Happy Pi Day (Area)

pidayTraditionally, Pi Day is 14 March, because that is 3-14 and π~3.14 (except in Indiana where it was 3 for a short time – also mythically in Alabama and Tennessee). That tells you the approximate number as our calendar does not handle irrational numbers well. It also does not work in Europe where they sensibly order their dates hierarchically day-month-year.

It also does not describe at all is how we get to that value. π describes the relationship between the radius of circle (r) and its area (A) or circumference (C): A=πr2 and C=2πr. If we set the length of the year (365.25 days) as the area, the radius of our year circle is 11 days. The 11th day of the year is, not surprisingly, 11 January.

I personally prefer to celebrate Pi Day as recognized by the circumference tradition on 27 February (r=58), but to each their own.

Meet the Hyrax

These swarthy little mammals hang out in Africa and the Middle East and have been blowing up in the news recently. They are in the family Procaviidae which is the only living family in Hydrocoidea. Interestingly, they have multi-chambered stomach, but they are definitely not ruminants.

Even more remarkable, is their song which is a mammal freestyle like you’ve never seen. Check out the video below from Arik Kershenbaum from the University of Haifa:

“Meet the…” is a collaboration between The Finch & Pea and Nature Afield to bring Nature’s amazing creatures into your home.

The Art of Science: Encaustic Geology

Laura Moriarty, Vista, 2012, encaustic and monoprint
Laura Moriarty, Vista, 2012, encaustic and monoprint

Artist Laura Moriarty says that the goal of her work is to “contemplate and compare human and geologic time.” Working mainly in encaustic, a mixture of wax and pigments, she creates many-layered sculptures that beautifully evoke geological strata, the earth’s archive of its past. Moriarty also makes monoprints from the sculptures themselves, reminiscent of the illustrations geologists make to express their work in 2D form. In 2011, she created a book, Table of Contents, that presented her artwork in the format of a geology textbook. “Art-rock” fans should add this one to the syllabus.

More at Laura Moriarty’s website.

Apocalypse 1950: Science will save us from science

Edmond Hamilton’s City at World’s End (1950)

hamiltoncityatworldsendOn March 1st, 1954, on the Bikini atoll of the Marshall Islands, U.S. scientists detonated a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb called Castle Bravo. The expected yield of Bravo was five megatons TNT, but the scientists had missed a crucial fusion reaction that took place in this particular bomb design. As one scientist described it to the historian Richard Rhodes, “They really didn’t know that with lithium7 there was an n, 2n reaction [i.e., one neutron entering a lithium nucleus knocked two neutrons out]. They missed it entirely.” The actual yield of Bravo was three times the expected yield, measuring in at fifteen megatons. The blast blew a 6,500 ft diameter hole through the coral and trapped people in observation bunkers that were supposed to be situated far from the blast zone. Japanese fishermen aboard the vessel Lucky Dragon were exposed to high levels of radioactive fallout, leading to the death of one member of the crew and sparking an international incident between the US and the country that less than nine years before had been the world’s first nation to be attacked with nuclear weapons.

Recent popular fears that physicists would destroy the world through miniature black holes created in the Large Hadron Collider are just the latest manifestation of the difficulty people have long had in deciding whether to view scientists as the sorcerer or the apprentice. Continue reading “Apocalypse 1950: Science will save us from science”

Science Tourist: Cité des Sciences in Paris

I love science and travelling, so I often end up in the local science museum, or at an exhibit explaining the regional geography or flora and fauna. I thought it was time to open my scrapbooks and share some of my favourite science-themed places, starting with the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris.

When people go to Paris, their first stop is usually the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre. Maybe a stroll past the Seine, or along the Champs-Elyssees, followed by a coffee in a cafe in Montmartre. I do all that, too, when I’m in Paris, but I also try to fit in a visit to Cité de Sciences.

The last time I was there was a while ago, though. It was the summer of 2003. Europe was hit by a heatwave, and over fourteen thousand people died as a result of the heat in France alone. It was too hot to be outside for long, so museums in general were an attractive destination. Science museums outside of the touristy part of town even more so.

Cité des Sciences is in Park de la Villette, a subway ride away from the centre of Paris. It looks nothing like the Paris you know from tourism flyers, and that’s why I like it. This is where the locals take their kids on Saturday afternoon. It’s more “real”, in a way, than picture-perfect postcard Paris.

Geode Continue reading “Science Tourist: Cité des Sciences in Paris”