Analysis of data from the European Space Agency’s Planck mission has found some new things about our universe, including: It’s older than we believed, at about 13.81 billion years. It’s expanding more slowly than we expected. It’s made up of 4.9 percent normal matter, 26.8 percent dark matter, and 68.3 percent dark energy. And finally, [...]
Re: the KT event: So, a 30-odd thousand year period of hardship punctuated by a major impact event resulting in the extinction of 75% of all terrestrial species. For perspective, 30 thousand years ago Homo Sapiens were sharing the planet with several competing hominid species still, had yet to colonize the Americas and probably numbered [...]
The Economist article on Islam and science is focused on reporting the good news that science is returning to Muslim countries: that rulers (sigh, rulers) and governments are funding universities and research at levels even the West would envy. That is good news. The article makes a surprising turn, however, that make the Islamic world [...]
In June of this year, Japanese researchers published their findings that cedar trees in Japan indicated a surge in Carbon-14 production. This particular Carbon isotope is produced when energetic particles from space transform atmospheric nitrogen into carbon. A UCSD student found the following reference in the The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A.D. 774. This year the Northumbrians [...]
Carl Sagan on Science
The BBC writes: “The world’s oldest undeciphered writing system, which has so far defied attempts to uncover its 5,000-year-old secrets, could be about to be decoded by Oxford University academics.” The rest of the article reveals something a little less dramatic and a lot more scholastic, but, interestingly, the post is under the Business section [...]
Okay, maybe I should have been a scientist. No matter, I’m really enjoying the chance to revisit the basics of science with my daughter. In particular, I came across NASA’s Earth Observatory. The great thing about sites like this, full of content that is, is that spelunking is such a joy in and of itself, [...]
Gregory Schrempp is my folk hero for the week: writing about science for The Huffington Post. Nice, very nice.
As a lover of old fountain pens, I knew there was a reason to be fond of cellulose: it’s the new wonder material according to New Scientist.
Stephen Colbert + Neil deGrasse Tyson = Awesomeness.
I don’t know much more about the current research into Homo floresiensis than the title of this post suggests, but I do know that I would love to be one of the researchers at that site: it has to be one of the greatest places on earth right now to have a real, as in [...]
New DNA analysis shows ancient humans interbred with Denisovans. I was unaware that my knowledge of human evolution had fallen so far behind. What we know about early hominids has exploded in the last decade. Can anyone out there recommend a good book that can catch me up? Our Family Tree
I’m tempted to sigh “Ah, those scientists and their ability to chart just about anything,” but I don’t think it wise to dismiss such efforts. You just never know where the breakthrough will come from. Nature magazine has a report on the latest effort which points to a peak in violence here in the USA [...]
Google Earth Time Machine found an oxbow lake being formed in Texas using imagery from 1944, 1995, 2004, 2006, and 2010. It’s a fantastic series of images and a terrific reminder that real science, and history, work can be done using seemingly consumer tools like Google Earth. That reminder is important to all of us: [...]