Collaborate Disseminate
One of the standard tropes in science fiction is some kind of device that can render someone unconscious — you know, like a phaser set to stun. We can imagine …read more Continue reading Tech In Plain Sight: Tasers Shooting Confetti
Orbital mechanics is a fun subject, as it involves a lot of seemingly empty space that’s nevertheless full of very real forces, all of which must be taken into account …read more Continue reading Lagrange Points and Why You Want to Get Stuck At Them
Plastics are unfortunately so cheap useful that they’ve ended up everywhere. They’re filling our landfills, polluting our rivers, and even infiltrating our food chain as microplastics. As much as we …read more Continue reading Recycling Tough Plastics Into Precursors With Some Smart Catalyst Chemistry
For months before liftoff, the popular press had been hyping up the fact that the Polaris Dawn mission would include the first-ever private spacewalk. Not only would this be the …read more Continue reading Polaris Dawn, and the Prudence of a Short Spacewalk
If you are in need of a lesson on just how much things have changed in the last 60 years, an anecdote from my childhood might suffice. My grandfather was …read more Continue reading Mining and Refining: Lead, Silver, and Zinc
Static electricity often just seems like an everyday annoyance when a wool sweater crackles as you pull it off, or when a doorknob delivers an unexpected zap. Regardless, the phenomenon …read more Continue reading Static Electricity And The Machines That Make It
Down here at the bottom of our ocean of air, it’s easy to get complacent about the hazards our universe presents. We feel safe from the dangers of the vacuum …read more Continue reading Catching The BOAT: Gamma-Ray Bursts and The Brightest of All Time
A month ago, I’ve talked about using computers to hack on our day-to-day existence, specifically, augmenting my sense of time (or rather, lack thereof). Collecting data has been super helpful …read more Continue reading Hack On Self: Collecting Data
In the early 1990s I was privileged enough to be immersed in the world of technology during the exciting period that gave birth to the World Wide Web, and I …read more Continue reading A Look At The Small Web, Part 1
Wireless networking is all-pervasive in our modern lives. Wi-Fi technology lives in our smartphones, our laptops, and even our watches. Internet is available to be plucked out of the air …read more Continue reading Australia Didn’t Invent WiFi, Despite What You’ve Heard