OK Pinheads, How’d The Moon Get There?

One of the reasons I love science so much is that it gives you the tools to find answers to questions. Asking good questions is one of the most important skills a scientist will learn. A scientific question is one that can be investigated; one that has the possibility of being answered. A question that …
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Putting Things In Perspective…

In one of Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy stories, Zaphod Beeblebrox is sentenced to the Total Perspective Vortex. This imaginary machine is the ultimate sanction in the galaxy. It destroys your mind by giving you perspective; by showing you just how insignificant you are compared to the enormity of the Universe. You can …
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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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Amino Acids In Space…

I often bang on about amino acids as the building blocks of proteins. Plants can make them from carbohydrate they make themselves through photosynthesis and nitrates absorbed from the soil; you get them from your diet. Your genes are codes for individual proteins which are constructed from chains of amino acids. One of the first …
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Galileo Galiwho…

This entry is part 1 of 10 in the series Notable Scientists

This is obviously a big year for fans of astronomy. As I have mentioned elsewhere, it has been 400 years since Galileo Galilei presented his telescope. He did not invent the first telescope but he did refine it and use it to reveal hitherto undiscovered wonders. To quote “The Galileo Project”… Galileo invented many mechanical devices …
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