Stupid Evil Bastard » Science

10-year-old comes up with a novel new chemical

Les — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:09:17 +0000

That’s pretty cool in its own right, but the best part is that it sounds like it may have sparked an interest in science for the young girl. #seb #science #discoveries

Embedded Link

5th Grader Accidentally Makes Explosive in Class, Gets Co-Authorship on Subsequent Paper
Kenneth Boehr wasn’t expecting more than the usual from his ten-year-old students when he started a lesson on the Periodic table and handed out the molecule modeling kits. Then Clara Lazen handed him a model constructed from oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon atoms, and asked if she’d made a real chemical or not. Boehr found himself stumped. So he took a cellphone picture of the whole deal, and sent it to an old college buddy: Robert Zoellner , professor of chemistry at Humbolt State University.
Tu…

Google+: View post on Google+

The Creationists are still trying to get their nonsense into science classes

Les — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:53:17 +0000

Six states have bills similar to the Indiana one in the process of winding their way through the legislative process. It's a sad statement that in the 21st century we still have people trying to take our science classes back to the 18th century. And we wonder why so many of our fellow Americans are idiots. #seb #Creationism #Science #Politics #Religion

Embedded Link

Indiana Senate passes bill putting religion in science class
Yesterday, after almost no debate, the Indiana State Senate approved a bill that would allow its schools to teach the origin stories of various religions when a class touches on the origin of life. It now moves on to the state's House, where one of its cosponsors is currently the Speaker of the House.

Although the bill as written could be used to create a comparative religion class, its sponsor, Senator Dennis Kruse, has made it clear that he hopes to see it foster the teaching of creationis…

Google+: Reshared 1 times
Google+: View post on Google+

This will be my excuse for any PC problems at work today

Les — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:29:06 +0000

Usually I go with Harmonic Convergence or Cosmic Rays, but with this I can point to an actual news item. #seb #science

Embedded Link

What happens when a Coronal Mass Ejection hits the Earth?
At approximately 11:00 am Eastern time (15 minutes from now as I type this), the Earth will come into contact with the largest Coronal Mass Ejection since 2005—a huge burst of charged particles and magnetic fields that exploded off the surface of the sun Sunday night.

Scientists have been tracking it as it headed our way. In fact, intrepid astronomy reporter Lee Billings contacted me this morning to tell me that ejection had just passed our Advanced Composition Explorer satellite, which is w…

Google+: View post on Google+

Sci-ence! updates “The Red Flags of Quackery” to version 2.0.

Les — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:07:23 +0000

Quite awhile back I posted a webcomic by the guys over at Sci-ence! all about “The Red Flags of Quackery” that was a nice little primer on the buzz words and concepts that should warn you that you’re dealing with pseudoscience woo-woo bullshit.

Now they’ve gone and put out a new version 2.0 of the comic:

Click to embiggen!

This really is an excellent guide to knowing when you’re being bamboozled by someone or some product. Another good warning sign is when you see the words “THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION! THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO TREAT, CURE, OR DIAGNOSE ANY ILLNESS OR CONDITION!” That’s legalize for “This product is 100% horse shit and only an idiot would buy it.”

If you’re not already following the Sci-ence! web comic, I’d highly recommend you do so.

Where the Trees Are in the U.S.

Les — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:42:05 +0000

NASA brings us a fascinating image of where the trees are within the United States:

Where the Trees Are : Image of the Day.

Click for full humongous size!

Trees are one of Earth’s largest banks for storing the carbon that gets emitted by natural processes and human activities. Forests cover about 30 percent of the planet’s surface, and as much as 45 percent of the carbon stored on land is tied up in forests.

But did global forests hold more or less carbon in the past? And could they store more in the future? Does it matter where those trees are growing? Scientists really don’t know. But before they can find out, they’ll need a reliable inventory of what is growing today.

I’m actually surprised at how bare Michigan’s lower peninsula is as I’ve always thought we had quite an amazing amount of trees. It doesn’t take very far on the freeway to be passing through what appears to be endless forest. Given all the logging that took place in the U.P. I figured that would be a bit less dense, but despite looking pretty good most of Michigan is a sad comparison to places on the west coast.

How do things look where you live?

An explanation for the spinning sensation you get when you’re really drunk.

Les — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:19:18 +0000

I’m not a heavy drinker and I’ve been drunk a handful of times in my life and only been drunk enough to have the room spin maybe twice in my life so I don’t have a lot of first-hand experience with this effect. For those of you who do, however, and who have wondered why the hell things get all wobbly when you’ve tipped a few too many back here is a short and interesting explanation:

And now you know.

The quest for Absolute Zero temperature comes a step closer to reality.

Les — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:10:21 +0000

Sometimes I can’t help but be awed at what physicists are accomplishing in the lab.

How cold is cold enough? Eliminating entropy picokelvins from absolute zero

When you think about the temperatures associated with “cold,” you probably imagine a cold winter day, or a block of ice (32 °F, 0 °C, or 273.15 K). This is downright balmy compared to the nanokelvin (10-9 K) temperatures physicists can regularly achieve in the lab. Now, things are about to get even chillier with a new technique that can reduce the entropy—and therefore temperature—of a cold gas to near-absolute zero by finely controlling the number and energy level of atoms.

At near-absolute…

It turns out that premature orgasm is a problem for some women.

Les — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:18:03 +0000

From the Never-Thought-This-Was-A-Problem department:

Premature Orgasm Affects Women Too, Study Suggests – LiveScience

“At one extreme are women who have a complete control over their orgasm,” he and his colleagues write in a report to be published in the journal Sexologies. “[At] the other extreme is a group of women who report having a lack of control over the moment of orgasm, which occurs very early during intercourse, leading to personal or couple discomfort.”

You’d think premature orgasms for women would be a blessing considering that too many men concern themselves with only their own satisfaction and the fact that many women can experience multiple orgasms, but it turns out it doesn’t work that way:

One woman described her discomfort with her quick orgasms to the researchers as similar to what a man might feel in the case of premature ejaculation.

“I feel the same way men must feel about premature ejaculation and don’t completely see the difference — I finish very quickly, whereas my boyfriend doesn’t get a chance to, and it’s really starting to bother me,” she said. “Once I orgasm, I find it uncomfortable to continue, the mood changes and he ends up missing out, which I feel bad about.”

It’s a preliminary study and the authors want to see a larger one with more women done to see how widespread the problem is, but in the meantime they suggest women suffering from this issue talk with their doctors about it.

Thanks to anti-vaxers like Jenny McCarthy, measles outbreaks on the increase.

Les — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:53:32 +0000

Measles is one of those childhood diseases that used to be a huge problem, but thanks to the creation of a vaccine in 1963 it was nearly eradicated from the United States. At least up until Jenny McCarthy and the other anti-vaccination idiots started spreading FUD and claiming that vaccines caused autism. Now it’s once more on the rise thanks to unvaccinated kids:

In the first report, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers chronicled the nation’s ongoing outbreaks in 2011.

Most of those sickened were not vaccinated against the disease, CDC researchers said.

Before the vaccine became available in the 1960s, some three to four million people contracted measles every year. Of those, 48,000 were hospitalized, 1,000 were permanently disabled and about 500 died, the CDC said.

Unfortunately, “we have experienced an increased incidence of measles this year,” said Huong McLean, lead researcher and CDC epidemiologist. “Typically we see 60 to 70 cases a year, this year we have 214 as of Oct. 14.”

Among those people infected, 86 percent were unvaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown. Thirteen percent were under one year old — too young for vaccination.

Throughout the United States, 68 of the patients have been hospitalized, 12 with pneumonia.

Granted, the number of cases this year is nowhere near as bad as it was back in the days before the vaccine, but it’s way higher than it should be and the majority of kids contracting the disease would’ve been protected had they been inoculated. You’re not just protecting your kid when you get them vaccinated — though that should be reason enough alone — you’re also helping to protect the kids that can’t be vaccinated, such as the ones that are still too young.

It’s not hard to see that the vaccine works. Prior to 1963 it was a problem, after 1963 and up until recently it was barely an issue, now it’s starting to become a problem again. You don’t have to have be a rocket scientist to figure this one out.

Evolution simplified for tiny brains.

Les — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:58:25 +0000

As found over at Atheism and Me.