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Conversation with a Spiritualist
I am an atheist. I can say it here. I can say it to other atheists. But can I stand up for myself to a believer? Not quite yet. I’m pretty sure PS knows I’m an atheist, but I can’t seem to admit it in conversation yet. Instead, I say, “an atheist would think…’ or “They tend to say…” We…
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A selection of science topics
I thought I’d come back from the miasma with a selection of topics my fellow grad students are working on. 1.) Modeling dolphin whistles for the purpose of covert communications 2.) Internal tides-that is tides occurring between two layers of water. 3.) Measuring velocity fields using lasers and marine snow. (Marine snow is basically plankton feces) 4.) Sending autonomous underwater…
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Today is Friday
I’m sitting at home, getting over a bad cold. I discovered this week that one of my friends is “really into homeopathic type medicines.” I told her they were crap. She looked quizzically and started to protest, and I told her I’d listen to her arguments and write about them on this website. Unfortunately, then I started coughing uncontrollably. So…
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Quantum Dots
This weekend, I was a “mentor” for KEYs, a program to introduce middle school girls to science and engineering. One of the things they got to see were quantum dots. While these have many applications, the demonstration was of their different colors. For the demonstration, the scientists mixed quantum dots with a hydrogel, then put little pieces of the hydrogel…
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Science as Religion?
There is an argument that science is just another religion, and therefore only as reliable, and as much taken on faith as any other religion. This can certainly make sense if you do not see the steps leading to the scientific conclusions. For example, what do you know about dark energy?Me, I know next to nothing. So if you do…
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Louisiana fieldwork
I went on a trip to Louisiana with my research group recently. We were retrieving some instruments that had been sitting in the Gulf for about 2 months. Data to be analyzed later. Data intended to be collected: pressure, and current speed & direction, and tilt of the sensors. The retrieval went well, we got back all 15 remaining instruments.…
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another day, another math error
I think deciding on post titles must be the second-hardest thing about blogging. First-hardest, of course, would be remembering to blog in the first place. My fluid dynamics homework is basically math this two-weeks. Fortunately we don’t have homework every week for this class, or I’d never get it done. I’d say I’ve done about 10 hours of work on…
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Airborne and it being bogus
I read about Airborne and a class-action settlement over at Respectful Insolence. There are some interesting comments there too. Here is the story linked to in the post: http://cspinet.org/new/200803032.html I’m glad that they got some smack-down. But, let’s not forget to look at the positive. Here are some good things about Airborne. Numbered for no particular importance. 1. It fizzes…
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