As noted in an earlier post, Duke scientists have named a genus of ferns for Lady Gaga, in part because the genus is characterized by a bit of DNA containing the sub-sequence G-A-G-A. Two of the species are called Gaga … Continue reading
Bodily functions don’t stop just because you’re on another world, and there are things you’d just as soon not bring home… Link: http://youtu.be/QNP8wy3S_kY by … Continue reading
Here’s something many of us ponder at some point: Do you get wetter walking through the rain or running, given that running causes you to hit more drops per second from the side? The answer isn’t terribly surprising — you’re … Continue reading
I finally realized that I had missed one of the videos deleted by the WordPress 3.5 vanishing video bug. Better late than never and all that. I’ve restored it in the original post, and for sake of convenience, here it … Continue reading
The U.S, National Research Council has a quite good website explaining what is actually known about global warming and various approaches to dealing with the problem. The site is intended for the general public and presents the facts in a … Continue reading
A physicist is allowed about five minutes to explain why some things are transparent to visible light: The basic idea is that when a photon is absorbed by a substance, an electron in the substance jumps from one energy level … Continue reading
(I initially somehow managed to leave out the clip, which resulted in what was probably a funnier post than I’d intended…) by … Continue reading
A nicely done, occasionally funny rundown of 8 commonplace misconceptions about animals: When viewing this I noticed one semi-mistake and was going to mention it here in keeping with my usual tendency toward obsessive pedantry, but then I happened to … Continue reading
Back in 1997 I read a very thought-provoking article in The Atlantic Monthly magazine by physicist Freeman Dyson in which he discussed some novel ideas for thinking about space exploration. Among other things, he note that a place where life … Continue reading
A brief set of clips from interviews with physicists answering the question what confuses them about physics. It turns out, unsurprisingly, that it’s lots of things. The universe is a (delightfully) mysterious place. by … Continue reading