This summer a Gristedes store on Roosevelt Island in New York will get half of its power from six tide-powered turbines in the East River. Unlike dam-based hydroelectric generators, which depend on rain or snowpack to keep current flowing and which shut down during droughts, newer “hydro- kinetic” systems exploit less capricious natural forces. “Lunar…
Category: science
Hubble-licious
Giant galaxies weren’t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. The galaxy’s portrait is actually composed of 51 individual Hubble exposures, in addition to…
Happy 100th Birthday, Albert!!!
Today in the NYT is a fascinating interview with the father of LSD: Albert Hoffman, who turned 100 this week. Albert’s work on ergot produced several important drugs, including a compound still in use to prevent hemorrhaging after childbirth. However, it was the 25th compound that he synthesized, lysergic acid diethylamide, that was to have…
Aurora Forecast for Saturday, January 7, 2006
Auroral activity will be active today. Weather permitting, active displays will be visible directly overhead from Barrow to as far south as Talkeetna and visible low on the horizon as far south as Bethel, Soldotna and southeast Alaska.
Wikipedia survives research test
The free online resource Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica, a study shows. The British journal Nature examined a range of scientific entries on both works of reference and found few differences in accuracy. Wikipedia is produced by volunteers, who add entries and edit any page. But it has been…
Pat Malecha : studmuffin
This is our pal, Pat. Isn’t he hot? Not only that, he’s smart as a whip on a horse’s back. He and Jen have been living in Little Port Walter (known by those in the know as Club Fed) for nearly two years now and we don’t get to see them as often as we’d…