Geek Pop: Interviewing Kepler
Yes, I interviewed (briefly) the legendary astronomer backstage at GeekPop ’10. The full text is up here, at the geekpop site.
Science
Last one alive wins.
Science Daily takes a close look at how psychopaths’ brains are shaped by rewards: Previous research on psychopathy has focused on what these individuals lack […]
Science Art: Plate IV. Tapeworms by William Miller, after P. Syme
Another engraving by the Scotch Quaker, mentioned here previously. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
Fire from ice.
Discovery News finds a strange new source of energy – gas hydrates, solid chunks of frozen natural gas better known as combustible ice: In China, […]
“If it doesn’t exist then they don’t have a favorite planet.”
Hate Mail From Third Graders is NOVA’s tribute to Pluto’s lost status as ninth planet. The letters (to Hayden Planetarium director Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson), […]
Flu’s in your head.
BBC has an interesting report on the psychological dimensions of flu: While it seems obvious that we feel under-par when we are ill, Dr Harrison […]
Oxytocin and roses….
New Scientist recently got all romantic with an intrepid researcher’s chemical expose of her big fat geek wedding: WE’D booked the venue, chosen the bridesmaids’ […]
Science Art: “Rocket Ride Is New Planetarium Exhibit,” Popular Science Monthly, April 1938
Click to embiggen slightly Hey, look! PopSci just put 137 years of back issues on the internet for free. Science-aesthetic treasure! They’re at Google Books, […]
Evolution made us conservative, not smart.
LabSpaces shares some interesting research on the role of novelty in human development: An earlier study by Kanazawa found that more intelligent individuals were more […]
Beethoven isn’t Beethoven any more.
Slate has a great piece on why the piano we hear now ain’t the instrument great composers wrote on – and how that changes the […]
Snake eating dinosaurs.
Not dinosaurs that eat snakes, Wired says, but snakes that paleontologists discovered eating dinosaurs: But in 2001, University of Michigan paleontologist Jeff Wilson, took a […]
Plasma drive’s silver lining.
AFP takes a sunnier look at NASA’s budget trimming. Sure, the government agency said they won’t be landing people on the moon or Mars any […]
Cute little dinosaurs.
Discovery News has the sweetest report on tiny pterosaurs flitting about with songbirds: “I think that a group of small pterosaurs was feeding together near […]
Science Art: Nikola Tesla’s Letterhead
If you’re one of history’s greatest electrical inventors, it is only suitable to have stationery that’s equal to your stature. The central image is of […]
The wise nap.
UC Berkley has me hankering for some shut-eye… for my brain’s sake: In the recent UC Berkeley sleep study, 39 healthy young adults were divided […]