Tag: science

  • Fire in the Sky

    Fire in the Sky

    From a letter to a friend shortly after 9/11 Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 10:03:47 -0500To: DaveFrom: KMSubject: Fire in the Sky That was 3 hours well spent. Just returned from the beach. Got the bike out at 3:30, mounted the night light, added a bit of air to the front tire, and set off… Read more

  • The Inner and Outward Gaze

    The Inner and Outward Gaze

    Ever seen those delightful Russian matryoshka dolls, the ones where each doll opens to reveal another, smaller but identical doll, which opens to reveal yet another smaller, identical doll, and down it goes to a doll the size of a peanut? Likewise, the films Inception and the Matrix portray realities within realities within realities, scrambling… Read more

  • Three Bright Lights

    Three Bright Lights

    Last night the sky over Washington, DC was unusually clear, so we had a spectacular view of three planets low in the pre-dawn east. Venus, Jupiter and Mars were all pointed toward the coming sunrise. It reminded me of one of the early geometry puzzles I sorted through while learning astronomy. Venus orbits closer to… Read more

  • Farmland Volcanoes

    Farmland Volcanoes

      The mound you see here is Mole Hill in Northern Virginia, a bit over an hour away from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. 48 million years ago it was a volcano. It has obviously worn down quite a bit since then, but the geological processes that gave it birth are still active. The Journal of Geophysical… Read more

  • How to Pop a Parachute on Another Planet

    How to Pop a Parachute on Another Planet
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    The Martian atmosphere lies low and thin. There’s not enough of it to land softly by parachute alone. But when you come screaming in a little over 3.5 miles per second, it’s almost more like water than air. The Mars Science Laboratory hit the atmosphere at 13,000 mph and slowed to 900 mph on atmospheric… Read more

  • Physics for Curious Teenagers

    Physics is often an intimidating subject because it encompasses so much – it is the foundation for how everything else works. Our understanding is advanced and growing, but not yet complete. There are still holes, and this is where the excitement lies – exploring the unmapped territories, standing on the shoulders of giants and seeing… Read more

  • Cultural Differences in Moral Reasoning

    [One of 50 articles written and published for Demand Media in 2013] Cultural differences in moral reasoning are driven by various influences — history, leadership, religious belief, experiences with peace and warfare, available resources and the strategies for extracting and distributing those resources. These cultural differences are not limited to the scale of nations. There… Read more

  • Educational Science Games for Teenagers

    Educational games can be competitive – teams can vie to build a better tool, such as a water balloon catapult or battling robots. More often, educational games are cooperative activities. You may build something with others, or construct something virtually based on real-world physics using a computer. Learning by doing is the essence of applied… Read more

  • Grenville Rocks

    Grenville Rocks

    Just outside Baltimore, there’s a trail in a state park that winds down toward a small river. The river descends through a short rapids, gliding over rock. The rock is unique; it’s over a billion years old. It’s known as the Baltimore gneiss. This is what it looks like: The DC metro area has been… Read more

  • Martian Geology

    Martian Geology

    This image from India’s MOM mission highlights a region with stress fractures – cracks – in Mars’ crust that can run as much as 3 miles deep.  They’re called fossa, sometimes grabens, and they exist on Earth too. Yes, you are riding on a cracked surface. Have a good day. http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25-mars-orbiter-mission/breathtaking-pictures-mars-colour-camera-mcc-of-india%E2%80%99s-mars-orbiter Elsewhere on Mars, there’s… Read more