Category Archives: Science

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May 14

Dropping In on Gottfried Leibniz

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Tom

Stephen Wolfram of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha fame had the chance to visit the archives of German polymath Gottfried Leibniz in Hanover. Despite being almost 300 years old, his papers are still in good condition and show some of the … Read More →

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May 10

Why do police consult psychics?

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Tom

Psychic Sylvia Browne said Amanda Berry, one of the women held captive for a decade in Cleveland, was dead. As a result, there have been calls for her to stop offering her “services” to families and police agencies. It brings … Read More →

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May 02

Why is our government attacking science?

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Tom

With the appointment of Lamar Smith, a global warming denier, to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology it’s more than apparent that government antiscience is on the rise. I keep trying to remind myself this is the nation … Read More →

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Apr 15

How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 “moon rocket” engine back to life

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Tom

Now that the Shuttle project has ended, NASA has been looking at other challenges. One of them is how to get massive payloads into low Earth orbit. Adding to that challenge is the fact that there are no existing rocket … Read More →

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Mar 03

Flash memory issue forces Curiosity rover into safe mode

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Tom

It looks like a Flash memory issue has forced the Mars Curiosity rover into safe mode while NASA works to get the backup computer configured to take over. A file was corrupted and it’s possible cosmic radiation flipped some bits … Read More →

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Mar 02

A Brief History of Time

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Tom

The original Errol Morris documentary ‘Brief History of Time’ from 1991 covered Stephen Hawking and his book introducing our current understanding of the universe to non-scientists. It’s now available to watch for free and you shouldn’t miss it.

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Feb 20

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Tom

A quick glance at the ingredient label of most pre-packaged foods is enough to tell you they’re far from anything remotely good for you. Yet for the most part people find them tasty and find it hard to say “when”, … Read More →

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Nov 19

Birds, bees, and traveling salesmen

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Tom

A bit of background first. One of the more interesting and vexing problems in computer science (and the science of computation in general) is the so-called Traveling Salesman Problem. It goes: a salesman has to visit a number of different … Read More →

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