THE EARTH’S MOST ABUNDANT MINERAL
THE MINERAL bridgmanite got its name only recently. Despite this, specialists in Earth science have long known that the stuff is Earth’s most abundant mineral. I gleaned this, and other … Continue reading
WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE—AND PLENTY TO READ
THE DECEMBER 18, 2014, issue of London Review of Books features an article by Rose George titled “No Bottle.” It’s a review of three books, Drinking Water: A History by … Continue reading
POWER FROM OLD SOL
SOLAR POWER is a tantalizing concept. Sunlight is there half the time in many places, free for the asking. Well, not exactly free, with some recent developments very promising and … Continue reading
IN A MUSEUM… NOT A LONG TIME AGO… NOT FAR, FAR AWAY
THE SEVENTH episode of Star Wars is more than a year away. (It opens in the U.S. on December 18, 2015.) However, there’s already a 1:31 teaser of The Force … Continue reading
HELLO, KITTY—FROM FERAL TO FRIENDLY
THREE RECENT events got me thinking about the world’s most popular pet, Felis silvestris catus, the domestic cat. First of all, Los Angeles hosted the first Hello Kitty Convention. Then … Continue reading
McCLINTOCK No. 1 AND COAL OIL JOHNNY
IN THESE days of fracking and horizontal drilling, seemingly seeking the last drop of petroleum, it’s comforting that the world’s longest-running oil well, McClintock No. 1, remains productive after 153 … Continue reading
LASERS OVER MAHWAH
IT’S NOT exactly Bullets Over Broadway, but Lasers Over Mahwah is the reality of High Frequency Trading of stocks, as practiced in one of the world’s major centers of such … Continue reading
STRUCTURAL INSTABILITY
IT MAY seem odd that the BBC World Service got me thinking of dynamical systems being structurally stable or not. However, this happened at 6:05 a.m. on Thursday, November 13, 2014. … Continue reading
DAVID MACAULAY’S WORLD
THANKS TO David Macaulay, we can understand something about building a Pharaoh’s pyramid, a Roman city, a medieval castle, a Gothic cathedral and the underpinnings of a modern city intersection. … Continue reading
ONE HUGE PRELUDE
WHEN IS a ship more than a ship? When it’s the Prelude F.L.N.G. There’s fascinating technology in this Floating Liquefied Natural Gas facility, described in “The Biggest Ship in the … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 