January 08, 2006
Science on Screen: Richard Feynman 01/16/06
Science on Screen:
Richard Feynman: No Ordinary Genius
with guest speaker Stephen Wolfram
At the Coolidge Corner Theater Mon Jan 16 7:00co-presented by the Museum of Science and New Scientist magazine
'I'm an explorer, OK? I like to find out!' - Richard Feynman
Filmmaker Chistopher Sykes looks into the life and mind of theoretical physicist and adventurer extraordinaire Richard Feynman in this intimate, moving, and quite funny account of the most extraordinary scientist of his age. With a unique combination of dazzling intellect and touching simplicity, Feynman had a passion for physics that was merely the Nobel Prize-winning part of an immense love of life and everything it could offer. He was hugely irreverent and always completely honest—with himself, with his colleagues, and with nature. Sykes used this film (and several other documentaries he made on Feynman) as the basis for his best-selling book of the same name.
Stephen Wolfram is a scientist, author, and business leader. He is the creator of Mathematica, a groundbreaking software program that can quickly perform mathematical calculations and produce three-dimensional graphic images. He is the author of A New Kind of Science, and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. His relationship with Feynman began at Caltech - Wolfram was 18, Feynman was 60 - and they remained close over the course of ten years.
January 02, 2005
Salt Water Gargle
My throat hurts, i cannot believe i am getting another cold. i was deciding whether to gargle with salt water. i decided on YES when i found thisNews Review from Harvard Medical School -- Inhaler May Limit Spread Of Germs
December 2, 2004It seems like it could be a similar mechanism to the Zinc sprays which i use because they do seem to help shorten colds and limit disease spread, and because it cannot really hurt. Research (sponsored by the company) suggests many reasons why it helps. Salt is a hell of a lot cheaper, though, and can reduce inflammation by simple osmosis when used in moderation.Inhaling salt water as an aerosol spray may reduce the number of germs exhaled and therefore the spread of germs, says a small study reported November 30 by the Associated Press. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the effects lasted about six hours after using the salt-water treatment. Harvard University researchers concluded that the treatment turned nasal fluids into larger droplets that were less likely to be exhaled.
More in link
i plan to use BOTH methods, i am tired of this.
December 30, 2004
Why Hair Goes Gray
DFCI scientists discover cellular roots of graying hair; could shed new light on malignant melanoma
Few things about growing older are as inevitable and obvious as "going gray," yet scientists have been unable to explain the precise cause of this usually unwelcome transformation.Much more in linkIn a report posted on Dec. 23 on the website of the journal Science, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston say they have found the cellular cause of graying hair while investigating the origins of malignant melanoma, the potentially deadly skin cancer.
October 09, 2004
Rescue Factors
Look for the TV show of the same name next fallEmbryonic Stem Cells Correct Congenital Heart Defect in Mouse Embryos
Can Signal Neighbor Cells to Repair
NEW YORK, October 7, 2004A study published in the October 8 issue of Science describes a previously unsuspected capacity of embryonic stem cells to influence neighboring defective cells and restore their capacity to function normally.Much more in link and at salon.com (registration required)Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center report that 15 embryonic stem cells injected into early embryos of mice whose hearts were genetically predisposed to develop a lethal defect, rescued the heart from developing the disorder by not only producing normal daughter cells that were incorporated into the defective embryonic heart but also by releasing biological factors into the nearby vicinity. This prevented neighboring heart cells from developing into defective tissue.
"In other words, stem cells act like nurses, restoring 'sick' cells to health" said Robert Benezra, PhD, a Member in the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the study's senior author. "The result was that fifty-percent of the mice fated to die in the womb were born with healthy hearts."
August 28, 2004
Smart Windows
Smart glass blocks infrared when heat is on
22:00 09 August 04NewScientist.com news service
Glass that blocks out heat but not light when a room starts getting excessively warm has been developed by UK scientists.More in linkAt most room temperatures the glass lets both visible and infrared light pass through. But above 29°C, a substance coating the glass undergoes a chemical change causing it to block infrared light. This will prevent room from overheating in bright sunshine or if temperatures outside start to soar.
July 18, 2004
Los Alamos Closed
Los Alamos Lab Halts Operations
By Noah Shachtman05:30 PM Jul. 16, 2004 PT
Los Alamos National Laboratory director Pete Nanos shut down the country's leading nuclear weapons lab on Friday, after a set of classified computer disks disappeared and a student was hit in the eye with a powerful laser beam -- all in the space of a week.More in link"As of today, director Nanos has suspended all operations at the laboratory," an internal e-mail obtained by Wired News read. "This is a very serious step."
July 17, 2004
Mathematical Art from Discover Magazine
Weird Fields Make Wonderful Art
By Ken KostelJuly 15, 2004 | Technology
Most of us have seen the cyclonic swirl of water running down a drain, but what about the turbulent rush of the jet stream or the dance of an electromagnetic field? John Belcher and colleagues at the MIT Center for Educational Computer Initiatives developed a computer program that turns the mathematical descriptions of these phenomena, technically known as vector fields, into visual patterns showing the fields frozen in time. |  |
Then he took the program a step further, allowing students in his introductory-level class on electricity and magnetism to design their own field patterns. Belcher judged the results based on both their aesthetic appeal and the elegance of the math used to create them. Top honors in the Weird Fields contest went to undergraduate Nicki Lehrer. Her image, shown at right, bears a title only a physicist could appreciate: g(x,y) = (ln(sin(x)))^3*(tan(y)), h(x,y) = (ln(cos(y)))^3*(tan(x)). But the result is both beautiful and mathematically challenging, Belcher says. “It’s hard to come up with an analytical function that creates right angles.”
May 31, 2004
May 16, 2004
Periodicity
The Most Beautiful Periodic Table Displays in the World
| If you are Bill Gates, you can have this installed in your home for a mere $40 to $80 K. It would be money well spent. i plan to have it as one wall of the billiard room. Or perhaps the library, you could read to the neon light. |  |
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(From a Design Observer post collecting several such links, many quite nice. There is also a very funny comment by someone named "Su" who is completely indignant that someone would be so disrespectful to the "Periodical" Table. OK, that clinches it, the installation is definitely going in the library. HA HA HA It was Dietsch who pointed this out to me ages ago, IIRC. Thanks, Mike!)
April 25, 2004
Born on this date
4/25 has been a good day for science. From another website that can suck days away from your life if you let it.
 | Felix Klein, 1849, DusseldorfHe was born on 25/4/1849 and delighted in pointing out that each of the day (52), month (22), and year (432) was the square of a prime. |
"Everyone knows what a curve is, until he has studied enough mathematics to become confused through the countless number of possible exceptions."-- Klein, Quoted in C B Boyer, The Invention of Analytic Geometry, Scientific American 180 (1949)
| Wolfgang Pauli, 1900, Vienna. Edwin Wilson, 1879, Hartford. Andrey Kolmogorov, 1903, Tambov Province (Russia) |  |
After mentioning the highly significant paper Analytic methods in probability theory which Kolmogorov published in 1938 laying the foundations of the theory of Markov random processes, they continue to describe:... his ideas in set-theoretic topology, approximation theory, the theory of turbulent flow, functional analysis, the foundations of geometry, and the history and methodology of mathematics. [His contributions to] each of these branches ... [is] a single whole, where a serious advance in one field leads to a substantial enrichment of the others.
Siméon-Denis Poisson, however, died on this date in 1840.
Geek Surfing
Suzi is at it again, with typical glorious results: |  |  |  |
Just wait until she starts publishing her own trippy work.
April 23, 2004
Baby's first PCR
i know, i know, it is just a little battery-operated electrophoresis kit, but still, how cute is this?
 | DNA Explorer KitSara Dyer (Action Girl/Space Ghost/Evan Dorkin's business and life partner/etc.) is promoting it on her blog. (Weird, i though i originally learned about it from her last year. Maybe it was /. Whatever, it is NEAT.) |
| Frankly, though, i would rather have the Forensics lab. Man, i wish i had one of those when i was a kid. What would i have done? Blood splatter patterns! Ballistics! You could use the DNA they send you to do Barbie's rape kit! (Note to self: never Google that again.) |  |
April 18, 2004
Over-Baked Armpits Fueled Great Kitchen Migration
Is there anything better than a good mnemonics? i am so jealous that i had not thought of this contest for CH 101/102!
April 04, 2004
Neato!
Speaking of perfectly round balls... *ducks*
Scientists levitate ultra-pure glass
By Tariq Malik
SPACE.com Thursday, April 1, 2004
An experiment originally designed to fly on the International Space Station led a team of researchers to develop a completely new type of glass, a material formed while floating in mid-air in a NASA laboratory on Earth.
| Using static electrical fields to levitate the material, scientists were able to construct a pure glass, free of any contamination typically associated with containers. It could serve as the centerpiece for new medical and industrial lasers, as well as have broadband Internet applications. |  |
More in link
January 18, 2004
Emeralds
Tracing emeralds' origins could foil smugglers
Exclusive from the New Scientist.A technique that reveals where an emerald was mined could help bring smuggling of the gems under control. The method could also give teeth to a gem-control initiative in Colombia, where the government is struggling to regulate the country's lucrative emerald industry.Rats, i hate to think of my birthstone as a conflict gem. Good thing i cannot buy one anyway. Hopefully applied spectroscopy can help.
