Yesterday, baseball fans celebrated Opening Day of the 2011 season. In honor of that, I wanted to share an impressive and interesting invention featured in the September 28, 1912, issue of Scientific American: the Nokes Electrascore. The Electrascore was a giant electrical scoreboard that projected a baseball game’s action. It measured 16 feet square with [...]

Baseball season is officially underway! And what better way to celebrate than by looking at the ball that drives the game? A few years ago, I talked S into helping me take apart a baseball. I wanted to understand the properties that Johan Santana can hold in his hand and with the flick of his [...]

Ed. Note: So the New York Giants won the super bowl, and there will be a parade not too far from my office today. I’m have no intention of leaving the office—parade or no parade, I’m not a Giants fan and my football wounds are still a bit raw, and the crowds are a little [...]

Don’t tell me about the world. Not today. It’s springtime and they’re knocking baseball around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball. – Pete Hamill I’ve been at a loss for what to say today—particularly as there is no shortage of people who [...]

A critical element in the dissemination of scientific discovery is the preparation of a paper for publication.  Strong rules and traditions govern the writing of science for a journal.  The tone should be sober and restrained as if emotions and literary flourish do not exist.  With “I” or “we” resisted if not banned, passive voice [...]

R. A. Dickey is one of the hottest topics in Major League Baseball right now. This right-handed Mets pitcher’s two most recent outings have been one-hitters, he has a league-leading 11–1 win-loss record, and he’s one of the league’s only knuckleballers. What makes this pitch so hard to hit? A knuckleball is famously difficult to [...]

With one out in the top of the ninth inning of last night’s World Series game 1, Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre stepped to the plate. Down by one run with an elite power hitter at bat, Texas looked for a moment to have a chance of getting back into the game. That chance [...]

The National League Championship Series gets under way this evening when the Los Angeles Dodgers host the Philadelphia Phillies, and tomorrow the American League follows suit as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim visit the New York Yankees. The outcome of these all-important seven-game series, which feed into the World Series, is anyone’s guess, but [...]