In my humble opinion, one of the best science blogs out there is Cocktail Party Physics. A recent entry on the physics of traffic flow and traffic jams shows just how fascinating everyday phenomena like traffic jams can be: Traffic physics has been a fairly hot area of research for almost the last ten years. [...]
Browsing Posts in Ministry of Science
Road Rage Redux and the Physics of Traffic Jams
August 12, 2006
No comments
Life, the Universe, and Everything
August 8, 2006
No comments
If you want to see a great flash animation of the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the current day and the evolution of life on earth, check out this site. Just drag the slider and watch stuff happen. This site really helps you visualize the “fullness of time.” The rest of [...]
Six foot long ribbonfish washes up in Oregon
July 27, 2006
No comments
Salem-News.com reported that a dead six foot long ribbonfish washed up on the coast of Oregon. This species called Trachipterus altivelis, or more romantically, King of the Salmon, is a rare find. You can tell by its huge eyes that this is a deep-water species and it is believed to generally live in water over [...]
Happy Pi Approximation Day
July 22, 2006
No comments
Today is (one of several) Pi Approximation day — 22/7.
Mayflies on radar; bats enveloped by thunderstorm
July 11, 2006
No comments
A large hatch of mayflies on the Mississippi River in Wisconsin showed up on weather radar. Thanks to Dean Armstrong and Boing-Boing for the link to a Milwaukee newspaper story. It’s not uncommon for animals to show up on weather radar. In fact, migrating birds and insects are often caught on radar. A weather service [...]
Happy Aphelion Day
July 3, 2006
No comments
Today is aphelion day — the day the Earth is farthest from the sun. The eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit means we are about 3 million miles further from the Sun then we are at perihelion. Of course our climate is dominated by the 23.5° tilt of the Earth’s axis so it is summer here [...]
Shuttle Launch
July 1, 2006
No comments
Nancy and Caroline enjoying a visit to NASA in Houston. In the background is a full size training mockup of a Shuttle (sans wings). Today’s Shuttle launch was delayed because of bad weather. Since I was helping Rob move, I would have missed it on TV. (I also would have missed two awesome World Cup [...]
The Game Theory of Penalty Kicks
June 30, 2006
No comments
Economic science can make the World Cup even more fun. Penalty kicks are a rare real-life manifestation of two-person zero-sum games. Gelf Magazine: The Game Theory of Penalty Kicks.
Meteoroid hits the Moon
June 19, 2006
No comments
NASA astronomers got some cool video of a 10 inch diameter meteoroid hitting the moon. You may think that is a small object, and it is. However, it was moving fast. When it hit at 85,000 miles per hour, that kinetic energy was mostly changed to heat energy, 4 billion joules worth, creating a flash [...]
Comments