brainwagon

Thanks to Joanne, K9JKM for pointing out that Space Weather Radio is piping audio of Ursid Meteors crossing the radar fence which guards our country from the Ruskies. If you tune in, occasionally you’ll hear a rapid descending tone, caused by the radar bouncing off the ionized trails of meteors. Pretty cool.

This is the craziest bit of science that I’ve seen in quite a while. Sticky Tape X-rays

Via hack-a-day, here is a link on creating your own ferrofluids. My first exposure to these was as part of the SIGGRAPH art show a few years back, check them out on Google video. [tags]Ferrofluid,Science[/tags]

Most often when I link to someone else’s blog, it is because a particular article has tweaked some small bit of my interest.  These blog entries are often isolated, and the blogs that I link to often have a high noise to signal ratio.  It is therefore with some pleasure that I recommend Red State […]

This is just too cool! Need to make a few million nanoscale smiley faces? Rothemund has developed a computer program that can analyze a shape, figure out the right folding pattern, and then tell you what DNA staples you need to make that shape.”It’s really easy and fun, actually, to make whatever you want at […]

Carmen noticed that the Google home page had a logo that included a telescope looking at Mars.   A moment’s digging revealed that there is a new version of Google Maps called  Google Mars. Now everyone can view VallesMarineris and Olympus Mons.  Cool stuff. [tags]Mars,Google Maps[/tags]

A few minutes ago, I noticed the second minor earthquake of the day. I estimated the strength to be a little lower than a three, but it was enough that my next door neighbor Sam called me and asked me what I thought it was. I was already hitting the USGS website to see what […]

We don’t get much snow here, but I thought I might archive this for future reference, just because it’s cool. Save a Snowflake for Decades – Popular Science 1. Set microscope slides, coverslips and superglue outside when it’s 20°F or colder to chill them. Catch flakes on the slides or pick them up with cold […]

Courtesy of hack-a-day comes this awesome story of a student project to make a robotic rover whose purpose is to eradicate ticks.   It basically follows a buried underground wire along the perimeter of the property, all the while releasing carbon dioxide gas.   Ticks are apparently attracted to the CO2, anc collect along the course, and […]

Apparently the peakcock mantis shrimp packs a mighty wallop, which can even shatter the glass of aquariums. They also are responsible for the introduction of a new word to my vocabulary: “shrimpoluminescence”. Catch the linked video below. USATODAY.com – Shrimp spring into shattering action The speed of the strike (up to 50 mph, or 23 […]

I was a little bit disappointed when I found out the total was a bit short of what the header proclaimed, but you should still check out 1001 things to do with liquid nitrogen LN2 also works great for sweeping and cleaning hard floors such as concrete or wood. Get a couple liters in a […]

Q: If Charles Darwin were alive today, what would he be known for? A: Longevity.  He’d be 197 years old. For some reason, churches around the world are apparently taking the opportunity to reassert the claim that the findings of science (in particular, biological evolution) are compatible with their religious faith.  You can check out […]

Several weeks ago, I blogged about the volcano on Augustine Island in Alaska, including a link to the Google satellite map of the area. Now, the NASA Earth Observatory has a nice picture of the ash plume from the February 2nd eruption of the same. Just to refresh your memory, here’s the link to the […]

Just in case you didn’t have enough to worry about on this fine Thursday, check out this interesting article: Damn Interesting » Parasites on the Brain Toxoplasma gondii may be the most prevalent human parasite. As many as 50% of humans worldwide, and up to 80% in urban areas, have been infected with it at […]

It seems that a collection of public relations officers appointed by the Bush administration are giving NASA a black eye by trying to “recast” (if one is charitable) or “rewrite” (if one is accurate) the scientific research that the technical staff at NASA produce.  In particular, Bush appointee George Deutsch pressured NASA scientist Dr. James […]