Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations

There’s a group of physicists and chemists who develop, construct, and present demonstrations for lectures at Harvard. Their YouTube page is absolutely fascinating. Wave and particle theory, chemical reactions, gravity; all are demonstrated by a group of guys with the nerdiest fashion sense ever.

Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations

Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2010

...only there’s fourteen. Each photo has a link to a very hi-res version.

Top 14 Astronomy Pictures of 2010

Life on the International Space Station

Apparently sleeping on the space station is a bitch. Some people say the lack of gravity gives them the feeling they’re falling and the end up waking up with a start. “People dozing in orbit see streaks and bursts of bright colour caused by high-energy cosmic rays painlessly slamming into their retinas.”

Interesting read.

Living on the Space Station

You Are Not So Smart

Awesome site with articles debunking popularly held ideas.

You Are Not So Smart

Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009

Yes, I’m a science nerd. The best Christmas present I ever got was a Sears 3-inch refracting telescope. I used to spend hours outside laying on my back looking at the stars and planets. I’m still fascinated by astronomy; these pictures are simply amazing.

Top Ten Astronomy Pictures

Sci-Fi For Real

I read a while back that one of the most under reported stories in science was the propagation of private companies and consortiums working toward developing space travel technologies. Here’s one of them, The Planetary Society, formed in 1980 by the late Carl Sagan and others. In 2005 they attempted to launch a solar sail using a Russian Volna rocket, but it failed to reach orbit. They’re going to try again in 2010. They hope to prove that propulsion via solar winds is possible.

I still remember staying up to see Neil Armstrong step out of the lunar module. My uncle worked for Grumman back then (they’re the contractor that built the lunar module), and I got a TON of insider swag which has since vanished. Here’s to the LightSail-1 project! SCIENCE!

Solar Sail Project

Amazing Optical Illusion

This is an optical illusion created by the same guy that made the Ames Room, Adelbert Ames, Jr. Ol’ Adelbert was quite the scientist in his day and pioneered the study of physiological optics. “What the hell is that?” you say. Well it’s the study of how our brains process visual data. It’s awesome. It’s geeky. It’s way cool bucky.

The Ames Window

You Gotta View the Videos…

I enjoy Jason Kottke’s blog immensely. He has a knack for finding interesting stuff and I love him for it. While reading a story about Teller’s (of Penn and Teller) interest in neuroscience, I found a link to a site that is filled with interesting stuff. Quirkology is the website of one Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. He is fascinated by quirky things and this site is filled with studies, experiments, videos and generally cool stuff.

Quirkology

I Did Not Know That Yesterday

Just found an awesome little blog that has tons of interesting factoid type things. Awesome stuff like Where does snot come from and Do fish drink water and Why are German Shepherds used as police dogs? It’s a blogspot site that doesn’t seem to have any pagination features enabled so unfortunately the more entries the author makes, the slower it’ll be to load. Still, this site has earned a spot on my daily bookmark bar just for sheer oddity factor.

Seriously, haven’t you always wanted to know Where does snot come from?

I Did Not Know That Yesterday

So Sad

According to a new national survey commissioned by the California Academy of Sciences, only 59% of adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.

To test your own scientific knowledge, please visit the California Academy of Sciences’ website at www.calacademy.org.

American Adults Flunk Basic Science