Ahhh, Journalists

Our local newspaper just wrote a story about the new supercomputer our university recently put online.  The computer is great, but the story shows some need for science education.

“Star consumes 79, 000 watts of electricity per hour, the equivalent of 790, 100-watt light bulbs.”

Can anyone tell me what the hell that means?!?!  Read the otherwise good story here.

Mathematica and Numb3rs

If you happen to be into watching TV and also happen to be into math, then you probably watch the hit show Numbers (or NUMB3RS). I will save you the pain of looking at a Venn Diagram about this.

Wolfram (creator of the Mathematica software) and his team of mathematicians are actually doing some math consulting for the show. They also have a super slick web site that describes the math involved in each episode. You can check it out here.

Fixing My iPod

This is a bit of a departure for this blog, but I thought I would show a bit about how to fix an older iPod. There are a number of places to find great information about fixing iPods, some even include videos (look here, here and here for GREAT help). Here I just want to mention just how easy it is and mention that the process has become much less expensive than it once was.See how after the break.

Physics Today asks the Candidates

The lighter reading side of the American Institute of Physics is Physics Today. They have recently asked presidential candidates about 6 issues:

Science Education

Teaching Evolution

Nuclear Weapons

Science Investment

Energy Policy

Climate Change

You can see the responses here.

Stanford Collider to Close Early, Cut 225 Staff

This is one of those stories that makes me glad that I’m not in high energy physics. Due to budget cuts in the DoE, a decision had to be made; close the SLAC or close Fermilab’s Tevatron. SLAC got the boot so the Tevatron could have a chance to find the Higgs boson before CERN opens the LHC. Ugh. You can read the article in Nature here.As a grad student, the most horrifying thing about all this is 225 people with unique, useful and specific skills suddenly looking for work. These are folks who are at the hight of their field. It’s only 225 people, but it is a sign of how the US is (at best) exporting scientific talent, particularly in high energy physics.

Advertising Accident

How do copy editors not fix this stuff? Seriously.   You can see the web site here.  Perhaps the answer is that Branson, MO may not be the most culturally sensitive town in the US. That almost makes it funny. This is, after all, the same town where the name of vigilante group (Bald Knobbers) ended up being used for one the longest running comedy groups (Baldknobbers) in this “family friendly” version of Las Vegas.

NSF Finds Americans Are Falling Behind in Science and Tech

Since the National Science Foundation published “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” in 2006, their scathing and horror inspiring indictment of American science education and a warning about the dominance of American science and technology, some new developments have come to light. The New York Times has posted a summary (link here) of a rather depressing new study from the NSF (link here). The study finds the US dominance in science and technology is waning. Particularly important is how dependent the US is on foreign born scientists. Once the economies and educational institutions of India and China are sufficiently developed, there will be little need for scientists and engineers to immigrate from those countries. This may not be far off either.

Also noteworthy is that how ignorant must Americans are about science. My favorite NYT quote of all time comes form this story and is the following.

Many Americans remain ignorant about much of science, the board said. Many are unable to answer correctly when asked whether Earth moves around the Sun (it does).

Something about that “(it does)” part gets me in stitches. Apparently readers of the Times need reassurance about whether the Sun or Earth is more massive.

Perhaps most horrifying is how Americans compare against citizens of other developed nations with regard to both evolution and the big bang, two areas where average Americans are “noticeably more ignorant” than their foreign counterparts.

Universal Nanohazard Symbol

Just how do you create a graphic describing a danger too small to see? These guys seem to have a load of ideas. Some are great, some are hilarious.

from Boingboing

US Finally Gets Smart in 2008

After every other industrialized nation on Earth being able to buy Smart cars for a decade, the auto finally comes to the US. The New York Times has a video from the Detroit road show. The video (see it here) also shows a 6′ 3” tall guy get in and talk about how much room it has inside, despite how the car’s length is 3 feet shorter than a Cooper Mini. The Smart Car web site has more info here.

The cars will cost between &11,600 and $16600 and get between 33 city / 41 hwy miles per gallon. Did I mention that Chevy is proud of how the ONLY HYBRID IN THEIR FLEET gets only 21 miles per gallon in the city and costs $50,000? Again, WAKE UP!!

Don’t Teach in a State Ever Governed by a Bush

While we have heard about problems with religion popping into science curriculum in Texas, the problem has now moved to Florida. While the state itself has passed legislation stating that evolution is a fundamental concept in biology, local governments have not been so enlightened.

The Taylor County School Board has passed a resolution attacking Florida’s Sunshine State Standards for Science. This doesn’t yet go as far as the Dover school board did in Pennsylvania, but still shows a fantastic misunderstanding of science and biology in particular in America’s school boards.

Most humorous to me is how the resolution seems to be most concerned with how evolution is a theory about “the creation of the universe.” Not to be picky, but the creation of the universe isn’t in the domain of biology at all, but physics. Indeed, evolution says nothing at all about the creation of the universe itself nor about how life actually got to Earth, only how it has changed. If the resolution stated that evolution does not tell us how mitochondria first appeared on the Earth, that would be one thing, but this resolution is predictably ignorant of such subtlety.

You can read more about the issue as well as see the resolution here.