SciTech
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Pramoxine
Today I came up with a theory that fit the facts, then looked up some references that supported the theory. Cool! At dinner today I noticed a red area on my arm around a small scratch I got a couple of nights ago. Neither the red area nor the scratch hurt particularly. It's not infected.… Continue reading
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Inverse Femtobarns
Rich and I have learned a new unit of measurement – the inverse femtobarn. What on earth is a "femtobarn," and what does it have to do with the amount of data an accelerator produces? Rich picked up a copy of the Stanford Report, a daily Stanford newspaper. In the paper was an article entitled… Continue reading
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It’s Physics
There's a joke about Science: If it wiggles, it's Biology. If it stinks, it's Chemistry. If it doesn't work, it's Physics. Perhaps to this we could add: If you don't understand it, it's Quantum Physics. Continue reading
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Are Mac Users Smarter?
Well, yeah…Isn't it obvious? I mean, we use Macs! Duh! Paul Murphy decided to do a little "scientific research" into the subject for his recent article in MacNewsWorld. I doubt it's possible to get a definitive answer, but as long as you don't take any of it too seriously you can have a lot of… Continue reading
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Fun With Meccano
When I was a kid, I wanted an Erector set very much. I think I must have asked for one for ChristmasOrMyBirthday several years in a row before I finally got one! But nothing I might ever have made from my Erector set could come close to the cool stuff that Tim Robinson has done… Continue reading
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Make Your Motor Cortex Dance
"Brain areas that are used to perform an action are also needed to comprehend words related to that action," … "Remarkably, just the reading of feet-related action words such as dance makes [the motor cortex] move its 'feet.'" [cf "The Brain's Word Act: Reading verbs revs up motor cortex areas", by Bruce Bower, in Science… Continue reading
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“Roll ’em” gets a new meaning!
The future of e-paper and rollable displays gets closer. In a major step toward electronic paper that works like a computer monitor yet feels and behaves like a page of a book, researchers in the Netherlands have made electronic-ink displays on flexible plastic sheets. Continue reading
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Verse Meter Analyzer
In The Eyre Affair (a Thursday Next novel), author Jasper Fforde describes Thursday's introduction to the Verse Meter Analyzer: Continue reading
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Terra-cotta warriors show their true colors
The terra-cotta warriors buried near the tomb of the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, present a fierce challenge—to modern-day chemists. Since the site's discovery near Xi'an, China, in 1974, archaeologists have unearthed more than 1,500 of the life-size figures. But once the warriors see the light of day after more than 2,200 years of burial,… Continue reading
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Powers of Ten
One of the coolest coffee table books of all time is Powers of Ten. Back in 1968, designers Charles and Ray Eames made a 10-minute documentary film, titled Powers of Ten , showing what the universe looks like at different scales. Philip and Phylis Morrison were scientific advisors on the movie, which Philip narrated, and… Continue reading
Slightly Off KIlter 