Simanaitis Says

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Category Archives: Sci-Tech

GREAT WHITE SHARKS HAVE GREAT DNA TOO

THERE’S IRONY yet comfort in learning that the great white shark, Carcharodon cacharias, possesses characteristics that may prove beneficial to humans. According to BBC News, February 19, 2019, the understanding … Continue reading →

March 23, 2019 · 2 Comments

MAKING (OR LOSING) ZILLIONS AT (ALMOST) THE SPEED OF LIGHT

HFT IS short for high-frequency trading, the predominant communication of financial markets around the world. SimanaitisSays has touched on this topic twice, “Trading in Nanoseconds”, June 16, 2014; and ”Lasers … Continue reading →

March 21, 2019 · Leave a comment

KAREN UHLENBECK WINS THE ABEL PRIZE!

LET’S ALL congratulate Dr. Karen Uhlenbeck. She’s the first woman to win the Abel Prize, one of the world’s top awards in mathematics. One of her mathematical specialities, briefly put, … Continue reading →

March 20, 2019 · 1 Comment

MATHEMATICAL INDUCTION: DOMINOES OF LOGIC

THE WORD “INDUCTION” has a whole bunch of meanings: Merriam-Webster starts with “the act or process of inducting (as into office),” which is sort of a definitional cop-out: What’s “inducting”? … Continue reading →

March 19, 2019 · 2 Comments

GETTING ANSTY ABOUT NAVIGATION

AT SUPERFICIAL GLANCE, ants seem to alternate between random walks and purposeful straightline travel. Scientists at Aix Marseille University in Marseille, France, have created an AntBot that delves beyond the … Continue reading →

March 13, 2019 · Leave a comment

EARTH PHOTOBOMBS THE BAD SIDE OF THE MOON

LINK THE FOLLOWING: Chinese space engineers, professors and students at China’s Harbin Institute of Technology, Dutch amateur radio astronomers, and Bernie Taupin. Back in 1970, poet/lyricist Bernie Taupin wrote “Bad … Continue reading →

March 12, 2019 · Leave a comment

THE VERY LARGE AND THE VERY SMALL

AT FIRST GLANCE, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 should be large enough. And, at the other extreme, 0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001 would seem small indeed. Nope. Within a couple of decades, global data storage may exceed 1024, … Continue reading →

March 8, 2019 · Leave a comment

STEADY THE TOOL; SPIN THE WORK

IT MAY SEEM odd: Hold the carving tool in one place and move the object being carved. Yet, historians of manufacturing say the ancient potter’s wheel led not only to … Continue reading →

February 26, 2019 · 1 Comment

TUBER TIDBITS

JUST AS MY Lithuanian ancestors worshipped trees, Wife Dottie’s side of the family worships potatoes. We even have a couple Christmas tree ornaments honoring the tuber. Thus, I read with … Continue reading →

February 25, 2019 · Leave a comment

HAPPY 150TH—THE PERIODIC TABLE!

THE UNITED NATIONS celebrates 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table. This familiar array is more than a collection of chemical elements. As described in Science, February 1, … Continue reading →

February 22, 2019 · 3 Comments