Category: Experiments

Don’t Sit Up Straight: Why a Natural Posture May Be Better

Laura Grace Weldon

I come from a family of slouchers and after a typical day at the computer I have ample reason to worry I’ll develop the dowager’s hump my grandmother had by the time she was in her late 50’s. Worse, my husband suffers from an increasingly painful back after a bad car accident.

That’s why I’m on a quest to find out all I can about our spines and our posture. It has taken me in some unexpected directions. Here are some crumbs along this trail.

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Dragon*Con Diary: My Two Favorite Science & Space Track Panels

Patricia Vollmer

As I’d mentioned in an earlier Dragon*Con Diary post, my family felt the most at-home at the Space and Science Tracks throughout our Dragon*Con weekend. While others had chances to meet such sci-fi stars as John Barrowman, and attend panels with the cast of True Blood, my family was not going to be as patient with those incredibly long lines and levels of uber-fandom that we don’t quite have. The Science and Space Tracks were perfect for us! Here are summaries of my two favorite panels from those tracks.

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Photography Snapshot: The Power of Lenses

Helene McLaughlin

This article is the third in a series teaching the basics of photography. We started by learning about the properties of light and how an image is created, we also learned how a lens bends light to focus individual rays into a single bright image. This lesson we are going to finish learning the scientific theory of lenses and how to use lenses for magnification in addition to brightness.

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RIP Neil Armstrong, A Huge Loss for Mankind

Helene McLaughlin

Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon made him famous, but his “one small step for man… one giant leap for mankind” immortalized him. Today GeekMom, NASA, America, and the entire world, lost a great man. Neil Armstrong passed away today, at the age of 82, of cardio-vascular complications after undergoing heart-bypass surgery. Armstrong lived in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife Carol.

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Photography Snapshot: Why is Light Important?

Helene McLaughlin

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share a number of lessons dealing with the essentials of photography, some of the science behind the images, and products that are likely to make your pictures easier or better. This first lesson will deal with the basic properties of light and the most basic ways to capture that light. Future lessons will talk about the exposure triangle: aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

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Pensacola MESS Hall: A Hands-On Science Experiment Museum

Patricia Vollmer

My sons and I have already paid two visits to Pensacola, Florida’s newest science museum, the Pensacola MESS Hall. Where MESS = Math, Engineering, Science, and Stuff. My husband is now bugging us to go. At the MESS Hall, everything — and we mean EVERYTHING — is meant to be hands-on. There is guidance for math and science activities, but the kids drive it all. Yes, really. There is no wrong answer at the MESS Hall.

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NASA Grant Brings Us $1.1 Billion Closer to Commercial Manned Spaceflight

Helene McLaughlin

Friday August 3rd marked a significant milestone for three companies vying for commercial rights to manned space flight. After a year-long review of the current status of commercial manned spaceflight technology readiness, NASA awarded three grants totaling $1.1 billion to Boeing, Space X and Sierra Nevada Corp., to be paid over the next 21 months. These three companies are vigorously working to provide safe and cost-effective vehicles that can transport NASA astronauts and supplies to and from the International Space Station within the next five years. The awards are part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) under the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

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Google Doodle Celebrates Amelia Earhart

Helene McLaughlin

Amelia Earhart would have been 115 today had she lived through her ill-fated attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937. Earhart was the epitome of female inspiration in the face of seemingly impossible odds. While her disappearance remains a mystery, her iconic status still inspires women everywhere to break gender boundaries in pursuit of their dreams. Google has chosen to celebrate Earhart’s birthday with a Doodle befitting this impressive woman.

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The Solar Eclipse Marathon … and Other Ways to Make Running More Interesting

Patricia Vollmer

What better way to endure a grueling 26.2 mile race than with the excitement of a total solar eclipse in the sky above? That’s what the city of Port Douglas in Queensland, Australia is planning with the first-ever Solar Eclipse Marathon. The next total solar eclipse will occur on 13-14 November 2012, with the event crossing the International Date Line such that those in Australia will see it on very early on the 14th, while those in Chile will see a partial eclipse near sunset on the 13th. There is a very narrow strip on the planet that will be under a total eclipse. Of that very narrow strip, only a very small percentage will be on land, including Port Douglas.

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Can You Hear the Higgs?

Helene McLaughlin

Have you ever wondered what one of the greatest scientific discoveries of our time sounds like? Wonder no longer! After the announcement of the Higgs boson discoveries last week, researcher Domenico Vicinanza immediately went to work sonifiying the data. Now that the general populous can finally hear what the Higgs boson evidence sounds like, hopefully all of us can understand the data leading to this momentous discovery. Could the mysteries of the universe be holding a waltz beat? How about a jazz rhythm? R&B? Pop? Country? Turns out the score has a distinctly latin flair, similar to a habanera beat.

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The Existence of Mermaids… and Other City Art

Patricia Vollmer

My thoughts about mermaids and Norfolk’s mermaid art got me thinking about the numerous other cities in America that have used city symbols as a vehicle for artists to show their creativity. I’ve seen them in many of the cities I’ve visited, and I know there are many more. This website attempts to keep up with community art projects worldwide. This can be a great way to explore a city you’re visiting, particularly with kids: see if the city has a map or scavenger hunt of the sculptures.

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What Finding the Higgs Boson Means

Helene McLaughlin

There has been a rise in speculation from the international physics community about the contents of a press conference that has been called by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to be held at 9am Geneva time (3am EST) on July 4, 2012. Physicists expect that the announcement will be positive proof of the Higgs boson particle and a successful mission for the team. The anticipation reached a frenzied state yesterday when scientists from the Tevatron at Fermilab in Illinois announced that they had found significant supporting evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson.

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