AS RARE AS… EARTH?
A PRESS RELEASE dated July 12, 2016, caught my eye: “Daido Steel and Honda Adopt World’s First Hybrid Vehicle Motor Magnet Free of Heavy Rare Earth Elements.” I’d agree, avoiding … Continue reading
DREADFUL THINGS LARGE AND SMALL
LOOKING FOR something to worry about? I confess, my topics here at SimanaitisSays are ordinarily chosen to be pleasant, upbeat, non-threatening. I figure we’ve got plenty of other places to … Continue reading
JET LAGS I HAVE KNOWN
IN CASE YOU EVER wondered, Joanna Klein explained, “Why Jet Lag Can Feel Worse When You Travel From West to East,” in The New York Times, July 15, 2016. Klein … Continue reading
FOUR THINGS LOGICIANS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW!
WELL, IT ISN’T that they don’t want you to know. (And, by the way, do you too find these “don’t want you to know” headlines a bit ludicrous?) Rather, it’s … Continue reading
FIDO’S ANCESTORS
THE DOG EVOLVED from the wolf. It was man’s first domesticated animal, accomplished before humankind’s domestication of farm stock. Details of canine domestication are still controversial. However, part of the … Continue reading
THE BITCOIN SAGA CONTINUES
THERE’S NOTHING SIMPLE about the virtual currency Bitcoin. And there’s one helluva saga evolving. “The Satoshi Affair,” by Andrew O’Hagan, occupies 17 oversize pages of the London Review of Books, … Continue reading
HELLO, JUPITER! SUE FINLEY IS ARRIVING
IN A FEW DAYS, Sue Finley may retire. This test engineer has worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 57 years, the woman with the longest career at NASA. Sue … Continue reading
NANOTECH AND THE LITHIUM BATTERY
BATTERIES OF lithium-ion technology are the current state of the art, suppling power to everything from smart phones to Battery Electric Vehicles. Plenty of companies worldwide are striving to make … Continue reading
A LATTER-DAY STARLIGHT EXPRESS
BACK IN the 1980s and 1990s, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express captivated the London stage for 7408 performances, had Broadway and Las Vegas productions, another in Germany (that’s still playing) … Continue reading
SET AND REST A SPELL
FLYING CREATURES conserve energy by occasionally perching. And, as reported in Science, published weekly by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, engineers are applying nature’s techniques to make … Continue reading
