New Book Cuts Through Fog of Hype Cloaking Cyberwar
I am a cyberwar skeptic. When U.S. officials and defense contractors warn of the looming threat of cyberattacks from China, Iran and terrorist groups, my bullshit detector lights up.
"technology"
LEDs are reducing energy demand for lighting across the United States
Since 2008, the cost of light emitting diodes (LEDs) has dropped by more than 85%. With this drop, the United States saw total installations of LEDs increase dramatically.
The Top 5 #SciamBlogs Posts for 2013
In this month’s instalment of ‘Best of the Blogs’, I have a look at the top 5 posts from our network bloggers. I’m so proud to be a part of such a diverse and talented group of people, here’s to continued success and awesome blogging for 2014!...
Twitter, Black Women, and Graduate Education – a place for a dispersed community
I know abouta little overdozen African-American Women with or earning a Ph.D. I count both real life friend and on-line associates. When I list them in a Twitter #FollowFriday list it looks like a lot...
Keystone Pipeline Will Impact Climate Change, State Department Reports
How much can one oil pipeline affect global climate change? That’s one of the fundamental questions probed by a new, final environmental impact assessment released January 31 by the U.S...
12 Graphics that Contain Everything You Need to Know about Climate Change
Climate change is real, it’s here and it will be affecting the planet for a long, long time. That’s the lesson of the latest iteration of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change‘s state of climate science report, released in its entirety on January 30...
Photo Friday: Coal gasification
Last summer at the Rock Mountain Test Facility in Wyoming, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists tested the practical potential of large-scale coal gasification facilities in a series of field experiments...
Pressure Sensitive Painting Comes to the iPad – review
Consider this a tech product review by an oil painter. Tool under review: Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus for iPad What it does: this stylus allows for pressure sensitivity when using painting apps on the iPad...
Obama Vows More Executive Action on High-Tech Manufacturing, Climate Change Mitigation and Renewal of Science
After a year buffeted by squeezes to federally funded research from a government shutdown as well as an extremely bumpy rollout of healthcare.gov, President Barack Obamas fifth State of the Union Tuesday night struck a few hopeful notes for science and technology...
Particle Fever: A Movie About the LHC Comes to US Theaters March 5
“Imagine being able to watch as Edison turned on the first light bulb, or as Franklin received his first jolt of electricity.” -Particle Fever: With One Switch, Everything Changes...
Falsification and its discontents
One of the answers to Edge.org’s question “What scientific idea is ready for retirement”? is by physicist Sean Carroll. Carroll takes on an idea from the philosophy of science that’s usually considered a given: falsification...
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...
The Science Parodies Continue: What is the Value of Pi?
A fun little ditty set to the tune of the famous ‘What does the fox say?’…I only wish my high school math teacher was this cool… See the original post in Jennifer Ouellette’s ‘Physics Week in Review‘ over at Cocktail Party Physics...
Physics and fundamental laws: Necessary truth or misleading cacophony?
Robert Oppenheimer’s greatest contribution to physics was one that he wanted nothing to do with for the rest of his life. In 1939 Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder published a paper in the same issue of the Physical Review that featured Niels Bohr and John Wheeler’s seminal article on the mechanism of nuclear fission [...]..
The Jumping Rocks of Mars
Now you don’t see it, now you do. Ten years into a mission that was originally going to only last a few months, NASA’s Opportunity rover continues to turn up surprises on Mars...
“What scientific idea is ready for retirement?”
Every year since 1998, Big Questions guru John Brockman has posed one big question on Edge.org and gotten about forty or fifty of the world’s leading thinkers to come up with their own answers...
Should you drink coffee before or after a learning task?
Popular wisdom holds that caffeine enhances learning, alertness and retention, leading millions to consume coffee or caffeinated drinks before a challenging learning task such as attending a business strategy meeting or a demanding scientific presentation...
Finally! A Science-Themed Miley Cyrus Parody…
Those of you familiar with my blog here at SciAm will know that I’m a little obsessed with science-themed music videos. When I saw the ‘Wrecking Ball’ masterpiece of Ms...
Vaclav Smil: “The great hope for a quick and sweeping transition to renewable energy is wishful thinking”
That’s Vaclav Smil, the prolific University of Manitoba thinker writing in this month’s issue of Scientific American.When Smil says something I usually listen.
Could Your Texts, Tweets and Selfies Be Funding War in Africa?
Hard to believe that our mundane social media banter could have an impact on the civil war raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than a decade.
