Comments for Science Diaries

Comment on Koalas out west - the third Thomson River expedition by Bella Sampagita

Bella Sampagita — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:39:20 +0000

That was a very nice experience. and i`m looking forward to visit Thompson River by the end of this month…

thanks for the information..

Comment on Your Equation by Jim Metzner

Jim Metzner — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:35:57 +0000

Pamela:
I’m so glad you’re getting into the spirit of this. To earn that CD, someone is going to have to come up with an equation - you know, those things with the “=” signs in
‘em. The cost of each tomato gets cheaper with every one you grow, factoring in the infamous tomato blight, which has played havoc with everyone’s tomato equation this year.
cheers;
jim

Comment on Your Equation by Pamela Jorrick

Pamela Jorrick — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:39:05 +0000

Equations make my eyes gloss over as well, but I think I may have one here! If I am one of only two people to respond to this post, then I should have a 50% chance of winning a CD, right?
I would also love to see an equation determing how much time is wasted on getting side tracked on the internet. For example, if for every online task that I have, I spend two to three times the necessary time doing other unnecessary things, how much time do I waste each year? So, if I spend 30 minutes on each ten minute task, and I do this 4 times each day, then I think I am spending 40 hours a month getting sidetracked. Wow- did I figure that out correctly? It’s a good thing that computers save us so much time. I better get off to work.
By the way, I have also grown a delicious $50 tomato.

Comment on caterpillars by CTAERPILLAR

CTAERPILLAR — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:00:22 +0000

I TO HAVE CATERPILLARS. I HAVE FIND OVER 50 SPECIES OF CATERPILLAR AND I HAVE SEIN A CATERPILLAR TO TURNING INTO A BUTERFLY.SORY WHEN I WRITE WAT FOLSE IM LIVE IN SLOVENIA IN EUROP NEAR ITALY AND AUSTRIA

Comment on Why bats are cool and we should protect them by Tigga Kingston

Tigga Kingston — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:30:58 +0000

Hi Luis
You know many years ago I heard a piece of music that someone had put together using bat echolocation calls — I think it was on the BBC, but I’ve not heard anything since.

I’ll let you know if I get to Mexico again, and I’ll bring some sound files! mean time you can listen to a variety of UK bats here: http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/bats/calls/

Best wishes and thanks for your interest

Tigga

Comment on How do we “see” and study nanoparticles in the Clark Fork River by Mike Hochella

Mike Hochella — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:42:24 +0000

There are light scattering techniques that can be used to detect nanoparticles, and although they cannot give get detail, these instruments are much less costly and complex than a TEM. Yet their cost is still not trivial. So unless you are a scientist who studies nanoparticles, you really have to trust what the manufacturer says about their product, or find reports about the product conducted by an independent agency (academic researchers, government agencies, etc.).

Comment on Why bats are cool and we should protect them by Luis Diago

Luis Diago — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 08:46:16 +0000

Just read your fun adventure here in Mexico.
I could not help but to get excited of how fun would it be to use those recordings to make some music!
Im a musician and live here in mexico and last night I had this beautiful dream with bats… so that is how i ended up reading your article.
great reading you, Next time u come down to mexico u have a musician/sound producer friend already!

Comment on How do we “see” and study nanoparticles in the Clark Fork River by maziar dehghani

maziar dehghani — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:51:31 +0000

hello.
how can we understand that a nono particles that we buy is really nano?ofcourse without experince instruments such as tem and sem,i want some simple experiment to find that.
thanks

Comment on Your Equation by Jim Metzner

Jim Metzner — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:38:23 +0000

Adirec:
Thanks for taking the lead on this. Clearly you are out in front. I’d still love to see the actual equation. So if X = the number of times your computer can freeze, have fun with the variables, which will probably include the average number of thunderstorms - which we have had many of lately in my neck of the woods. My latest equation would be to equate the cost of the cost of any one piece of produce from my garden. The first strawberry cost me about $1000, I figure.

Surely we can find some number crunchers to transform these and other problems into bona fide equations. Have at it, math geeks……

Jim

Comment on Your Equation by Adirec Torytskit

Adirec Torytskit — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:34:01 +0000

How about this equation:

How many times in a 1 hour period can your computer freeze, and the power go out?

I have the answer for you even - 2 times each occurrence in a 1 hour period and 3 times for computer freeze and 8 times for power outage in a 12 hour period.

Next equation: How many times in a 12 hour period is it ok for you to forcefully reboot your hard drive without doing permanent damage to your computer?

This one I don’t have the answer too yet, and hope never to have!

I must say however, you sure put a completely different twist on the whole concept of equations. I am finishing here before the power goes out again or the computer freezes!!!

I didn’t see any other comments but perhaps now I have got the ball rolling for your competition!

Good luck to all participants and probably I won’t have a working computer to check anything again so I will never find out who wins!

Regards
Adirec