BBC to Adapt Douglas Adams Book
Posted by Gia Manry on Aug 28, 2010 in Science
No, it’s not yet another Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy– it’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency! …What do you mean you don’t know anything about Dirk Gently? POSER! Read more… The First Photograph of the Earth from the Moon
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 23, 2010 in Science
I hate to use up the bandwidth on this site but do yourself a favor and look at the photos on this page at full size to really appreciate them: This first photograph of the Earth as seen from the moon was taken on this day in 1966 by the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft. The real purpose of the mission was to scout out he moon for the Apollo program, but what makes this image amazing to me is that it’s the first time in history that the human race is looking back on themselves from another world. In 2008 the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project went back to the data from that voyage and produced this enhanced image which is nothing short of amazing: Read more… If We Don’t Speak Up Now NASA Will Fade Away
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 2, 2010 in Science
What you’re looking at above may be the beginning of the end of a manned space exploration program for the United States — what you see is the last shuttle external tank arriving at Kennedy Space Center. That’s right! There’s only one more shuttle launch left and after that NASA will be out sourcing to Russia until we have a “replacement”. I’ve placed quotes around the word replacement as there is currently no replacement being worked on. And why is this? Read more… A USB Microscope: Because It’s the Little Things That Count
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 2, 2010 in Hobbies and Collections, Science
This nifty gadget is the Thanko USB Microscope Lite which sports a CMOS sensor 1.3 million pixels — which sounds impressive but I’m not quite sure wouldn’t cut it for an actual scientist. The software is Windows only and the manual is in Japanese, although it looks like one might have hours of fun just trying to get started: Read more… Set Phasers to Stun?
It’s been the long time dream of science fiction to produce a ray gun that won’t kill, well it now looks like that’s now reality according to this BBC article: Read more… Did Cruel Humans or Climate Change Kill the Mammoths?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 3, 2010 in Science
Apparently biologists are split as to if humans or climate change killed off prehistoric creatures like like mammoths, giant sloths and saber-toothed cats. These creatures known as megafauna all died out at about the same time early in human history. In this interesting clip professor Elizabeth Hadly gives an overview of the debate which can be seen in full here. Read more… The Censored MythBusters Episode We’ll Never See
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 31, 2010 in Science, Television
In this video clip Adam Savage the co-host of MythBusters tells the tail — err tale of the cannibalistic mice. It seems that they did an episode based upon the myth that bad breakfast cereal has less nutrients than the box. So to test this myth they fed one set of mice super sugary cereal and another set cardboard pellets. The result? The cardboard mice resorted to cannibalism and the making of a MythBusters episode that never aired. Read more… Could Stephen Hawking Be Underestimating the Aliens?
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 17, 2010 in Science
Not too long ago Stephen Hawking caused quite a stir by stating that contacting aliens was a bad idea as they may not be friendly — I guess you can call that the “It’s a Cookbook!” school of thought. However defending the aliens in this clip is Neuroscientist Gary Lynch who feels that a higher level of intelligence would have a more benevolent view of humans (more of a Spielberg approach with Close Encounters of the Third Kind or E.T.). How Do You Go To the Bathroom on the Space Shuttle?
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 8, 2010 in Science
This highly educational video goes into some very graphic detail on how one does a number one and number two on the space shuttle. The one thing that I learned is that going to the bathroom in outer space is quite a complicated project, so much so in fact that one must be trained to use the facilities: Read more… Why We Need to Go to Mars: A Planetary Scientist Makes the Case
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 30, 2010 in Science
In this video planetary scientist Joel Levine states his case why we need to explore Mars. Levine feels that the geography of Mars makes the case for exploration — if we really want to understand our Earth and the idea of extraterrestrial life exploring the red planet is the best place to start. I think that given the state of NASA as geeks we really need to get our voices heard to accelerate this as a priority for our space program. |
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