We've said a bit about the circumstances surrounding the proof of the Poincaré conjecture, but little about the conjecture itself. What is it?In the most general terms, it is about the question: When is a topological object "the same" as a sphere?In...
Miscellaneous links, 8/24/06
We start off with some sites which have great collections of information in their respective subject areas.Comparative Mammalian Brain CollectionsAs it describes itself, "This web site provides browsers with images and information from one of the world's...
Large and small stars in harmonious coexistence
Large and small stars in harmonious coexistence (8/14/06)This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of one of the hundreds of star-forming stellar systems, called stellar associations, located 180,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)....
Is it "weird" to have principles?
This post isn't really about the Poincaré conjecture, so the conjecture isn't mentioned in the title.Nevertheless, what I'm talking about, of course, is the Perelman affair, and especially the media narrative on it, as related in the previous post. As...
The Poincaré conjecture: press accounts
Wow. When a mathematics story makes the news, it really makes it big. Sometimes. Unfortunately, most of the emphasis seems to be on the personality of Grigory Perelman and how, like, weird he is portrayed as being.One commentator, who calls his blog...
Curmudgeons unite!
Or maybe it should be subtitled, "Why Mensans have less fun"...Personality predictors of intelligence change from younger to older adulthoodAn ability to be open to new situations may predict intelligence earlier in life, says a new study, but disagreeableness...
NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter
I've written about dark matter a number of times, most recently here. A more extensive article is here.The gist of things is that, although there has been much indirect evidence for dark matter, there have also been many skeptics, both among astrophysicists...
Video - 13 lined Ground Squirrel
First Video Log: 13-lined ground squirrelCheck out my very first video log. The movie was put together from several mini-movies I recorded with a digital camera. I trapped this animal myself and created the final movie product myself, too.Click on...
Longevity genes and cancer
Scientists have identified a number of genes that seem to have some effect on an animal's longevity. Mostly they have been found in small, short-lived creatures whose longevity is easily studied, such as mice, fruit flies, or roundworms (C. elegans),...
What does it take to be a star?
There probably isn't much explanation needed about this, but it's an important detail that astronomers have been trying to nail down for some time: A concentration of cosmic gas must amount to 8.3% of the Sun's mass, or it will never be a star, just...
High school students study why fish died suddenly at Forest Park
Below is a news release about some of the students participating in the summer program I mentioned in a previous article.NEWS RELEASEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Justin Lopinot (314) 516-6690July 28, 2006Back to News Release MainUniversity of Missouri-St....
Unsolved problems in mathematics
I just noticed this page in Eric Weisstein's excellent Mathworld site: Unsolved Problems. It's a nice list of 16 problems in mathematics -- some of which date back two hundred years or more -- that have defied the efforts of many mathematicians to find...
Recent technology news, 8/6/06
If your main source of information is the traditional media, then "technology news" is all about PCs, large-screen TVs, high-density DVDs, digital cameras, cell phones, MP3 players, and other electronic gadgets.Stuff for consumers to gorge themselves...
Tangled Bank #59
Welcome to Tangled Bank #59 at Science and Reason.I assume you all know what this is about -- why else would you be here? (But if not, you can read more here.)Before we begin, I have a question for the audience. As far as I can tell, from just noting...
Possibilties for creating an urban science TV program
Great news! I discovered my local public access station teaches individuals how to create and produce their own television and radio programs. They offer a variety of classes to teach people the fundamentals of ‘media arts’. They offer classes in video...
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