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Fundamental Physics Measurements with LEGO

In the late 1800's, a small, well-formed cylinder composed of platinum and a little iridium (the...

At home physics demonstrates the Coriolis effect on both sides of the globe

A note to the reader: This article requires following special instructions to watch...

Scientific Research through Creativity in "The Cloud"

Recently, I enjoyed the opportunity to solve and implement a simple web interface problem...

DARPA on the Brain

We've highlighted in the past some interesting activity from DARPA (read more via...

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Matthew T. Dearing writes the Dynamic Patterns Research Journal (http://research.dynamicpatterns.com)... Read More »

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Earlier this month the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that $8 million worth of new grant money has been awarded to educational and non-profit institutions across the United States to support programs that connect the public to science appreciation and interactivity.

The NOAA's Environmental Literacy Grant program focuses to enhance informal educational opportunities at museums and through family and teen programs, as well as expand citizen science networks. The funded projects will work to increase the understanding and appreciation of environmental issues of the oceans, coastlines, Great Lakes, and the climate around the globe.

Last year, DPR AmSci Journal wrote about a great new citizen science program called Citizen Sky [read from August 26, 2009]. This project is collecting observational data on the current eclipsing of the variable binary star system epsilon Aurigae. The primary star is estimated to be 300 times the diameter of our Sun, and the eclipsing object orbits at about the equivalent distance of Neptune from the Sun.

Skimming by Earth as close as 11 million miles on October 20, the apparently young Hartley 2 comet will be nearly visible to the unaided eye. With binoculars, it will appear even better as a fuzzy, green blob, and a backyard telescope will offer excellent viewing.

The scientific elite have been moving forward with their advancements in science at an accelerated pace over the past one hundred years. It is this exponentially speedy development that is providing modest hope to even the Gen-X babies at reaching the moment in the near future--maybe as early as 2042--where living forever will be a technological reality.

The publishers of Make: Magazine have announced that September 2010 is officially "Citizen Science" month. They are looking for citizen scientists to submit their projects, research, and activities to be featured in the magazine.

It also seems that they are interested in developing active collaborations with people who are investing much time in the advancement of citizen science, and they hope to use this outreach to develop exciting new content for their "how-to" project division, Make: Projects.

Much of the predicted future of neurotechnology is grounded in the continuing success and development of nanotechnology. This field is broad, for sure, and is even a primary target of the US Federal Government (see the NNI).