background preloader

Science&Technology

Facebook Twitter

Complexity

Vídeos de Paul Fishwick. Blogs, Articles and Videos from the World's Top Thinkers and Leaders. Defending Just-So Stories. Last week I spoke about the role of storytelling in science on NPR’s Big Picture Science (the interview won’t air until December). Most people think of story as belonging to the arty world of the humanities—as cut off from the data-driven, hyper-rational world of science. But scientists tell stories all the time. In fact, I think of science as a grand story that emerges—like religion—from our need to make sense of the world. As I’ve written elsewhere, “The story-like character of science is most obvious when it deals with origins: of the universe, of life, of storytelling itself. Take the theory of the Big Bang. When I was in graduate school in the 1990s, many postmodernists proclaimed that science was another story, with no more claim to truth than other “ways of knowing” like religion or common sense.

Which brings me to Adam Gottlieb, a writer who recently stirred controversy with his critique of evolutionary psychology . Gould in an episode of The Simpsons.

Sources

Materials. Space. Physics. Chemistry. Biology. Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived. Additional notes from the author: If you want to learn more about Tesla, I highly recommend reading Tesla: Man Out of Time Also, this Badass of the week by Ben Thompson is what originally inspired me to write a comic about Tesla.

Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived

Ben's also got a book out which is packed full of awesome. There's an old movie from the 80s on Netflix Instant Queue right now about Tesla: The Secret of Nikola Tesla. It's corny and full of bad acting, but it paints a fairly accurate depiction of his life. The drunk history of Tesla is quite awesome, too.

History.com has a great article about Edison and how his douchebaggery had a chokehold on American cinema. Light touch keeps a grip on delicate nanoparticles. Using a refined technique for trapping and manipulating nanoparticles, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have extended the trapped particles' useful life more than tenfold.

Light touch keeps a grip on delicate nanoparticles

This new approach, which one researcher likens to "attracting moths," promises to give experimenters the trapping time they need to build nanoscale structures and may open the way to working with nanoparticles inside biological cells without damaging the cells with intense laser light. Scientists routinely trap and move nanoparticles in a solution with "optical tweezers" -- a laser focused to a very small point. The tiny dot of laser light creates a strong electric field, or potential well, that attracts particles to the center of the beam. Although the particles are attracted into the field, the molecules of the fluid they are suspended in tend to push them out of the well. "You can think of it like attracting moths in the dark with a flashlight," says LeBrun.

Gases de los dinosaurios son responsables del aumento de la temperatura global según científicos. Los enormes dinosaurios que habitaron la Tierra hace millones de años pudieron haber provocado un calentamiento del planeta con sus gases, producidos al comer diferentes plantas y vegetales, indicaron este lunes científicos británicos.

Gases de los dinosaurios son responsables del aumento de la temperatura global según científicos

Como las vacas modernas, que emiten una cantidad significativa de metano en su proceso digestivo, estos saurópodos de 20.000 kilos contribuyeron al aumento de la temperatura global, probablemente incluso más que el ganado, indicó el estudio publicado en la revista estadounidense Current Biology. El clima durante la Era Mesozoica, que abarcó 250 millones de años hasta hace unos 65 millones de años, se estima que fue más caliente que el actual. Con voluminosos cuerpos y largos cuellos que permitieron a los saurópodos como el brontosaurio pastar en las llanuras o comer directamente de las copas de los árboles, estas criaturas abundaban hace 150 millones de años, desde unos pocos individuos por kilómetro cuadrado hasta unas pocas docenas en esa superficie. National Geographic - Inspiring People to Care About the Planet Since 1888.

Technology

Future Society & Enviroment.