by David Almandsmith Hello science fans,   I was asked, “What do you believe in?” Huh? That tripped me up because i believe that i don’t believe. After some thought i arrived at the conclusion that i provisionally accept things, or at least i try to avoid solidifying my attitudes around ideas where the evidence is inconclusive. Yes, the Earth is mostly spherical. Yes, there was a Big Bang, given its powerful predictions that align with observations. Yet, if some future counter-theory is developed that does an even better job of describing our observations, i’ll abandon the Big Bang for the new theory. That’s science.   And then there are those who invest themselves in notions regardless of the evidence; such as a flat Earth, chemtrails, vaccine harm, a 9/11 conspiracy, homeopathy, faked moon landings, psychic powers, creationism, UFOs, and so on, ad nauseum.  We need to understand the rise of anti-science elements in order to find a way forward. That’s why i encourage you to attend this year’s SkeptiCal at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, even if it’s just to better un

by Bob Siederer

Hello again Science Fans!

Sometimes it is nice to unplug from the day-to-day around here and go see what is happening in the rest of the country, and that's what I've been doing this past few weeks.  I traveled back to the East coast, visiting old friends, experiencing real seasons, and checking an item off my bucket list.  While visiting friends in Florida, I was lucky enough to see the SpaceX Heavy rocket liftoff from about 30 miles away. 

But I missed a lot while I was gone too.  It seems astronomers have managed to get a photo of an actual black hole in Messier 97, a huge elliptical galaxy.  What a fantastic time to be an astronomer!

Despite discoveries and advances such as this

by Herb Masters

Hello Inquiring and Curious Folks,

It has been quite a week.  Politics has certainly attracted a lot of attention with one person certainly at the center of it all.  Many different stories and articles have been shared after the burning of Notre Dame.  Fortunately Paris has a fire department that knows what they are doing.

Thanks to some amazing technology

by Herb Masters

Hello Science and or Spring Fans,

What a crazy time we are in for science in the news.  Let's get the basics out of the way first.  I'm sure you have heard about and probably seen the photo of the supermassive black hole at the center of M87.  There's an incredible amount of references to it in the news.  Needless to say it's hard to get a handle on what this is all about from the general news.  I have found a few links that might help you explain it to others as well as get a bit better handle on it yourself.  Take a look at these…  How to Understand the Image of a Black Hole then

by David Almandsmith

Hello again, critical thinker,
 
¿Have you ever helped in an effort to save an oiled bird? There is a website that wants to hear your story – however brief or lengthy or unsuccessful. Go to birdrescue.info, click on “Contact Us”, and tell your story. While you are there, take the time to browse through newspaper articles, personal accounts, and especially publications. There you can read the real science that came from oil spill tragedies.
 
California mastodons are in the news. It may be that ‘our’ mastodons were a different species from those farther east. In addition to M. americanum, the scientists argue for a new species designation, M. pacificus, for mastodons that lived around here. I guess we could call that ‘big’ news.
 
 “Mammoths in Oakland? I thought they lived where it’s cold.” This is what a middle school student said to

by Meenakshi Prabhune

Hi Science lovers,

It’s a good time for me to write the Schmooze. Last week was Biophysics week, as declared by the Biophysical Society. A biophysicist at heart (my Ph.D. was in this subject), I used to participate by writing relevant articles on my blog. This year, I could not find the time to do this, so I will insert in some fun facts here.

Now, I do know the most common reaction when people hear the term biophysics--it sounds complicated. I will admit this; it does sound complicated. But it is not necessarily so. Biophysics is just looking at biology from a physics point of view. To see if we can find defined patterns in what seems to be a general chaos in biology.

Let me give you a few day-to-day examples. Now that spring is upon us and lovely wildflowers are blooming everywhere, I got out of hibernation and went for a hike yesterday. The glorious views of wildflowers, Bay

by Bob Siederer

Hello again Science fans, and welcome to spring.  I know, it doesn't feel very different, but the Equinox was on March 20.

Spring brings us longer days, more outdoor activities, but still provides many, many science-oriented talks.  In the next week we have, what seems to me, more excellent ones to pick from than usual.  And that's saying something.  My picks this week include:

1. Accelerating Discoveries through Genetic Data - 03/25/2019 03:30 PM, the SLAC colloquium in Menlo Park with Anne Wojcicki
2. admin's Blog Add new comment Read More

by Herb Masters

Hello Schmoozers and/or π Lovers,

I have to admit that I am amazed at all of the π celebrations and revelry last week.  It was great fun to see all of the efforts to engage all ages and education levels with π.  So because I had so much fun, I'd like to share a bit more π with you!  PBS it turns out has been celebrating π for quite awhile.  Check these out for a sample…   Science and tech come to pizza.  Deep dish or New York style?  How pi can solve your pizza order | PBS.  

by Herb Masters

Happy DST Science Fans,

I'm always amazed when I sit down to write the Schmooze.  It seems like it should be a quick thing to knock out, but there are so many things to write about in any given week.  The problem is magnified for me because there is such a wealth of new things to learn about what I am already fascinated by!  Science just keeps marching forward at a pace that we can never seem to catch up with.  So when we jumped ahead an hour this morning I was again distracted.  So if you have the time, here are a few items that I found difficult to turn away from.  Of course you have to wonder what the History of Daylight Saving Time (DST) is.  Then I fell down the well of time in history…  Ctesibius and Archimedes and back to more recent times with

by David Almandsmith

Hello Science Fans,
 
Ripley rode a dragon with the help of a falcon to ISS. Parsing that out: Ripley the mannikin (named after the Sigourney Weaver character in the Alien movies) was loaded with sensors, strapped into a Dragon capsule developed by SpaceX, the whole shebang was rocketed into LEO (Low Earth Orbit) by a Falcon 9 rocket (also from SpaceX), and docked with the ISS (the International Space Station). But you probably already knew all of this. It’s still way cool and one of the last tests before Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsules take over the task of shuttling humans between LEO and ground