What’s the Deal with Euclid’s Fourth Postulate?
In February, I wrote about Euclid’s parallel postulate, the black sheep of the big, happy family of definitions, postulates, and axioms that make up the foundations of Euclidean geometry.
The Birth of Modern Peer Review
Peer review was introduced to scholarly publication in 1731 by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which published a collection of peer-reviewed medical articles.
Blame the Jet Stream for Frigid Winters in Eastern U.S.
Cold back East and warmth out West is a jet stream pattern that has been in place for 4,000 years, according to new research
The Renaissance's Contribution to Geology: Landscape Painting
In the Renaissance (1450-1600) architecture and pictorial arts, but also scientific disciplines like astronomy, physics and medicine, experienced a rebirth and important improvements – but what about geology?
It’s the End of Fundamental Physics... Again
Fellow Scientific American blogger John Horgan is at it again. This time he is heralding the end of fundamental physics based on the increasing time lag between Nobel Prizes awarded for fundamental discoveries.
Science Book Wins a Pulitzer Prize
I am always thrilled when a science themed book wins the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize. Some of my favorites from previous years include the following: 2011 Siddhartha Mukherjee “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” 1998 Jared Diamond “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” 1995 Jonathan Weiner “The Beak Of [...]
Offshore Drilling Exhibit Opens at George Bush Presidential Library
The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University has a new exhibit that tells the story of offshore drilling and the 41st President’s previous life as an oilman.
How to Solve Global Warming: It's the Energy Supply
Carbon storage has to expand rapidly, or coal burning has to cease, if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change
How Colors Revolutionized Geological Mapmaking
The first maps used symbols to characterize single outcrops; later maps introduced shaded areas to display the distribution of specific rock-types, but due the high printing-costs these maps were printed only in black & white, making them hard to read.
"Gospel of Jesus's Wife" Shown to Be Authentic in Tests
Testing of a scrap of papyrus, which bears words suggesting that Jesus had a wife, points to the document's authenticity
Google Doodle Honors Chemist Dr. Percy Julian
April 11, 2014 would have been Dr. Julian Percy’s 115th Birthday and it was a beautiful site to behold – seeing today’s Google Doodle honoring the man and his science.
Does Growing Time Lag for Nobels Portend End of Fundamental Discoveries in Physics?
Some idiot over at National Geographic just wrote a column titled “Science Is Running Out of Things to Discover,” and the commenters are hammering him.