Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
There is an article in yesterday’s Guardian in which the Stephen Hawking shares his thoughts on death, M-theory, human purpose and our chance existence. I guess most are now familiar with his views and the trouble it stirred up from the believers last time (more on that it a moment). First here is an extract … Read more
UK Science is in deep trouble, a report from science and technology committee says that UK astronomy will have 50% less funding by 2014/15 than in 2005 …
MPs have warned that major cuts in research budgets and withdrawal from several major scientific facilities will endanger the UK’s international standing in astronomy and particle physics and its ability to inspire the next generation of scientists.
The Fermi space telescope has yielded the most detailed gamma ray map of the sky – representing the Universe’s most violent and extreme processes.
The telescope’s newest results, as well as the map, were described at the Third Fermi Symposium in Rome this week.
In the UK, the Thames Valley Health Protection Unit has issued a letter to the parents of every single child via the local Education Authorities because there has been an increasing number of cases of measles during 2011, especially among children. A similar rise has been observed in other countries in Europe, especially France, but also including Spain, Romania, Bulgaria and Germany. What has been happening is that folks have been away on vacation, and as a result their unimmunised children have been picking up measles, and then bringing it back.
In the US it is a similar story, they are on course to have its worst outbreak of measles in more than a decade. Travellers are catching the highly contagious illness while on vacation, then bringing it back to the U.S.
What is going on here?
Science News reports that Astronomers watch as wake-up call rouses slumbering monster … It’s unclear whether it was a stellar meal or simply gas that woke the sleeping giant. But astronomers say the ongoing outburst recorded by a spacecraft since March 28 is the first time scientists have witnessed the sudden activation of a dormant … Read more
Queens University press release reports …
KINGSTON, ONTARIO – The world’s first interactive paper computer is set to revolutionize the world of interactive computing.
“This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years,” says creator Roel Vertegaal, the director of Queen’s University Human Media Lab,. “This computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper. You interact with it by bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pages, or writing on it with a pen.”