Schrödinger's Kitten
Irreverent Science for Everyone
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Molecular Curl Girl
Think of science things. Newton's laws, Celsius' degrees, Maxwell's distributions, Hertzsprung and Russell's diagram, Chandrasekhar's limit, fermi's -ons... You know you've made it in science when you get something named after you. Which is why I particularly want to big up the lady I'm talking about today1, because she did some ubiquitous work and noone's even heard of her, let alone tagged her name to her invention. Which is... duh duh duh!
Want Me To Write Something For You?
Dear readers,
I'm very sorry not to have written much recently, or even not so recently. On the grounds that more content of dubious quality is better than no content (I trust you guys to be discerning) I'm going to try and dash off more, less in-depth stuff in future. Might work, might not. Let's see.
The Ultimate Carbon Calculator
If you ever read the news, well-meaning government leaflets pushed through your door, or the sides of buses, you could be forgiven for thinking carbon was slightly below Zombie Galactus in the all-planet ranking of 'shit that will fuck you up'.
While I understand that it would be pointless (bordering on malicious) to subject everyone to an explanation of atmospheric science, chemistry and thermodynamics every time we want to tell them that pollution is bad, mkay, I think there is room for a small explanation of why everything seems to be about carbon.
Entropy, and the Lengths I Will Go To In Order To Justify My Squalor
Entropy, or 'the measure of disorder in a system' (classic definition), is one of those nagging concepts, like quantum weirdness, that are easy to explain glibly, hard to grok, and seem to be fundamental to science as we know it and as we hope to know it better the following morning, slightly sweaty and with tousled hair and goofy grins. So it's a bit hubristic of me to invoke it to avoid tidying my room. But I do it anyway. This is why the second law of thermodynamics1 justifies my quite exceptional levels of messiness.
Why The Credit had to Crunch - Or, Ye Cannae Defy The Laws Of Physics
Economics may be a dismal science, but it’s still a science, and so I consider it within my remit. Disclaimer: Everything I know about economics in general and recessions in particular I taught myself from library textbooks and online resources and going to talks. However I did teach myself about it and so that makes me more educated on the subject than Some I Could Mention.
Madame Wu: Breaking Parity, Demonstrating Equality
It's Ada Lovelace day! Time to draw attention to women in science — often ignored, never deservedly. My chosen lady is:
UK Green Party Now Pro Stem Cell Research
A bit of good news for those of us who live in the UK and like our politics to both consider the environment and be based on science: the Green party has pulled a U-turn at their current conference and decided that research on stem cells, adult or embryonic, is OK by them if done ethically and transparently. Are they getting over their knee-jerk fear of science? I do hope so.
It Might Be Climate, But It's Not Science
Leaked correspondence and data from one of the world's leading climate research institutes casts doubts about the validity of their data. Some of their big names in man-made climate change, and on the IPCC, are involved. Climate skeptics are having a field day. Environmentalists are attacked by sneaking worries. No valid explanation given.
Beyond Rainbow Country
Red and yellow and pink and green, orange and purple and blue...
As well as being a highly dull song, it's also incomplete and what it does include is wrong. If you can show me the location of pink in the rainbow, you can have a cookie.
However, if they're drivelling about colour in general, there's a deeper issue afoot. There are colours beyond "all the colours of the rainbow" and we rather like them.
Which Subatomic Particle Are You?
We all know that the only way to understand our innermost nature better is not in fact psychotherapy, meditation or a bold and fearless examination of your innermost self, but to take many, many tests on The Internets in order to find out which noun we are. But usually, these tests lack scientific rigour. This personality quiz attempts to fill the gap by connecting you to an archetypal building block of the universe, which must be way more scientific and accurate than a Sex and the City character.