“String theory, the Italian physicist Dr. Daniele Amati once said, was a piece of 21st-century physics that had fallen by accident into the 20th century. And, so the joke went, would require 22nd-century mathematics to solve.” The New York Times surveys string theory at 20…fascinating stuff, but I still don’t get it.
Category: Science
When Good Things Happen From Bad People.
Hmmm…I don’t know quite how to feel about this one. “Without a separate vote or even a debate, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) has managed to deliver to a delighted NASA enough money to forge ahead on a plan that would reshape U.S. space policy for decades to come…DeLay, a self-described ‘space nut,’ told Johnson Space Center employees a few days after the vote that ‘NASA helps America fulfill the dreams of the human heart.’” It probably doesn’t hurt that the Johnson Space Center is now in his district, either…still, this may be one of the only times when I find myself applauding the Exterminator.
The Juice is Loose.
What?!? Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi used steroids?! Man, I’ve been thinking all this time that they both just subscribed to a rigorous neck-thickening regimen. (Next thing you’ll be telling me there’s no WMDs in Iraq.) Well, I guess odds were that at least a few members of the medicated 44% in America would play baseball.
Blinding Us From Science.
Well, I guess this what we get for re-electing a President who thinks “the jury’s still out” on evolution. To help offset exploding Dubya deficits, Congress “has cut the budget for the National Science Foundation, an engine for research in science and technology, just two years after endorsing a plan to double the amount given to the agency.” But, don’t fret: “While cutting the budget of the science foundation, Congress found money for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in Birmingham, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, bathhouses in Hot Springs, Ark., and hundreds of similar projects.” Yep, priorities, people. (Although granted that cutting-edge cancer research probably costs more than Charlie Daniels’ signed guitar.)
King of the (Under) World.
The trailer for James Cameron’s IMAX-3D extravaganza Aliens of the Deep is now online. I wonder if Cameron’ll get the shakes like Michael Biehn in The Abyss.
Color of Knight.
By way of Usr/Bin/Girl, a chess program that draws what it’s thinking. (Not surprisingly, it still worked me.)
Hobbiton, Indonesia.
There’s no Bagginses ’round here. They’re all out in Flores.
Lacuna, Inc?
“Sun is shinin’ in the sky, there ain’t a cloud in sight…” Life imitates art as scientists attempt to achieve “therapeutic forgetting”, a.k.a. the focused erasure of memories. Right now, though, they haven’t got much past dulling the edge off old remembrances. “Our experiences and our memories in a lot of ways define us and define who we are,” notes Stanford ethicist David Magnus about the field, “[a]nd so that’s a scary step to go down. We should be very careful about going down a path that could lead to a serious alteration of the core essence of our identities.” Can you hear me? I don’t want this anymore, I want to call it off!
X2.
After SpaceShipOne’s historic win yesterday, the X Prize becomes the X Cup. “Teams will compete in five different categories to win the overall cup: Fastest turnaround time between the first launch and second landing, maximum number of passengers per launch, total number of passengers during the competition, maximum altitude and fastest flight time.“
OneShip to Rule Them All.
Score one for the “model builders”! SpaceShipOne won the X Prize this morning, with nary a barrel roll in sight. This is big news, indeed. Might be time to start saving up my pennies.