We handle money every day–though perhaps not as much of it as we would like–but we’re more interested in what the coins and bills will buy than how they are made (except, of course, for the new two-dollar coin, which we like to throw, hammer and jump up and down on, on the off chance …
Category: Science Columns
Diamonds (2002)
Few things say “Be My Valentine” more effectively than diamonds–reason enough to devote this week’s science column to these sparkling rocks. Diamonds aren’t anything fancy, chemically: they’re just carbon, like coal. But their molecules close-packed in rigid geometric fashion, and that gives them special characteristics. To begin with, diamond is the hardest substance known: the …
Extremophiles
We humans like to think we’re pretty tough, able, thanks to our technology, to live in the most severe habitats on Earth. But the fact is, there are other forms of life on Earth that have us beat hands down. They not only live all the places we live, they live in searingly hot water …
Insomnia
There’s a song in the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta Iolanthe that begins, “When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache and repose is taboo’d by anxiety….” and goes on to describe a horrendous night that begins with sleeplessness and ends with a horrible dream. W. S. Gilbert, it seems, was no stranger to insomnia. Nor are roughly …
The common cold
It’s January: if you don’t have a cold yourself, you know someone who does. The common cold is caused by a virus infection in the nose, although colds can also involve the sinuses, ears and bronchial tubes. Symptoms include sneezing, a runny and/or stuffed-up nose, a sore or scratchy throat, cough, hoarseness, and sometimes headaches, …
The science of stink
We all have our favorite smells, which remind us of our favorite things. The smell of baking bread may make you think of Grandma’s house. The scent of lilacs may remind you of warm summer evenings. Then there our are less-favorite smells, like the smell of an outhouse on a hot day, or the smell …
The 2001 Discover Awards
Each year, Discover Magazine honors a number of scientists with Innovation Awards, which spotlight inventions and discoveries with the potential to change our lives. A look at the 2001 winners provides a snapshot of how science and technology are advancing, and just maybe gives us a look at what the future holds. (OK, OK, the awards were …
The physics of fiddling
Isaac Stern, master of the complex physics of waveform generation, vibrating wood, and acoustical analysis, died last month. Stern, of course, didn’t think of himself in those terms: he thought of himself as a violinist. But violins are remarkably complex devices. On the surface, they look pretty simple: the bow vibrates the strings, which vibrate …
Ebola
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is in the news again, due to an outbreak in Gabon. Ebola is always news because, unlike most rare tropical diseases, it’s part of pop culture, thanks to Richard Preston’s 1994 best-seller The Hot Zone and Dustin Hoffman’s 1995 movie Outbreak. As a result, many people follow news of Ebola outbreaks with bated breath, wondering …
Sneezing and coughing
If you’ve been to a concert or play recently, you know ’tis the season for coughing and sneezing–usually during the quietest moments. Both coughing and sneezing are reflex actions (sneezing more so than coughing–you can cough deliberately, but it’s almost impossible to fake a sneeze.) And as the proud father of a five-and-a-half-month-old baby girl, …
Star Trek tech
“Like something out of Star Trek” has become a catch-phrase for all things high-tech. But as Erik Baard points out in articles recently posted to Wired Online, we live in such a high-tech age that the Star Trek future is beginning to look more like last Thursday. As Baard notes, fans have wondered for decades …
The Dead Sea SCrolls
Two thousand years ago mass-produced books did not exist. Knowledge was handed down from generation to generation either orally, or in fragile, handwritten documents. Because of that only fragments of the knowledge of that time survives today: inscriptions on stone, a few papyrus and parchment fragments. Creating an image of the distant past is like …
My latest live walk and vlog
Buy Autographed Books
