The Rutles’ influence on culture

How many times have you seen newspaper articles titles after Beatles songs?  “Wall Street’s Long and Winding Road,” “Octopus’ Garden,” or “”Back Off Boogaloo” Says Reagan to Brezhnev” (OK, I made up that last one.)  Check out today’s issue of The Economist.  The cover story is “All You Need is Cash,” an obvious Rutles reference.  [...]

Would you let your daughter mate with one?

My last few posts have been on the fluffy side.  Here is something with a bit more science to it.  The current issue of National Geographic contains a great article that compiles a bunch of the recent thinking about the Neandertals.
A fair piece of the article is devoted to whether or not we ever interbred [...]

Update to Monty Python post

Whether or not you are a scientist, it’s important to allow new information to change your mind.  Yesterday I realized that I needed to revise my post about Monty Python’s Galaxy Song.  This is the song from The Meaning Of Life in which Eric Idle sings a bunch of astronomical facts. 
Someone was trying to explain [...]

How feedback works

Here is a good article from The Plummet Onions that explains how feedback is used in music.
We all know about feedback: it’s the ear-splitting high-pitched screech that sometimes happens when someone’s using a microphone. Usually it’s not wanted by the speaker or performer, although since the Beatles and Jimi many have used it as an effect. But [...]

2 Moon myth debunked by religious person

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of talking to people about science in ways they can understand.  This writer’s focus is on Islam, not science, but he or she perfectly debunks a myth that has been going around the internet for five years: the myth that “this” August 27th, Mars will appear as large as the moon [...]

Happy Birthday, NASA – I got you a gnarly worm

This is because their jaws contain a lot of zinc, instead of the calcium salts that most other animals use to make their bones, shells, and teeth. Drs. Bromell and Watie’s findings might help NASA discover ways to make lighter spacecraft parts. Happy 50th, NASA.