He May Be On to Something

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This Einstein guy, that is.

In unique stellar laboratory, Einstein’s theory passes strict, new test

Precession of binary neutron stars.

Studies of other pulsars in binary systems had indicated that such wobbling occurred, but could not produce precise measurements of the amount of wobbling.

“Measuring the amount of wobbling is what tests the details of Einstein’s theory and gives a benchmark that any alternative gravitational theories must meet,” said Scott Ransom of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

The eclipses allowed the astronomers to pin down the geometry of the double-pulsar system and track changes in the orientation of the spin axis of one of them. As one pulsar’s spin axis slowly moved, the pattern of signal blockages as the other passed behind it also changed. The signal from the pulsar in back is absorbed by the ionized gas in the other’s magnetosphere.

Random Nonphysics Post

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Coffee Grounds Perk up Compost Pile With Nitrogen

About 2 percent nitrogen by volume, used coffee grounds can be a safe substitute for nitrogen-rich manure in the compost pile, explained Cindy Wise, coordinator of the compost specialist program at the Lane County office of the Oregon State University Extension Service.

“A lot of people don’t want to use manure because of concerns about pathogens,” said Wise.

Contrary to popular belief, coffee grounds are not acidic. After brewing, the grounds are close to pH neutral, between 6.5 and 6.8. The acid in the beans is mostly water-soluble, so it leaches into the coffee we drink.

Compost specialist program? Must . . . refrain from . . . making joke . . . about shitty education . . .

Apparently I'm Doing it All Wrong

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The top ten home cooking mistakes.

Not so much mistakes as tips and hints. The author assumes you’re actually cooking, though.

MSG has a nasty reputation and can trigger a fatal reaction in a person allergic to it (a close friend of our maid of honor’s sister died of anaphylaxis after eating MSG), so it’s not for everyone

I’d say that would put a damper on the relationship.

Fruit Flies Like a Banana

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The Quantum Pontiff on Occupational Arrows of Time

Time goes up, damnit, and that’s all there is to it. Or so say the physicists writing on their blackboards.
Oh I hear you. Yes there are physicists for which time doesn’t always go up, but which can also go up but also in a circle. Yes, Virginia, general relativity allows those crazy solutions (nevermind that they might not be stable.) But those are really loopy physicists who believe in closed-time-like curves. I mean, that sect of the physicists is always going on and on and on about killing their grandfather. Sheesh they’re enough to make Oedipus jealous (and why is that they kill grandfathers all the time and not their fathers?)

I think the kerfuffle is about grandfathers and their pair o’ ducks, but you get the idea.

Keeping Up With the Chemists

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In silliness.

Now it’s the biologists’ turn. Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature

An, um, taste of the offerings

Dorcus titanus Boisduval, 1835 (stag beetle)
Doryctes fartus Provancher, 1880 (braconid)
Enema pan (Fabricius), 1775 (rhinoceros beetle)
Eremobates inyoanus Muma and Brookhart, 1988 (solpugid) Inyo is the county where it was first found.
Fartulum Carpenter, 1857 (tiny caecid gastropod) It is rather like a turd in shape and color, too.

Round as a Baby's . . . Nodule

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Roundest objects in the world created

[A]n international group of engineers and craftsmen has . . . built a pair of nearly perfect spheres that are thought to be the roundest objects in the world.

The unusual balls, discussed last week at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation conference in France, were created as an answer to the “kilogram problem”.

High purity Si-28, and they hope to count the number of atoms to define the kilogram. With no danger to the pergium miners on Janus VI.

But even if all of the Avogadro Project’s research teams arrive at the same number of silicon atoms in each sphere, it’s far from clear that the International Committee for Weights and Measures will take up their definition.
[…]
These million-dollar spheres may be the roundest in the world, but will they be round enough?

One of the issues with international standards is that individual standards labs each want to be able to realize the standard. It’s not only a matter of having the absolute best measurement. If you make it too technologically advanced or involved, so it’s only within the grasp of a few labs, it’s not likely to be adopted.