Observations
Masks and Emasculation: Why Some Men Refuse to Take Safety Precautions
They think it makes them look weak, and avoiding that is evidently more important to them than demonstrating responsible behavior
Blogs
Observations
How a Landmark Physics Paper from the 1970s Uncannily Describes the COVID-19 Pandemic
Phil Anderson’s article “More Is Different” describes how different levels of complexity require new ways of thinking. And as the virus multiplies and spreads, that’s just what the human race desperately needs...
Observations
The Fight against COVID-19 Threatens to Cause Collateral Health Damage
The pandemic is no excuse to abandon chronic disease management and prevention
Recent Posts
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Saving wildlife by killing it
In 2002 conservationists used helicopters to bomb Anacapa Island, off the coast of California, with the rodent-killing poison brodifacoum. They managed to wipe out their target—an invasive species of black rats that had been living on the island for more than a century—but they also knocked out a native population of deer mice and killed some rodent-eating raptors, like the peregrine falcon...
Greetings from the temporary capital of high-energy physics
That's right, I'm here in lovely St. Louis for the annual "April meeting" of the American Physical Society. If it's spring, it's time for high-energy physics.
This is what the Higgs boson looks like
If all goes well, in a few years, every news outlet in the world will run an image like this one right below a photo of researchers popping champagne bottles.
The big bang in musical form
I talked to string theorist Brian Greene earlier this afternoon about the upcoming World Science Festival, and he remarked about how many artists of all types, from painters to musicians to choreographers, have been inspired by scientific discoveries...
Relativity theory to the tune of "Yellow Submarine"
April Fool's Day was kind of a bust this year for science, but this makes up for it: The "paper" is here. -- Edited by gmusser at 04/03/2008 2:36 PM
World Science Festival: science boosterism comes to New York
From May 28 to June 1, "the most exciting city in the world is going to become even more exciting," according to Alan Alda. That's the weekend staked out for the World Science Festival, a scattered constellation of panels, interviews, debates, workshops and cultural events in New York City...
Graphene Could Be the New Silicon
Recent investigations by physicists at the University of Maryland indicate that graphene—one-atom-thick sheets of carbon—could one day supplant silicon as the material of choice for important applications such as high-speed computer chips and biochemical sensors...
The state of the planet is good
NASA Or at least not as bad as some might fear. That's the main message I took away from last week's State of the Planet conference (though it is also clear that the planet is in a perilous state when it comes to energy, food and global warming.) But judge for yourself...
Don't expect the Arctic to be a frozen waste much longer
The fabled Northwest Passage opened for the first time in centuries this past summer. NASA Entire Alaskan coastal villages are slipping into the sea.
Food versus fuel, or can we have both?
Brazil grows a lot of sugar cane, and much of it they now turn into ethanol fuel. They make enough that biofuels"”also including diesel from soy"”now provide 45 percent of the fuel that powers Brazilian automobiles...
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