“We Are Star Dust”
Another offering in John Boswell’s beautiful “Symphony of Science” series.
He labels this one, “We Are Star Dust,” which is not a metaphor, or … not just a metaphor. It’s also a plain scientific fact. Boswell is working on both sides of our brains with these science/music videos.
His work reminds us that if anything is sacred, everything is.
See the whole set in this series here: http://sierravoices.com/tag/symphony_of_science/
Old Growth and Climate Change (Gorgeous Video)
This short (11-minute) video, made by KQED QUEST, is both fascinating and — ironically, considering its serious subject — gorgeous.
It follows a team of UC Berekely researchers as they climb up into the crown of a huge old-growth redwood and install monitoring equipment.
As the planet warms, will the progressive loss of coastal fog doom these beauties?
Evolution — The Greatest Show on Earth
Another beautiful Symphony of Science video by John Boswell (3 minutes and 21 seconds).
Intelligence Study Links Low I.Q. To Prejudice, Racism, Conservatism
“By Rebecca Searles
“Are racists dumb? Do conservatives tend to be less intelligent than liberals? A provocative new study from Brock University in Ontario suggests the answer to both questions may be a qualified yes.
“The study, published in Psychological Science, showed that people who score low on I.Q. tests in childhood are more likely to develop prejudiced beliefs and socially conservative politics in adulthood.
“I.Q., or intelligence quotient, is a score determined by standardized tests, but whether the tests truly reveal intelligence remains a topic of hot debate among psychologists.
“Dr. Gordon Hodson, a professor of psychology at the university and the study’s lead author, said the finding represented evidence of a vicious cycle: People of low intelligence gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, which stress resistance to change and, in turn, prejudice, he told LiveScience.”
Read the full article here.
“A Universe from Nothing”
Richard Dawkins calls Lawrence Krauss “the Woody Allen of cosmology.”
Here’s a video of Krauss talking about how the Universe emerged out of nothing, and how abundant nothing really is.
This video is long (over and hour) and challenging, especially if you are attached to a traditional religious viewpoint. I watched it because I was curious to know why over a million people (1,080,352 to be exact) would watch one YouTube video. I’m glad I did, because I was totally entranced by the portions of it I actually understood.
Canonball from “Mythbusters” Show Crashes Through House in Dublin, California
WANTED?
Yeow! Boys will be boys!
I can’t wait to see this episode.
Mythbusters shattered more than myths this time (think walls, a roof, a minivan … ):
… the popular Discovery Channel show intended to fire the 6-inch steel cannonball to test its velocity. It aimed the projectile at huge containers of water meant to absorb the impact on the grounds of the sheriff’s bomb disposal range.
But the ball somehow missed its mark, took an unforeseen bounce off a safety berm and barreled into the quiet Tassajara Creek neighborhood of Dublin about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
That’s where the projectile turned into a suburban pinball, bouncing off a sidewalk, blasting through a front door, barreling up some stairs and careening through a bedroom where a man, woman and child were reportedly sleeping.
The cannonball then punched through the home’s exterior stucco wall, sailed across a six-lane thoroughfare, ricocheted off the roof of another home and finally crashed through the window of a parked, empty Toyota Sienna minivan, where it came to rest.
Read the full article from the New York Daily News: “Cannonball from ‘Mythbusters’ show crashes through Calif. home & lands in minivan.”
Here’s a local ABC News report:
Total Lunar Eclipse Saturday the 10th
After some excessively fast-moving text in the the beginning, the following 4-minute video has (near the end) some nice graphic illustrations of the total lunar eclipse this Saturday … from various perspectives (from the Earth, from the Moon, from the Sun):
“Onward to the Edge” (Symphony of Science)
The latest installment in the Symphony of Science series.
