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Lego-style Vs Custom Shop CubeSat Construction

Lego-style Vs Custom Shop CubeSat Construction

Aug 03 2012 | comment(s)

There are several schools of thought on building a CubeSat or other picosatellite.  We will contrast what we call Lego-style with what we'll dub the Custom Shop approach.

Lego Style suggests using the easiest, rather than the most efficient, parts and tools to create your satellite.  This is the kit-bashing or Lego bricks approach.  You have several generic pieces, and you put them together to make what you want.  The final end product may be a bit square and clunky, but the advantage is that you were able to quickly build and test.
Icicles - Ideal And Otherwise

Icicles - Ideal And Otherwise

Aug 03 2012 | comment(s)

“A complete theory of icicle shape, including tip growth, self-similarity and the ripple instability, is currently lacking.”

Prompting professor Stephen W. Morris and Antony Szu-Han Chen from the Department of Physics, at the University of Toronto, Canada to construct ‘An apparatus for the controlled growth of icicles’. The team used their specially designed table-top apparatus (with a rotating support) in an attempt to grow what they call ‘ideal icicles’: In total, they managed to grow 93, both from distilled water and common tap water.

Mathematicians Solve A Mystery Of MicroRNA

Mathematicians Solve A Mystery Of MicroRNA

Aug 03 2012 | comment(s)

Mathematicians have proposed a new solution to understanding a MicroRNA puzzle; different and sometimes conflicting theories about ways in which microRNAs regulate protein production, since the results varied depending on only slightly changed experimental conditions.

The problem to date has been that scientists have differed over interpretations of how the production of the major building blocks of a cell, proteins, is controlled by microRNAs.
Jonah Lehrer Successful Science Writer

Jonah Lehrer Successful Science Writer

Aug 03 2012 | comment(s)

One of the pretty boys of science writing has fallen. Jonah Lehrer has finally been called out for distorting science. Many more are going to fall. Or wait. No, wait, what? Oh – I see – he misquoted some singer-song writer dude! Ohhhh – how tragic! And without misquoting Bob Marley or whoever that was (please correct me in the comments because I really really care so much), he would be still one of those celebrated “science writers” selling better than porn these days.


Jonah Lehrer - dared falsely quoting Britney Spears instead of pulling Einstein out of context. Some deeds go too far even in science writing.

Energy Density: Why Gasoline Is Here To Stay

Energy Density: Why Gasoline Is Here To Stay

Aug 03 2012 | comment(s)

Like people who approach geopolitics with the attitude of "If people would just talk to each other, we would all along", there are a lot of naïve assumptions about just dumping gasoline.

We know it causes emissions, and emissions are bad, we know a lot of the money paid for oil goes to fund Middle Eastern terrorism, and that is bad - those things should cause both the left and the right in America to want gasoline gone. And yet it is not gone.  The reason is simple: gasoline is a lot more efficient than alternative energy proponents want to believe.
Despite Shrill Claims, Climate Science Will Win Over Hype

Despite Shrill Claims, Climate Science Will Win Over Hype

Aug 03 2012 | comment(s)

The poles in the climate change debate always insist the other side is either stupid or motivated by funding. It's likely true in some cases but lots of policy issues have worked out even though highly paid people were against it.  It can't be a constructive thing to throw a blanket over 50% of the society who will all need to get behind a policy decision, though.
Why Candidates Ignore Science: The Disconnect Between Research And Benefit

Why Candidates Ignore Science: The Disconnect Between Research And Benefit

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

For as long as I can remember, academic scientists have said that applied research is great - for someone else.  But for themselves, they want to do basic research and be creative and not have to worry about any applied / societal benefit.(1)

But another election season is here and, despite $140 billion of taxpayer money being spent on research, no one in either party really gives a hoot about science topics and scientists are concerned neither candidate cares.(2)  
Oxytocin: A Mindreading Hormone?

Oxytocin: A Mindreading Hormone?

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

The hormone oxytocin is well-known as the “bliss hormone” because it is secreted upon stimulation by touch and is known to result in a feeling of calm and physical relaxation. But odder claims are that is is a “mindreading” hormone and recent research set out find if there is any truth in those claims.
Climate Change Freak Out And The Predictable Media Uproar

Climate Change Freak Out And The Predictable Media Uproar

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

Two gray literature studies (translation: good enough for the IPCC, but Science 2.0 should be skeptical until they are peer-reviewed) have different answers on how fast the planet is warming. The first,  from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project run by physicist Richard Muller, agrees with earlier findings about the pace of global warming, while the second, by Anthony Watts and colleagues, argues that half of the recent warming in the U.S. is artificial.
Power Law Tail Economics And A Physics Way To Redistribute Wealth

Power Law Tail Economics And A Physics Way To Redistribute Wealth

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

Physicists doing economics has gotten a bad rap - a practically worldwide recession will do that - but it's no reason to give up, especially if you are of the world view that redistributing wealth is better than a free market.

Models designed to represent taxation and wealth redistribution could be adjusted to create a target level of wealth distribution, according to mathematical physicists from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. 
Immune Response For Rabies Discovered In The Amazon

Immune Response For Rabies Discovered In The Amazon

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

Our immune systems are funny things. An American traveling to Taiwan, for example, might be warned to get a hepatitis vaccine - unless they grew up on a farm. Rabies is even scarier.  If you are bitten by an unknown animal, it requires a series of painful injections because if clinical disease sets in, it is usually fatal.
Two Events At FestivaLetteratura 2012

Two Events At FestivaLetteratura 2012

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

I am very happy to have been invited, by Matteo Polettini, to two events that will take place at Festivaletteratura (literature festival), an important cultural event that takes place in Mantova, a beautiful town in northern Italy, from the 5th to the 9th of September.
Who Owns Your Medical Records?

Who Owns Your Medical Records?

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

For most of our lives; physicians, hospitals, and insurance companies have used paper medical records. They controlled the flow of data, but allowed patients and others access to their records.

Rebellious Kids Correlated To More Drug Addiction

Rebellious Kids Correlated To More Drug Addiction

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

We can't complain that children don't know how to think and act like adults if we homogenize the way children behave...but criminologists wish you would.   If you don't, they could be drug addicts.

Defiant kids are correlated with drug dependence - they include cigarettes along with pot and cocaine, naturally - according to surveys analyzed by psychologists at Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center’s (UHC) Research Center and the University of Montreal, concluded following a 15-year population-based paper published in Molecular Psychiatry.
The Island Of Dr. Benoît Mandelbrot

The Island Of Dr. Benoît Mandelbrot

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

Dr. Benoît Mandelbrot (1924-2010), IBM Research Fellow and later Sterling Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University, is a mathematician best known as the father of fractal geometry. 
It Worked! US Energy Emissions Back At 1992 Levels

It Worked! US Energy Emissions Back At 1992 Levels

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

See? America did not need any stinking Kyoto agreement, we just needed for three areas to work in tandem to get greenhouse gas emissions back close to the magic number picked by the Germans and French a decade and a half ago.(1)

The Department of Energy released carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the energy sector  for Q1 of 2012 and they were the lowest since 1992. American energy is positively green again, just like people wanted. We can thank right-wing energy companies for that, because it has primarily happened due to natural gas.
The Great Pyramid - Did It Have An Elevator?

The Great Pyramid - Did It Have An Elevator?

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

… asks Peter C. Sundt, BSc. in the June 2010) of the journal Elevator World (page 114). Although the article is ‘subscribers only’, an earlier essay by the same author on broadly the same subject (with the same title) is available online here, via The Structural Engineer.

“Most agree that the Great Pyramid at Giza, the last remaining Wonder of the Ancient World, was an amazing job of construction. It’s a great pity, though, that the Egyptians left little or no records of how they did it.”

Four Ferraris And A New Challenge

Four Ferraris And A New Challenge

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

Don't be surprised when you spot four Ferraris at 1 Einstein Drive, Princeton. Four brand new racing machines nicely parked next to each other and next to the entrance of the Institute for Advanced Study. 
Methanogens: Microbes Make Eco-Friendly Methane

Methanogens: Microbes Make Eco-Friendly Methane

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

Most methane comes from natural gas - natural gas used to be loved but once it got popular it got lumped in with mean old fossil fuels so the search is on to find a new, green approach to methane, using microbes that can convert renewable electricity into carbon-neutral methane.

Researchers are raising colonies of microorganisms, called methanogens, which have the ability to turn electrical energy into pure methane, the key ingredient in natural gas. The scientists' goal is to create large microbial factories that will transform clean electricity from solar, wind or nuclear power into renewable methane fuel.
Constellation Eridanus And NGC 1187: A Blue Whirlpool In The River

Constellation Eridanus And NGC 1187: A Blue Whirlpool In The River

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

NGC 1187, a spiral galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus (The River), may look tranquil but it's home to some violent events. NGC 1187 has hosted two supernova explosions during the last thirty years, the latest one in 2007.

NGC 1187 was discovered in England by William Herschel in 1784 and can be seen almost face-on, which gives astronomers a good view of its spiral structure. About half a dozen prominent spiral arms can be seen, each containing large amounts of gas and dust. The bluish features in the spiral arms indicate the presence of young stars born out of clouds of interstellar gas.