City Town Info has created a nice infographic concerning women in science. While some numbers regarding income and representation may be bleak, there is positive news - more and more young women are becoming interested in science careers. The challenge is keeping this interest fresh by keeping science interesting throughout the crucial elementary and high school years. We need to make sure that scientists are shown as role models, such as those that I posted about at the end of last year.
Telescopes: Can You See What I See?
The Hubble Space Telescope has been delivering us images from deep into space for years. It's soon to be successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will be launched "later in the decade". The length of time required for testing is very important. The Hubble launched with flawed mirror technology that led to several expensive fixes while in orbit.
An example of NASA technology influencing things that we may use in our everyday life is below. From NASA:
For example, the optical measuring technology developed for the Webb, called "wavefront sensing" has been applied to eye health and has allowed improvements in measurement of human eyes, diagnosis of ocular diseases and potentially improved surgery.
The most powerful space telescope ever built, the Webb telescope will provide images of the first galaxies ever formed, and explore planets around distant stars. It is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
Check out a video on the Webb telescope by astronomer Tony Darnell below. If you can't see the video, click here.
Source: NASA via @LaurenAlloyce
The Challenges of Science on the Web
Get it? Spider .. web? Yeah ...
Source: Quickmeme
The Science Online conference was held this weekend in Maryland. I wasn't able to attend, but NPR held a fascinating Science Friday show on the state of science in this world of blogging, social media, and traditional websites.
I created my blog to deal with two problems that I've seen with science reporting online: 1) it's too jargon heavy and doesn't focus on the common user and 2) it's grossly inaccurate. The following exchange between host Ira Flatow and Bora Zivkovic, blog editor at Scientific American deals with this:
ZIVKOVIC: When you're straight-out science reporting, there's really no need to include or allow inclusion of opinions that are completely unscientific.
FLATOW, Host: But we live in an age, at least in the United States, where some people, now, in the last few years, possibly politically oriented, say that, you know, science is just another matter of opinion, you know.
ZIVKOVIC: Yeah, that's their opinion. That doesn't mean that opinion is correct, either. Because unlike other opinions, scientific opinion has to be backed up by empirical information, by empirical data, and it's a self-correcting - at least long-term - self-correcting endeavor. So an individual scientist may have biases or opinions, but science as a whole is a way of knowledge that actually is trying to represent nature as it really is.
You can stream the show on NPR or download it here.
For more about Science Online, check out their Flickr album, #scio13 Twitter hashtag, and overall website.
NASA's Day of Remembrance on the 10th Anniversary of Columbia
Source: NASA
The STS-107 (Columbia) crew took part in the In-Flight Maintenance training, learning more about experiments that were a part of the mission. Seated in front (left to right) are Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, Commander Rick D. Husband, Mission Specialist Laurel Clark, Pilot William C. "Willie" McCool; in back are Mission Specialists David M. Brown and Michael Anderson. As a research mission, STS-107 carried the SPACEHAB Double Module in its first research flight into space and a broad collection of experiments ranging from material science to life science.
Today is the official day of remembrance for the Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia tragedies. I've previously posted about Apollo and Challenger - today is the 10th anniversary of the loss of space shuttle Columbia, which perished upon reentry in 2001.
Here's an excerpt from President Barack Obama's full statement:
As we undertake the next generation of discovery, today we pause to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the journey of exploration.
Space exploration and the sacrifice these pioneers made benefits us all.
Here's an excerpt from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden's full statement:
So while the Day of Remembrance is in part a time of sadness, it is also a time of contemplation and thankfulness. It is a time to be thankful that these great men and women shared their lives with us; that they helped advance our nation and made life better on Earth; and that they are still united with us in that shared pursuit.
Want To Be In Orbit? Run
During a Q&A between a Canadian classroom and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station (seriously, just think about how awesome that is), one kid asked a question that I used to wonder a lot. At the 13:30 mark, he asks:
"Why does the space station have to travel so fast"?
As a kid could understand moving at a high speed to leave the Earth, because I could never launch my Hot Wheels into orbit no matter how hard I threw them. But why would you need the speed when you're already in space? Don't you just float and hang out?
Chris gives a great answer. The space station stays in orbit only because it's going fast - 500 km / minute to be precise!
Chris then gives the example of jumping off of a roof. Obviously gravity brings you back down. The faster you run on the roof, the further you'll travel forward but gravity will still bring you down.
Now, imagine that you were able to run as fast as the space station - 500 km / min. You'd fly off the roof, and as gravity begins to bring you down the Earth would be curving below you. This is essentially what being in "orbit" means - your'e going fast enough that you cancel out the "pull down" effect of gravity .
All of Earth's satellites are in free fall An added bonus is that if you are inside of an object in free fall, you are weightless - hence why Chris is floating about in the video below.
If you can't see the video below, click here. Remember to skip to the 13:30 mark to see Chris answer this question.
Source: NASA YouTube Channel