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23 September 2008
More on Science Policy
Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy has some more detailed thoughts and comments about McCain and Obama’s answers to the ScienceDebate questions. I encourage you to go check them out!
22 September 2008
Vote on ScienceDebate Questions
Both Obama and McCain have answered the 14 questions posed by ScienceDebate 2008, and now the site has opened up the answers to comments from readers. So go and share your thoughts on the candidates’ science policies. They may not be having an actual debate, but we can!
15 September 2008
First image of another planet around a sun-like star!
Check it out – this is probably the first image of an extra solar planet around a Sun-like star! More specifically, the image above shows both the primary and companion of the star 1RXSJ160929.1-210524 (romantic, eh?), imaged at the Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The companion is about 8 times the mass of Jupiter, and has a radius about 17% of the Sun’s. One of the reasons …
McCain Answers Top 14 Science Debate Questions
I promised before when I summarized Obama’s answers to the top 14 sciencedebate questions that I would do the same when McCain answered. And now he has! I encourage you to go read the full answers because what I am posting here is just a bulleted list of things that I thought were the key points. Low taxes, research incentives, commitment to education, streamline regulations Nurturing technology and innovation key …
10 September 2008
Register to Vote
If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know that I don’t talk about politics too much here. I do follow politics in the news though, and frankly what I’ve been seeing lately makes me sick. I see one side doing what it can to keep the discussion focused on the issues and how to improve life for the American people, and I see the other side focusing all of its …
Has the LHC Destroyed the Earth Yet?
In case you were wondering whether or not the Large Hadron Collider has destroyed the earth yet, check this website. In all seriousness folks, there’s no threat from the LHC. The earth gets bombarded all the time by cosmic ray particles with loads more energy than the LHC particles will have. So, if cosmic rays have not destroyed the earth, then there is no chance that the LHC will. Or, …
7 September 2008
Bubbling Lava Lake Video
The Halema’uma’u vent in Hawaii seems to be filling up with a lake of lava! In this video from Sept 5, taken from a helicopter hovering over the vent, you can see the surface of the lava lake bubbling and churning. The press release has lots more information. To stay up to date with the eruptions in Hawaii, check out the Hawaii Volcano Observatory page.
2 September 2008
Science Policy Follow-Up
To follow up on my quick summary of Obama’s answers to the 14 ScienceDebate questions, Cocktail Party Physics (a blog that you should be reading if you don’t already) has an excellent post reflecting on the science and technology policies of both Obama and McCain. Like most posts at that blog it’s quite long, but definitely worth a read.
1 September 2008
The Big Picture: Hubble Rescue
The Big Picture blog has a great collection of photos showing the preparations for the upcoming space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope (STS-125). The mission launches in October and is one of the 10 remaining shuttle missions. Hubble repair missions are extremely tricky, but they are also, in my opinion, the best thing that the space shuttle has been used for.
