space politics
The UK has managed to catch up with the US in terms of backing politicians who speak out knowing the vast and almost empty depths of space.
Britain’s new Space Minister Andrew Griffiths – his official title is Minister of Science, Research and Innovation – granted interview To Tali Fraser the house magazine.
Griffiths appears to have demonstrated to her how education is done. “He pointed to a hanging sphere in the science museum that changed its appearance from planet to planet and declared, 'This is Mars!'” An employee gently informed him that it was actually the sun. All I had to do was give it to you. Still, Griffith exclaimed, “That's Saturn!” As the Earth changes. The employee interjected. “No, no, that’s Jupiter.”
Back in 1991, one of the first Ig Nobel Prizes was awarded to then-U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle. Quayle was given additional duties, and he became the chairman of something called the National Space Council. He was often in the news for educating the masses. statement Something like:
“[It’s] The time has come for humanity to enter the solar system. ”
“We saw the pictures [of Mars] We believe that where there are canals, there is water. ”
“Really, very strange people can get into sensitive positions and have a huge impact on history.”
Ig Nobel Prize Quote explained He praised Quayle for being a “consumer of time and occupier of space” who “demonstrated the need for science education better than anyone else.”
As we watch Vim for Education spread from country to country, the feedback is encouraging. No matter where the sky is, the sky is the limit.
base notes
Andy Howe celebrates a somewhat musical discovery about fish that spend much of their time on the muddy ocean floor. Does Andy Howe delight in details? And how! He said: nature communications) This concerns the apparently suspicious noises of the Plainfin Midshipman, a species also known as `california singing fish'`. They are endowed with a “sonic swim bladder” that allows them to communicate through modulated, trumpet-like hums and growls. There is a double resonance here as the lead author is his A Bass. ”
“Bass” is Andrew Bass, a professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University in New York. When Bass isn't out at sea chasing fish, he spends his time at the office. mud hole. I can't help but notice that Bass's feedback is imbued with nominative determinism.
light entertainment
Retired internist John Innes rallies in Call for Feedback (December 9, 2023) to refute the old adage that “Medicine is primarily about entertaining the patient; nature cures disease.” or asked for first-hand testimony in the affirmative.
He sets the scene first. “In the 1890s, Faroese and Danish physician Niels Finsen showed that ultraviolet light could treat tuberculosis (TB) in the skin. This work earned Finsen the Nobel Prize in 1903. The first studies used artificial ultraviolet light, which was widely used to treat tuberculosis in the 1920s and 1930s.
“However, it was already known that natural ultraviolet light was present in sunlight. This was one of the factors that encouraged the development of sanatoriums for the treatment of tuberculosis. In the 1950s, antibiotics were introduced. After its introduction changed the treatment of tuberculosis, ultraviolet light therapy was lost to history.
John then describes his experiences as a physician specializing in infectious diseases in Birmingham, England in the 1980s: At that time, all new entrants to nurse training were to be offered the tuberculosis vaccine if they had not already done so. In her case, an ulcer appeared at the injection site and gradually enlarged over two months to about 8 centimeters in width. I recommended antibiotics. However, she did not have time to pick up her prescription because she was scheduled to go on vacation the next morning. So I told her to postpone her treatment and come back in 4 weeks.
“She came back after spending two weeks sunbathing on the beach near Tangier. The ulcer had healed and she didn't need anything more. So she left it alone while nature healed her illness. was enjoying it.”
loop soup
What is loop soup? It's hard to say. It's difficult to say succinctly.
Wojtek Furmanski and Adam Kolawa of the California Institute of Technology appear to have injected the phrase into the world of physics in 1987 in the middle of a 35-page paper called `Yang-Mills vacuum: an attempt at lattice loop calculus`Published in the magazine Nuclear Physics B.
Loop soup is only mentioned once. This is their word. “This medium is still far from an asymptotic ‘loop soup’ and is beyond our reach.”
This text may be incomprehensible to those without a deep education in nuclear physics. Still, the phrase stuck. Just 33 years later, Valentino Voigt and Matthew Kleban of New York University `New recipe for Brownian Loop Soup`This may definitely whet your appetite.
Mark Abrahams hosted the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founded the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Previously, he was working on unusual uses of computers.his website is impossible.com.
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