Sky gazing and Satellite tracking

This months Wired magazine has a great article on tracking satellites. Well, the article is not that great, but the website they give is pretty darn good: http://www.heavens-above.com

Check it out for satellite tracks and other astronomy goodies.

Great cartoon

Numbers: TV and Mathematics

Here's a good article on the television show Numb3rs.

I've never seen this show but a friend of mine likes it. What do you think of it?

Young scientists compete

This March, Washington, DC, will host a science competition. The forty finalists will be there competing for half-a-million dollars in scholarship money.

I went to this a few years ago and it is truly amazing to see the level of scientific achievement of the students. I hope I can go again this year.

43rd Mersenne Prime Found!

Quoting from the site:

"On December 15, 2005, Dr. Curtis Cooper and Dr. Steven Boone, professors at Central Missouri State University, discovered the 43rd Mersenne Prime, 2^30,402,457-1.

The discovery is the largest known prime number.

The new prime is 9,152,052 digits long. "

Dangerous Ideas: What's yours?

The Edge Annual Question — 2006

WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?

The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?

Click the link and have fun reading leading thinkers' thoughts. I don't believe much of what they say, after all, what do they really know? But it's fun reading.

Spread sheet errors: They're there

"It is completely within the realms of possibility that a single, large, complex but erroneous spreadsheet could directly cause the accidental loss of a corporation or institution," Croll added. "If the uncontrolled use of spreadsheets continues to occur in highly leveraged markets and companies, it is only a matter of time before [some random] event occurs, causing catastrophic loss."

Spreadsheets, so common today, are prone to errors and mistakes. Be careful that what you see and calculate is really what you want.

Cancer Researcher Fakes Data

It wasn't bad enough that Hwang in Korea doctored his stem cell research. No. Now a cancer researcher at Norway's Comprehensive Cancer Center faked, completed fabricated, his data.

What a disgrace?

Research dollars are already hard to come by, fewer and fewer people are even doing research, and now this?! It's a sad day, a sad, sad day.

I wonder though if the lack of funding causes such stiff competition that prompts researchers to cheat.

What do you think?

Seed Vault: The Norwegians are mad

The Norwegians plan to build a vault to hold all varieties of seeds. So, if there's a global catastrophe there'll be seeds left for future generations to plant. At first blush, this may seem like a good idea. But if there's a global catastrophe, who will be here to plant the seeds? What's more, given the catastrophe they envision: nuclear war, severe global warming (whatever that means) how will the seeds even grow?

If there's a catatrophe that would require such seed storage you can bet few humans will be able to use those seeds.

Coffee mug shows global warming

The mug is decorated with, naturally, a heat-sensitive world map. When it's filled with a steaming beverage, the shorelines retreat, reflecting an extreme version of what scientists say will happen as melting ice and warming water raise sea levels.

Now we're seeing some good from the global warming scare.

I'll drink to that!

Explosion on the Moon

An asteroid hit the moon and it probably looked like something in this picture. This happened in late October or early November. While our tiny planet is protected from asteroids, at least the small ones!, by our atmosphere, the moon has no atmosphere and therefore, no protection.