Dark Morals

An intriguing article on Dark Morals, which are equated to Dark Matter.

Recycled Breath

This is amazing. An airport is going to gather fuel from recycled carbon from the breath of passengers.  It's amazing what's possible when we find the willpower to achieve it.

Your Breath Could Be Recycled into Fuel

Church of England Apologizes to Darwin

Here's a great article in which the Church of England apologizes to Darwin, having written an essay called "Good Religion Needs Good Science." Amen to that. Of course, good science may need good religion too (in my opinion), but I doubt if that realization will come any time soon.

BBC NEWS | UK | Education | 'Creationism' biologist quits job

I find this whole debate so mind boggling. Here is a science teacher castigated for saying that teachers should address the issue of creationism if it is brought up by a student. Sure, creationism doesn't hold up as science (Jesus taught by parables - why do we insist on trying to apply scientific principles to a series of metaphors?), but not addressing a student's curiosity on a genuine and considerate level is just rotten teaching. I also don't understand the conflict. Metaphors and parables are not less true than science - they are just less factual. Metaphors and parables can actually point to much deeper truths than fact, and science really can't prove truth anyway. They are two different domains. But what surprises me is the vehemence with which scientists attack the creationism argument. What is there to be so afraid of when the facts are on your side?

A Cosmological Kick in the Head

Here is a link to an interview that Robert Krulwich did with Brian Greene, a professor of physics and author of The Elegant Universe, among other books on physics. If you listen to this and don't feel your head has been expanded 3-4 times by the rapidity of the neuron firing in order to keep up, I'll be honestly surprised. Greene talks about the different explanations of the cosmological data that has been collected, and the implications, which range everywhere from the idea of the "Multiverse" - a collection of universes all of which are infinite (!) to the place of determination and free will in modern-day physics. Honestly, since I'm gearing up to teach courses in the bible and world mythology, this seems like a conversation I've heard many times before, just with vastly different data. In some ways, it's the oldest conversation there is - where did we come from, are we alone, are we in control of what we do? - with just a different vocabulary, substituting words like scientific words for literary or religious ones.

It's fascinating, but will require your attention. Download it and play it in your car or while you run. I love the way these two talk about science. Pretty awe-inspiring stuff.

Bohemian Astrophysics

Gotta love this. Queen's guitarist, Brian May, has just finished his doctoral thesis in Astrophysics after taking 30 years off to "play some guitar.

Climate Change Challenge

In case you didn't see it, here's Al Gore's speech challenging us to go to non-carbon-based, renewable energy sources in the next ten years, equivalent to Kennedy's challenge to get to the moon within a decade, which of course America accomplished ahead of schedule. All of the technology is available now, but the political willpower is not. I think this is one of the most urgent (and blatantly obvious) issues of our day. If you agree, you can sign the petition and find out how to do more at the We Can Solve It website.

No matter what your political persuasion, and no matter whether you actually believe in global warming or not, these proposals make absolute sense. Getting rid of carbon-based fuel will also restore clean air and water, and cut the funding off from terrorists who get their money from oil-rich countries. Other than economics, I can't see any reason not to do this. And as Gore points out, it also makes economic sense.

As a teacher in a new home, I can't afford this right now, but if anyone else who lives in Virginia is interested, you can opt to get your power from renewable sources through Dominion. It costs about 5 cents per kilowatt hour more right now, and your power can come from a combination of wind and solar, or from methane recollection over landfills. Here's the site for changing over if you think you can afford it. It doesn't actually change where you get your electricity, but Dominion then purchases the amount of power you use each month from a renewable resource supplier, so it effectively works out though not actually. I'll certainly be doing that as soon as we can afford it. And for those of you in NC, here is there FAQ for Green Power down there.

Here's the video of his speech - quite clear, enormously compelling, and really worth watching. One of my favorite quotations: "We should tax what we burn, not what we earn."




In case you are interested, here's an editorial from the NY Times about the speech. My favorite passage:

When exactly was it that the U.S. became a can’t-do society? It wasn’t at the very beginning when 13 ragamuffin colonies went to war against the world’s mightiest empire. It wasn’t during World War II when Japan and Nazi Germany had to be fought simultaneously. It wasn’t in the postwar period that gave us the Marshall Plan and a robust G.I. Bill and the interstate highway system and the space program and the civil rights movement and the women’s movement and the greatest society the world had ever known.

When was it?

Now we can’t even lift New Orleans off its knees.

Again, the website to join the campaign is wecansolveit.org. And here is a link of action steps you can take.

Electricity from Garbage

I thought this was an interesting article about a technology that would allow us to use garbage to create electricity - with very little byproduct. It would create about as much carbon dioxide as natural gas does, but it gets rid of many tons of garbage a day, converting it into energy and into a slag that can be used for asphalt. It looks like an intriguing technology, and one I hope more places will try. Apparently, New Orleans is looking into it.

An invisibility cloak

Here is an article about the possibility of actual invisibility cloaks that proves that whatever you imagine will one day become a reality. Of course, they are a long way off, but the mathematical models are there, and that's the beginning. I sometimes wonder if that is how the world is created. We imagine something, give it some time and space and plenty of our attention, and eventually it materializes.

Tesla's new sedan

If you haven't heard me obsess about the Tesla Roadster, you haven't been around me much recently. Here's a video.



Now Tesla has announced the new sedan - the Model S - which will cost around $60,000 (as opposed to $109,000 for the roadster). They promise a model under $30,000 within 4 years. I'll definitely be getting one as soon as I can!

Remote Control Face

Here's an interesting development in technology. It's still really rudimentary, but it seems that it will have profound consequences once they start refining it. This guy created a computer program that recognizes facial expressions and will send computer commands based on what it sees. This has to do with the possibility of robot teachers (not sure how I feel about that!), but I could see this being applied into cars, computers, etc. For instance, if a sound is too loud, perhaps a future version of the software could recognize the facial expression that says it's too loud and adjust it accordingly - the same with brightness. It will also allow better communication once the voice recognition software is more developed.

There is a video of him demonstrating and talking about the software here.

The other thing this reminds me of is the new surface computer that Microsoft is working on. They say the keyboard may be completely obsolete in the next 15 years!

Octopus Camoflage

Nature again - so astonishing. Check out this video of the camouflage techniques of the octopus.



And here's another, simpler, one, but which seems even a bit more amazing.



I found these while reading this article on Slate.com.

The Internal Thermostat of Leaves

Nature is so astonishing. Listen to this 1-minute podcast about how leaves maintain a constant temperature from Antarctica to Puerto Rico. Amazing.

Sleep & School

This is pretty much common sense, but here is an article that offers substantive proof of the benefits of sleeping more for students, and also the fact that they would sleep longer if we were to start the day later. Here's the paragraph I found most intriguing:

The researchers found a strong association between hours of sleep per school night and GPA, level of motivation, emotional disturbance and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Each additional hour of sleep on school nights reduced the risk of scoring in the clinically significant range of emotional disturbance and ADHD by 25 percent and 34 percent, respectively.

Here's the whole article.

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