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late December 2015 |
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Comet Catalina: last chance (Earth & Sky) it's near Arcturus at the turn of the year (and you need binocs) Curiosity's best 10 images of Mars in 2015 (Earth & Sky) Dawn at Ceres: what we've learned (Earth & Sky) Ceres: asteroid or comet? (Earth & Sky) or dwarf planet? Ceres' bright spots are likely salt deposits (Earth & Sky) and not ices or clays |
Seeing the inside of supernova explosions (Sky & Telescope) with better numerical simulations 'Blue Stragglers' mystery solved (Hubble) the leading theory appears to be correct: an aging star dumping matter on its binary companion 55% of Kepler's exoplanet candidates are not real (Sky & Telescope) false positives are mostly eclipsing binaries |
Hot Jupiters' missing water problem solved? (Sky & Telescope) the water is hidden in the atmospheres' clouds based on work done by Hubble |
An upper limit on black-hole masses? (Earth & Sky) 50 billion suns? more, and collapse into stars A look inside a black-hole's torus (Earth & Sky) at the center of M77, from NuStar |
(Some) Physicists figure out how to retrieve info from a black hole (Science) the solution involves quantum teleportation Feuding physicists turn to philosophy (Nature) is string theory science? The bump in the both the LHC's ATLAS and CMS data (Matt Strassler) so what is it? Hint of new boson at LHC sparks flood of papers (Nature) |
science 2015 The best science images of 2015 (Nature) Top 10 science events of 2015 (Nature) 20 best science books of 2015 (Nature) Top 10 stories of the year (Scientific American) the year of the dwarf planets Science Breakthrough of 2015: CRISPR (Science) and the 9 runners-up (Science) only Pluto-Ceres orbiters and quantum weirdness from astro/physics Favorite science stories of 2015? (Science) mostly psycho-babble --------------------- The Fragile Framework (Nature) Paris talks on climate change, in comics 2015: the Year in Charts (NY Times) the economy still leaves too many people behind, while the country is beset by the twin evils of ISIS and Trump The non-existent war on cops (Washington Post) the data is clear: 2015 is 2nd safest years for cops ever; and the crime rate continues to fall The (supposedly Christian) right's war on the spirit of Christmas (Washington Post) How to fix the financial system (Bernie Sanders) stop letting Wall Street regulate the economy Do average people get a fair shot anymore? (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) or do just the rich? What is America fighting for? (Atlantic) it's not good enough to just fight against things The USA is a greater threat to human civilization than ISIS (Salon) just ask our allies The Great Republican Revolt (Atlantic) an incisive political and economic history of the past 30 years explains Trump and his mad-as-hell base Americans: more smug than ever (Washington Post) about their own superiority over their peers Should 'one-man-one-vote' mean counting only people of voting age? (Washington Post) only if we want to sabotage the future of our children One nation under Allah? (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Islam and US history 10 factors that will determine the next President (Larry Sabato) |
As high-school graduation rates rise, a drop in standards? (NY Times) effect and cause, or just a sign of the times? College students' misplaced anger (Washington Post) it should be directed at their elders not college administrators Three reasons for high college tuitions (NY Times) the rise in inequality; price discrimination; rising costs without education efficiency What CJ Roberts misunderstands about Physics (Atlantic) The Benefits of Black Physics Students (NY Times) in response to Roberts questioning such (but did it answer the question asked?) |
early December 2015 |
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Climate Change -- Paris final Paris draft resolution How we know that global warming is real (Skeptic) just in case you've forgotten The most important number in climate change (Scientific American) Earth's climate sensitivity to CO2 concentration Marketplace alone cannot solve climate change (Scientific American) government help required Nuclear power must make a comeback (Scientific American) to solve climate change Blocking sunlight should not be plan B (Scientific American) there is no real alternative to cutting CO2 emissions USA: where climate stupidity reigns (NY Times) 7 steps you can take to diminish global warming (NY Times) --------------------------------------- Astronomers skeptical about new Planet X claims (Scientific American) claims based on new ALMA data one (Gna) could have orbit size = 18 (+ 7) au and diameter = 550 (+ 330) km (or a Neptune-sized object at 2500 au.... or even a gravitationally- unbound larger object -- as in a brown dwarf -- even farther out!) the other could be a trans-Neptunian object, or a Super-Earth, or a brown dwarf (or just bad analysis?) --------------------------------------- Ceres: cloudy with a chance of cryovulcanism (Scientific American) clues that Ceres formed in the outer solar system? Still puzzled about the formation of the moon (Nature) the Moon's current orbit suggests that it was tilted by gravitational interactions with a few large bodies December 7, just after noon: A very rare occultation (eclipse) of Venus by the Moon (Sky and Telescope) in Durham, disappearance happens about 12:35 pm; re-appearance, about 2:00 pm... yes, daytime! which means you'll need binoculars Highest resolution Pluto images released (JHU APL) revealing features the size of half of a city block The visible planets in December (Earth & Sky) Jupiter, Mars, and Venus still in the morning sky |
The exoplanet files (Nature) what's new and what's coming next Forming exoplanets, near and far (Sky and Telescope) Partly cloudy with a chance of messing everything up (Astrobites) the problem with clouds, particularly non-uniform ones Sustainable climates on Greenhouse Super-Earths (Astrobites) can biological feedback prevent a runaway GH effect? |
The Universe never expands faster than the speed of light (Preposterous Universe) except tens of other GRelativists disagree... contrary links to come Controversial experiment finds no evidence of a holographic universe (Science) an experiment destined to fail? |
The quantum source of space-time (Nature) Entanglement may be the source of space-time geometry Matt Strassler is now working 'out of science' (Of Particular Significance) sad news for modern physics education |
The irresponsibility of Donald Trump and Facebook (Washington Post) lies, conspiracy theories, and disinformation, presented as news The Zuckerbergs' $45 billion (Washington Post) perhaps it should go to undoing Facebook's damage to democracy Fear Terrifying ourselves (Washington Post) the only way terrorists win is if they scare us into abandoning our values How Republican presidential candidates help terrorism win (Politico) how they play up fear and Islamophobia Fear of fear (LoBeLog) an exigesis of Obama's national address ------------------------------ guns The lesson of Australia (NY Times) get tough on guns: large drops in the homicide and suicide rates The lesson of Scotland (NY Times) where a mass shooting led to stricter gun laws Guns are more dangerous than ISIS (Boston Globe) What price liberty? (Slate) liberty to own a gun vs. liberty to be free from violence... which would you choose? Hysteria on Refugees, Blindness on Guns (NY Times) only in America More guns don't make us safer (Slate) and 5 other facts about the effects of guns in the US and from the hysterical right-wing: Liberalism's gun problem (NY Times) so the problem is liberals, not guns? ------------------------------ Islamaphobia Donald Trump isn't the problem; Republican bigotry is (Slate) with evidence Why do these young Muslims hate us? (Politico) the problem is integration Why do they want to come here? (National Review) NR, clueless as always ------------------------------ The kind of President we need (Waahington Post) truthful, resolute, a problem solver, a unifier, and one who understands American government 2016: one of the most pivotal moments of our time (Rolling Stone) including a political history of the past 50 years The Middle Class loses its majority (Pew Research) the continues to fall behind financially The truth about fetal-tissue research (Nature) with new results from UNC Goodbye to the banana (Washington Post) or at least to the one Americans buy and love... it's being attacked by a fungus with no known cure |
42% of Americans are very interested in neither science nor health (Pew Research) and men much less interested than women The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work (Phillip Rogaway) is working on enhanced cryptography equivalent to working on bigger and better nuclear bombs? and the more tendentious The Moral Failure of Computer Scientists (Atlantic) how else to describe their transforming the Internet into "an amazing tool for surveilling entire populations " Is affirmative action finished? (Atlantic) Justice Roberts: “What unique perspective does a black student bring to a class in physics?” On-line classes appeal more to the affluent (Science) they are more likely to register and to finish |
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late November 2015 |
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V774104 (Sky & Telescope) more on the solar system's most distant object |
How to find aliens (BBC) build a giant parasol If alien life exists, how would we know (BBC) with Sara Seager |
A nearby (Local Group) dark-matter galaxy? (Earth & Sky) Triangulum II has only 1000 stars, but far more mass |
Origin of Life: Information Theory (Quanta) life = information LISA launches 12/2/15 (Guardian) gravitational waves in sight? |
ISIS How ISIS defeats us (NY Times) when emotion overtakes reason Is ISIS Islamic? (Washington Post) at last, somebody answering the question rationally and its refugees They are us (NY Times) The Statue of Liberty must be crying with shame (NY Times) ------------------------- political correctness What Woodrow Wilson cost my grandfather (NY Times) the personal Remembering Woodrow Wilson's racism isn't enough (USA Today) the reality Political Correctness goes to war on American History (National Interest) and the right-wing crazies ------------------------- |
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early November 2015 |
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A new most-distant solar system object (Science) 103 au from Sun; diameter: 500 - 1000 km; 3rd member of inner Oort cloud? Stonehenge begins to yield its secrets (NY Times) really?!? what's been going on for the last 100 years? Martian atmosphere stripped by solar storms (Earth & Sky) and Mars's water went with it Pluto news Top 10 surprises from the Pluto fly-by (Sky & Telescope) Tall mountains, dunes, and no new moons.... and Pluto IS larger than Eris Ice volcanoes on Pluto? (Earth & Sky) ice volcanoes, bizarre moons, & an unexpectedly cold atmosphere Pluto's moons spin wildly (Earth & Sky) high spins, randomly oriented, and non- synchronous with orbit period Pluto: the case for regaining planethood (Sky and Telescope) based on its diverse properties ------------------------------- Did Jupiter eject a 5th giant planet from the solar system early in its history? (phys.org) more new evidence |
A quantitative criterion for defining planets (arXiv) using a planet's mass and its orbital period, along with the parent star mass, to determine whether a planet cam clear its orbital space within a reasonable time A warm-Neptune exoplanet with an evaporating atmosphere (NASA) its being irradiated by its parent star, GJ436 |
An ancient population of white dwarfs found in Milky Way bulge (Hubble) additional commentary (Earth & Sky) so, perhaps galaxy mergers and cannibalism was less important? Did faint galaxies help reionize the early cosmos? (Hubble) 30% of the UV light came from tiny galaxies published paper here (arXiv) Most distant giant galaxy cluster yet found (NASA) 8.5 Gyr away |
Will quantum mechanics swallow relativity? (Nautil.us) The case for fewer dimensions (Nautil.us) or, is gravity real? How big can Schroedinger kittens get? (Nautil.us) can humans be in two places at once? |
It's the boomers fault (Washington Post) not only for the poor economy, but much else as well The ignorance of Ben Carson (Washington Post) can any one person really be that stupid? Ben Carson's ignorance of science makes him unfit for the presidency (Washington Post) The Chilling Regularity of Mass Extinctions (Atlantic) |
free speech, coddled college students, safe spaces, and offensive name-calling the thoughtful Student protesters are plenty grown up (The Nation) it's their adult critics that are behaving like children The seductive appeal of safety, on or off campus (NY Times) those who mock the idea of safe space are the same people who are able to take safety for granted The intolerance of student activism (The Atlantic) College Crybullies? (Wall Street Journal) have former '60s radicals really shaped universities for the worse? and the hysterically irrational Mizzou students don't understand the meaning of 'public' (National Review) why do conservatives think that the answer to offensive name-calling is more name-calling? 'Safe spaces' are incompatible with a university (National Review) perhaps 'safe' is a relative word? Yale's idiot children (National Review) ----------------------- Why virtual classes can be better than real ones (Nautil.us) totally unconvincing How to cheat in online courses (The Atlantic) it's big business The Exodus (Raleigh N&O) Superb NC teachers leaving; students avoid the profession Achievement gap in NC widens; NAEP 8th-grade math/reading scores drop (Raleigh N&O) NC one of only three states where both 8th-grade scores dropped (but 4th grade reading scores up! hope for the far future?) |
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