Wasn’t going to post anything today since it’s a bank holiday weekend here in the UK, but for him I’ll make an exception.
The Scientific Gamer
Science, gaming, and all things in between.
Category Archives: science
Don’t Forget The “Ni”.
Darren asks:
This pops up in video games relatively frequently, and I’ve often wondered: would it actually be possible for an organism to evolve in (or evolve the capability to survive in) the vacuum of space? If it’s possible at all, what qualities would they need to have (or what qualities would be especially beneficial) and how complex could such organisms realistically become?
The Journey Is More Interesting Than The Destination.
I spent this weekend fielding a lot of questions from teenagers about how long it would take to get to various destinations in the solar system, with the general assumption being that if we simply strapped a bigger engine to a spaceship we’d get there faster. This is broadly true but I didn’t have the time (and their brains were too small) for me to explain all the nuances of the situation to them, so I’m just going to explain it to you instead. Lucky you.
What You Need To Be An Astronaut.
Last weekend’s space school featured a talk from a very nice Ph.D contemporary of mine about what goes into astronaut training and the qualities needed to become an astronaut. This talk did exactly what it was supposed to — got the kids in attendance fired up the prospect of becoming involved with the space program – and was far more interactive than my talk, which was basically a dreary narrative on where in the solar system we might end up colonising if we could ever be bothered1. However, there were a couple of points where I had to physically restrain myself from heckling her since it was a rather saccharine view of astronaut training and you’re basically not allowed to be cynical when your job is to inspire kids to do science. So I’ll just talk about it here instead: these are some of the other things you need to be an astronaut, but which they don’t usually publicise because they have an image to maintain, dammit.
The Shape Of The Universe.
(Click on that for the full picture. DO IT. DO IT NOW.)
This question plopped into my inbox like a month ago now.
Name: Justin M.
Question: How can physicists determine the shape of the universe, and what implications might the different speculated shapes of the universe have?
And I’ve been avoiding it ever since, because if you mean what I think you mean it’s an insanely hard subject to try to explain to somebody who hasn’t done, say, three years of an undergraduate physics degree course.
To Vee Or Not To Vee.
I’m back! (Back! Back.) And for the first of many new scienceposts, I bring you a quick précis of what I just spent the last week doing. I feel somewhat tawdry doing this since it’s duplicating my space school research more than a little bit, but what the hell – it’s my research*, and since I had to aim the task at eleven year olds I didn’t get to use all of it.