For the past thousand years, the human history of the North Sea has been played out on a stage constructed largely of herring. I’ve written about Helen Czerski before, when I reviewed her first book, Storm In A Teacup (2017). At that time I mentioned that she is a physicist with a speciality in oceanography. … Continue reading Helen Czerski: Blue Machine
Tag Archives: Science
Système International Prefixes: Part 4
Back in 2016, I wound up my third post on the topic of SI prefixes with the words “And that’s all we’ve got so far …” followed by a table summarizing the complete set of SI prefixes at that time. These prefixes are a shorthand way of indicating that some base unit of measurement should … Continue reading Système International Prefixes: Part 4
Timothy Caulfield: Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?
I’d love to feel pure, happy and lighter. Okay, I’m not sure what that would feel like, but it sounds better than I usually feel. Who wouldn’t want to feel like that? Given the warm and friendly vibe on the Goop website—it was, after all, to quote the website, “created to celebrate all life’s positives”—I … Continue reading Timothy Caulfield: Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?
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Système International Prefixes: Part 3
Go to the first post in this series In my first two posts about the SI unit prefixes, I described how the system originated in the French Republican metric system of 1795. Part 1 dealt with those original fractional prefixes—deci-, centi- and milli-, designating a tenth, hundredth and thousandth part of the base unit. Part … Continue reading Système International Prefixes: Part 3
Système International Prefixes: Part 2
In my previous post about the Système International prefix system, I described how they originated in the French Republican metric system of 1795, which introduced a set of prefixes to designate multiples and fractions of its base units. For instance, the metre was subdivided using prefixes into decimetres, centimetres and millimetres, designating a tenth, hundredth … Continue reading Système International Prefixes: Part 2
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Système International Prefixes: Part 1
The Système International d’unités, commonly known in English as the SI units, is a version of the metric system that, in addition to a carefully specified set of measurement units, contains a list of defined prefixes to specify multiples and fractions of its basic units. This set of prefixes has grown eccentrically over the years. … Continue reading Système International Prefixes: Part 1
Fairy Circles
Not to be confused with fairy rings, which are circles of mushrooms and other fungi. These fairy circles were photographed in Namibia, and they’re a feature of the semi-arid margin of the Namib Desert. They form on sandy soil in regions where the annual rainfall is between 50 and 150 mm. They have a bare … Continue reading Fairy Circles
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Human Exposure To Vacuum: Part 2
In my first post on this topic, I discussed some physics and physiology, in an effort to predict and explain the likely consequences for a person exposed to the vacuum of space. Go to Part 1 In this part, I’m going to look at the evidence from animal experiments and human accidents. ANIMAL DATA The … Continue reading Human Exposure To Vacuum: Part 2
Human Exposure To Vacuum: Part 1
The topic of explosive decompression generates a lot of nonsense, particularly in science fiction films and television series, but also scattered across the internet generally. We actually know quite a lot about what would happen if a human being were exposed to the vacuum of space—and it turns out not to be like the movies. … Continue reading Human Exposure To Vacuum: Part 1
Kruger & Dunning: Unskilled and Unaware of It – How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments
Well, that’s the news from Lake Wobegon—where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average. Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon monologues, passim My paper this time comes from the June 1999 edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Here is a link to the original … Continue reading Kruger & Dunning: Unskilled and Unaware of It – How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments