Science (Page 8)

Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy has a fascinating article in the New York Post about the impending end of the space shuttle program. It’s fashionable to say the Shuttle program was a failure — too expensive, too limited. But progress is not a steady curve. Not all steps are leaps. At the time the Shuttles were proposed, small, lean private companies able to build rockets like SpaceX didn’t exist — but these companies owe their existence to the environment NASA helped create. Things are different now, however, and the era of something like the Shuttle should be behind us. TheDown the rabbit hole….

Mathematicians want to dethrone pi. I hate this idea. First they took Pluto, and now they want pi? What’s next? Some half-baked notion that humans and apes come from common ancestors? Suck it, Science! Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

This is amazing: a shuttle launch recorded by a camera mounted to the shuttle’s solid-fuel rocket booster. The camera records the entirety of the rocket booster’s voyage, from launch to separation to splashdown. If I’m not mistaken, when the ship is far above the clouds but before the separation, you can see the shadow of the launch thrust contrail on the top of the planet’s cloud cover, trailing off to the left. I was never a huge fan of the shuttle; it was the only game in town for far too long, and now we’re in the disappointing position ofDown the rabbit hole….

xkcd today: I love this. It’s a perfect rejoinder to something I invariably hear every single time another “Women’s History Month” or “Black History Month” rolls around — the complaint that “Gee, we should get to have a white history month.” So much greatness has gone before us, paving our way, that we don’t even know about. We’re lucky enough to realize that we stand on the shoulders of giants, but we’d do even better to make better effort to understand on whose shoulders we stand in the first place. Now, if we could just get a zombie Carl SaganDown the rabbit hole….

Science just continues to astound: If you grew up thinking there were nine planets and were shocked when Pluto was demoted five years ago, get ready for another surprise. There may be nine after all, and Jupiter may not be the largest. The hunt is on for a gas giant up to four times the mass of Jupiter thought to be lurking in the outer Oort Cloud, the most remote region of the solar system. The orbit of Tyche (pronounced ty-kee), would be 15,000 times farther from the Sun than the Earth’s, and 375 times farther than Pluto’s, which isDown the rabbit hole….

This is really cool: what other planets would look like in our sky if they orbited Earth at the same distance as the Moon. (Set aside the notion that Jupiter could ever orbit Earth, as opposed to the other way around.) Scale from Brad Goodspeed on Vimeo. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

Bill O’Reilly talked to an atheist, and came up with this gem of an argument: O’REILLY: I’ll tell you why [religion’s] not a scam, in my opinion: tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can’t explain that. You cannot explain why the tide goes in. SILVERMAN: Tide goes in, tide goes out? O’REILLY: See, the water, the tide comes in and it goes out, Mr. Silverman. It always comes in, and always goes out. You can’t explain that. If that’s the state of scientific literacy on O’Reilly’s side of the aisle, it’s no wonder that we’re prettyDown the rabbit hole….

1 climate, originally uploaded by tallguydraws. This is very well done; follow that link to see the entire thing. I find this sort of thing very useful, especially during the winter months when I start to hear all kinds of variants on the “It’s cold in Buffalo! Al Gore’s a fat poopyhead!” argument. (via) Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….