The Fermi Paradox - Wait But Why PDF: We made a fancy PDF of this post for printing and offline viewing. Buy it here. (Or see a preview.) Everyone feels something when they’re in a really good starry place on a really good starry night and they look up and see this: Some people stick with the traditional, feeling struck by the epic beauty or blown away by the insane scale of the universe. Personally, I go for the old “existential meltdown followed by acting weird for the next half hour.” Physicist Enrico Fermi felt something too—”Where is everybody?” A really starry sky seems vast—but all we’re looking at is our very local neighborhood. Galaxy image: Nick Risinger When confronted with the topic of stars and galaxies, a question that tantalizes most humans is, “Is there other intelligent life out there?” As many stars as there are in our galaxy (100 – 400 billion), there are roughly an equal number of galaxies in the observable universe—so for every star in the colossal Milky Way, there’s a whole galaxy out there. 1. 2.
MasteringAstronomy: Make Learning Part of the Grade Today, reaching every student can feel out of reach. With MyLab and Mastering, you can connect with students meaningfully, even from a distance. Built for flexibility, these digital platforms let you create a course to best fit the unique needs of your curriculum and your students. Each course has a foundation of interactive course-specific content — by authors who are experts in their field — that you can tailor and assign as you see fit. Digital tools activate learning, to more fully engage learners. And online assessments and data tell you how students are doing, as they go, so you can decide what to teach and how best to teach it. The result? Learn more about the features and benefits of MyLab and Mastering.
Free Online Student Organizer | Schoolbinder Astronomy Day The next Astronomy Day this year is May 10, 2014 and on October 4, 2014. Local astronomical societies, planetariums, museums, and observatories will be sponsoring public viewing sessions, presentations, workshops, and other activities to increase public awareness about astronomy and our wonderful universe. List of Events for May 2014 List of Events for October 2014 Add your event to the above list of all Astronomy Day sites For more information contact: Astronomy Day Headquarters Gary Beckstrom Assistant Astronomy Day Coordinator 1717 Montclair Avenue Flint, MI 48503 e-mail: gary-at-BeckstromObservatory-dot-com Latest Astronomy Day Information Astronomy Day Fact Sheet Astronomy Day Co sponsors FREE Astronomy Day Handbook to plan events Astronomy Day Award Application
Physicists Discover Geometry Underlying Particle Physics Physicists have discovered a jewel-like geometric object that dramatically simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality. “This is completely new and very much simpler than anything that has been done before,” said Andrew Hodges, a mathematical physicist at Oxford University who has been following the work. The revelation that particle interactions, the most basic events in nature, may be consequences of geometry significantly advances a decades-long effort to reformulate quantum field theory, the body of laws describing elementary particles and their interactions. Interactions that were previously calculated with mathematical formulas thousands of terms long can now be described by computing the volume of the corresponding jewel-like “amplituhedron,” which yields an equivalent one-term expression. Locality is the notion that particles can interact only from adjoining positions in space and time.
Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers 8 math talks to blow your mind Mathematics gets down to work in these talks, breathing life and logic into everyday problems. Prepare for math puzzlers both solved and unsolvable, and even some still waiting for solutions. Ron Eglash: The fractals at the heart of African designs When Ron Eglash first saw an aerial photo of an African village, he couldn’t rest until he knew — were the fractals in the layout of the village a coincidence, or were the forces of mathematics and culture colliding in unexpected ways? How big is infinity? Arthur Benjamin does “Mathemagic” A whole team of calculators is no match for Arthur Benjamin, as he does astounding mental math in the blink of an eye. Scott Rickard: The beautiful math behind the ugliest music What makes a piece of music beautiful? Margaret Wertheim: The beautiful math of coralThe intricate forms of a coral reef can only be expressed through hyperbolic geometry — and the only way humans can model it is by crocheting!
Astronomy Technology Today Magazine You Can Easily Learn 100 TED Talks Lessons In 5 Minutes Which Most People Need 70 Hours For The other week I watched 70 hours of TED talks; short, 18-minute talks given by inspirational leaders in the fields of Technology,Entertainment, and Design (TED). I watched 296 talks in total, and I recently went through the list of what I watched, weeded out the crappy and boring talks, and created a list of the 100 best things I learned ! This article isn’t entirely about productivity, but I guarantee you’ll learn a thing or two. Here are 100 incredible things I learned watching 70 hours of TED talks last week! Productivity 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Here are three other productivity experiments I’ve done recently: Meditating for 35 hours over 7 days; using my smartphone for only an hour a day for three months; living in total reclusion for 10 days. More TED Talks lessons: Speak like a Pro- 15 lessons learned from watching TED TALKS Becoming a better human 23, 24, 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35, 36, 37, 38, 39. 40, 41. 42.
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