Photo Friday: Stepping into new wind technology
At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s National Wind Technology Center (NWTC), government scientists and engineers partner with industry and academia to test new renewable energy technologies...
"technology"
Renewables: Fewer subsidies and more R&D please
There’s a good article in Slate which lays out a case for shuttling some of the funds spent on subsidies for renewable energy into R&D instead.
Maybe Mars Seeded Earth’s Life, Maybe It Didn’t
This week a major geochemistry conference heard an argument for life on Earth having originated on Mars, but does this hold up to scrutiny?
Arctic Methane: MAMM Lapland air sampling road trip
By Dave Lowry and Nathalie Grassineau Part 1 – In the beginning – Tuesday Aug 13, 21:00 UT Reached Kiruna, Sweden, yesterday (Monday) afternoon having taken the early flight from Heathrow...
The Climate May Be Changing, but the IPCC Remains the Same
By 2021, climate scientists should be 99 percent certain that climate change is our fault—up from 95 percent certain presently and a mere 90 percent certain all the way back in 2007.
Empathetic Mapping: Redrawing Chicago to Examine School Choice
This year, Mason High School was one of 50 programs in the Chicago Public School system closed permanently. This recent wave of closings is unprecedented in the city’s history, with over 1,700 faculty laid off and many more students displaced...
Fuel for Thought: problem with briquettes
“We’d like to know what the problem was with the briquettes.” It’s Monday morning and Emily and I are talking with a group of women with the help of Naomi as translator.
The Dirtiest Lunar Mystery Of All
There may be something funny going on with the stuff covering the Moon, and a new NASA mission launching next month is aiming to solve the mystery...
The Iron Madonna or: Kicking Ass While Female
I reluctantly acquired a Twitter account as a necessary accoutrement to my Scientific American posts. The people I track there fall mostly into two streams: scientists and SFF writers. This week, the two intersected, resulting in a minor epiphany. The tributaries were Upsides of Women in Science?...
#SciAmBlogs Friday – White House solar panels, Olinguito, Pecan Truffle, Elysium, no garbage, and more.
- Karissa Milbury – Changing the cancer landscape - Jag Bhalla – Is Economics More Like History Than Physics? - Becky Crew – The Olinguito: A New Species That Looks House Cat Crossed With a Teddy Bear - Jennifer Frazer – American Pecan Truffle May Be Coming to a Plate Near You, [...]..
Physics Hasn’t Looked This Hot Since The Big Bang
The ATLAS detector at CERN is overwhelming to mere mortals like myself. It’s one of four detectors along the Large Hadron Collider designed to detect the most fundamental particles in our universe...
We Could Make Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Real
At some point cloaked in the (recent) mists of time, Elon Musk took over the mantle of leading U.S. visionary, as is the prerogative apparently of our technology billionaires.
#SciAmBlogs Monday – ArcLight, tapir attacks, Bug Chicks, Andromeda, Perseids, writing rituals, and more.
- The Bug Chicks – The Bug Chicks: It’s Time to Reclaim Nature Programming - Scicurious – Lighting up the brain with ArcLight - Maria Konnikova – Can what you do *before* you write improve your actual writing?...
Andromeda Beckons Across The Void
The Andromeda galaxy holds a particular fascination.
Secure E-mail Services Shuttered over Fears of Government PRISM Reprisals
Revelations of the U.S. National Security Agency’s PRISM program continue to have worldwide ripple effects. Nearly two months after U.S. federal prosecutors charged NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government property for blowing the lid off of the clandestine surveillance program, the company that secured Snowden’s electronic communications with journalists and international [...]..
What Chappie Says—and Doesn't Say—about Artificial Intelligence [Video]
I'm not a scold about scientific accuracy in film. As long as a movie is not built on a fundamentally stupid premise (“Lucy,” the Scarlet Johansson vehicle predicated on the false notion that humans use only 10 percent of their brains, comes to mind), I am happy to let myself be entertained...
Building New Homes for Energy Innovation
As discussions begin today at the 10th MIT Energy Conference, the energy sector ponders how industry, government, and the scientific community can combine forces to enable the rapid evolution of the energy system...
Quick Twitter Tip for Attributing Art
When I see some amazing art posted on Twitter without attribution to the creator, especially by someone in science communication, I kind of lose it.
Modern Day Alchemists Turn Toxic Runoff Into Valuable Pigments
Artists have long used odd things in their work – Marcel Duchamp’s urinal on a pedestal comes to mind – but even when unusual ingredients are less obvious, they can be present...
Variolation, Aviation, and Genetic Modification: Progress in the Face of Fear and Danger
In 1721, a small pox epidemic was ripping through the colonial city of Boston. Cotton Mather, a Reverend and Royal minister, convinced the physician Zebadiah Boylston to perform an arcane medical procedure on two slaves and Mather’s own son...
