Fuel Cells - The Basics
Sunday, April 20th, 2008I’m getting rather tired of saying it but the price of oil has again reached a new record high. This week’s “Science Word of the Week” looks at another up-and-coming alternative fuel source; Fuel Cells.
What is a Fuel Cell?
Fuel cells are devices that produce electrical power by converting chemical energy directly to electrical current rather [...]
How is your tongue like an inkjet printer?
Friday, April 11th, 2008Most inkjet printers use only four basic ink colors - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The printer combines these colors to represent each image pixel in various colors, shades, and intensities. The image is dithered, meaning the printer uses a pattern of several of its dots to simulate the color of each pixel in the [...]
Ethanol
Sunday, April 6th, 2008With record oil prices once again topping the headlines, today’s “Science Word of the Week” is “Ethanol”.
Ethanol is a colorless volatile flammable liquid. It is a form of alcohol, C2H5OH, found in alcoholic beverages and also used as an additive in gasoline to produce gasohol. Ethanol is used as an oxygenate in reformulated gasoline. It is also [...]
Go replicate me a sandwich, will ya?
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
One of my favorite television series used to be Star Trek: The Next Generation. I loved all of the gadgets they came up with as well as the pseudoscience they used to explain them. There was just enough truth there to make one believe that those devices were really viable. Heck, I even bought a manual that [...]
Geeks Love Cake!
Friday, March 28th, 2008While searching the internet for ideas on science-themed cakes, I came across some truly amazing specimens! Here is a slide show we put together featuring some deliciously techy cakes.
Ice Cream of the Future
Friday, March 28th, 2008There’s an ongoing joke at our house and it goes something like this:
Hey! does anyone want ice cream?
Sure! What kind?
Why, the ice cream of the future, of course!
For some reason, it strikes us as perversely funny that the founders of Dippin’ Dots should look into the future and see us all strapping on our jet-packs to go [...]
Recombinant DNA?
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Yesterday’s post, Sci-Fi Movie Survival Tips, touches on a recurrent theme in sci-fi movies; the manipulation of genetic materials. In the realm of science fiction, tinkering with nature inevitably leads to disaster. Africanized “Killer” Bees demonstrate that this is sometimes true in the real world as well.
Some of the genetic combinations proposed in science fiction movies seem quite absurd indeed. One fails [...]
Lessons in Leverage
Sunday, March 9th, 2008A “simple machine” is a device for overcoming resistance at one point by applying force at some other point. Simple machines are generally classified into six basic categories:
Levers
Wheel and Axle
Pulleys (Block and Tackle)
Inclined Planes
Wedges
Screws
One or more simple machines are usually found at the heart of all modern machinery.
The following illustration demonstrates one of several ways that a lever can be used to effectively reduce [...]
Celebrating Silly Science Since 1991
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
The whole world is already familiar with the Nobel Prize. This post highlights a lesser known, but in my view much more entertaining accolade; the Ig Nobel Prize. The Igs are awarded based on the silliness of their recipient’s scientific achievements more than anything else. The real aim being to first make people laugh, and then make them think.
Reminescent of the [...]
Orange you a little yellow?
Monday, March 3rd, 2008I knew a girl once who’s skin turned an orangey-yellow color because she had eaten so many carrots. I kid you not! This relatively benign condition is called Carotenemia. My friend’s yellow-orange skin hue was a tell-tale sign of a beta carotene overdose resulting from her over-zealous carrot consumption. Beta carotene, along with other plant pigments generally called [...]
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