Saturday’s Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA featured this fun short video from southern Germany in July. Members of a local school’s astronomy club drew a chalk sundial in a city square and took turns acting as the gnomon, … Continue reading
As previously noted (see below), PBS News Hour has broadcast a series on the antibiotics crisis, that is, the appearance of more and more deadly drug-resistant germs and the lack of new antibiotics to deal with them. Here are the … Continue reading
Something like the X Prize might encourage drug companies to develop new antibiotics even if they’re deliberately held off the market for a while to delay development of resistant pathogens. Link: https://youtu.be/YU5mPUF99BE Other parts of this series: The antibiotic crisis … Continue reading
The second installment of PBS NewsHour’s series on the antibiotics crisis delves into why the pharmaceutical industry has little incentive to develop new ones. In brief, the wise approach to new antibiotics is to develop them but hold them in … Continue reading
The medical system in encountering more and more drug-resistant disease pathogens, so-called “superbugs,” and we’re not developing new antibiotics anywhere near fast enough to fight them. One major reason is the massive overuse of antibiotics, which are too often prescribed … Continue reading
In this TED Talk from 2012 Hans Rosling show data that suggest that the world’s population will not continue to explode but will likely stabilize at about 10 billion (as the United Nations estimates). This is a modest increase from … Continue reading
The world’s growing population is a legitimate concern because it will strain numerous resources, including food, fresh water, and energy. However, in this 10-minute video below from 2010, the late Hans Rosling argues that there is good reason to think … Continue reading
As usual, John Oliver manages to be entertaining and informative in this piece on why withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement makes no sense. Link: https://youtu.be/5scez5dqtAc Meanwhile, Trump’s fellow billionaire Sir Richard Branson (a considerably more successful businessman than Trump, … Continue reading
A short article in the April 29 issue of Science News (originally published on line March 23, and yes, I am indeed behind in my reading) reports that a team of planetary scientists involved in NASA’S New Horizons mission to … Continue reading
I remember watching a short documentary on schlieren photography in college. It’s a technique that allows you to see air currents, temperature differences, and other things that are usually invisible. What’s impressive about the Veritasium video below is the remarkable … Continue reading