Do You Believe in Ghosts?
Oct 26 at 7:07pm by Aileen
A pre-Halloween poll conducted by the Associated Press and Ipsos informs us that a whopping 33% of Americans believe in ghosts. Nearly one in four people say they’ve actually seen or felt a ghost!
About 1 in 5 people believes in the efficacy of magic spells, and half of America believes in ESP. Interestingly, more than half of college graduates [51%] think ESP is real, while only 37% of those with high school or less education think there’s anything to it. A Newsweek poll in 1996 reported 66% believing in ESP, so looks like the numbers are going down.
Check out the linked poll, it’s full of interesting information. Superstitions, ghost stories and even Closet Monsters just in time for Halloween!
Another Example of Irresponsible Science News?
Oct 24 at 6:06pm by Aileen
Continuing the theme of bad science writing - confusing or completely ridiculous headlines, absurd assertions of fact and fancy, questionable conclusions, etc. - take a look at the screenshot below of the BBC website’s lead story in their ‘Health’ section this past Monday…
Now, it might give you a chuckle, as it did me. But come on, folks… I hereby add ‘Irresponsible Use of Illustration’ in science news reporting as yet another category for the Science News Booby Prizes at year’s end. After last week’s sordid destruction of Nobel Laureate James Watson’s storied career as a notorious bigot, this sort of thing can definitely make one wonder what the heck these science reporters are thinking.
If they are in fact thinking at all.
Beware The Bong: Paraphernalia Addiction
Oct 18 at 6:06pm by Aileen
Plus… DNA Pioneer Watson Steps in it Again
This week there are a couple of notably humorous science news stories making the rounds, to the delight of all science-watchers who sometimes suspect that scientists take themselves way, way too seriously.
First up we have researchers at the University of Memphis informing us that Water pipe use is as addictive as smoking.
Whoa! Who’d have thought that the pipe you smoke is as addictive as what you’re smoking through it? Yet this is just what Dr. Wasim Maziak warns…
“As water pipe use is increasing throughout Europe and North America it is very important that we initiate comprehensive research efforts to combat this looming epidemic,” Maziak said in a statement.
Don’t laugh too hard. Someone funded this research, and it was probably us.
Global Warming, Biodiversity and Biofuels
Oct 12 at 5:05pm by Aileen
The dramatic breakup of the northern ice sheet has tended to confirm global warming, and there are other indications that things are worse than we thought. Turns out that North America’s Northernmost Lake is showing signs of climate change too.
An international research team reports that a core sample of lake bed sediment indicates a drastic change in algae and diatom concentrations in the lake over the last 200 years, but not in the 8,000 years prior - when the lake was permanently frozen. This tends to support the hypothesis that human industrialization has contributed to the warming.
Even if we stopped releasing greenhouse gases today we’d still have to deal with the effects of climate change, and this has been a concern for important ecosystems’ stability. Good news is that researchers have discovered Forests of Endangered Tropical Kelp surviving just fine in the deep waters off the Galapagos Islands.
Not Just Sun and Wind:
Oct 6 at 10:10pm by Aileen
Power from the seas
In this era of “peak oil” and ever more environmentally damaging methods of extracting (and using) coal, innovative R&D on alternatives and renewables have been moving forward with vigor even without massive subsidies or continued contributions to global warming.
We already know that our planet receives more energy from the sun every day than all the life forms (and human industries) could ever use, but humans haven’t yet figured out how to harvest those electrons efficiently enough to even begin to compete with green plants and their direct conversion via photosynthesis. We also know that the sun powers our atmospheric wind patterns, and have developed means of extracting electricity from that source as well. Though again, not enough.
There’s another source of power that nature provides to our planet, and which entrepreneurs and engineers have developed and are still developing. This is the immense power of gravity, and it manifests itself in regular cycles in all the oceans and seas that cover the majority of our planet. These are the tides. Tidal generators are located beneath the surface of the water, and have to deal with both the corrosive effects of salt and other minerals in the water as well as various other contaminates, including forms of sea life. Still, the French have been generating about 600 million kilowatt hours of tidal power annually at Rance for more than 30 years. So far the moon hasn’t stopped exerting its gravitational energy on the earth!
2007 Ig Nobel Prizes Bestowed
Oct 6 at 12:12am by Aileen
The Annals of Improbable Research has announced the winners of the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize, awarded Thursday night (October 4) at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre.
The Ig Nobels honor the contributions of off-beat scientists to humanity’s off-beat knowledge, or at least major contributions to humanity’s fine-tuned sense of the completely absurd. For instance, this years’ Ig Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to the U.S. Air Force’s Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, for research into a chemical weapon designed to make enemy soldiers become irresistible to each other - the “Gay Bomb.”
No, the Air Force neglected to send any of its prize-winning researchers to Cambridge to formally accept the Prize. Reminds me of a line Tommy Lee Jones delivered in Men In Black, with liberties…
“We in the Air Force do not have a sense of humor that we are aware of.” Luckily the sciencey-types at MIT do have a sense of humor.
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