Posted by barb on Jan 14, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts I went out this morning to take a few pictures around the Town & Country Resort, where the AAS was held this week. I especially wanted to get “after the flood” pictures of the stream behind the resort. Here’s a comparison of the stream from Tuesday, when Pat and I braved the flood to go to Old Town, and today:
Looking West:
Tuesday
Friday
Looking East:
Tuesday
Friday
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Jan 13, 2005 in
Science Musings From CNN: Judge: Evolution stickers are unconstitutional.
In ruling that the stickers violate the constitutionally mandated separation between church and state, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper ruled that labeling evolution a “theory” played on the popular definition of the word as a “hunch” and could confuse students.
Finally a voice of reason….
Tags: science
Posted by barb on Jan 13, 2005 in
Science Musings From Preposterous Universe:
Lost in the confusion is the crucial point: that observations like these represent the first steps towards what will be a major project over the next couple of decades, mapping out the spacetime in the vicinity of black holes. Plans are in the works for ultra-high resolution X-ray satellites like Constellation X that will directly image the inner edge of accretion disks near black holes, and gravitational-wave observatories like LISA will open an incredibly precise new window on the way in which black holes curve spacetime. At least, if we can somehow find the money — and really good science stories have an important role in making that possible.
Here he is discussing some results from the AAS meeting that appeared in the press this week. I’m sitting behind the Constellation-X booth in San Diego as I write this, and it’s nice to see that someone understands the importance of these upcoming missions. In all the “Exploration” flap, HST has been the recipient of much sympathy and rallying. However, there are some important planned missions that are coming under the axe (or at least having their budgets hammered) that are not making it into the headlines. I’m not saying that we should let HST go, but it would be nice to find someone in the press fighting for us as well.
Tags: science
Posted by barb on Jan 12, 2005 in
Science Musings Deep Impact is scheduled to launch in about 80 minutes from now (at 1:47 PM, East-coast time). Deep Impact is a mission that will, for the first time, give astronomers a glimpse of the inside of a comet. Up to now, we have only been able to study the crust, but Deep Impact is sending a one-ton (or so) battering ram to Comet Temple I. They will then be able to study ejecta from the impact to see what’s under the surface.
You can follow the launch by following the links on the Deep Impact Homepage. Here’s wishing for a successful launch!
UPDATE: It launched at 1:47 Eastern time. Check out the NASA Deep Impact page for launch footage.
Tags: science
Posted by barb on Jan 11, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts Apparently every time the American Astronomical Society is in San Diego, it rains. This time it has been raining for over a month, and this is a part of the country that usually gets only 10 days of rain per year.
Behind the Town & Country Resort, there is a small creek with a foot bridge which leads to the trolley, San Diego’s Mass Transit Train. When Pat and I went out this afternoon to catch the trolley to Old Town, this is what we saw:
That golf cart was provided by the resort so we could get to the bridge. However, on the other side of the bridge, the road we needed to cross was flooded as well.
Pat and I found a path around the flooding by walking up a block and then crossing. The sidewalk we were on only had about an inch of water. However, when we came back from Old Town, there was more water on the sidewalk — we had wet feet while manning the booths for the cocktail hour tonight.
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Jan 11, 2005 in
Science Musings This morning’s invited session at the American Astrophysical Society meeting in San Diego was by Eugenie C. Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, entitled “Intelligent Design and the Creation/Evolution Controversy”.
I have been following some of the Intelligent Design (ID) proponents’ efforts to undermine the teaching of evolution in our schools on Phayrngula’s weblog. This means that much of the talk was more of a review of the subject than completely new material.
For those of you unfamiliar with ID, it is the creationist’s sadly veiled attempt at cloaking “creation” into a science. The problem, of course, is that scientific theories, by definition, must be testable. ID is basically a process of elimination — we can’t currently explain some complex biological system, therefore there must be some designer of some sort that designed it that way. One thing that Scott brought up was one major problem with ID as a “scientific theory” is that it does not distinguish between the unknown and the unknowable. Just because we don’t understand the workings of a complex biological system doesn’t mean that we will never be able to understand that system. However, just because we start understanding that one system, we will not undermine or discorage the ID propoenents — there will always be something else that we don’t understand yet.
One telling illustration she made was how the science community deals with a new theory versus how the ID community would have us do it (I do not include ID in the scientific community — it’s not science). It looked something like this (though more spiffy in PowerPoint):
Science community:
Great Idea –> Research –> Peer Review –> [Feedback loop between Research and Peer Review until…] –> Scientific Consensus –> Classroom and Textbook coverage of Great Idea
ID community:
Great Idea –> Classroom and Textbook coverage of Great Idea
The ID community wants the scientific community to acknowledge the work of ID even though there has been no peer reviewed papers on ID in any respected scientific journal (the Stephan Meyer “peer reviewed” paper notwhithstanding). In fact, the ID community wants science classes across the US to include their “science” in the curriculum…without any credible research or peer review. Yeah. Right.
The fundamental problem, however, with ID and with scientists fighting ID is that the ID doctrine has turned the “belief” in evolution into the non-belief in God. People react strongly against being told that their God doesn’t exist, of course. However, the “belief” in evolution (there’s nothing to believe or disbelieve here, it’s a well-established scientific theory), does not have to be a disbelief in God…they just want everyone to think that.
Her suggestions for what we, the scientific community, could do:
- Explicity teach the nature of science
- Explicitly teach evolution (evolution of the stars, galaxies, as well as biological system)
- Keep up with local school board happenings
- Join the AIBS/NCSE list -serve for news on local ID/creationist/evolution news
Unfortunately, because ID proponents have turned this into an emotional and religious issue, these items will not ultimately work. ID proponents do not listen to logic; instead they spout the party line and ignore scientist’s refutations of their claims. Their main tactic is to shout louder. Sadly, I don’t know what can be done to prevent the ID attacks on our science education; right now we can only fight them as they come.
Tags: rant, science
Posted by barb on Jan 9, 2005 in
Books by Terry Pratchett
I was really looking forward to reading this one, especially because I had enjoyed Guards! Guards! so much. However, I had a very hard time getting into The Truth. I don’t know why. Perhaps I just liked Carrot, the main character in Guards! Guards! better than William de Worde. Maybe it was because I was confused every time Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip entered the scene for about half the book. Maybe it just took too long for the talking dog to have his say.
The jury is still out on whether or not I like Pratchett and Diskworld. I have at least one more Ciskworld book on my shelf — maybe that will decide things…
Tags: reviews
Posted by barb on Jan 7, 2005 in
Random Thoughts For the new year, Mush and I are going to focus on getting healthier. We’ve both tried this process before, with varied successes, and this time we want to make it stick. Part of our plan to help us along is to make us accountable not just to ourselves and each other, but to, well, you. Mushi set up a blog for our efforts — I’ll include a link on the sidebar soon, but in the mean time, use this one — check it out, watch our progress, cheers us on, and prod us when we need it.
(Oh, and you should check out Mushi’s page — she’s more fun than I am 🙂
Tags: health
Posted by barb on Jan 5, 2005 in
Science Musings Swift‘s first light!
NASA posted Swift’s first-light images today, along with a press release about a slew of bursts that the BAT (Burst Alert Telescope — Swift’s GRB watchdog) observed during instrument calibration last month.
The image is the BAT’s “first light” gamma-ray image showing Cygnus X-1 (top) and Cygnus X-3 (bottom).
Tags: science
Posted by barb on Jan 2, 2005 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
This is another biopic, which seems the genre to be this past year. The film follows the young Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) before he becomes a complete recluse. We see the beginnings of mental instability (schizophrenia?), but at the focus is the innovations and spirit of the young Hughes.
DiCaprio has come over from heart-throb-annoying actor to someone that I can watch and be sucked into the dilusion. There was a time when I shunned any movie he was in (after Titanic) just because he was in it. I might be turning around to seeing almost anything he’s in now. Brad Pitt never made that transition for me.
The film does drag just a bit in the middle, but not for too long. There are a lot of cameos by actors that I know — Edward Herrmann (from Gilmore Girls on the censorship board, Brent Spiner (from Star Trek Next Generation) as an airplane designer, and Jude Law as Errol Flynn. A fun distraction for an afternoon.