Fly Catcher
Reading about the latest developments in technology can really make me feel like an old fart. Consider fly swatters. For most of my life, if there was a fly that was annoying you, you rolled up a newspaper or magazine, crept up on the little Musca domestica Linnaeus, and quickly swatted it into oblivion. Those […]
All Is Not Forgotten
Ninety-five percent of all lab animals are mice or rats. Without them, we humans would be in pretty bad shape. They have been used as models for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, Alzheimer’s and a host of other human maladies. If you’ve ever been cured with a medication prescribed by a doctor, odds are you […]
If a Tree Falls
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” This is a classic thought experiment from Philosophy 101, intended to kick off a flurry of questions about the relationship between observation and reality. For science-minded folk who have no patience for such drivel, the […]
Robots Are Not What You Think
Most of us associate the word “robot” with some modern high-tech contraption but the idea of a mechanical human actually goes back a very long time. People are quirky, after all, and the idea of having even some of the functionality minus the drama has always been appealing. The very definition of the word robot […]
Easier is Better
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” (Friedrich Nietzsche) We love inspirational quotes to help us through challenging times, and this is one of the classics. My late father had another favorite -“Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things” (Henry Ward Beecher). The common theme in these […]
DUI…P?
Pot has a lot to learn from alcohol. Alcohol is the senior intoxicant, having been legal in the U.S. since the 21st amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933. Still, pot is catching up; nearly one third of all Americans live in a state where marijuana has been legalized to some degree. Automobile accidents due to DUI […]
How Old Do I Look?
When I was in my fifties, I used to tell people I was sixty; the sought-after response was something along the lines of how good I looked for my age. This cheap trick has lost its thrill, and now I’d prefer not to know how old people think I am. For those who still care […]
The Revenge of the Anti-Drunks
We humans tend to oversimplify things; ergo there are only two kinds of people. The nerds embrace technology, and the Luddites oppose it. We are certain we understand the distinction, but we are wrong. The appellation nerd is so entwined with our culture that it is nearly impossible to pin down the exact origin or […]
Methane Monitor (aka Fart Tracker)
The Apple Watch is lots of things to lots of people – chic, attention-grabbing, fun – but at its core, it is basically a sophisticated computer worn on the wrist. Like any computer, it is only as good as the software that it runs. Apple is well aware of this, and has promoted apps which […]
A Boy and His Atom
It takes a truly tech-savvy scientist to understand the awesome technology at play in your computer’s disk drive. For everyone else, there is one basic fact that remains clear. Since each generation of disk drives holds more information, whatever is representing that information must be getting smaller. IBM started making disk drives for computers in […]
