I recently heard a panel interview on NPR discussing how climate change and environmental policy will affect how people vote in November. A self-identified conservative panel member said that people have “different opinions about the science” of climate change. This particular person was not in fact a climate change denier, but was referring to climate…
Category: Science
The work ethic of algorithms
In computer science, an algorithm might be classified as either lazy or eager. A lazy algorithm delays carrying out computations until the last minute, while an eager algorithm attempts to perform computations as soon as possible. Both approaches save time in different ways, and are appropriate in different situations. For example, if a program tends…
The MSG renaissance
Monosodium glutamate or MSG has seen a surge in popularity in recent years. MSG is a naturally occurring salt used as a food enhancer, adding umami or “savory” flavor. Americans have a strong association of MSG with Chinese food and Chinese restaurant syndrome (CRS), which includes MSG headaches and other symptoms. Now MSG is widely…
More evidence against flat earth: star trails
This is a follow-up to my post How we can know the earth is a ball without relying on modern science or traveling long distances?. It is well-known and easily observable by the naked eye (even by a single individual if they use modern travel) that the stars appear to rotate counterclockwise in the Northern…
Why do sunsets look like that?
During the day, the sky is blue and the sun appears a bright yellow. As the sun sets, it dims and reddens while the sky turns pink and orange. What causes that? You may have heard before that the sky’s blue color is due to something called Rayleigh scattering. As it turns out, the way…
Video share: Evolutionary Biologist Reacts to Creationist Arguments
This is no ordinary debunk of creationism. Clint of Clint’s Reptiles is extremely generous to creationists and attempts to address their best arguments. He even rephrases each creationist point to make sure he’s understanding it correctly.
Creationists have their own research journal and it’s full of insane nonsense
To depart from Scripture at any point is neither safe nor right. Joubert 2012 p. 81 Answers in Genesis (AiG) is one of the two major young earth creationist (YEC) organizations in the world, the other being the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). Answers in Genesis is an apologetics (i.e., Christianity-defending) ministry dedicated to enabling…
How does a double boiler work? Phases and phase transitions in the kitchen
Phases of matter and chemical mixtures Under most normal circumstances, chemical compounds exist in one of three states or phases: solid, liquid, and gas. At normal atmospheric pressure, there is a specific temperature at which a given substance will transition from one phase to another. Many substances in the kitchen which are solid at room…
A casual intro to topics in relativity
Special relativity is a theory of motion developed primarily by Albert Einstein in the early 20th century. Its precursor was Galilean relativity, which basically states that velocities are relative. One of the key features special relativity is the speed of light c being a constant. This means its speed is not relative, and this has…
Stop viewing animals as good or bad
I recently learned that opossums can carry a parasite that can cause serious injury to horses. When looking into it, I also discovered opossums might not eat nearly as many ticks as previously thought. My heart sank reading all this. I previously viewed opossums as a kind of superhero animal, cleaning up the bad stuff…
thoughts on mind 