British Science Association | British Science Festival The British Science Festival is Europe’s longest standing science Festival, traveling to a different place in the United Kingdom each year. Our Festival aims to connect people with scientists, engineers, technologists and social scientists. Each year, we bring an inspiring programme of free events to the public over four or five days, bursting with exciting opportunities to get involved in. Our talks, workshops and drop-in events span a diverse range of subjects that encompass science in the broadest sense, promising something for everyone! In 2017, the Festival came to Brighton which buzzed with science enthusiasm as we, with our co-hosts University of Sussex and University of Brighton, bought over 200 free events to the city. This year, dinosaurs, raves, panel discussions, and even a recording of Late Night Woman’s Hour graced Brighton with their presence, and we can’t wait to see what the Festival will bring to our next destination. Open Call for proposals Community grants Sponsorship
That Time the U.S. Navy Had a Close Encounter With a UFO The New York Times on Saturday reported on a mysterious interaction between the U.S. Navy and what could only be called UFOs. The sighting, which took place in 2004, involved a U.S. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below According to the Times, in 2004 two F/A-18F (twin seater) Super Hornets from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz were flying 100 miles off the coast of San Diego when a nearby U.S. “Well, we’ve got a real-world vector for you,” replied the USS Princeton’s radio operator. For two weeks, the operator said, the Princeton had been tracking mysterious aircraft. U.S. The Super Hornets flew to investigate the last known location of the object and to their surprise, found two objects. The second object suddenly rose up and flew towards the Super Hornets, with one pilot. The Super Hornets conferred with the USS Princeton and were vectored to a CAP point 60 miles away. There are several interesting details about the sighting here. (U.S. We know a little more about the UFO itself.
‘He’s Pavlov and we’re the dogs’: How associative learning really works in human psychology My ears perked up when, in recent weeks, I heard Donald Trump and Ivan Pavlov mentioned twice in connection with each other. After all, I’m an experimental psychologist who journeyed to Russia to conduct conditioning research with Pavlov’s last living student. First, political provocateur Bill O’Reilly wrote online that “Donald Trump is kind of like the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov. Then, political commentators Abe Greenwald and Noah Rothman observed in their lively back-and-forth that “It is such a huge master switch that [Trump] can throw to watch both sides and the media completely respond to what he wants in the way he wants. Each remark contains a profound truth: Extremely strong associations can indeed be formed between events. But, these commentators cast such learned associations in a decidedly negative light. When one thing gets linked to another Associative learning was recognized and appreciated long before Pavlov initiated his pioneering scientific studies.
Always Close Interior Doors In Your Home Before a Hurricane - Hurricane Safety There's no such thing as being over-prepared when you know a natural disaster is headed your way. Especially when a hurricane is quickly approaching, preparedness is key to staying safe. Whether you evacuate or decide to wait it out at home, there's an important way to protect your home from damage during a hurricane that you may not know about. After rigorous wind testing, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety is recommending that homeowners make sure to close all interior doors, as well as all windows and exterior doors. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below This may sound like simple advice, but when a storm like Hurricane Irma brings strong winds, homes are under extreme pressure. Closing all interior doors helps disperse the pressure throughout your home, reducing the effect that all of that force can have on your roof—basically the one thing that separates you from the storm. (h/t Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety)
Neonicotinoid ban: how meta-analysis helped show pesticides do harm bees The EU has announced a near-total ban on three insecticides that we now know are harmful to bees and other pollinators. And yet for years, scientists weren’t sure whether these neonicotinoid insecticides had any significant effect on bees, thanks to numerous studies that appeared to contradict each other. This isn’t an uncommon experience, as anyone who follows the latest scientific news will know. Sometimes it feels like we are constantly bombarded with contradictory claims on every possible topic from climate change to cancer treatments. How do we know what’s true and how are we supposed to put recommendations from scientific studies into practice if scientists cannot seem to agree among themselves? Luckily, scientists have a tool that can not only help sort through large amounts of confusing data but also reveal conclusions that were statistically invisible when the information was first collected. Making sense of contradictory findings But this has created an interesting dilemma.
The Fighter Plane That Shot Itself Down In 1956, the Grumman aircraft corporation was testing its new fighter, the F-11 Tiger, off the coast of New York state. The pilot fired a long burst from its guns and moments later suffered mysterious, catastrophic damage that caved in the windshield and mortally wounded the engine. What happened? The pilot had shot himself down. The F-11 Tiger, like all Grumman aircraft, was named after a cat. Fast and nimble, the F-11 was only the second supersonic fighter in the Navy's inventory, capable of 843 miles an hour (Mach 1.1). Advertisement - Continue Reading Below On September 21st, 1956, as DataGenetics explains, a Grumman test pilot flying a Tiger off the coast of Long Island dropped his nose twenty degrees and pointed it at an empty spot of ocean. GettyGeorge Skadding Get more fighter planes in the PM newsletter Please enter a valid email address. Thank You! You have chosen to receive our newsletter at . You have already subscribed. Source: DataGenetics
Flexible Drill Adapter Lets You Work in Even the Tightest Spaces Handypeople of all experience levels know just how essential a good drill can be. The simplest (and usually most essential) repairs around the house often require either a drill or a screwdriver — and let's face it, the drill tends to win out every time. But even the most powerful and reliable drills have one fatal flaw: They are hard to maneuver into tight corners. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below This simple yet powerful adapter is a DIY's dream come true. This adapter fits any type of drill or drill bit and is small enough to take up little space in your toolkit. Breathe new life into your trusty drill by giving it the adaptability it deserves with a Flex Drill Adapter.
Cheltenham Science Festival Vivienne Parry: Chair of Cheltenham Science Festival “The brilliance of the Cheltenham Science Festival is the breadth of what’s on offer, but how do you choose from so much? My tip is to book your faves but try at least one thing that’s completely new to you. A very warm welcome to #cheltscifest 2018. We’ve invited four fabulous guest curators – Maddie Moate, Olly Mann, Jessica Barker and FC – to help us pull together a packed programme of events for all ages. Neuromarketing Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing research that studies consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. Researchers use technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure changes in activity in parts of the brain, electroencephalography (EEG) and Steady state topography (SST) to measure activity in specific regional spectra of the brain response, and/or sensors to measure changes in one's physiological state, also known as biometrics, including (heart rate and respiratory rate, galvanic skin response) to learn why consumers make the decisions they do, and what part of the brain is telling them to do it. Neuromarketing research raised interest for both academic and business side. In fact, certain companies, particularly those with large-scale goals, have invested in their own laboratories, science personnel and / or partnerships with academia. [1] The word "neuromarketing" was coined by Ale Smidts in 2002.[3] Coke vs.