Making Eye Contact

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

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

site

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)

via