Science News of the Day

tmiller51
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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by tmiller51 »

I guess this really isn't too new, but it's the first time I've seen it and it's amazing. Here is a video about a study of stars orbiting a presumed black hole in the center of our galaxy The scientists have been tracking 28 stars at the center of the Milky Way. They were able to track the orbits and calculate the mass of the black hole.

Tim
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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

General Science Knowledge

US National Science Foundation

A substantial number of people throughout the world appear to be unable to answer simple, science-related questions. Many did not know the correct answers to several (mostly) true/false questions designed to test their basic knowledge of science.

The ten assertions below were phrased as questions asked of American adults in 2004. The correct answers follow in parentheses. The percentage of those surveyed who answered correctly follows.

· Does the Earth go around the Sun or does the Sun go around the Earth? (Earth around Sun) 71.0%

The rest
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Re: Science News of the Day

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From a post on Global Warming:

***
The same the 29% of Americans who do not understand that the Earth goes around the Sun are unfortunately unlikely to understand the following, either:

1: Short-term variability does not undermine the significance of long term statistical trends.

2: The past several years have all been amongst the warmest years since direct temperature measurements have been recorded.

3. That mean global temperature has continued to increase over this period.

4. That increase in the mean global temperature means there is an increased overall energy in the earth's system, which can and will manifest itself in more extreme weather, both hotter and colder

5. By only looking at atmospheric temperatures one is ignoring 97% of where the increased energy is going - 90% and 7% of which go into the oceans and melting ice, respectively. Related to that: during a La Nina the upwelling of cold water in the Pacific soaks up heat from the atmosphere.

More on point #5 here.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/2 ... 30315.html

Link
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kwlyon
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Global Warming is a MYTH! There simply is not enough data over the last 6000 years for us to extrapolate any reliable predictions regarding climate change.
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pllll

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plllerr...
Last edited by kwlyon on Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:22 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Darrel wrote: · Does the Earth go around the Sun or does the Sun go around the Earth? (Earth around Sun) 71.0%
I am just a little skeptical of this study. Not that it surprises me people are so ignorant...but what about this one:

· All radioactivity is man-made (False) 73.0%

That means 73% of people got this right! That is incredibly impressive. I know this is just anecdotal evidence however I have brought this up a number of time amongst non-scientist and have been shocked to discover that NO ONE seems to understand what radioactivity is. They all associate it primarily with nuclear power plant waist. I will be shocked if this number isn't closer to 40%.

Jesus...it is the national science foundation....er....well I think I will opt to not look into this any further...thus in the absence of evidence I can form my own conclusions with all the more solidity.

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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by Savonarola »

I'd also like to comment on a few of these:
It is the father’s gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl (True) 62.0%
One could argue that the answer is false. I'm sure they meant to reference the father's chromosome; to say that "the father's gene" does it is a bit odd.
Lasers work by focusing sound waves (False) 42.0%
Interesting that this is significantly worse than we'd expect from random guessing. This tells us that there's something either in the original question or in society that's directing respondents to think that lasers have something to do with sound.
Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria (False) 54.0%
Just barely better than random guessing, which surprises me. I would have put my money on more people getting this wrong. The word "antibiotics" means magic to some people.
The universe began with a huge explosion (True) 40.0%
Arguably wrong. Incomprehensible expansion/inflation? Sure. Explosion? Errm...
Human beings as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals (True) 50.0%
Exactly what we'd expect from random guessing. Ain't that a kick in the head? For all of the efforts to promote real science education, religious dumbassery has producing nothing but a push.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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kwlyon wrote: [a]Global Warming is a MYTH!
There simply is not enough data over the last 6000 years for us to extrapolate any reliable predictions regarding climate change.


DAR
I see two different claims here, labeled a, and b. Are you joking or do you want to defend them? If by "a" you mean the earth hasn't warmed in the last 150 years, then it's just false. But perhaps you mean something else by "myth."

D.
------------------
"[A] survey, conducted among researchers listed in the American Geological Institute's Directory of Geoscience Departments*, "found that climatologists who are active in research showed the strongest consensus on the causes of global warming, with 97 percent agreeing humans play a role." Link

And currently: "All "scientific bod[ies] of national or international standing [agree with] the basic findings of human influence on recent climate change.” wiki
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Darrel wrote:DAR
I see two different claims here, labeled a, and b. Are you joking or do you want to defend them? If by "a" you mean the earth hasn't warmed in the last 150 years, then it's just false. But perhaps you mean something else by "myth."

D.
Darrel....for the love of spooky sky daddy....I am lying in bed sick....I am really board and feel quite miserable. However this sickness has not yet affected my mind. Well I mean aside from those pink elephants across the room drinking beer...and I am still rational enough to know that pink elephants don't drink beer...they are all Mormon. It is quite obvious that in my sudafed induced delusional state I have mistaken cream soda for beer.

--Kevin

Just in case you are on sudafed as well....Yes...I am screwing with you.
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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by wharter »

Re: NSF Questions-Science News

The US intellectual paucity problem often extends to questioners themselves. When the tide goes out, all ships in the harbor (except the ones in drydock) get lowered and quite a few end up in the mud. (I know of several quite ignorant fellows who work at NSF and need to find a drydock.)

Two of the questions are bogus.

First, genes and chromosones don't "decide" anything. George Bush is the only "decider" and we all know how that is turning out.

Better: “Human males are characterized by chromosomes with a quarter section that appears in micrograph to be damaged or missing.” (True.)

Second question is more subtly wrong.

Is an electron smaller than an atom? Bohr radius of ground state electron wave in H-atom is roughly (matter waves defy precise sizing of their functional distributions) 0.5 Angstroms or 5 times 10E-10 meters.

Only in a classical model do we (stupidly) picture an electronic dot-like thing orbiting like a tiny planet. Instead, the extent of the electron wave IS the Bohr atomic radius r or diameter 2r. That is how we measure space H-atoms occupy in liquid or solid hydrogen.

There are at least two other "radius" or “diameter” quantities. They tend to confuse the question of "atomic size" versus "electron size." First, there is what I have called the "Dirac diameter" of an electron. It is better known as the electron's Compton wavelength h-bar/(mc). Compton matter wavelength of anything is inversely proportional to the thing’s mass times speed of light. Here relativity and quantum theory reveal their “marriage.” (See “Fayetteville Freethinker Books” pdf. “Physics by Geometry” Vol. 3.)

Indeed, the Compton/Dirac "electron diameter" is 137 times smaller than the Bohr atomic diameter. The ratio 1/137 is called the fine structure constant: electron charge e-squared over h-bar times c which is roughly 1/137. But, the same Comton/Dirac " H-atom- diameter" of is way-way smaller still since the mass of the H-atom includes that of its proton nucleus and a proton is 1836 times more massive and so accounts for most of the atomic H-mass. Hence, h-bar/(m(H-atom)c) is about 1836 times smaller than the electron's Dirac diameter h-bar/(m(electron)c).

Result: electron BIG and atom small.

The relativity-quantum marriage mentioned above is at work making more massive things finer. This is because mass is a measure of the carrier frequency of a quantum matter wave (like the 91.3Mhz carrier of KUAF) while the observed wave size like Bohr orbital radius is analogous to the observed music we hear on KUAF. Higher frequency waves can make finer shapes (and finer music).

Now, we could be pure classicists and measure electron size by what I call the "Einstein radius" and others call the classical electron radius (electron-charge-squared divided by rest energy m-times-c-squared). Here we would be keeping relativity but divorcing quantum wave theory. (Big mistake!)

This classical approach gives a radius that is another 137 times smaller. However, the same calculation of the atomic size is again way-way smaller still, in fact, since the atom is neutral (zero) charge you could argue that its classical radius is exactly zero!

Again the result is similar: electron BIG and atom REALLY small.

In any case, such a classical radius appears meaningless for quantum dimensional objects like atoms, molecules, and electrons. We might as well use the Biblical definition of atomic and electronic diameter. (Null and void. Non-existent.)

Better NSF question: Is an atom’s mass greater than an electron’s mass?

(True. And, well,… Du-uh!)

--Bill Harter
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Re: Science News of the Day

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"The ten assertions below were phrased as questions asked of American adults in 2004. The correct answers follow in parentheses. The percentage of those surveyed who answered correctly follows."

I would like to see the actual questions...
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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by Savonarola »

Great catch, Doc.
wharter wrote:Second question is more subtly wrong.

... Only in a classical model do we (stupidly) picture an electronic dot-like thing orbiting like a tiny planet.

... Better NSF question: Is an atom’s mass greater than an electron’s mass?
This is why Dr. Harter needs to be a teacher of teachers. This is also why Dr. Harter is the man.

Sadly, today's students are generally confused by non-definite answers produced by having more than one model or by using a quantum approach. This year I made the mistake of asking a class which of the three basic subatomic particles was the "biggest." I then made the mistake of trying to correct my first mistake...
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Savonarola wrote:
Human beings as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals (True) 50.0%
Exactly what we'd expect from random guessing. Ain't that a kick in the head? For all of the efforts to promote real science education, religious dumbassery has producing nothing but a push.
DOUG
Actually, 50% is the HIGHEST figure I've seen in a U.S. poll in favor of evolutionary theory. Previously, the highest I'd seen was 48%, and I thought that was an anomaly. That was in 1995. With this poll, I think we are seeing the establishment of evolution as the winner in polls compared to creationism. It's not quite there yet, but this is far better than what we were seeing just 10 years ago, when evolution would poll at 42% or so.

I'm encouraged by this particular result.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Global Warming's Impacts Have Sped Up, Worsened Since Kyoto

WASHINGTON — Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated – beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then."

The rest....
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Kathy Freston, a health and wellness expert, posted a list of recent developments on the issue of vegetarianism, and #1 is:

World Bank agricultural scientists Robert Goodland, who spent 23 years as the Bank's lead environmental advisor, and Jeff Anhang, a research officer and environmental specialist for the Bank, argue convincingly that more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to our desire to eat chicken, pigs, and other farmed animals. That's right: Add up all the causes of climate change, and you find that eating meat causes more than everything else combined. See here for her article.

Here's the study itself.
PDF file
"But we believe that the life cycle and supply chain of domesticated animals raised for food have been vastly underestimated as a source of GHGs, and in fact account for at least half of all human-caused GHGs. If this argument is right, it implies that replacing livestock products with better alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change."
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Doug wrote:Actually, 50% is the HIGHEST figure I've seen in a U.S. poll in favor of evolutionary theory.
DOUG
I found a 2009 Pew poll that put evolution belief at 61% among the general public.

Evolved over time: 61%.
Existed in their present form since the beginning of time: 31%.

See here.

pdf file here. See pg. 37 of the report for the section on evolution.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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How Homeopathic Medicines Work: Nanopharmacology At Its Best

More like horseshit at it's best. A completely ludicrous article about Homeopathy (by a high priest of the cult) on Huffington Post. I read through dozens of the comments. They were hit and miss but the best one of all...

"If water has memory, how does it forget all the poo it's had in it?"

Also, beautiful five part roast of homeopathy starts here.

Oh, more here.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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From Larry W.

Little physics lesson in each drop of water. Beautiful.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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(CNN) -- Scientists have found the oldest fossilized footprints made by a four-legged creature forcing a rethink on when fish first crawled out of water and onto land.

The discovery of the footprints in a former quarry in the Holy Cross Mountains in south-eastern Poland are thought to be 395-million years old -- 18 million years older than the earliest tetrapod (a vertebrate with limbs rather than fins) body fossils.

The report published Thursday in the science journal Nature says the footprints of the tetrapod measure up to 26 (10 inches) centimeters wide, which scientists say is indicative of an animal around 2.5 (7.5 feet) meters in length.

The footprints are also 10 million years earlier than the oldest known elpistostegids -- creatures which displayed some animal characteristics but retained fins.

See here.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Geeks Wanted

Sure, we’re all plugged in and online 24/7. But fewer American kids are growing up to be bona fide computer geeks. And that poses a serious security risk for the country, according to the Defense Department.

The Pentagon’s far-out research arm Darpa is soliciting proposals for initiatives that would attract teens to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), with an emphasis on computing. According to the Computer Research Association, computer science enrollment dropped 43 percent between 2003 and 2006.

Darpa’s worried that America’s “ability to compete in the increasingly internationalized stage will be hindered without college graduates with the ability to understand and innovate cutting edge technologies in the decades to come…. Finding the right people with increasingly specialized talent is becoming more difficult and will continue to add risk to a wide range of DoD [Department of Defense] systems that include software development.”

The agency doesn’t offer specifics on what kinds of activities might boost computing’s appeal to teens, but they want programs to include career days, mentoring, lab tours and counseling.

Read More here.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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