When Math Meets Nature: Turing Patterns and Form Constants
When I was in fourth grade, my teacher asked us each to write a short "Just So" story in the manner of Rudyard Kipling, author of the classic children's book Just So Stories .
Cocktail Party Physics
Physics With a Twist
Physics Week in Review: March 23, 2013
The big physics news this week was the latest results from ESA's Planck mission, but there was plenty of other good stuff circulating around the Interwebz.While everyone else was celebrating St.
How Dry I Am: When Is That Sponge Cake Past Its Prime?
I adored Twinkies as a kid, vastly preferring them to Ding-Dongs or SnowBalls, and my folks used to give me a box every Christmas. Jokes about eternal shelf life notwithstanding, I gobbled the spongy crème-filled cakes down greedily, naively confident that Twinkies would always be in stock for next Christmas.So even though I no longer gorge myself on Twinkies, I totally understood when the announcement late last year that Hostess was filing for bankruptcy gave rise to howls of anguish around the Internet over the prospect that many of the company’s tasty snacky-cakes would no longer be available to consumers – including Twinkies.
Walking the Planck: Our Lopsided Universe
We were not hardy enough to stay up until the wee hours for the big announcement of the latest results from the Planck satellite mission, but it is all over the science blogosphere this morning, so we didn't miss much.
Physics Week in Review: March 16, 2013
This week the geekerati celebrated Pi Day (March 14) -- which just happened to coincide with the confirmation that the "Higgs-like particle" discovered last summer by the Large Hadron Collider really, truly, is that elusive Higgs boson (seriously, I think "elusive Higgs boson" is now its official title) -- or at least a Higgs boson, as Michael Moyer explains.
Casting the Yarrow: An 18th Century Method for Calculating Pi
Happy Pi Day! In honor of the occasion, Jen-Luc Piquant has dug up an archival post on a lesser-known historical figure you devised an ingenious method of calculating Pi.
Say Yes to the High-Tech Dress
Oscar season is over, and it's a shame all those A-List actresses looking to make a dramatic entrance didn't get to see the latest collection of couture dresses from avant-tech designer Hussein Chalayan.
Physics Week in Review, March 9, 2013
Welcome to another rich round-up of the best physics stuff on the web this past week. Let's get the shameless self-promotion out of the way quickly, shall we?*Be sure to check out my Slate profile of Caltech chemical engineer Frances Arnold, who figured out how to use "directed evolution" to breed all kinds of exciting new proteins and enzymes.*On Wednesday, I moderated a panel discussion at the Petersen Automotive Museum here in Los Angeles on "How Much Does Math Matter," organized by Zocalo Public Square.
Physics Week in Review: March 1, 2013
There was a lot going on in the physics corners of the Internet this week, including one of the finest examples of spontaneous public communication of science in the wild that I've seen in recent months.Remember when baseball superstar Jose Canseco took to Twitter to lay out his theory for why dinosaurs were big and launched a tsunami of rather mean-spirited snark?
Love is Relative: An Evening with Einstein's Girl
The lights dim in the Gardenia Restaurant and Lounge, a longstanding venue for cabaret in Los Angeles, as singer/actress Gia Mora takes the stage. Clad in a slinky cocktail dress, her auburn hair pulled back and augmented with a fetching fall, she launches right into her first number.
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