Science 2.0

Since Science 2.0 first came online, we have been excited about the Tevatron in Illinois because, statistically, by 2011 the famous Fermi experiment in Batavia,IL would have accumulated 10 inverse femtobarns of data and that means the Higgs, if it exists, would be somewhere in there.  If it could be found. 

In a report sure to send left-wing science blogging into a tizzy, an analysis by Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D., Republican from Oklahoma (naturally, because Republicans hate science if they object to obscure studies that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars) says the NSF is spending money foolishly.

There are perennials in the plant kingdom, flowers that bloom each year, and in culture as well.  Each year, for example, there will be a new go-to cliché in football.    Many of us who have watched for a long time can even tell you what year a broadcast was made by which cliche was in use.Quiz:  If I say they play "smash mouth football", what year was I thinking?

"Did you know the Rapture is May 21st?"  I asked Mrs. Science 2.0.   "That's tomorrow.  Are you prepared?""The season finale of Grey's Anatomy was last night, so I am okay, " she replied."What about date night tomorrow?   If I make dinner reservations for 6:05 and the world ends at 6, do I still get credit for trying?   Saving 8 bucks isn't worth it if you're mad at me.""You love to triangulate.   Work on that from a few angles and tell me what you think the right answer is."

Last weekend, Satoshi Kanazawa wrote in Psychology Today that black women are considered less attractive than other women but black men are considered more attractive than other men.   Being a good evolutionary psychologist, he set out to do a 'whatsupwiththat?' article and map some data to that topology and piece the whole thing together.

We've been skeptical of the Three Gorges Dam project for a number of years.   It isn't that dams are a bad idea, they are a great idea, it's just the the ecologists who endorsed the thing invented the absolutely perfect outcomes and assumed it would happen.

The need for more science education is so ingrained in the science lexicon it has practically become a mantra.   This makes sense; without question America leads the world in science output, producing over 31 percent of the studies with less than 6 percent of the world population(1), but in an increasingly competitive world, and with ever-growing populations in Asia, science education will remain important to anyone who wants to retain leadership.But does that mean we need more science educators?  Needing more sounds like we have a deficit.  The data say otherwise and perhaps progressive attempts at controlling science education mean instead we are throwing money and numbers at a problem they have created and not allowing the best teachers to flourish.

It's common practice among learned people that, the more educated the company, the more obscure the lists of people they will invent any time there is a question about history.   Science may be universally quantifiable but history of science is quite subjective.   So on a site where we all extol Al-Khwarizmi,  Pietro Monti, Zu Chongzhi,  Ibn al-Haytham and too many others to count in our quest to be thorough, I am going to make a bold claim sure to infuriate historians and nationalists from many countries, including America; some of the greatest scientists of any age were all in one place, at one time, and that place was Britain.

I had a question posed to me last week; 'what was the first science experiment?'

I like to think I once led an eclectic, interesting life.  I have bribed police in the mid-East, outrun the Bulgarian mafia while driving to get my picture taken with Albanian rebels in Macedonia and searched for the spark true conviction in ancient monasteries.   I have generally thought there should be some type of D&D game about my life, or at least a TV movie of the week.But I am not complete.  For example, I have never owned a nightclub, been on any Vanity Fair 'fabulous' list, had a Haitian drug gang put out a hit on me or...died of a drug overdose.   Drugs are nasty business, I am told, right  after being told how awesome they are, and always by the same people.

Here, I present for you a snippet from the Western Electric document Introduction to Project Mercury and Site Handbook on one of the most important aspects of a space program that barely existed; ground control and monitoring.   You know, the part where they actually know what the astronaut and his capsule are doing and decide whether or to send him into space and bring him back down, a wholly unnatural act.a.  Direct the entire flight in respect to the mission;b.  Monitor the flight in respect to aeromedical and capsule systems;c.  Keep the astronaut and range stations informed of mission progress;

What draws people to communal rituals has long been a topic of interest to sociologists and anthropologists.  What draws people to a communal ritual like walking on hot coals is a topic of interest for, well, everyone.   We all are fascinated by it but few want to do it, yet it has been going on (that we know of) since 1200 B.C.