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Category Archives: science/nature
Evolution’s Third Replicator?
This article argues that we are seeing a new form of evolution emerging, after genes and memes. WE HUMANS have let loose something extraordinary on our planet – a third replicator – the consequences of which are unpredictable and possibly … Continue reading
Book: The Canon
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier. Mariner Books, 2008. This would be a decent overview of a broad range of basic science topics, but unfortunately the writing style ended up really putting … Continue reading
Robert J. Sawyer’s talk at Google’s Waterloo office
Robert J. Sawyer, a Canadian science fiction author, gave a fascinating talk at Google’s Waterloo office. He discusses how the world wide web might gain consciousness, the subject of his latest trilogy. The talk touches on several topics related to … Continue reading
The man who grew a finger
Quite an incredible story about a powder being developed that can regrow body parts. “I put my finger in,” Mr Spievak says, pointing towards the propeller of a model airplane, “and that’s when I sliced my finger off.” It took … Continue reading
Monument created for Laika the space dog
A nice memorial for the first dog in space. Stories about how she was selected varied: Some said Laika was chosen for her good looks — a Soviet space pioneer had to be photogenic. Others indicated the top choice for … Continue reading
Contrast Asynchrony Illusion
This post contains a cool optical illusion and a detailed explanation. The centres of the two circles are actually changing colour in synchrony, but your perception is quite different. This simple relationship between the colors used to create the illusion … Continue reading
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Caffeine: A User’s Guide to Getting Optimally Wired
This article gives some interesting tips on making the most of your caffeine intake. A landmark 2004 study showed that small hourly doses of caffeine (.3mg per kg of body weight [approx 20 mg per hour; thanks digg!]) can support … Continue reading
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Book: The Möbius Strip
The Möbius Strip: Dr. August Möbius’s Marvelous Band in Mathematics, Games, Literature, Art, Technology, and Cosmology by Clifford Pickover. Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006 As the title implies, The Möbius Strip explores the strange characteristics of Möbius strips and other related … Continue reading
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The Future of Food
Popular Science has a great article and gallery of some of the tools used in molecular gastronomy. A kitchen equipped for “molecular gastronomy”—gourmet cuisine as cooked by Mr. Wizard, basically—is all about the tech. Devices that wouldn’t be out of … Continue reading
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What the F***? Why we curse.
Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker has written an interesting and amusing article on why swears carry such an impact. But perhaps the greatest mystery is why politicians, editors, and much of the public care so much. Clearly, the fear and loathing … Continue reading
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Physicists discover inorganic dust with lifelike qualities
Scientists have discovered lifelike inorganic particles. Implications of this discovery include non-carbon-based life, and an extraterrestrial origin for life on earth from inorganic interstellar dust. Quite bizarrely, not only do these helical strands interact in a counterintuitive way in which … Continue reading
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Colonizing Planet Earth
Karl Schroeder has written an interesting article arguing that we should look at colonizing our own planet the same way we would colonize Mars and other planets so that we can reduce our impact on its ecosystem. Look at the … Continue reading
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Satellites solve mystery of low gravity over Canada
Well this is the first time I’ve ever heard of this. If it seems Canadians weigh less than their American neighbours, they do – but not for the reasons you might think. A large swath of Canada actually boasts lower … Continue reading
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Book: Uncle Tungsten
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks Alfred A. Knopf, 2001 Neurologist Oliver Sacks gives us a memoir of his childhood and, at the same time, a brief history of chemistry. Oliver describes how he became interested … Continue reading
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Swarm Theory
National Geographic has published an interesting article on how swarm behaviour models can help create smart, distributed problem-solving systems. Where this intelligence comes from raises a fundamental question in nature: How do the simple actions of individuals add up to … Continue reading
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Spinning Silhouette Optical Illusion
Cool visual illusion. It may be difficult to make the mental switch at first, but it is quite intriguing. If you look at the spinning girl’s silhouette below, you will think it is spinning clockwise, probably. When you check her … Continue reading
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We Are Not Going There With Rockets
Hard science-fiction author Charles Stross has laid out his argument for why space colonization is basically impossible. And I don’t want to spend much time talking about the unspoken ideological underpinnings of the urge to space colonization, other than to … Continue reading
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Motion Binding Illusion
This is absolutely baffling. Check it out! Technically the mechanism at work here is known as “motion binding”. When the edges of the diamond are covered by occluders with the same colour as the background (here, white) there is no … Continue reading
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Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest 2007
Here are the top 10 finalists in the Neural Correlate Society’s annual contest. The contest is a celebration of the ingenuity and creativity of the world’s premier visual illusion research community. Visual illusions are those perceptual experiences that do not … Continue reading
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Book: Decoding the Universe
Decoding the Universe Charles Seife Viking, 2006 This book looks at how physicists are using information theory to further our understanding of universe. The book begins with an introduction to how communications and cryptography lead to the field of information … Continue reading
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