The next time you’re talking to someone with keeps looking from side to side as you talk instead of right at you, don’t write them off as untrustworthy. They may just be trying to remember your name. Dr. Andrew Parker, a psychologist specializing in cognitive neuroscience at Manchester Metropolitan University in the U.K., recently presented …
Tag: science
"Solid light will help us build the technology of this century."
Solid light? Apparently: “Solid light photons repel each other as electrons do. This means we can control photons, opening the door to new kinds of faster computers,” says Dr Greentree. “Many real-world problems in quantum physics are too hard to solve with today’s computers. Our discovery shows how to replicate these hard problems in a …
"Why are your eyes so shifty?"
“I’m trying to remember your name.”
Remember cold fusion?
Remember how it became a joke? How there was nothing to it at all? Think again: However, a recently published academic paper from the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego throws cold water on skeptics of cold fusion. Appearing in the respected journal Naturwissenschaften, which counts Albert Einstein among its …
Slow-wave sleep
The science of sleep was one of my earliest column topics, way back in 1991. And why not? After all, as I pointed out then, sleep is so important birds, fish, reptiles and mammals all do it, we spend a third of our lives doing it, and if we don’t do it, we die. Like …
Is it real, or is it ElectroStrad?
Very few violinists ever get to play a Stradivarius, but maybe they can still get the sound: Researchers at Manchester University claim to have a solution for all those string players who wish their cheap violins could sound like a Strad. According to an article in the London Guardian, the researchers have developed an electronic …
Exercise by taking a pill?
My kind of workout.
Possibly habitable world found
Astronomers have found the first extrasolar planet where carbon-based “life as we know it” could conceivably exist: A planet of about five times Earth mass, one whose radius is only 1.5 times that of our own world. Moreover, a planet that’s smack in the middle of its star’s habitable zone, with a mean temperature estimated …
Rust never sleeps
From nuclear terrorism to Earth-killing asteroids, avian flu and global warming, these days you can choose to set aside every hour of the day for a specific worry and never repeat yourself. To insure it stays that way, I’d like to introduce you to Ug99. Ug99 is a strain of black stem rust that attacks …
The real-life Atlantis?
Well, this is interesting. Reports the BBC: The legend of Atlantis, the country that disappeared under the sea, may be more than just a myth. Research on the Greek island of Crete suggests Europe’s earliest civilisation was destroyed by a giant tsunami. As John Scalzi, over at Ficlets, notes: Of course, this leaves Aquaman without …
A nice little review of Magnesium
My editor at Rosen Publishing passed along this review of my children’s science book Magnesium yesterday: “This is the second book in this series that I have reviewed and again, the author has done a fine job of explaining what can be a complex and confusing subject. Although not a scientist, I enjoyed the anecdotal …
Science fiction headline of the day:
“Star Trek shields will protect man in space.” From the TimesOnline story: “It’s no accident that Star Trek featured this sort of technology, as it had advisers who work for Nasa and it’s feasible,” Dr Bamford said. “The shields seem to be some sort of invisible barrier, which energy bounces off, and that sort of …
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