Happy Birthday Carl Sagan!

Carl Sagan is a major reason why this blog exists. I've been into science as a kid, but I always envisioned it as a niche, nerdy thing.  Carl Sagan showed me that science can be mainstream and cool because it affects everything around is, every day!  He directly inspires my #ScienceLooksGood hashtag.

Check out this amazing video from Sagan's audiobook for Pale Blue Dot. Sagan describes how humbling it is that the earth is nothing more than a pale blue dot in the vast openness of a much larger universe that we have yet to understand. If you can't see the video embed below, click here.

Happy birthday, Carl.

Sports Science: Basketball and Parabolas

I live in Philly now, but I'll always be a die hard Knicks fan. So when the Knicks were in town for a game against the Sixers, I was there in my Knicks jersey acting a fool. A fool for science!

Think of what happens when you throw a ball. After you throw it, it follows the motion shown below:

This shape is known as a parabola. The ball beings to move up, but then gravity eventually pulls it back down.  This doesn't only work for a ball - it can also be a person! If someone is jumping, dunking, or do anything that launches them into the air, they will follow the same basic path. 

Another great example of parabolic motion is everyone's favorite part of a basketball game - free crappy t shirts! For some reason, people go crazy whenever offered free t-shirts that they will never wear in their lives. Philly takes it an extra step by having a huge t-shirt CANNON. I don't use that word lightly ... here's a pic of them wheeling it out onto the court.

Yeah. It's not joke. I've seen it advertised that it can shoot up to 100 t-shirts per minute. Why that stat exists, and why I know it, is a story for another day.  But when you see it actually begin to shoot, it's pretty impressive. And of course, the t-shirts fly in a parabolic motion towards a sea of halfway inebriated fans that will break your neck to catch a future dust rag.  You can check it out in action in the video that I posted at the beginning of this thread.

Presidential Science - Vote!

The President meets an 8th grader named Joey from Phoenix, AZ at the White House Science Fair and the two launch a marshmallow across the State Dining Room of the White House with Joey's science project - an air cannon.

Today is Election Day in the US. No matter what your political affiliation is, make sure that you exercise your right to vote! Among the many things that the president can influence in four years is science and technology.

Several presidents were science geeks. Truman signed the bill to create the National Science Foundation, Carter helped fund the Hubble Space Telescope, and Kennedy helped launch space exploration by promising to put a man on the moon before anyone really knew how to. Also, President Garfield proved that #ScienceLooksGood by submitting a proof for the Pythagorean theorem, which I'm sure you learned in high school and can recite on command.

T.C Scottek has a lengthy article on The Verge detailing the stances of the four main presidential candidates on various science and tech issues such as the Internet, cyber security, war, and space.. Read up, and vote, vote, vote!!!!

Oh yeah, and vote!

Quantum Mechanics: Don't Get Run Over

When you walk around, things seem to be fairly normal. Gravity holds everything down so things are floating in the air.  When you see a driver, no matter how crazy, careening down the road, you can say "Hey, this idiot is driving around 90 mph and is going through that red light".  If you had a radar gun, you could be even more precise at getting the car's position and momentum.

However, what we think of as "normal" ​is not an accurate representation of the universe.  Quantum mechanics exists to explain all of the absurdity that happens when you start looking at things on a microscopic level, like electrons and photons. For example, the idiot driving in the car that we mentioned in the previous paragraph. If we squeezed the driver down to a microscopic side,  if you knew the exact momentum of the car, it would be impossible to get its exact position.  Similarly, if you know the position, you can't measure the exact momentum. 

For my quantum mechanics fun, check out the video below. If you can't see it, click here.

SpaceX Launch & Attending An Event Via the Internet

Regular spaceflight has returned to US soil, this time by private company SpaceX, as the Dragon spacecraft successfully launched Sunday evening. It's the first of a 12 mission contract with NASA, and follows up the demonstration mission in May that I covered on this site. Hopefully, astronauts will be future cargo - but for now it's scientific equipment, clothing, and food for the International Space Station.​

The internet has given us the opportunity to be a part of events that we can't physically attend.  I say "physically attend", because participating in an event with video and chat can be as enthralling as actually being there. I had this experience this weekend, where I had to cancel a trip to cover the SpaceX launch as a member of the media. 

I was still able to watch the event via UStream and communicate with my fellow space geeks via Twitter. I still got the same nerd high that I get when I'm at an event, and I still cheered when I saw the Dragon spacecraft lift up from the launchpad. Sure, I wish I was there. But I definitely had the next best thing.​

The full press release is available below from the SpaceX website:

SPACEX LAUNCHES FIRST OFFICIAL CARGO RESUPPLY MISSION TO SPACE STATION

Cape Canaveral, FL — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) today successfully launched its Dragon spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on the first official cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. The launch went off on schedule at 8:35 p.m. ET from Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The SpaceX CRS-1 mission marks the first of at least 12 SpaceX missions to the space station under the company’s cargo resupply contract with NASA. On board the Dragon spacecraft are materials to support investigations planned for the station’s Expedition 33 crew, as well as crew supplies and space station hardware.

Dragon – the only space station cargo craft capable of returning a significant amount of supplies back to Earth -- will return with scientific materials and space station hardware.

The Falcon 9 rocket, powered by nine Merlin engines, performed nominally today during every phase of its approach to orbit, including two stage separations, solar array deployment, and the final push of Dragon into its intended orbit. Dragon will now chase the space station before beginning a series of burns that will bring it into close proximity to the station. If all goes well, Dragon will attach to the complex on October 10 and spend over two weeks there before an expected return to Earth on October 28.

“We are right where we need to be at this stage in the mission,” said Elon Musk, CEO and Chief Technical Officer, SpaceX. “We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon’s approach to the space station. But the launch was an unqualified success.”

The CRS-1 mission follows a historic demonstration flight last May when SpaceX’s Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to attach to the space station, exchange cargo, and return safely to Earth. The flight signaled restoration of American capability to resupply the space station, not possible since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

About SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches the world's most advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to revolutionize space transportation, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. Today, SpaceX is advancing the boundaries of space technology through its Falcon launch vehicles and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX is a private company owned by management and employees, with minority investments from Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Valor Equity Partners. The company has more than 1,800 employees in California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Florida. For more information, visit SpaceX.com.