UPDATE: Speeding past the speed of light?

So, remember back in the fall when scientists at CERN announced that they may have seen motion faster than the speed of light?  Well, as always with new scientific discoveries, the experiment has been reviewed and it seems like there might be a non-Einstein-crushing reason for the measurements.  Apparently there may have been a loose cable between a gps unit and the clock used in the experiment...  Just goes to show, everyone makes mistakes, even physicists.

They are still going to redo the experiment in May, with all the cables plugged in correctly to see if they can replicate their results.  Don't count them out yet!

How Your Cat May be Making You Crazy

Those of you who have had my college biology class know that I have an interest in human parasitic diseases, especially ones that might alter human behavior.  The Atlantic just published an article summarizing some of the new research surrounding Toxoplasma gondii, the protist parasite that causes toxoplasmosis.  It is estimated that 50% of people in the world are infected with toxoplasmosis (rates in the USA are far lower, around 10-12%).
The conventional wisdom has been that toxoplasmosis infections don't really cause harm to healthy people, but it seems that those conclusions may have been misguided.  Toxoplasma infections are now strongly linked with some forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia, as well as to brain cancer.

NASA releases the first video of the dark side of the moon

On Thursday scientists at NASA announced that they had captured the first ever video of the dark side of the moon (the side we never see here from Earth).  This side of the moon is especially marred with craters from meteor and asteroid impacts.

The images were created by twin spacecraft called GRAIL.  In a few weeks eighth graders from all over the USA will be able to send requests to the GRAIL spacecraft to photograph particular areas of the moon that they deem interesting.

Astronauts for hire!

When you were little did you dream of someday being an astronaut and getting to fly in the space shuttle?  Well, even though NASA has ended the shuttle program for the foreseeable future, they are hiring astronauts.

Here are the educational requirements and the actual job posting:
Applicants must meet the following minimum requirements before submitting an application. 
1. Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics. Quality of academic preparation is important.
2. Degree followed by at least 3 years of related, progressively responsible, professional experience or at least 1,000 hours pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. An advanced degree is desirable and may be substituted for experience as follows: master's degree = 1 year of experience, doctoral degree = 3 years of experience. Teaching experience, including experience at the K - 12 levels, is considered to be qualifying experience for the Astronaut Candidate position; therefore, educators are encouraged to apply. 

This could be you!!

  

SCVTS Mole Day 2011

This year's Mole Day went off without a hitch.  We had a full house at 6:02am in F11 - and despite the fact that no one in the room had gotten eight hours of sleep that night everyone was excited to celebrate.  The Chemistry 101 students made some great mole models in honor of the day, as well as some beautiful works of art.

  

 You may be wondering why these ladies are laughing...

Muriel was practicing

                                                                    her rap and dance moves...

And last but not least....

...here is a Mole Day Rap, presented by Aaliyah, Devon and Laura.  

How to get rid of a Nobel Prize, and fast!

Imagine you're a world-famous physicist working in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1940.  You've been sheltering Jewish physicists who fled German troops for years, and the Nazi party knows it.  In fact, two Jewish scientists have sent their solid gold Nobel Prizes to you for safekeeping.  Now, Nazi troops are literally marching through the streets of your city looking for you.  You NEED to get rid of these medals, but how?  CHEMISTRY - that's how!

S is for Science, and that's good enough for me

Sesame Street has announced that this year's new season of programs with be focusing more on STEM instruction (that's Science Technology Engineering and Math for those of you not in the education world).  So if you still tune in to watch that childhood favorite you can help Cookie Monster do an experiment on density, or watch Super Grover "unleash the power of Obser-vation... vation.... vation......"  This is all being done in an effort to help America's kids improve their STEM skills, which I think is great.