Archive for the ‘Science’ Category

MythBusters Season Finale (ep 180)


01 Dec

I actually think the 48 Hours 2 myth was busted. The reason- pouring liquid nitrogen on a bomb doesn’t give you 2-3 seconds to get safe, it gives minutes- 15 in this case, but I’m sure that varies by how much liquid nitrogen is used. Danny & Mel could have walked out of the house with that much time. As for the cast iron tub being an effective bomb shelter- not surprised.

As for planes, it’s more fuel efficient to fly one big plane flying than 5 little ones, so I don’t think formation flying is the future of aviation.

MythBusters Wheel of MythFortune


25 Nov

I was aware of the math behind the Monty Hall paradox when it came to switching, but I hadn’t been aware of the psychological tendency to stick instead of switch. I found that interesting. I also noticed that Adam won a lot more than 2/3 of the time with switching and that Jaime won a lot less than 1/3.

In the gun holding myth, target shooting is one thing, but in a gunfight, no one’s accurate, not the military, not the police. I don’t know that how the gun is held matters when no one is actually trying to aim.

Oh, The Places We’ll Go


23 Nov

Sticking with space news for one more day, did you realize that we (and by we, I mean astronomers, not me at all) have found over 700 planets outside our own solar system?

I should clarify, according to the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, run by Jean Schneider of the Paris-Meudon Observatory, 702 planets outside our solar system have been located. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory maintains a different database called PlanetQuest: New Worlds Atlas, and it currently has 687 alien planets.

What’s really exciting is how quickly the databases have grown in recent years. I love living in an age of discovery.

Back to Mars


22 Nov

On Saturday, the Mars Science Laboratory mission takes it’s next big step- the launch of the next Mars rover, the Curiosity. It will take almost 9 months to reach the Red Planet, and be lowered to the planet in a brand new method, using a rocket powered sky crane  and cables.

Stop and think about everything in that last paragraph- Mars Rover, rocket powered sky crane, the Red Planet. How cool does all of that sound. How cool is all of that? Doesn’t it make you want to be a rocket scientist? Why couldn’t I have been better at Physics?

MythBusters: Water Special


17 Nov

Second MythBusters retrospective in a row, though it looks like next week will be fan requests. Tonight was water myths, and this episode highlighted my biggest problem with the retrospective shows- no real information about the myths themselves.

The hubby did not remember the steam powered machine gun (I did), but at least they gave the outcome of that myth- busted. I did not remember the octopus egg hatching in a human stomach myth (hubby does), and they did not tell us the outcome of that myth, just talked about how cool it was to play with the octopus. Frustrating!

Students to Aid in Preserving Shipwrecks


16 Nov

If we want more kids to be interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) careers, we need to give them more opportunities like this.

While not every school has shipwrecks near by, let alone shipwrecks from the Revolutionary War, it’s still a fabulous opportunity for kids to see real world applications of some of the great technology we currently have, while at the same time providing valuable information to the people working on this project.

It might also get some kids interested in archaeology, but we can forgive them that. Kudos to the Nation Science Foundation for funding this work.

Extinct: Western Black Rhino of Africa


12 Nov

This makes me sad. I know that animals went extinct before humans even existed, and more went extinct in the years that we were hunter/gatherers, but now, when we have the ways and means to saving them, it seems like a greater tragedy.

And when I find out that the last of a species was killed solely for its horn- not for meat, not for survival, but for a luxury product –that makes me mad.

Whether you believe we were granted dominion over the earth or not, I believe we have a responsibility toward the creatures we share it with.

MythBusters: Location Special


10 Nov

It’s the semi-annual retrospective/count down show. This time, we’re counting down the different locations they’ve been to. I don’t mind retrospectives, as we often get a little more information about the different myths.

This time, I learned about the existence of M6 and M7. I don’t know that I had ever realized that the build team had their own workspace. I remember the early seasons, and I remember the comments about neighbors not liking them (I mean, dead pigs in the sports car, that smell would have pissed me off, too), but I hadn’t realized it was a separate location.

Cold Fusion, Anyone?


04 Nov

The US Department of Energy and the US Patent Office consider all cold fusion machines to be hoaxes. The fact that the US Patent Office refuses to even look at cold fusion patents could lead to the US falling behind in race for clean, cheap energy.

They say physics rules out the possibility. Are we that arrogant, to believe we know everything about physics?

An Italian physicist has conducted two successful public demonstrations of his cold fusion machine. The physicists who witnessed the demonstrations were won over. But Rossi won’t discuss details, because he work can not be patent protected.

MythBusters (ep 176)


03 Nov

I love sewer explosions that send manhole covers 150ft in the air as much as the next MythBusters fan. It was a cool experiment. However, I really, really want to talk about the truck bed liner.

The first response at our house- why aren’t they making siding out of that? I’m not certain pieces of siding individually coated in the truck bed liner would have the same explosion proofing effects; it may be that the entire structure needs to be coated in one continuous layer, but still- a bomb proof house. How handy would that be for the zombie apocalypse?

100 Words On

topics explored in exactly 100 words