Scientific Literacy with Ms. Ghazarian 2014-15: January 2015

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Models: How Computers Make Predictions

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/models-how-computers-make-predictions?mode=topic&context=104

Computers can now analyze a player's kick, during practice, and predict where that bill will go (hopefully through the goal posts)

FILO/ISTOCKPHOTO

The Infinite Hotel Paradox - Ted Ed Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj3_KqkI9Zo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj3_KqkI9Zo

By Jeff Dekofsky

How Old Are Your Ears? - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxcbppCX6Rk

Asap Science

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxcbppCX6Rk

This MIT Lab is Making Solid Objects Move ... All by Themselves

http://ted.tumblr.com/post/102367381286/this-mit-lab-is-making-solid-objects-move-all-by

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2011/trillion-fps-camera-1213

One of the things that distinguishes the researchers' new system from earlier high-speed imaging systems is that it can capture light 'scattering' below the surfaces of solid objects, such as the tomato depicted here.

Image: Di Wu and Andreas Velten, MIT Media Lab

The Wonders of Graphene

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/22/material-question

One atom thick, graphene is the thinnest material known and may be the strongest.

Illustration by Chad Hagen

Black Holes Are On A Collision Course

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/black-holes-are-collision-course?mode=topic&context=60

This image, made from a computer simulation, shows two supermassive black holes. They appear to collide at the center of the galaxy PG 1302-102.

NASA/CXC/A. Hobart, Josh Barnes (U. of Hawaii), John Hibbard (NRAO)

Finalist Named for Major Teen Competition in Washington

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/finalists-named-major-teen-competition-washington

The field of medals that will be awarded to finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search

What We Know and Don't Know About Ebola - Ted Ed Video

Brought to you by Jaime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMMwgvLmN-M

Building Sponge City: Redesigning LA For Long-Term Drought

http://www.npr.org/2015/01/22/378844314/building-sponge-city-redesigning-la-for-long-term-drought?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150122&utm_campaign=dailydigest&utm_term=nprnews

The Los Angeles River in 2013. Engineers turned it into a narrow concrete channel in the 1940s, after a flood destroyed homes and left 100 people dead in 1938.

Steve Lyon/Flickr

Friday, January 9, 2015

Harry Potter Reveals Secrets of the Brain

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/harry-potter-reveals-secrets-brain?mode=topic&context=39

It’s easy to become absorbed by Harry Potter. A new study reveals which areas of a reader’s brain are active in processing words and sentences to create a vivid experience.

CAROLINE/FLICKR/(CC-NC-ND)

Exploring Other Dimensions - TED Ed - Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6kn6nXMWF0

A computer-generated rendering of a possible six-dimensional geometry similar to those studied by UW-Madison physicist Gary Shiu.Image: courtesy Andrew J. Hanson, Indiana University

The Worst Drought in 1,000 Years

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/worst-drought-1000-years

This 1936 photo shows a farmer and his two sons during a dust storm in Cimarron County, Okla. The drought that struck North America two years earlier was the driest and most widespread in 1,000 years, a new study finds. It was just one of four major droughts between 1930 and 1940, a period called the Dust Bowl.

Arthur Rothstein, Farm Security Administration

A Nervy Strategy for Transplants

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/nervy-strategy-transplants

The tendrils in pink are nerve axons reaching out from a transplanted eye. The cells in green have electric charges on their membranes that keep the axons from growing.

DOUGLAS J. BLACKISTON