Announcing tools to utilize ISS. Ardulab, is an Arduino modified with features to work on the station. Developed with NASA and Nanoracks. Enabled an 8th-grade class to do a plant-growth experiment for different light conditions in space, ready to fly. Takes up only ten percent of allowed volume, leaving remainder for experiments. Completely open source, hardware and software. Will be opening web site right after talk today.
Category Archives: General Science
“You Cannot Do Physics Or Cosmology”
“…without assuming a philosophical basis.”
I’m always amused by scientists who don’t understand their own epistomological assumptions and foundations.
[Update a while later, after going out to get a haircut…]
Link was missing. Fixed now, sorry.
Scientists And Philosophers
Why they need to talk to each other:
Most of climate science is in ‘shut up and calculate’ mode. This is a very dangerous place to be given the substantial uncertainties, ignorance and areas of disagreement, not to mention the problems/failures of climate models. Climate science needs reflection on the fundamental assumptions, re-interpretations, and deeper thinking. How to reason about the complex climate system, and its uncertainties, is not at all straightforward. And then of course there are the ethical issues, including understanding how the climate debate has gone so badly wrong.
Yes.
What Is A Scientist?
An interesting history, and some reflections, from Judith Curry.
The Missing Light
It’s a mystery:
As one participating scientist points out, to miss the mark by so much means what we understand about the universe is fundamentally wrong. The universe continues to be exciting, a little scary, but mostly—a mystery.
And yet some have the hubris to tell us they can predict the temperature of the planet and level of the seas decades from now.
The Heartland Climate Conference
An attempt to educate a reporter at Slate. It’s actually sort of a fisking by email.
The BearCam At Brooks Falls
…has gone live. Salmon are being caught.
Lunar Gravity
A beautiful map of the field, courtesy of the late GRAIL satellites.
Physicists And Philosophy
Hey, guys, please stop saying dumb things about it.
Scientific Papers
How to read and understand them.