June 10, 1952: Marketing Mylar With a Film About a Film 1952: DuPont registers Mylar as the trademark for its new, strong polyester film. Mylar’s versatility gives it a long, worldwide run as an industrial coating. DuPont developed Mylar, or biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate, along with the polyester fabric Dacron in the early ’50s. Mylar’s … Continue reading “Mylar: Biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate”
Category: Science
Martin Gardner, 1914 – 2010
Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914 – May 22, 2010)
Volcano Monitoring
Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C. — Bobby Jindal (February, 2009) <sarcam> Because there’s no possible reason why we would ever need to monitor volcanoes. </sarcam> See also: Jindal Versus the Volcano
My Congressman is an Idiot, Part II
The decision by the Obama administration to gut NASA’s manned flight program does more than jeopardize the long term goals of solar system exploration, the cancellation of the space shuttles replacement will effectively leave the United States reliant upon the Soviet Union to grant us access to low earth orbit. As a member of the Armed Services Committee I am very concerned with that possibility, and as an American I am disappointed by the prospect.
— Todd Akin (R-MO)
Soviet Union – WTF?
(more…)The Key to Science
Quantum
What PZ Myers said: When anyone other than a particle physicist talks about “quantum”, it is almost always a magic word used to project a pseudoscientific aura onto sheer raving lunacy. “Quantum” as a prefix is almost universally used to signify that the noun it modifies is about to be made crazy stupid. So simple, … Continue reading “Quantum”
Large Hadron Collider has produced record-breaking high-energy particle collisions
Cern LHC sees high-energy success Europe’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has produced record-breaking high-energy particle collisions. Scientists working on the European machine have smashed beams of protons together at energies that are 3.5 times higher than previously achieved. Tuesday’s milestone marks the beginning of work that could lead to the discovery of fundamental new physics. … Continue reading “Large Hadron Collider has produced record-breaking high-energy particle collisions”
Who says math is boring?
Golden Gate Bridge from Orbit
Twitpic of Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA from the ISS on Jan 30, 2010. Credit Astronaut Soichi Noguch
Astronauts now able to access porn from space
NASA Extends the World Wide Web Out Into Space HOUSTON — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station received a special software upgrade this week – personal access to the Internet and the World Wide Web via the ultimate wireless connection. Expedition 22 Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer made first use of the new system Friday, when … Continue reading “Astronauts now able to access porn from space”