NASA fact-checks The Martian
After you watch The Martian, impress everyone by science-ing the shit out of it, from topography to hacking the rover. via Wired.
Archive for the ‘Science’
If Oliver Sacks had taught high school chemistry, we’d have fallen in love with the periodic table
People we wish had been our high school chemistry teachers
1. Oliver Sacks
2. Walter White
In 1945 the Science Museum in London reopened (it had been closed for much of the war), and I—a boy of twelve with a passion for metals and numbers—first saw the giant periodic table displayed there. The table itself, covering a whole wall at the head of the stairs, was a cabinet made of dark wood with ninety-odd cubicles, each inscribed with the name, the atomic weight, and the chemical symbol of its element. And in each cubicle was a sample of the element itself (all of those elements, at least, that had been obtained in pure form, and that could be exhibited safely). It was labeled “The Periodic Classification of the Elements—after Mendeleeff.”
My first vision was of metals, dozens of them in every possible form: rods, lumps, cubes, wire, foil, discs, crystals. Most were gray or silver, some had hints of blue or rose. A few had burnished surfaces that shone a faint yellow, and then there were the rich colors of copper and gold.
On uncontrollable urges, Oliver Sacks’s last article
Royal Library, Windsor Castle. Detail of a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1510–1511
Walter B., an affable, outgoing man of forty-nine, came to see me in 2006. As a teenager, following a head injury, he had developed epileptic seizures—these first took the form of attacks of déjà vu that might occur dozens of times a day. Sometimes he would hear music that no one else could hear. He had no idea what was happening to him and, fearing ridicule or worse, kept his strange experiences to himself.
Oliver Sacks now investigating the afterlife if there is one.
Oliver Sacks. Photograph: Adam Scourfield/BBC/AP Photo/AP
Goodbye, Dr. Sacks. You were one of the best friends that nerds obsessed with thinking and consciousness ever had. Fortunately for us we can continue our conversation with you every time we read your books. (As many books as he wrote, there were other manuscripts that he never got around to publishing, as mentioned in his autobiography On The Move.)
Blast, too many obituaries this month.
Vote for Filipino scientist Giselle Yeo for the Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize
Filipino scientist Giselle Yeo has a video submission to the Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize and would very much appreciate your support. The Prize recognizes work by an early-career scientist who uses innovative methods for a medically relevant application.
As far as we can tell, Giselle’s research combines molecular biology and physics to study tropoelastin mutants which may be used for bone repair and regeneration. (Sounds X-Men/Wolverine-y.)
Click on this link to the video.
If you like the video, vote for Giselle! You need to log in to thinkable.org with either Facebook or Google+, or sign up with an email address. Click the “vote” button underneath my video and that’s it!
Please feel free to share it with people who might be interested in supporting early-career scientific research.
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