Think for Yourself

Archive for November 2007

The Physics of Christmas

Posted by: ozymandias1 on: November 28, 2007

Related Links, courtesy of the PTNC forum
Is Santa Real?
A scientific debate which looks at both sides
Star of Bethlemen
What are the possible explanations? (in swf format)
Noradsanta
Ian Robertson has provided the following nugget:
At xmas every year for some 24 hours by far the busiest website in the world far is Norad Santa . Here the men and women [...]

Science and Religion

Posted by: ozymandias1 on: November 18, 2007

Today Mr Dungan’s Leaving Cert Religion class joined our Applied Maths class for a discussion on Religion and Science. It started off very slowly but got a little heated before too long and the feedback was fairly positive with most students hoping we would repeat the exercise later in the year, but possibly in a [...]

Uncertainty in Science

Posted by: ozymandias1 on: November 14, 2007

Possibly one of the most important concepts that should come out of a Science Education course is that Science does not provide certainty – it simply can’t. It’s all about probability.
The experiment we do in school to ‘prove’ that solids expand when heated, does nothing of the sort. We take one metal ball and show [...]

What’s the story with poor pay for science-related jobs?

Posted by: ozymandias1 on: November 11, 2007

Last Friday’s Irish Times (9/11/07) did a special supplement on “Jobs in Science”. They included the results of a survey carried out last month of salaries in the pharmaceutical and medical devices market. The results were (to my mind at least) surprising.
They listed thirteen categories and looked at the lower, mid and top entry level.
The [...]

It’s Science Week again! wa bloody hay

Posted by: ozymandias1 on: November 4, 2007

Science Week (or should that be Leo Enright Week?) tends to bring out the cynic in me.
For a full week we get bombarded with media-bytes about how great Science is, how much fun it is, and how the drop in the number of students taking up Science is nothing short of a national tragedy.
It fact let’s [...]


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