Demon Star Rainbow

Demon Star Rainbow

University of Iowa (UI) astronomers have made the first clear, rainbow-like, radio telescope images of a distant stellar coronal loop, at the eclipsing, non-nova binary star Algol, found in the…
AAS day two

AAS day two

Tuesday, 5 January 2010 There are several ways to spot an exoplanet.  The two most common are the radial velocity and transit techniques.  Radial velocity measurements detect changes in the…
Wondrous Exoskeleton Update

Wondrous Exoskeleton Update

Today's National Science Foundation (NSF) news release about the high-tech armor inspiring "scaly-foot gastropod" mollusk, Crysomallon squamiferum, included better pictures of this deep-sea wonder.…
Phoning it in: counting sheep

Phoning it in: counting sheep

Ever feel like you're just one of the sheep, phoning it in every day in your office cubicle? Well, Jean-Luc Cornec is the guy for you. Cornec constructed a herd of sheep out of rotary telephones and…
Go Higher or Go to Antarctica

Go Higher or Go to Antarctica

You can (and should) listen to my first ever podcast, at "365 Days of Astronomy", which is either about a) why we put telescopes on mountains and in space or b) why science in Antarctica rocks!…
AAS:  Starting 2010 on the right foot

AAS: Starting 2010 on the right foot

I am not one for New Year's resolutions.  January 1st does not particularly stand out to me, frankly.  This year, however, I felt the need to turn over a new leaf.  And so, amongst the…
Takedown of Creationist Information Theory

Takedown of Creationist Information Theory

Jeffrey Shallit takes down creationist nonsense about information theory in Stephen Meyer's latest creationist offering, Signature in the Cell: In Signature in the Cell, Meyer talks about three…
Exoskeletons to Envy

Exoskeletons to Envy

We human primates evolved and innovated extreme flexibility of body and mind, partly because we grow flesh around, instead of within, a bony framework. Yet we envy and copy the crusty, scaly or…
In Vina Phenols

In Vina Phenols

Wine. You can earn a degree for studying it (enology), earn a living being an expert at it (Sommelier) or fake wine know-how to get through a dinner party.  Wine lovers…
Pain and Laboratory Animals

Pain and Laboratory Animals

Hot off the press: the National Research Council’s Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals. The NRC’s publications on laboratory animal care articulate (usually in the most…
The Greening Of Domestic Arguments

The Greening Of Domestic Arguments

The Greening Of Domestic Arguments It seems that trying to go green can be a cause of domestic arguments.  I can see why.  Not everyone has the ability to see the big picture.  From a…
Why Hit Books, Movies, and Music Suck

Why Hit Books, Movies, and Music Suck

And why they make a lot of money, according to The Economist: Although you might expect people who seek out obscure products to derive more pleasure from their discoveries than those who simply…