She Who Can, Teaches Science. Now Show Her the Money!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Saturday, February 09, 2013
Hey science teachers -- make it fun
Tyler DeWitt: Hey science teachers -- make it fun
Tyler DeWitt recognizes that textbooks are not the way to get young people interested in science. Instead, he teaches science by making it fun and fantastical.
Saturday, January 05, 2013
Welcome Old & New Students to Block III!
For some of you this is new, for some it's familiar. Visit this blog once a week for a new article, image, or video about sciency stuff. Either post a comment or send me an email at jgiacobbe_southpointe@cox.net (with your name in it) for extra credit. It's easy!
For week one Biology students, check out this web page, and tell me what you think of it. Which was your favorite image, and why? National Geographic Photo Contest 2011. Here's a few sample images...
For Forensic Science students, check this one out, and comment on it... Helping Decide Guilt or Innocence
For some of you this is new, for some it's familiar. Visit this blog once a week for a new article, image, or video about sciency stuff. Either post a comment or send me an email at jgiacobbe_southpointe@cox.net (with your name in it) for extra credit. It's easy!
For week one Biology students, check out this web page, and tell me what you think of it. Which was your favorite image, and why? National Geographic Photo Contest 2011. Here's a few sample images...
For Forensic Science students, check this one out, and comment on it... Helping Decide Guilt or Innocence
Monday, December 31, 2012
Is The Universe A Computer Simulation?
Is The Universe A Computer Simulation?
A totally cool article by the lovely and talented
Have you ever wondered whether all this--you, your life, the universe--is just a sophisticated computer simulation?
... it is the first time where you think, you know, you might result from just a piece of code, writing another piece of code, writing another piece of code. And then you do ask the question about the original simulator, if you like. And so if we are a simulation, we’re probably a simulation from our descendants, right? So, as our universe evolves and becomes more mature, then somebody in that universe launches a simulation to simulate where they came from....
to read the rest, click here
Saturday, December 15, 2012
360 crime scene views - totally mathematical...
360 crime scene views - totally mathematical...
Forensic evidence and the way it was gathered came under close scrutiny in the trial of Stephen Lawrence's killers.
Techniques and practices have developed significantly since 1993 and are now a key part of police investigations from the start.
The basic principle is "every contact leaves a trace" and specks of blood, fibres or fingerprints become silent witnesses against the criminal. Here, we examine forensic science from crime scene to courtroom.
For the rest of the story, read here:
Crime scene forensics: How does it work?
Forensic evidence and the way it was gathered came under close scrutiny in the trial of Stephen Lawrence's killers.
Techniques and practices have developed significantly since 1993 and are now a key part of police investigations from the start.
The basic principle is "every contact leaves a trace" and specks of blood, fibres or fingerprints become silent witnesses against the criminal. Here, we examine forensic science from crime scene to courtroom.
For the rest of the story, read here:
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Welcome Back to School!
Welcome new and returning students to Block II! Hope you all had a good Fall Break, and are ready for your Biology, Biology Honors
, and Forensic Science classes. Stop by my Blog here once a week or so to find science
articles, images, and videos that I find interesting (and hopefully you
will, too).
If
you leave a comment on the post, you get some extra credit. Either use
your Google or Open ID account, or leave your name in the post so I know
who to give the extra credit to.
Maggot DNA Identifies Corpse
Corpse identification is as much art as science. Sometimes no ID is possible and at other times creativity is required.
In a recent case, where a badly charred body could not be identified due to the damage, DNA was extracted from the GI tracks of the fly maggots that had populated the corpse. U
sing the STR technique, DNA from the maggots was compared with DNA from the suspected victim’s father and a paternity-type match was made, proving the ID of the corpse to an accuracy of 99.685% according to the authors of the study.
This is the first time this technique has been used in this manner.
Corpse identification is as much art as science. Sometimes no ID is possible and at other times creativity is required.
In a recent case, where a badly charred body could not be identified due to the damage, DNA was extracted from the GI tracks of the fly maggots that had populated the corpse. U
sing the STR technique, DNA from the maggots was compared with DNA from the suspected victim’s father and a paternity-type match was made, proving the ID of the corpse to an accuracy of 99.685% according to the authors of the study.
This is the first time this technique has been used in this manner.
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Happy Birthday, Neil deGrasse Tyson: Intelligent Design and the Philosophy of Ignorance
By: Maria Popova
Why even Newton was susceptible to cognitive cop-outs.
Today marks the 54th birthday of the inimitable Neil deGrass Tyson, who blends the “Great Explainer” quality of Richard Feynman and Carl Sagan’s penchant of the poetry of the cosmos with a brand of eloquence all his own. He’s previously made a political case for space exploration, showed us why we’re wired for science, and bantered with Colbert about scientific literacy, education, and the universe.
In this short excerpt from a longer lecture, Tyson exposes intelligent
design as a kind of dead-end cop-out that even some of history’s
greatest intellectuals resorted to when stumped — including Sir Isaac
Newton, who invented calculus at the tender age of 25.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQucyuKsrOE&feature=colike
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Newly Found Living Mammoth Cells Raise Cloning Possibility
A Russian university says scientists have discovered frozen woolly mammoth fragments that may contain living cells deep in Siberia, bringing closer the possibility of cloning the extinct animal.
The North-East Federal Univ. says in a statement that an international team had discovered mammoth hair, soft tissues and bone marrow at a depth of 328 feet (100 meters) during a summer expedition.
Expedition chief Semyon Grigoryev says a group of Korean scientists with the team had set a goal of finding living cells in the hope of cloning a mammoth. Scientists have previously found bodies and fragments, but not living cells.
Grigoryev told online newspaper Vzglyad it would take months of lab research to determine whether they have indeed found the cells.
Wooly mammoths are thought to have died out 10,000 years ago.
A Russian university says scientists have discovered frozen woolly mammoth fragments that may contain living cells deep in Siberia, bringing closer the possibility of cloning the extinct animal.
The North-East Federal Univ. says in a statement that an international team had discovered mammoth hair, soft tissues and bone marrow at a depth of 328 feet (100 meters) during a summer expedition.
Expedition chief Semyon Grigoryev says a group of Korean scientists with the team had set a goal of finding living cells in the hope of cloning a mammoth. Scientists have previously found bodies and fragments, but not living cells.
Grigoryev told online newspaper Vzglyad it would take months of lab research to determine whether they have indeed found the cells.
Wooly mammoths are thought to have died out 10,000 years ago.
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Welcome Back to School!
Welcome new and returning students to Block I! Hope you all had a good Summer Break, and are ready for your Biology and Biology Honors classes. Stop by my Blog here once a week or so to find science articles, images, and videos that I find interesting (and hopefully you will, too).
If you leave a comment on the post, you get some extra credit. Either use your Google or Open ID account, or leave your name in the post so I know who to give the extra credit to.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Fight For Space
Fight For Space
Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye make the case for NASA’s future in Fight For Space
Do you miss the days of space shuttle launches? Do you want to see humans go back to the Moon, and even explore Mars, in your lifetime? Paul Hildebrandt does too. So he's initiated a Kickstarter campaign to create Fight For Space: Exploring the Future of Manned Spaceflight, a documentary with a higher aim than just getting viewers.
Read the rest of the article here, and watch the video, it's cool!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
I Think...
What a joy it is to be alive, and wonder if I will ever leap inward to the root of this flesh, and know myself as I truly am...
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Artificial Intelligence Could Be on Brink of Passing Turing Test
One hundred years after Alan Turing was born, his eponymous test remains an elusive benchmark for artificial intelligence. Now, for the first time in decades, it’s possible to imagine a machine making the grade.
Turing was one of the 20th century’s great mathematicians, a conceptual architect of modern computing whose codebreaking played a decisive part in World War II. His test, described in a seminal dawn-of-the-computer-age paper, was deceptively simple: If a machine could pass for human in conversation, the machine could be considered intelligent.
Artificial intelligences are now ubiquitous, from GPS navigation systems and Google algorithms to automated customer service and Apple’s Siri, to say nothing of Deep Blue and Watson — but no machine has met Turing’s standard. The quest to do so, however, and the lines of research inspired by the general challenge of modeling human thought, have profoundly influenced both computer and cognitive science.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Study: Global temperatures could rise 5 degrees by 2050
As the USA simmers through its hottest March on record — with more than 6,000 record high temperatures already set this month — a new study released Sunday shows that average global temperatures could climb 2.5 to 5.4 degrees by 2050 if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated.
The study findings are based on the results of 10,000 computer model simulations of future weather overseen by researchers at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
"These are the first results to suggest that the higher warming scenario could be plausible," says study lead author Dan Rowlands of Oxford.
It is a faster rate of warming than most other models predict.
read the rest here
Forensic scientists study mystery of skeleton
Forensic scientists study mystery of skeleton
Thought to be outlaw killed by physician, onetime Grand Forks mayor
Dr. Henry Wheeler, a prominent pioneer physician in Grand Forks and the city’s onetime mayor, always claimed he owned the skeleton of an outlaw that he killed named McClelland “Clell” Miller.
Dr. Henry Wheeler, a prominent pioneer physician in Grand Forks and the city’s onetime mayor, always claimed he owned the skeleton of an outlaw that he killed named McClelland “Clell” Miller.
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