WOODSMAN, SPARE THAT CO2
BURNING WOOD to make electricity? There’s enough controversy in this concept to keep us occupied for awhile, so let’s begin by considering several aspects of the matter, as discussed in … Continue reading
THOSE WITHOUT GUMTION NEED NOT APPLY
THERE’S A CONFLUENCE of art and science in the works of 19th-century English painter J.M.W. Turner. London Review of Books, October 20, 2016, contained an article titled “The Chase: Inigo … Continue reading
THE PERIL TO EARTHBOUND ASTRONOMY
PITY POOR Earthbound astronomers. Their telescopes have to gaze through more than haze. Other perils include L.E.D. street lighting, the Internet and then there is the prospect of autonomous cars. … Continue reading
CROWD-COUNT CROWING
IN THESE DAYS OF alternative facts, I realize that anything scientific may be a hard sell to some. However, recent brouhahas over counting people make this an irresistible topic of … Continue reading
EXPLORING RATIONALITY, PART 2
IN MY CONTINUING exploration of rationality, I offer the completed Decimal Exploration table of rational numbers 1/2 through 1/17 expressed in decimal form. Sorry about 1/17. I cannot speak for … Continue reading
EXPLORING RATIONALITY, PART 1
THE WORD “RATIONAL” is wondrous. One meaning is “having reason or understanding, balanced.” Another, in mathematics, describes the ratio of two numbers, a fraction. In my continuing fractional fun, here … Continue reading
MASSIMINO AND THE HUBBLE
THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE “stands right up there with the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China as one of the great engineering triumphs in human history.” This assessment comes … Continue reading
YOU SAY “TOMATILLO”…
AND I SAY “Physalis philadelphica.” Yet how this relative of the tomato got associated with the city of brotherly love is a mystery to me. There’s news related to it, … Continue reading
MUST IT BE GOVERNMENT VS SCIENCE?
I HAD PLANNED today to highlight the 2016 Breakthrough of the Year, as identified by Science, the weekly magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, December 23, … Continue reading
MASSIVE DIAMONDS, PART 1
A MASSIVE DIAMOND of 404.2 carats (almost 1/5 lb.) made the December 16, 2016, cover of Science, the weekly magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It’s … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 