Sep 09 2009
A random sampling of several hundred among the thousands of messages submitted to Hello to Earth tells us this: If Earthlings believe anything about aliens, it’s that they will like beer.
Common ground
An amazing number of messages invite ET to have a brew. It’s an expression of humanity’s long love affair with the brewer’s art. And confidence that, while the aliens may be smarter than us, they won’t have a good lager on tap.
Sep 09 2009
By Jon Lomberg
On August 24 2009, a burst of radio energy punched through Earth’s atmosphere into space and began its journey to planet Gliese 581D, 20 light years away.
Gliese 581d is the outlying planet in the Gliese 581 system, and orbits its parent star every 66.8 days. It may be covered by a large and deep ocean and is the first serious 'waterworld' candidate discovered beyond our Solar System.
The Hello to Earth project captured the imagination of more than 25,000 people around the world, who composed messages for transmission. But not everyone is in favour of the quest to attract interstellar attention.
Sep 07 2009
Video reporter Amanda Hoh braved two dark nights of science at the Powerhouse Museum on the 26th and 28th of August to bring you this special report.
Sep 03 2009
By Jon Lomberg
In 1991 I painted a portrait of the Milky Way for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
Two depictions of the Milky Way Galaxy. The top half is the painting at the Smithsonian Institution. The bottom half is a view of the Galaxy Garden in Hawaii.
During the project I worked with expert astronomers and the painting was based on the best knowledge available of our galaxy. But effective though it was, it hung on the wall. I knew the most vivid way to teach people about their home galaxy was to make a model they could explore from inside.
Thus the idea for the Galaxy Garden was born.
Sep 03 2009
In the early 20th century Albert Einstein lamented that “it is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education”.
not a big fan of school...
Last Saturday, about a century after Einstein voiced his concerns about the fragility of curiosity, I had the grand pleasure of being uplifted by the hoots, gasps, laughter and feverish involvement of juvenile curiosity at the ABC Family Science Fun Day in Ultimo.
Sep 02 2009
I know what you’re thinking: skip the talking and get straight to the dolphins. I completely agree. Just bear with me for three paragraphs, and we’ll be armpit deep in Ceteceans, I promise.
Soon, I promise. Image: wikipedia
There was a series of highlights at the ABC Family Science Funday in the ABC Foyer on Saturday 29 August, but the highlight of my highlights was Ruben Meerman (aka The Surfing Scientist). For 45 minutes, Ruben held several hundred people in rapt attention as he used his home-made air cannon (one shower curtain and a plastic bin) to fire smoke rings into the air and blow paper cups off people’s heads from 10 metres.
The Surfing Scientist. Image: abc.net.au
The point of the exercise (other than to prove his skill as a marksman) was to show how smoke rings form. Smoke rings are an example of a ‘toroidal vortex’. To spare you the embarrassment of reading me attempt to explain what a toroidal vortex is, I’m going to quote directly from Meerman himself on the ABC’s Surfing Scientist website:
A vortex is formed when a fluid swirls around a central point. Whirlpools and tornadoes are two familiar types of funnel shaped vortexes (or vortices). The mathematical name for a donut or ring shape is a toroid.
The jaw-dropping part is that humans aren’t the only creatures to make toroidal vortices for fun and amusement.
From Seaworld in Orlando, Florida, this spectacular demonstration of vortices is thanks to our favourite mammalian sea-dwellers:
Sep 01 2009
By Ian Woolf
At the Powerhouse Museum’s ‘Einstein Lecture’, U.S Theoretical Physicist Lawrence Krauss spoke about the invisible dark energy required by the most popular theory of cosmology. He wrapped up by explaining the dark future for the Universe when all the stars go away.
Hey, isn't that philosophy?
That’s the short story. Now here it is in a slightly longer version…
Sep 01 2009
Clio Cresswell’s (packed out) ‘Mathematics and Sex’ talk at the Ultimo Library was a brief introduction to that fringe territory where Mathematics is being applied to the social sciences.
Is Clio Cresswell a hormonally crazy mathematician? According to Clio Cresswell: No. Image: abc.net.au
It’s an intriguing area and my interest was piqued as soon as Cresswell cited a paper entitled The Mathematics of Marital Conflict. So how does Maths connect with marital conflict?
Aug 31 2009
Alex believes the mind is a machine capable of remarkable things. He greatly enjoys the teachings of history’s most famous masochist, Siddhartha Gautama.
Swinging and grinning, the man’s skin stretches obscenely as he swings back and forward. Watching, I wonder who is the more bizarre. Is he macabre in seeking extreme sensory experiences, or am I macabre in being such a willing voyeur of them?
Buddha in Sarnath Museum (Dhammajak Mutra). Image: wikipedia
There is nothing unusual about pain. We all experience it – to varying degrees – during most given weeks. Many people with chronic pain experience it in every waking hour. Yet in our society pain holds a strong taboo. It is something to be avoided at all costs and we believe that it can only be damaging to one’s psyche. Even more powerful than pain seems to be the fear of pain, which seems to drive people to a higher state of hysteria than the pain the fear is inspired by.
Aug 29 2009
[Warning. Don't watch video or click through to story if you're squeamish.]
Three-and-a-half seconds, give or take a nanosecond or two. That’s the finely calibrated length of time I could gaze at the man suspended from hooks before a shudder would arch up my spine and I’d turn my head away. Repeat.
But that was Wednesday night and I’m back for more. It’s Friday night at the Powerhouse and it’s all about fear. I’m here with my sister who politely refused a consent armband at the door. “I’ll hold your bag, OK?” she says.
We enter and watch the amazing Rob Valenti from Polymorph suspend, with a polygraph attached to measure his “fear”.
An hour later, we’re inching through the crowd towards the stage. DJ Gemma is playing darkly ambient tunes: lots of cello and whispered vocals. Then a friend in front turns and says “What is Derek doing?” at the same moment as another friend nudges me from behind, hissing: “What are they doing to Derek?”.
I don’t have an answer for either of them. But we’re all about to find out.
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