. Above you will see some lovely pictures of crop circles – almost exclusively in Wiltshire not far from where my father farms. They are amazing structures and like many things in life, hard to fathom at first glance. Fortunately, we know exactly how they are produced. Doug Bower and David Chorley admit to hoaxing …
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Author:SFScience
Retired Schoolmaster living in Wiltshire and Vendee France
Polish Footprints…
A research paper presented in the Proceedings of the Royal Society has revealed tiny dinosaur footprints in the sedimentary rocks of central Poland. These rocks are 250 million years old, laid down in the Early–Middle Triassic period, which is 5 million years older than any previous dinosaur tracks. It is just a couple of million years …
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Occam’s Razor…
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. So said William of Ockham (1285–1349) and I am sure we would all agree! This phrase became known as Occam’s Razor and it is a very important concept in science and scepticism. In simple terms, Occam’s Razor is the idea that when you are looking for an explanation for …
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Jolly Hockey Sticks…
Science involves a process called peer review. When a scientist wants to publish his experiment report in a journal for others to read, it has to be submitted to a few other experts in the field who check that the basic science is sound. If they feel that a good job has been done with …
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Footie…
Please remember that this article refers to the 2010 World Cup! Much of the pre-tournament chat, if you follow the science, was about the new ball, in part developed at Loughborough University. It is very round; more so than previously (to within less than 0.25mm). It is been made from eight thermally bonded polyurethane panels (instead of …
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Science ISS Fantastic…
5th April 2010 – Discovery mission to the International Space Station . 2:04 “At the dock the shuttle weighed more than 4.5 million pounds…” That’s 2,000 tonnes for those of us at least semi-metric in outlook. In the first 90 seconds of the flight the shuttle burns 1,000 tonnes of fuel. 2:45 The solid fuel …
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This Too Shall Pass…
This is my kind of pop video – it must have taken months to build and multiple takes to get the whole sequence to run. The band are called OK Go and the song is “This Too Shall Pass”. . . You can see it in Hi-Def on YouTube of course.
What Is Science? We Just Don’t Know…
Well actually, unlike with birds, we do know what science is. Science is a process that allows us to acquire knowledge. This is done by using observation and investigation to describe and explain the natural world. This allows us to produce useful models of reality. The word science is also used to refer to the …
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Felix Baumgartner – Crazy Name, Crazy Guy…
I am sure you all remember 1960 (!) when Joe Kittinger jumped from an altitude of 31,333 metres setting an unbroken record for the highest parachute jump. Just to put that in persective, a jumbo jet flies at about 12,000 metres. Now, a base jumper called Felix Baumgartner is planning to jump from 36,575 metres. …
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Dilution Dilemma…
This is the big science news of the day, although some people may question why, in 2010, it is any sort of news at all. A group called the Merseyside Skeptics Society started a campaign called 1023 to raise awareness about homeopathy. Homeopathy is a widely used alternative medicine and it is seen by many as …
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