Behind science news stories, which are facts or predictions of facts, is a reality which gives them their context and sometimes their meaning. Science magazine, January 23, 2014: “A new analysis . . . indicates that modern-day rumblings in the New Madrid Seismic Zone are not echoes of the 1811 to 1812 quakes, however. Instead, […]
AG here, based on his examples, seems to mean that the best science undercuts peoples’ faith in their beliefs, thereby annoying them deeply. I’m sure that’s true but I haven’t noticed it myself. What I notice is when, for example, some observer tells some theorist that no, in fact the universe isn’t coasting along slowly, […]
A couple of weeks ago, Michelle subverted the established cultural order by adopting her five-year old’s suggestion that Bilbo Baggins was a girl. Most people applauded but some gnashed their teeth: don’t second-guess literature, they said, and if Bilbo is a hero and heroes are boys, then so be it. But I have prior and […]
December 30, 2013 – January 3, 2014 Ann Redux: You know how, if your sister is a biologist, you have to be a physicist? This isn’t only competition, it’s also cooperation and as such holds the Recipe for World Peace — if only anyone would listen. Cameron Redux: the Snail Apocolypse is upon her, also […]
Ok, so y’all know about how, in general relativity, gravity slows time. Clocks closer to something massive and more strongly attracted to it run slower. And clocks farther away and less attracted run faster. I’d explain this to you in more detail but I’m busy. Anyway, AG can use the different times on his different […]
This post — a proposal which, like Erik’s, could solve a significant world problem if only anybody would listen — originally ran on March 12, 2012. A week or so ago, I commented on an Abstruse Goose cartoon about probabilities. My brother-the-statistician commented on my comment, taking me apart – lovingly — for missing the […]
About a month ago, I wrote a review of a play by David C. Cassidy about Farm Hall. Farm Hall was the English country house in which the British government, just after World War II, sequestered the German nuclear scientists they’d kidnapped. The scientists’ rooms were bugged, and their conversation was recorded and transcribed by […]
December 9 – 13 Guest Michael Balter would like scientists to understand that by talking to science writing grad students, they’re talking to the people who will one day be representing their work to the public. Please and thank you. I wouldn’t consider reading my horoscope but in any case, it’s always wrong. Abstruse Goose […]