Unanswered questions for Brent and David Tong. I apologise – I have neglected to answer questions about my book, Expert Witness, which was recently given away by Sciblogs and that Grant Jacobs reviewed.
Nature vs. nurture: score = one all. By James Heathers, PhD candidate at the University of Sydney.
The Nobel Disease. Ig Nobel banter. Last night, I got to engage in something of a treat.
At 10:30pm (my time*) I sat down with Skype and three lovely Australians to chat about this year’s Ig Nobel prize winners. The Ig Nobels, started in 1991, are designed to lampoon (quite sweetly, I think) their more serious counterpart, the Nobels. World Space Week podcast – Episode 5: Mark Rocket. Having now whetted our appetites on reasons for going to space, Hari and I went looking for answers to what New Zealand’s future contribution to space may be – whether we’re doomed to sit on the sidelines and watch as other wealthier nations make it to low earth orbit and beyond, or whether there is a way we can get involved!
With this in mind we interviewed Mark Rocket, a Kiwi entrepreneur, co-founder of Rocketlab and a booked passenger on Virgin Galactic. Mark’s an avid believer that New Zealand has the capabilities to put some innovative solutions together for commercial access to space and also took us through a little of New Zealand;s historic relationship with space exploration centering, of course, around William Pickering. Full podcast available to listen or download here. Tomorrow we look further towards the edges of our universe with Melanie Johnston Hollitt, member of the international founding board for the Square Kilometer Array radiotelescope (SKA). Science Media Centre » Events.
Nobelprize.org. Astrophysicists awarded Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to a group of astronomers whose research revealed that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 was awarded “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae” with one half to Saul Perlmutter and the other half jointly to Brian P. How two Nobel Prize medals in physics were saved from being seized by the Nazis. Here comes the ... alchemy? $53.8 Million Awarded to Marsden Fund Researchers « News « News and Multi-Media « Marsden Fund « Funds « Funds, Medals & Competitions. A total of 88 research projects have been allocated $53.8 million of funding in this year’s Marsden Fund grants.
The Marsden Fund uses a two-stage process to assess the 1078 proposals received this year, from researchers at New Zealand universities, Crown Research Institutes and private research organisations. For a full list of recipients, see 2011 Awards. For details of selected projects, see 2011 Funding Highlights. Nice figure.
Help NASA find life on Mars. The human touch : Nature. Taurus G4: Electric plane wins biggest prize in aviation history. Taurus G4 craft flew 200miles in two hours to win Nasa's $1.35m prize By Gavin Allen Updated: 23:34 GMT, 4 October 2011 Nasa has awarded biggest prize in aviation history to an electric plane after its team designed a craft that flew 200miles in two hours.
The $1.35million prize was handed to the crew behind the Taurus G4 plane designed by the Pipistrel-USA team. The Taurus G4 was in competition against two other craft as part of the CAFE Green Flight Challenge final, backed by Nasa, which aimed to make green air travel a realistic possibility. See the video below... It's electric: The Taurus G4 plane which won a $1.35million prize from Nasa as part of the CAFE Green Flight Challenge final On the ground: The Taurus G4 is a twin fuselage design, meaning it has two cockpits either side of a large central propeller 'Two years ago the thought of flying 200 miles at 100 mph in an electric aircraft was pure science fiction,' said Jack W. THE BEGINNING OF INFINITY. Jason Silva. Jason Silva (born February 6, 1982) is a Venezuelan-American television personality, filmmaker, and performance philosopher.
He resides in Los Angeles, California and New York City. The Atlantic describes Silva as "A Timothy Leary of the Viral Video Age".[1] Career[edit] Current TV[edit] From 2005 to 2011, Silva was a presenter on Current TV. He left the network in 2011 to become, according to The Atlantic, "a part-time filmmaker and full-time walking, talking TEDTalk. " Public speaking[edit] At TEDGlobal this past June 2012, Jason premiered "Radical Openness," a new short video.[3] In September 2012, Silva presented his Radical Openness videos at the opening keynote at Microsoft TechEd Australia.[4] Radical Openness was also featured in his presentation at La Ciudad de las Ideas conference on November 10, 2012.
In September 2012, he appeared at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, where he presented a speech entitled "We Are The Gods Now Brain Games[edit] Shots of Awe[edit] The story so far : Nature Nanotechnology. Mercury Spotlight « Space « Science Today: Beyond the Headlines. Mercury is feeling heat from the spotlight this week as multiple papers and a press conference focus on the innermost and smallest planet in our solar system.
NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft entered orbit around the planet in March and the data it’s returning to our planet are stunning scientists. MESSENGER researcher David Blewett is quoted in Nature News: What if academics were as dumb as quacks with statistics? Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Saturday 10th September 2011 We all like to laugh at quacks when they misuse basic statistics.
Best skiing in space is on Saturnian ice moon Enceladus.