Arctic Sea Becoming an Acid Bath Eco Disaster

post from FUTURISM NOW on 07 October 2009 04:12:37 PM. © FUTURISM NOW

Within 10 years, scientists say, the Arctic Ocean will become so corrosively acidic from absorbing CO2 emissions that it will begin to dissolve the shells of mullosks and other life forms with shells in the oceans. Geoengineering theories about what to do with the atmosphere, and climate skeptics who say temperature is no big deal, miss this enormous threat to our oceans. CO2 is going to eventually turn all the oceans into acid baths unless [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.civilianism.com/futurism/?p=3063

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Gen-F Scientists Ignoring Social Networking

post from Sciencebase Science Blog on 07 October 2009 04:00:06 PM. © Sciencebase Science Blog

A quick analysis of online social networks, such as LinkedIn and Xing would suggest that a mere 1 in 7 research scientists use such tools as part of their work. This contrasts starkly with the business world where uptake is up to 88%. In other words almost 9 out of every ten employees in the [...]

Gen-F Scientists Ignoring Social Networking is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

Read The Full Article:
http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/gen-f-scientists-ignoring-social-networki
ng.html

Give forests back to local people to save them

post from New Scientist - Environment on 07 October 2009 04:00:00 PM. © New Scientist - Environment

Forests owned by local communities store more carbon than those managed by governments, suggesting a flaw in a plan to pay countries to protect forests

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/424048/s/6824cc5/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carti
cle0Cdn179370Egive0Eforests0Eback0Eto0Elocal0Epeople0Eto0Esave0Ethem0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fenvironment/story01.htm

Digg this

Can you learn quantum mechanics from a comic book

post from Physics Buzz on 07 October 2009 03:28:00 PM. © Physics Buzz

The book currently on my nightstand is a slim, bright blue volume with the title Introducing Quantum Theory. It's part of the "Introducing?" series, which presents big ideas and great thinkers, such as psychoanalysis, Derrida, and Stephen Hawking, in a purposefully friendly, unimposing format.

I have to admit I was a little skeptical when I first cracked open Introducing Quantum Theory and was greeted with nine caricatures of the fathers of quantum theory, including a very balding Max Planck and a rather Neanderthal-esque Niels Bohr. Unlike most books on the subject, most of this little volume's text is in speech bubbles emanating from the mouth of famous scientists, drawn by the evocative and often humorous pen of Oscar Zarate. (Zarate is an accomplished comic book artist, perhaps best known for illustrating Alan Moore's "A Small Killing.")

This is not the usual approach to teaching quantum theory. But maybe it should be. In my first quantum mechanics class in college, a class aimed at preparing people seriously considering careers in physics, the professor presented the concepts of quantum theory almost as if they had been handed down by some all-knowing being. Equations went up on the board, as did graphs. But because quantum theory is a result of humans trying to understand the world they see around them, it really develops along a narrative path, driven by the actions and thoughts of key characters. Equations and graphs are absolutely necessary; it's essential to be able to grasp concepts mathematically and manipulate them with dexterity. But an equations-and-graphs-only approach artificially turns a wonderful story of how the world's greatest thinkers propelled a paradigm shift into a handful of numbers and symbols on an otherwise blank page. This approach also misleads students into thinking that somehow all of what they're learning should be obvious.

Wolfgang Pauli, one of the fathers of quantum theory.(CERN Pauli Archive)
It's not obvious, as Introducing Quantum Theory so ably illustrates. Quantum theory was a result of several people making observations that just didn't make sense, and is filled with tales of brilliant minds who desperately tried to avoid using the theory to explain the world; Einstein is famously quoted as saying, "God doesn't play dice." But he wasn't the only one who found quantum mechanics a hard pill to swallow. Max Planck struggled for years to find a classical explanation for black-body radiation's stubbornly un-classical curve. J.J. Thompson, a legendary classical physicist, bristled at the arrival of a young Niels Bohr who wouldn't stop pointing out that Rutherford's experiments obliterated his model of the atom as a pudding of positive charge with negative charge studded in it like raisins.

Introducing Quantum Theory fills in what most college classes fail to mention?the history of quantum mechanics is a great story, full of egos, denial, and radical ideas, and driven essentially by experiments. There's a vague sense these days that quantum mechanics has nothing to do with anything a normal person would care about. But something as mundane as a glowing coal clearly delineates the quantum world in the fact that it emits heat and light according to the blackbody spectrum that caused Max Planck so much existential pain.

Pauli, drawn by Oscar Zarate for Introducing Quantum Theory
The other very effective part of Introducing Quantum Theory's approach is the use of characters. A lot of individuals contributed bits and pieces to quantum mechanics as it grew from an embryo of an idea to a powerful predictor of the physical world. After a few pages of a physics textbook, these characters are reduced to a collection of names (usually German) and equations that quickly blur together. But when Schrodinger sort of looks like Keith Richards and Pauli like an evil Oompa-loompa, it's easy to keep them separated in your head. Also, lecturers and textbooks use equations, not physicists, as their main characters?they present the Schrodinger wave equation but not Schrodinger, the Planck constant but not Planck. It helps to know who these people were, why they were asking these questions, and where they got their ideas.

I gripe about traditional methods, but I have to admit that, even in a popular science book, I need a few equations and graphs to sink my teeth into. Luckily, Introducing Quantum Mechanics doesn't shy away from the essentials, but doesn't use them as a crutch. I'm thoroughly enjoying relearning the concepts of quantum mechanics in their proper place as part of a developing train of thought. In an ideal world, I'd like to see professors teach introductory quantum mechanics within its historical and human context; they might even find that less students fall asleep in their classes! Until then, universities might consider tossing students this comic book along with the standard dry text.

Read The Full Article:
http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2009/10/can-you-learn-quantum-mechanics-fro
m.html

Digg this

The AJOB Family of Journals Grows by Two!

post from blog.bioethics.net on 07 October 2009 03:25:00 PM. © blog.bioethics.net

Today, now available at editorial.bioethics.net, are The American Journal of Bioethics' new sibling journals, AJOB Neuroscience and AJOB Primary Research. These latest additions to the AJOB family will begin publishing in 2010 and each have 4 issues per year of...

Read The Full Article:
http://blog.bioethics.net/2009/10/the-ajob-family-of-journals-grows-by-two/

Digg this

NASA Refines Asteroid Apophis' Path Toward Earth

post from News and Features - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on 07 October 2009 03:10:00 PM. © News and Features - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Using updated information, NASA scientists have recalculated the path of a large asteroid.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-151

Digg this

Apophis danger downgraded

post from Bad Astronomy on 07 October 2009 03:00:00 PM. © Bad Astronomy

Apophis is a 250-meter-wide rock with a special designation: it’s a near-Earth asteroid, meaning it passes close to our planet. In fact, in April of 2029 it will pass so close to the Earth — just under 30,000 kilometers (18,000 miles) —[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/10/07/apophis-danger-downgrad
ed/

Digg this

Endangered Cuteness

post from Mauka to Makai on 07 October 2009 02:39:56 PM. © Mauka to Makai

Meet the African wild dog (a.k.a. the African painted dog), perhaps the cutest endangered animal you?ve never heard of.*Over the last 100 (or so) years, the number of African wild dogs has declined by 99% from 500,000 to 5,000. Most of that decline is[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://maukamakai.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/endangered-cuteness/

Digg this

Planetary Habitability Quantified

Habitability is always a matter of definition. Is it a measure of suitability for human life? Or do we take the larger astrobiological view that it’s based on suitability for microbial life, in which case we go from a narrowly defined habitable[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=9712

Digg this

Wales: Brief Photoblog 1

I was in Wales today, visiting a castle. After, on the way to lunch, we saw this car:I suppose this makes a twisted kind of sense. After the chiropractor cripples you, he can drive you around town.[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/10/07/wales-brief-photoblog-1
/

Digg this