinsk meteorite.
The search to find and understand the Chelyabinsk meteorite.
Curiosity is easing out of safe mode as engineers switch computers.
Curiosity is easing out of safe mode as engineers switch computers.
We don’t need no solar maximum
It is that time again! Today, March 4, NOAA released its monthly update of the Sun’s sunspot cycle, covering the period of February 2013. As I do every month, I am posting this latest graph, with annotations to give it context, below the fold.
Once again, the Sun has shown a complete inability to produce sunspots, at the very moment it had been predicted to be rising towards its maximum in the sunspot cycle. The numbers in February plunged from the tepid rise we saw in January to below the crash we saw in December. Right now, when the Sun is supposed to peaking, it is instead producing sunspots in numbers as low as seen in 2011, at the very end of the last solar minimum.
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The true national debt.
The day of reckoning looms: The true national debt.
Depending on what you include, the number could be as high as $31 trillion, twice what is normally mentioned. Worse, I’ve read other reports that suggest that even this number is low.
But don’t worry! Homeland Security has got us covered with its new fleet of armored vehicles!
New research concludes that it was a static electric spark that set fire to the Hindenberg in 1937.
New research concludes that it was a static electric spark that set fire to the Hindenberg in 1937.
A newly discovered asteroid will pass within the Moon’s orbit on Wednesday.
A newly discovered asteroid will pass within the Moon’s orbit on Wednesday.
2013EC, as the asteroid has been named, is estimated to be between 30 to 60 feet in diameter.
“This is the biggest meteorite found in East Antarctica for 25 years.”
Two probes named after James Van Allen and designed to study the two Van Allen radiation belts have discovered there is a third intermittent belt.
Two probes named after James Van Allen and designed to study the two Van Allen radiation belts have discovered there is a third intermittent belt.
The meteorite that landed in Russia on February 15 has now been traced to the Apollo family of near Earth asteroids.
The meteorite that landed in Russia on February 15 has now been traced to the Apollo family of near Earth asteroids.
Richard Feynman explains the scientific method.
An evening pause: “It doesn’t make a difference how beautiful your guess is, it doesn’t make a difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is. If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong.”
Scientists are considering revising the guidelines for heart risk as determined by your cholesterol levels.
The uncertainty of science: Scientists are considering revising the guidelines for heart risk as determined by your cholesterol levels.
The ATP IV committee has pledged to hew strictly to the science and to focus on data from randomized clinical trials, says committee chairman Neil Stone, a cardiologist at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago. If so, Krumholz argues, LDL [cholesterol] targets will be cast aside because they have never been explicitly tested. Clinical trials have shown repeatedly that statins reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, but lowering LDL with other medications does not work as well. The benefits of statins may reflect their other effects on the body, including fighting inflammation, another risk factor for heart disease. [emphasis mine]
In other words, the assumption that’s been pushed for more than a decade that lowering your cholesterol will lower your risk of heart attack has never been tested or proven. If this isn’t science by myth I don’t know what is.
“Vulcan” and “Cerberus” win the poll to name Pluto’s two unnamed moons.
“Vulcan” and “Cerberus” win the poll to name Pluto’s two unnamed moons. Key quote:
Vulcan was a late addition to the Pluto moon name contenders, and pulled into the lead after Shatner, building on his Capt. James T. Kirk persona, plugged the name on Twitter. Vulcan, the home planet of Kirk’s alien-human hybrid first officer Spock, is not just a fictional world in the Star Trek universe. It is also the name of the god of fire in Roman mythology, and officials at SETI added the sci-fi favorite to the ballot for that reason.
The world’s smallest optical space telescopes to launch on Monday.
The world’s smallest optical space telescopes to launch on Monday.
Mammoth Cave is now officially longer than 400 miles.
Mammoth Cave is now officially longer than 400 miles.
This official announcement is a bit old, as the survey work that brought Mammoth over 400 miles was probably done during the October or December 2012 expeditions.
Update: I contacted some of my caving friends who survey in Mammoth regularly, and they have confirmed that the survey reached 400 miles during the October 2012 expedition.