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One view of Venus's transit of the Sun streamed live... I hope.

One view of Venus's transit of the Sun streamed live... I hope.

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

This afternoon I will attempt to stream the transit of Venus live on an embedded stream on this website. 

Meanwhile here are some resources on observing the transit.  



First a personal opinion, don't bother with using a so called "pinhole projector".  The image of the sun projected is a point of light, you are then looking for a tiny tiny point of dark on a tiny point of light.  


The technique I will use is to use a telescope with the eyepieces removed to project an image which a webcam can then focus on.  NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN ESPECIALLY THROUGH A TELESCOPE WITH YOUR EYEBALLS.  It could well be the last thing you ever see. 

Global warming vs local warming

Global warming vs local warming

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

There is debate on whether global warming is taking place or not ? On World Environment day CHEC India organised valuable national seminar under leadership of President Professor H. S. Sharma. 
So A Biologist And An Evolutionary Psychologist Walk Into A Coffee Shop...

So A Biologist And An Evolutionary Psychologist Walk Into A Coffee Shop...

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

Biology is tricky and evolutionary biology even trickier - in the modern age, with insights into epigenetics, that trickiness and general complexity means virtually any stance you want to adopt on any issue can claim to be 'biological' if you just say something pithy like 'It's a combination of nature and nurture', which is the biology equivalent of amateur political scientists who say 'If only people would talk to each other we could all get along' about foreign relations.
When Kids Need Meds: A Must Have For Parents Of Special Needs Kids

When Kids Need Meds: A Must Have For Parents Of Special Needs Kids

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

Parents of children with neurological conditions and disorders and mental health issues are often faced with the frightening and difficult decision of whether to medicate for specific issues and behaviors. Parents are already stressed, worried, and expecting the worst when they walk into a psychiatrist's office, and it doesn't help when they've already been through the gamut of pediatricians, psychologists and other health professionals who have an opinion on the diagnosis of mental health issues in children and the role medication should play in the treatment.
Did Infectious Disease Gene Changes Conquer The Human Evolution Bottleneck?

Did Infectious Disease Gene Changes Conquer The Human Evolution Bottleneck?

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

Around 100,000 years ago, human evolution was in a rut, modern human ancestors consisted of 5-10,000 individuals living in Africa.

Yet modern humans somehow emerged from this population bottleneck, expanding dramatically in both number and range, and replacing all other co-existing evolutionary cousins, like Neanderthals. What caused this bottleneck in the first place?  Answers range from gene mutations to cultural developments like language to climate-altering events, like a massive volcanic eruption. 

Maybe there is another possible factor: infectious disease.
Enough Luminosity For A Higgs Discovery!

Enough Luminosity For A Higgs Discovery!

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

The LHC collider has been producing proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV for two months now, and the integrated luminosity collected by the CMS experiment has surpassed the mark of 4 inverse femtobarns (see figure below). That's already about 80% of the total bounty of 2011!
Technology’s Invasion, it’s Role in “1984” and the Haunting Similarities to our World

Technology’s Invasion, it’s Role in “1984” and the Haunting Similarities to our World

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

“1984” is a novel by George Orwell, set in dystopian Londonunder the rule of the totalitarian government named simply “The Party” and takes place after a cataclysmic nuclear war that decimated the planet. The Party creates a terrifying living environment for its members in which it is impossible to have any privacy and enforces its will through the use of technology. In every home there is a “telescreen”, a version of a flat screen television with a built in camera and microphone to observe the occupants and where the telescreens cannot see there are hidden microphones. This world is one where every action and thought is monitored and analyzed for any anti-Party actions, thoughts or tendencies and if any are expected you can be arrested and “reeducated” at anytime.

Scalars, Vectors, and Quaternion [Scalars and Quaternion Vectors]: Definitions (1 of 2)

Scalars, Vectors, and Quaternion [Scalars and Quaternion Vectors]: Definitions (1 of 2)

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

[Clarification: I tweaked the title because the focus of this blog was intended to be quite small.  While scalars and vectors are used in a dizzying array of areas in many dimensions, quaternions are constrained to work in one plus three dimensions.  One could say one plus three equals four, which is true, but I say one plus three because with quaternions, the one has different math properties from the three.  What happened in the comments was the first two folks admitted they were looking for a blog with a different subject, one that might have me linking quaternions to objects that transform like 4-vectors.  That really is beyond the scope of this blog which doesn't confront how anything transforms.
The 'Jew' In All Of Us

The 'Jew' In All Of Us

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

This is not a story of Lost Tribes, but of lost history--the discovery of "Jewish genes" in Hispano Christian populations of the American Southwest. Jon Entine, author of Abraham's Children: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chose People, reports.

“Let us remember all of our Jewish brothers and sisters, who through their faithfulness to One God, inspired all Christians.”

National Reconnaissance Office Donates Two Hubble-Sized Telescopes To NASA

National Reconnaissance Office Donates Two Hubble-Sized Telescopes To NASA

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

If we want to start cutting budgets, Republicans are not wrong for noting that the Education Department and the Department of Energy could disappear without any consequence at all to America beyond the government union employees working there.

But one darling of the right, the military, could do some cutting as well.  America has 16 different intelligence agencies and one of them you likely never heard of, the National Reconnaissance Office, has donated not one but two Hubble-sized military telescopes to NASA because, darn it, they just don't need them after all.
Chimera Molecular Modeling System

Chimera Molecular Modeling System

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

At my kid's graduation party on Sunday I had a chance to meet Tom Goddard who, it turns out, works on a tool used to look at the spatial organization of chromosomes in the cell nucleus and protein structures determined by electron cryo-microscopy.

The tool is called Chimera (a fun name by any measure) and it is developed/maintained by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics (RBVI) group at UC San Francisco.
Afrasia Djijidae - About As Old As Afrotarsius But Thousands Of Miles Apart

Afrasia Djijidae - About As Old As Afrotarsius But Thousands Of Miles Apart

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Researchers announced the discovery of Afrasia djijidae, a new early anthropoid fossil.

The 37-million-year-old Afrasia djijidae resembles another early anthropoid, Afrotarsius libycus, recently discovered at a site of similar age in the Sahara Desert of Libya. That close similarity between Afrasia and Afrotarsius indicates that early anthropoids colonized Africa only shortly before the time when these animals lived. The colonization of Africa by early anthropoids was a pivotal step in primate and human evolution, because it set the stage for the later evolution of more advanced apes and humans there. 
Why Don't We Have Giant Insects Today?

Why Don't We Have Giant Insects Today?

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

There was a time when giant insects ruled the skies and it corresponded to high oxygen levels.

After the evolution of birds, about 150 million years ago, insects got smaller - despite rising oxygen levels.  What gives?

Insects reached their biggest sizes about 300 million years ago during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. This was the reign of the predatory griffinflies, giant dragonfly-like insects with wingspans of up to 28 inches - creepy. The leading theory attributed their large size to high oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere (over 30 percent, compared to 21 percent today), which allowed giant insects to get enough oxygen through the tiny breathing tubes that insects use instead of lungs. 
How To Tell Two Squid Apart

How To Tell Two Squid Apart

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Dear squid blog, I am sorry that so many other projects have been keeping me from you lately! My love for squid remains undimmed. Just to prove it, I will share with the world a helpful chart that I drew several years ago and recently unearthed.

The Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) and the purpleback flying squid (Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis) can look very similar. If you're fishing in a location where only one of them lives (like Indonesia for Sthenoteuthis or California for Dosidicus), no problem. But in certain areas of the Pacific Ocean--oh look I have a map--their ranges overlap, so there is confusion. Panic. Mayhem. Which squid is it?
How Accurate Are The 'Science Education Is Dismal' Claims?

How Accurate Are The 'Science Education Is Dismal' Claims?

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Every two years an international standardized test is given and a lot more often than that we get treated to mainstream media claims about how bad science education is.  

They never want to say students are dumb - it is just the ammunition in their culture war against...someone.  Mostly taxpayers, it seems, since they are buying into propaganda by well-funded education lobbyists that hiring more teachers or spending more money will solve the problem.
How To Use The Transit Of Venus To Determine The Astronomical Unit

How To Use The Transit Of Venus To Determine The Astronomical Unit

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Michael Richmond of  Rochester Institute of Technology created a simple example for how to determine the astronomical unit - the distance from Earth to the Sun and therefore the basis for all modern measurements in space  for the CLEA workshop in 2004, the last time we had a transit of Venus - and it won't happen again in our lifetimes so tomorrow is the last chance to see it.
Venus Approaching The Sun

Venus Approaching The Sun

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

For the second and last time this century, the planet Venus will pass over the visible disk of our Sun for observers located in the Americas (in the evening of June 5th) and western Europe (in the morning of June 6th). The event has a noteworthy scientific value -particularly for exoplanetary searches-, but it is also quite spectacular to observe, if you have some modest equipment (but you should be able to spot it with your naked eye, provided you only look through a thick-smoked glass; never look at the Sun directly!). The added value is that probably none of us will be around the next time this event occurs, in 2117.
Will Punjab will be a desert in 38 years ?

Will Punjab will be a desert in 38 years ?

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

 A visit to Punjab made any one happy . The prime reason has always been  to see canals, good roads, hardworking people, basic cleanliness. Chandigarh  a  Union Territory  represents all of Punjab, Haryana and even HP . While waiting for a flight at Chandigarh I saw the news paper report about Punjab. Experts of PAU have reported (Daily Post Monday 4th June) ground water table is being lowered in the last one and half years at an alarming rate and state is facing acute shortage of water now.
Are Pine trees major source of forest fires ? Its people who burn trees.

Are Pine trees major source of forest fires ? Its people who burn trees.

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Are Pine trees major source of forest fires ? Its people who burn trees. Recently I had a chance to visit Solan and read a local news paper. A news item in The Tribune Chandigarh date June 3rd 2012 reported a statement of forest official that Pine trees are responsible for forest fires. According to the Conservator of Forest Dharamshala circle Pine trees are major source of forest fires. According to him and some of his “ experts” the Governmane should ban future plantation of pine trees in the mid Himalayan region. This would reduce the percentage of Pine forest. What a solution to this problem. This is just like cutting the nose to spite the face.
Dark matter density near Earth? An informal defense of Moni Bidin et al.

Dark matter density near Earth? An informal defense of Moni Bidin et al.

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

The issue of how dense the dark matter is near Earth is far from settled. Recent work by Moni Bidin, Carraro, Mendez and Smith holds that the density of dark matter near Earth is 0.04 gigaelectron volts per cubic centimeter, the work of Bovy and Tremaine says it should be more like 0.3 gigaelectron volt per cubic centimeter. The problem is that Bovy and Tremaine make a basic logical error at the outset which invalidates what on the face of is otherwise a masterful work of theoretical astronomy/cosmology. Unfortunately that logical error of circular logic falsifies their counter argument.