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Commentary and informative articles on science,
medicine, and technology

book reviews

all commentary

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science humor & misc

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astrophoto­graphs

 

 

  commentary

Alchemist afraid of fire

If you want to win the culture wars, learn more science

The only thing an academic is afraid of is of being proved wrong by someone with greater expertise

Books

How to read scientific and technical books

  Why it's important, some tips on what to expect, and how to figure out all those scary formulas

Grilled cheese sandwich

Grilled cheese sandwiches of death

  Twelve scientists try to cook a grilled cheese sandwich on a gas stove, panic ensues

Magic eight ball

In praise of uncertainty

  We need to be far more skeptical and less sure of our knowledge

Picasso's Weeping Woman

Females discriminated against in images on the Internet, study claims

  Not that kind of images

River

Chlormequat: deadly contaminant in our food chain or unscientific clickbait?

Another day, another conspiracy by Big Cereal

Water droplet

What happens after death?

  The idea that the world is a simulation is just an updated version of creationism

404

As Twitter changes into X, the Web becomes Twitter, v.2

One clever trick to convince readers you're tracking them and don't want them to click

River

Just one word: plastics. I mean microplastics. No, I mean BPA and PBDEs

The United Nations is going after “microplastics.” But just how dangerous are they?

Watch gears

Time and space don't exist, scientists say

Why space is probably quantized and elementary particles may have incredibly complex structure

Cell phone

Requiem for global warming

Cell phones aren't just making people cross-eyed. They're causing global warming, or maybe cooling, or both

Scene from Oppenheimer

'Oppenheimer' tells us how research should be conducted

It's more important than ever to divorce science from the universities

 science and medicine

Beta-amyloid

What are your odds of getting Alzheimer's disease?

Latest research shows that the risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease is 75% genetic

Cow emitting methane

Stop picking on the cows

Global warmers want to stop cows from producing methane by eliminating cows. But it is anaerobic bacteria that are to blame

Nuclear Regulatory Commission logo

Newly discovered benefits of ionizing radiation

Everything we thought we knew about radiation is being turned on its head . . . mostly

DNA

What does the Y chromosome do?

Is it really possible for a person to change sex? Do other animals have Y chromosomes?




Tinnitus: Causes and Treatment

Recent research suggests that tinnitus is easier to cure when treatment is given early. In this article, I will discuss what is known about tinnitus and what tinnitus sufferers can do about their affliction

Near infrared source

Tutorial on image densitometry in Imal

  How to get scientifically accurate data from Western blots

Laser interference pattern

Metaphysics of causal sets

A model for quantum gravity is remarkably similar to neural networks—and may resolve the multiverse question

Watershed segmentation

How to do bad image forensic analysis

Scientific journals are paying experts to analyze images submitted by researchers. They're not very good

Cat on North America Nebula

Space is quantum entanglement

Many physicists now say that spacetime is quantum entanglement. Does that mean it's a neural network?

String

Could the universe be eternal after all?

  String theory may overthrow everything we believe about the Big Bang

Poison ivy

Poison ivy

How to identify it, how it affects the immune system, why only humans are affected, and how it differs from giant hogweed

 photography

Western blot

Build an infrared fluorescent Western blot imaging system

You can build a high quality fluorescent infrared imaging system for the lab. But it's not as easy as it looks

Solar eclipse

How to Photograph a Solar Eclipse

Without burning up your camera sensor, blinding yourself, and setting your dog on fire.

Mars photographed with unstable camera

How to photograph Mars and other planets

  It's not too late to get your azz to Mazz.

Digital radio signal in an SDR

Are those inexpensive USB software-defined radios any good?

They're getting cheaper and more powerful than ever. Just our luck now that radio is almost obsolete

Radioactivity

Photographing Radioactivity with a Webcam

You can use a webcam to photograph radioactivity.

UV image of sparks

Ultraviolet photography

  The ultraviolet world is gloomy ... and pink.

Infrared image of tree

Infrared photography

It's not difficult to modify a digital SLR camera to take pictures in the near-infrared.

Andromeda

Astrophotography Without a Telescope

You don't need a lot of equipment to take spectacular pictures of the stars.

Fireflies

Fireflies

Firefly biology and tips on photographing fireflies. Movie of fireflies flashing in synchrony.

Oslo lens graphs

Build an Ultraviolet Zoom Lens, Part 1: Design

Design and plans for a fused-silica zoom lens.

Lens

High-resolution compact spectrograph, Part 1

Design and plans for a compact spectrograph suitable for astronomy.

Swan Nebula

Astrophotographs

  A collection of astrophotographs.

 libertarianism

Sonogram of bird calls

The sound of freedom

  Technological sounds are drowning out the quiet music of nature.

Chess pieces brawling

Argumentation in a post-logical world

We must become more analytical in detecting and refuting hidden assumptions in the debate.

Lightning

Atheism, Ducks and Bananas

Atheists and religious people both need to work on their sense of humor.

Barbed wire

Eight myths about libertarianism

  Libertarianism is not what many people think.

  science humor and miscellaneous

Santa Claus high-tech sleigh
An Overview of Santa's Advanced Anti-Radar Technology

The inability of our radar tracking systems to detect Santa's sleigh is no accident

Scene from War of the Worlds

Why your Earth stores are still doomed

It's not just the coronavirus panic. Your Earth store clerks are making things tough for us Martians again

Chess fracas

The Blogger's Code of Snark

Some rules handed down to me by my old Grandma Blogger, who knitted them into a seven-foot-long tea cosy.

Reindeer

Fundamentals of Reindeer Aerodynamics

How did reindeer evolve the ability to fly?