Posts Tagged: Cool Science
Movie Review: The Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a gorgeous journey into the past, both inspirational and evocative. The film takes us on a tour of the Chauvet-Pont-D’Arc cave, filled with gorgeous neolithic cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. With the help of the researchers currently studying the cave, we attempt to understand the people who created and used these works of art, and the world they lived in.
Vancouver SkeptiCamp 2011
Another SkeptiCamp, another day of mingling with other smart folks, and learning some interesting stuff. Here are the highlights:
SkeptiCamp 2010 II
On October 23rd, 2010, several dozen skeptics descended on UBC for the second SkeptiCamp of 2010: a full day of science, education, questioning assumptions, and rap. Good times.
Vancouver International Film Festival Review: The 4th Revolution: Energy Autonomy
The 4th Revolution is a showcase of the future: the technologies, the vision, and the visionaries that will take us away from a reliance on fossil fuels, and towards clean renewable energy for everyone.
Vancouver International Film Festival Review: The Eye 3D
This hour-long film takes us on a tour of the Very Large Telescope array in Cerro Paranal, Chile—the most powerful deep-space telescope in the world. We hear the scientists and technicians describe their work and discoveries, and through them get a tantalising glimpse of the cosmos.
Skeptics in Victoria
It was totally a last-minute thing. Some of the the Skeptics in the Pub crowd had been talking about a weekend trip to Victoria, but that had been scheduled for mid-July, then rescheduled to… later. Then, at New Bright Lights on Friday I heard that it had indeed been rescheduled, for that weekend. Well, fortunately my plans for the weekend had fallen through, so it was an easy decision. Rides, a place to stay, a clean pair of underwear in my bag, and I was good to go.
New Bright Lights: Magic and the Lying Brain
The New Bright Lights lecture series started off this morning with the topic of memory, perception and self-delusion. Three fascinating presentations, though one really rubbed me the wrong way.
Vancouver Skepticamp
That was a really awesome day. I’d never gone to a Skepticamp before, had only heard about it a few weeks before, and didn’t really know what to expect. I was sort of imagining a big convention, sort of thing, with panels so I could pick and choose which brilliant presenter to study at the knee of. But no, it all took place in one auditorium at UBC, from 10AM to 6:30 (with a lunch break), an audience of about 80 people, and 16 presenters (more if you count the Radio Free Thinker people separately) expounding on a wide range of topics, from the scientific to the social to the philosophical.
“Listening to the heartbeat of a star in its womb”
Last night I attended a meeting of the Center For Inquiry Vancouver, with invited guest Dr. Jaymie Matthews, mission scientist of the MOST project. MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of STars/Microvariabilité et Oscillations STellaires) is Canada’s first space telescope, studying minute variations in stars’ light output to understand their inner structure, as well as detecting any planets that may be orbiting them.
Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?
Let’s check…
Not that doomsday crackpots haven’t tried to stir up fear of black holes swallowing the Earth, and whatnot.
Nature’s Mothers
Surinam Toads—spectacularly fugly critters native to northeastern South America—have a rather odd means of reproduction. After mating, the male presses the eggs onto the female’s back. The eggs stick to her skin, which begins to grow over them. A few months later they emerge as toadlets, having already hatched and passed through the tadpole stage. Check it out, it’s equal parts gross and cool.
Science Tattoos!
Check ‘em out.
The Old Astronomer To His Pupil
I just remembered it’s National Poetry Month. Last year I posted an old poem of mine, but this year I thought I’d showcase the works of real poets. Now, I read very little poetry, but there are few poems that have made a strong impression on me.
The first is The Old Astronomer To His Pupil, written by 19th century poet Sarah Williams.
Yeti Crab
Coolest-looking crab ever.
It lives near deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Pacific. It’s different enough from known decapods (in both physiology and genetics) to rate its own genus and possibly its own family. And it’s fuzzy.
The Stone Snake
This is pretty neat.
Of course, there’s a lot of speculation as to what this stone snake was actually for. Was it indeed the site of religious rituals? What kind of religion did humans have 70,000 years ago? What did they believe, and how did they express it? How much of a language did they have, to tell each other stories?
DNA Songs
I’d put the Journey of Man DVD on my Xmas list, but it seems Santa didn’t think I was good enough last year. So I ordered it for myself and finally got around to watching it this cold, rainy Easter weekend.
In brief, this documentary describes an attempt to reconstruct the human family tree and trace the migrations of human populations as they left Africa fifty thousand years ago, using cutting-edge genetics—specifically, analyzing markers on the Y chromosome, taken from many thousands of men all over the planet, hence the title.
Reeds in Space
I’ve been reading up on the Deep Impact mission to study the comet Tempel 1. You know, this is the sort of thing that gives me hope for the future, since it shows that humankind can be good at something besides killing each other or watching The Real American Bachelor Nanny or whatever the hell is on these days.
