Science Etcetera Saturnday, 20080105

January 5th, 2008

The Heliosphere
credits: ESA, Martin Kornmesser, Lars Lindberg Christensen

The Sun Earth Plan website illustrates the beautiful scientific ideas we will be deprived of if the UK doesn’t get it’s science funding restored (HT Kav).

Two decades of data from over 30 sites in the frozen north indicate that Trees are absorbing less CO2 as world warms, further placing the onus on us to solve the problem.

Energy is all around us, not just in oil, as is illustrated in one company Harnessing Energy from Asphalt Heat and another using Sunlight to Make Fuel From CO2.

Congratulations! You have a 100 percent chance of carrying at least 1 type of pesticide!!!

Alan Boyle has the absolute best write up thus far covering the Presidential Candidates on Science.

After contributing diddly squat to the project, but making sure to bask in its good publicity, Intel has Quit One Laptop Per Child Program. Thankfully, the Open Source community keeps churning out the OLPC hacks.

The the National Academy of Sciences has published a book, Science, Evolution, and Creationism, which is available online for free (but you have to pay to download it, stupid National Academies Press), and provides guidelines for teaching evolutionary science in school and insists that “Intelligent Design” has no place in science classrooms, “just like facts don’t have a place within an organized religion.” - Superintendent Chalmers from The Simpsons.

And this Starbucks cup agrees with the NAS. So Thpppt!!!

Las Vegas is set to build the world’s first 30 Story Vertical Farm.

Cool Tools has some cool exerpts from Motion Mountain’s Free Online Physics Textbook (HT Clint).