20 August 2011

Weekend Science Digest

Posted by Dan Satterfield

Images, blog posts, quotes and other geeky science things that caught my eye this week.

Rivers of Ice

First ever complete image of ice flow velocity in Antarctica. Published in Science this week. Click image for a much bigger version.

The image above is from research published in SCIENCE this week by Eric Rignot et al. NASA released a fantastic movie that shows the flow much better:

 

Note to HM- Give Cox a Knighthood.

The BBC reported Friday that there has been a sharp increase in the number of students taking A levels in math, chemistry and physics and my first thought was one name. Seems I was not alone.

Speaking of astrophysicists the quote of the week – dedicated to the Gov. of Texas who thinks thousands of climate researchers are criminals:

“The great thing about science is that it’s true, whether you believe it or not” – Neil de Grasse Tyson

..and while you’re at it your Majesty throw in one for NDT as well.

Funniest Tweet of The Week.

Another study in SCIENCE this week got plenty of news coverage. Animals are moving away from the Equator at 3 times the rate faster than previously thought due to rising temperatures. They are also moving up mountains at an average if 12 meters per decade. That works out to about 20 cm per hour.

This led to the best tweet of the week on twitter:

 

 

 

If a picture paints a thousand words, then what can this outcrop tell us?

Callan Bentley one of my fellow AGU bloggers at Mountain Beltway posted this picture and challenged his readers to interpret the history of the area based on the outcrop pictured.  Read the original post here, and then see what Callan came up with. It will leave you with a real feeling for how geologists see the world.

What Callan came up with is in a second post here. High school science teachers would do well to use this as an example of both geology and science in action. Definitely my vote for the best science blog post of the week!

Science teachers: your opinions are needed.

Received this today: The National Earth Science Teachers Association has developed an anonymous survey to gather information about climate change education underway in the K-12 classroom today.

1.       If you are a K-12 educator, please take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N5ZHKFJ.

2.       Please consider forwarding this notice about the survey to your networks of teachers through emails, listservs, and other postings.

The survey will be available through September, and results will be made available through the NESTA website at http://www.nestanet.org in November of this year.

If you’ve never seen Doctor Who Skip This.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu0ByH2fK4o

(scariest darn hour of TV I ever watched)

Everyone with a science degree, bang your head on the desk.

Then go here.