Monthly Archives: January 2009

Countdown to Doom

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A little rant about that 2012 nonsense…

One reason the world will end:

The Maya, the world’s greatest timekeepers ever, say it’s all going to stop on December 21, 2012.

gg rightly points out that we are the best timekeepers. But I think this is not an issue of timekeeping. The Mayan calendar runs its course, and then starts over again. Does anyone seriously predict that the world will end on Dec 31 each year, because that’s when our calendars run out?

Besides, the world can’t end in 2012, when Rush has already foretold events of 2112

Making Eye Contact

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Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space. D. Adams

So you got a telescope for Christmas…

Now the sky is a big place, and telescopes don’t often come with an astronomer to explain how to use them. I’m not an astronomer either, but I’ve been an amateur stargazer on and off for years and I might be able to give you some good advice.

I think one company did offer an astronomer along with the telescope, but it ended badly. They require a lot of care and feeding and are nocturnal by nature, so they tend to keep you awake (Ooh! Come look at this!) even when you don’t want to observe.

She's Not The Big, Bad Wolf

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Stephanie reviews Who’s afraid of Marie Curie? by Linley Erin Hall.

Many interesting topics are highlighted, including

There is also a very good summary chapter on the research on gender differences in scientific ability. As you might have guessed, males and females are more similar than they are different on most (but not all) aspects of mind. She reviews the questionable ability of standardized tests (like the SAT) to demonstrate gender differences that are real (boys tend to score higher on the SAT than girls, but girls’ SAT scores tend to underpredict their grades in college math classes).

One thing I have complained about in discussions on gender equity is that many arguments simply assume that males and females are identical, and focus discussion elsewhere. Nice to see someone investigating the matter as part of their discourse.

An Answer to the Eternal Question

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“What happens when you hit a webcam with a particle beam?”

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

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A web camera is placed into a particle beam to show visually the affects of space radiation on electronics. This video shows the particles striking the camera along with streaks due to high angle impacts.

It’s not explained why the impacts aren’t localized — is it because of scattering occurring in the air or in the webcam lens? I assume so, and also that the high-angle strike is due to a scatter very close to the CCD, though it could have been from a cosmic ray — you see effects of these in cloud chambers. (I’ve thought it would be a great idea to have a webcam on a cloud chamber, and transmit a live picture, but when I searched to see if there was one I came up empty)

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