You are browsing the archive for March 2014 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
29 March 2014
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistical Truth
There has been a lot of attention recently around “538 Blog” founder Nate Silver and his hire of Political Scientist Roger Pielke Jr. to write about climate change on his new gig. Pielke is the darling of the anti-science crowd, and his often called to testify at science hearings on Capitol Hill by those who think climate change is a hoax ( It’s hard to find any real climate experts …
28 March 2014
Australia’s Hottest Summer Ever Likely Due To Increasing Earth Greenhouse
The WMO has a report out this week about the climate of 2013, and while you can read the whole thing in 20 minutes, a special edition at the end is a must read. You can get the entire report here, but I am reproducing the last section, because it is a short but fascinating discussion of an attribution study. In atmospheric science, an attribution study looks at the causes …
23 March 2014
Happy World Meteorological Day
Before you say, that’s cool and move on, think about that for a second. WE CAN MEASURE WINDS FROM SPACE! We can also measure temperatures, humidity, the amount of dust in the air, and even how stressed the plants in a drought are. Oh, and NASA did it all (and went to the Moon and Mars, and launched 100 space shuttles), all on less money than we spent on the …
19 March 2014
Trying to Make Sense of The Big Bang Discovery? This May Help.
The discovery that seems to confirm inflation has made word-wide news and for a good reason. It’s likely to result in some Nobel Prizes as well. NATURE made a good video that explains the basics: (see below:) Want to know more?? Joe Hansen at “It’s OK To be Smart” has a more in-depth summary of why this is such a BIG deal and some links to other posts from some physicists …
What We Know About Our Climate- AAAS publishes a must read summary.
I’m glad this report tackles the myth (in America) that scientists are divided over the reality of our changing climate, and it’s cause. It’s totally and utterly false. Don’t believe me?? Go look at the journals like NATURE, SCIENCE, any AMS journal etc. If someone tells you that what’s in this report is wrong, you should ask them why they have not published the evidence why in a scientific journal. That’s …
16 March 2014
Severe Travel Restrictions Imposed In Paris as Smog Worsens
Paris just cut the vehicles on Monday’s roads by half in an effort to improve the air quality over the Capital. It also has made all mass transit free, and the BBC has further details here. Motorcycles (most of who have rather dirty engines) are also included. The reason for the bad smog is a temperature inversion, and you have likely heard this before, but I want to explain WHY …
Cosmos Part Two Tonight- The Things That Molecules Do…
Tonight’s episode talks about the past great extinctions, life, and natural selection. In other words the things that simple molecules can do in 13,000 million years.
14 March 2014
NWS Use of the Word Haboob Sets off Firestorm In West Texas
A haboob is a type of severe dust storm. The word has been in common use for at least 60 years, and it dates back to the 1920’s in the Sudan. The word itself is Arabic in origin, and the American Meteorological Society atmospheric science dictionary defines it thus: haboob (Many variant spellings, including habbub, habub, haboub, hubbob, hubbub.) A strong wind and sandstorm or duststorm in northern and central Sudan, especially around Khartoum, where the …
11 March 2014
Want the Cosmos Calendar?? It’s Here!
UPDATE: You can get a LARGE jpeg image for printing HERE. Cosmic Calendar_CONVERTED
Neil deGrasse Tyson Lectures CNN on Science & Journalism
Quite a bit of talk about Neil deGrasse Tyson today and not just because Cosmo’s last night was brilliant, and soul inspiring. In an interview on CNN he was very critical of their coverage of science. I wrote about a similar episode a couple of weeks ago when several Sunday morning news shows put scientists up against those who think climate change is a hoax. Somehow they think this is …
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.