Hello Science Fans,
This break from drought conditions has certainly been full of new or repeated experiences. I remember when the anthropogenic climate change bounced between global warming or global cooling. While the rain and weather we have been receiving is a lot by any measure it is still only a part of our climate! (note the dates of those links!) There are many ways of observing what is going on. Some are amazing to read about. The Ecological Catastrophe You’ve Never Heard Of is one that makes you realize that nature still has a lot of options for changing our understanding of who/what is in charge and the scale of things that go on, There a pretty good scientific consensus now though.
Some other problems came up today with the water soaked ground that I had to go out and deal with. So I missed seeing USSF-67, I hope you had a chance to see it. I have to admit the landings of the boosters are really cool.
Seemingly in another lifetime I actually worked in emergency response medicine. I’m not a sports fan but the news and images of Damar Hamlin set me off on a bit of a refresher. It appears that he experienced commotio cordis. Here’s a bit of history about commotio cordis. If you took CPR in the 70’s or so you may have been trained to give a precordial thump. That seemed to fall out of favor and I haven’t heard of it in years, but it may have a place in emergency response for those who witness a similar event. It gets complicated real quick but here are two illustrations that might help if you have some background in this. It is far more common (sort of) than I thought. If you have a kid involved in sports where impacts happen you might want to educate yourself!
On an entirely different note, I used to talk to people a lot about a Foucault Pendulum. I liked to tell a story about the Connections (one of the best science programs ever (Note: Amazon says the genre is Mystery & Thrillers!)) that got us from Galileo dropping balls of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (that was allegorical) and arguing that the earth moved all the way to taking pictures of Mars rovers descending through the Martian atmosphere! That was a long way of saying I wish I had The Remarkable Emptiness of Existence to refer to a few years ago!
It looks like we are off to a science charged calendar with a lot of options in the next two weeks. Here are a couple that look fascinating to me for this week…
–Kombucha Swap-O-Rama (and Science!) – 01/17/2023 07:00 PM
–Januray LASER Event – Livestream – 01/18/2023 07:00 PM
–After Dark: Moon and Stars – 01/19/2023 06:00 PM Thu
–King Tide Bair Island Interpretive Walk – 01/20/2023 10:00 AM Fri (there are few KT walks but this is a great location you should know about.)
–Wonderfest: Probing the Heart of Matter – Livestream – 01/22/2023 01:00 PM Sun (Note:The Remarkable Emptiness of Existence)
Here are some further teasers to hopefully keep you intrigued…
-Take note of the Kombucha presentation above! You Don’t Need a Binder in Your Detox Kit, and You Don’t Need a Detox Kit
There are going to be many more arguments where science and faith or religion are on public display. Roe arguments will continue as we can see already. I think this video needs to be watched by anyone that is going to advocate for or against choice. Here’s an interesting supplemental video… Boned, spined, spiked, corkscrewed or double-headed: why did so much variety arise when a simple tube would do?
I came across this and find it to be really insightful and it is free to download or read on line…
SCIENCE LITERACY “Science is a way of knowing about the world. At once a process, a product, and an institution, science enables people to both engage in the construction of new knowledge as well as use information to achieve desired ends. Access to science—whether using knowledge or creating it—necessitates some level of familiarity with the enterprise and practice of science: we refer to this as science literacy.”
So with all that to read, watch, and think about, go out and Boogie Like a Hedgehog! (Just why is that so cool?)
herb masters
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