jewel October 6th, 2009
I’m probably the last person on the interwebs to see this, but I really enjoyed it and wanted to share. Carl Sagan is one of my heroes and this tribute is fitting and quite beautiful. I hope you enjoy it.
jewel July 20th, 2009
Is it 20 July 2009 already?!? Where does the time go?
I took my first breath 10 months after Apollo 11 touched down on the moon, so I obviously do not remember that momentous event. Still, when I learned about it in school my imagination soared. We had already been to the moon — where would we go next? Well, sadly, humans haven’t ventured that far again – yet anyway – but with machines we’ve built, we’ve reached so much further and learned so much more and there is no end in sight.
Thank you Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, Jr., and everyone who made Apollo 11 possible and inspiring generations of children. Whether you believe it or not, you are heroes.
jewel July 18th, 2009
Last night a I and a group of friends were having a conversation (sometimes argument or debate) about what science is and what constitutes proof. It kind of went in circles for a while, but I enjoyed the process none the less. One of the group, who is actually pretty scientifically literate, made a statement that I knew to be false, but I couldn’t really explain the difference at the time. He said that in science a theory, once proven, became a law. I knew that was not right.
Today, I decided to do some Googling and find the answer and commit it to memory for next time. In short, scientific laws are a description of an observation. Laws don’t tell you why or how something happens, though. That is where theories come in. A theory is the real meat of science, explaining the observed phenomena. If anything, a theory actually holds more weight than a law because the theory actually explains what is happening. And a theory never becomes a law.
Here are a few websites that go into a bit more detail on this:
Scientific Laws, Hypotheses, and Theories – The Scientific Method
Scientific Laws and Theories
Scientific Law Wiki
Not Just a Theory
jewel April 12th, 2009
Today on Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait linked to a BBC Radio 4 program where Brian Cox speaks about Carl Sagan. Listening to it made me nostalgic to watch the Cosmos TV series. So, I just fetched my DVD set and have begun watching.
Even 30 years after it was made, Cosmos is relevant and brilliant and inspiring. Carl Sagan takes us all on journey to know ourselves, where we came from and, hopefully, where we’re going.
Carl Sagan introduced me to skepticism and critical thinking and I am ever thankful for that. He inspired me to learn. Far from taking the beauty out of the universe, science teaches us just how magnificent it really is. And that we can even comprehend any of it is truly awesome.
If you haven’t seen Cosmos it’s available on Hulu. Check it out!
jewel February 12th, 2009
200 years ago today, Charles Darwin took his first breaths. He grew up to make some of the most important discoveries of his time – and ours. I wish the human race has come as far as science has. The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection is still a taboo subject for many people; at least here in the USA.
I, honestly, feel that if the people that don’t accept evolution would learn more about it rather than listening to the Ben Stein’s of the world, they might find out that it does not at all take away anything of who we are. If anything it illustrates just how far we’ve come!
Happy Birthday Charles Darwin! Continue Reading »
jewel August 31st, 2008
While it is unfortunate the presidential candidates wouldn’t actually participate in a public debate regarding their positions on science policy, Obama and McCain did both say they would provide answers to the decided upon 14 questions. I’m happy to say that Obama has submitted his answers and they are posted on the ScienceDebate2008 website. Perhaps McCain will submit his answers soon so that the American people can see where he really stands.
jewel August 27th, 2008
Twice in the past couple weeks I have walked by someones desk at work and saw them looking at one of the scare monger websites saying that the Large Hadron Collider is going to destroy the planet! Oh noes! Sadly, both times the person reading the site was buying into all the weapons grade bullshit the site was spewing. Also, sadly, I have no links to the sites they were visiting. I’ll have to remember to get links next time.
Anyway, thankfully, people way smarter than me have done all the hard work for me and have explained exactly why these scare monger websites are so very wrong and I was able to point these folks in the right direction and give them, hopefully, some peace of mind. I hate to see people scared over nothing and actually buying into whatever these snake oil salesmen are selling. And it’s always something, isn’t it. Continue Reading »
jewel July 20th, 2008
Today is the 39th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy, posted about it today along with the left half of the picture above of Buzz Aldrin’s footprint on the moon. There is a really neat trick of perspective in that picture (that many of the commenter’s noticed). When the picture is looked at right side up, the footprint looks raised and the surrounding ground more solid, while when turned upside down the footprint looks indented (like one would expect) and the surrounding ground looks softer. I just love stuff like this. Continue Reading »
jewel June 24th, 2008
My husband and I just got back from Vegas where we attended our very first TAM! Wow. We’re both still processing all of it. In fact, I’m not entirely sure what to write. Man o man, it was just amazing.
We got into Vegas on Wednesday night and got checked in and stuff and were even able to get a semi good night’s sleep. We were both awake at 5am because we were still on east coast time and that was great for us because we got to have a leisurely breakfast and wander around a bit and get our bearings.
I’m going to try to get to the real highlights of TAM 6. This is going to be hard, there were so many, but ok, here it goes, in no particular order: Continue Reading »
jewel May 1st, 2008
Phil Plait, over at BadAstronomy, linked to this yesterday. I watched it twice, absolutely enthralled. It’s a video of a talk Brian Cox (physicist extraordinaire) gave at the TED conference in February of this year regarding the new Large Hadron Collider. It’s a must see.
Let’s see, what to say about Brian Cox…well, he’s British – I don’t know what it is about the accent, but it’s damn sexy – also, he’s brilliant and a physicist. I happen to have a bit of a weakness for brilliance and when that brilliance comes in a young, good looking, British package….well. But I digress. Continue Reading »
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