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Category Archives: Sci-Tech

ON POST-PANDEMIC NORMALCY PART 2

YESTERDAY, WE SHARED insights about post-pandemic normalcy from a professor of psychological science, public health, and medicine. Today in Part 2, young scientists focus their thoughts on the year 2040. … Continue reading

July 20, 2020 · Leave a comment

ON POST-PANDEMIC NORMALCY PART 1

I MAKE TWO assumptions here: first, that the presence of Covid-19 will eventually diminish to the point of other viruses. These include, in no particular order, smallpox, chickenpox, measles, mumps, … Continue reading

July 19, 2020 · 2 Comments

SLED DOGS HAVE MUSHED SINCE THE HOLOCENE

GENOME STUDIES SHOW that modern sled dogs trace back to a 9500-year-old Siberian dog related to a 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf. In particular, they’re not related to any modern American wolves. … Continue reading

July 14, 2020 · Leave a comment

SST CONCORDE REDUX

IT’S NO SURPRISE that a 9949-word article would teach me more about the SST Concorde. The historic supersonic transport had already appeared twice here at SimanaitisSays: “Concorde vs QE2,” May … Continue reading

July 10, 2020 · 5 Comments

IT SEEMS LIKE AN INFINITY… AND SO IT IS: ∞

IN MY CONTINUING exploration of math symbols, what better one to examine these days than ∞, the symbol for infinity. Here are tidbits on its definition, origin, and modern uses. … Continue reading

June 26, 2020 · Leave a comment

GOODBYE, MOORE’S LAW. HELLO TO THE TOP

IN 1975, INTEL founder Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors in a semiconductor would double every two years. Moore’s Law, as it came to be known, held true … Continue reading

June 18, 2020 · Leave a comment

GLOBAL TRUTHS AND THINGS TO PONDER

YESTERDAY’S CELEBRATION OF global—and extraglobal—adventurer Kathy Sullivan got me thinking about planet Earth and its physical extremes, its heights, depths, and shape. Here are tidbits gleaned from a variety of … Continue reading

June 13, 2020 · 2 Comments

CONNECT THE DOTS: LEAD, BALLOONS, PENCIL, NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

THIS CONNECT-THE-DOTS has an easy solution: Nicolas-Jacques Conté. He was a French polymath who gave Napoleon’s army the first significant use of aircraft and he also perfected the lead pencil … Continue reading

June 6, 2020 · 1 Comment

A GLIMPSE AT SIR MODELING PART 2

YESTERDAY IN PART 1, tidbits on epidemic modeling were offered, based on Paul Taylor’s “Susceptible, Infectious, Recovered,” London Review of Books, May 7, 2020. Today in Part 2, we see … Continue reading

May 31, 2020 · Leave a comment

A GLIMPSE AT SIR MODELING PART 1

AN “SIR” MODEL (as in S.I.R.) is a mathematical simulation of an epidemic. In full application, the model incorporates extremely detailed assessments of an epidemic’s factors. However, in “Susceptible, Infectious, … Continue reading

May 30, 2020 · 1 Comment