Posts tagged “science”
Print-a-Lung
“Three-dimensional tubes of living tissue have been printed using modified desktop printers filled with suspensions of cells instead of ink. The work is a first step towards printing complex tissues or even entire organs.”
Voorhies Groups Rule
Paleontologist Gregory M. Erickson of Florida State University answers the question, “What are the odds of a dead dinosaur becoming fossilized?” on this week’s Scientific American: Ask the Experts.
Solar Eclipse
A dazzling solar eclipse will be on display across a broad swath of the western United States, Mexico, Canada and Asia on Monday, with as much as 99 percent of the sun obscured by the moon. The eclipse will begin at 5:13 p.m. PDT, with best viewing time around 6:20. [Update: Damn. I totally forgot to
Minds, Brains, and Science
Does John Searle, in his book Minds, Brains, and Science, succeed in explaining how mental phenomena can be nothing over and above neural phenomena and yet be caused by neural activity?
Eleven Questions
I’m not sure if this has been blogged to death and I just haven’t noticed, but there is a superb article on the Discover site detailing The 11 Greatest Unanswered Questions of Physics. What is dark matter? What is dark energy? How were the heavy elements from iron to uranium made? Do neutrinos have mass?
Three Gorges Dam
A few weeks ago I finished reading The Best American Science Writing 2001. It’s a marvelous collection of all the “best” essays written on scientific topics from last year. One article, “Running Dry” by Jacques Leslie, really shocked me. It’s all about the depletion of the Earth’s freshwater and the (disastrous) effects damming has had
Non-Fiction Addiction
Good gravy! I’ve been suffering from a severe case of non-fiction addiction lately. I managed to grab three of the five Oscar movies over the weekend, but otherwise for the last month or so I’ve watched almost nothing that wasn’t on TLC, Discovery, or A&E. I’ve seen specials on mummies, temples, “the Iceman”, pyramids, tombs,
Longitude
I finished reading Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel this afternoon. It is a wonderful book.
Organ Donation Mandatory
Experts Argue for Mandatory Organ-Donor System