ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE OF SAUDI OIL
TRUMP’S RECENT exclamation-point-endowed pandering to Saudi Arabia suggests the need for an update on countries supplying oil to the U.S. To avoid yet further trumpery (Merriam-Webster: “crapola, hogwash, rubbish”), I … Continue reading
ON NORWEGIANS, A MAZE, AND A PARTY FOR “MATH’S NOBEL”
NORWEGIAN MATHEMATICIAN Hans Munthe-Kaas helped to design a new botanical garden at his institution, the University of Bergen. As reported in Science magazine, October 12, 2018, “The result debuted on … Continue reading
HACK MY TESLA? EASY-PEASY FOR A WHILE THERE
ALL IT TOOK for Belgian researchers to unlock and drive a Tesla Model S was the car’s weak encryption code, $600 of minicomputer hardware, and two seconds of effort. Rest … Continue reading
TALKING ABOUT PAINT THAT’S COOL!
“PASSIVE RADIATIVE COOLING” can lower a surface’s temperature by around 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Think of images of Greek isles, with sun-baked buildings painted white to keep cool. Or recall “Cool … Continue reading
TAMING THE MACHINE
IT CLUNKED. IT clicked. It rattled. It whooshed. Once it left the Gods stranded from ascending their rainbow bridge to Valhalla. Rest easy, though: An improved Machine is coming to … Continue reading
TIDBITS FROM AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING MAGAZINE
SAE INTERNATIONAL’S Automotive Engineering is published ten times a year, with reports on advances in automotive engineering around the world. I worked as associate engineering editor there back in the … Continue reading
THE SATO SCANDAL
SCIENTISTS, BLESS ‘EM, are only human. And, now and then, there’s one who is deeply flawed. This is a tale of Yoshihiro Sato, the Japanese specialist in bone medicine who … Continue reading
MAPPING A PATH TO BETTER WHEAT
THE INTERNATIONAL Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium has completed a ten-year study of the wheat genome, on other words, its cellular blueprint. This research and the blueprint’s benefits to world food … Continue reading
A SCIENCE TRIAD
ONE THING to be said for science: It certainly offers a variety of thought. Proof of this comes in every issue of Science, the weekly magazine of the American Association … Continue reading
TRI-GENERATION—A NEXT STEP IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY
THE UNIVERSITY OF California, Irvine is at the forefront of tri-generation, advanced technology that transforms human waste into hydrogen, electricity, and heat. In many ways, this is a 21st-century version … Continue reading
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