Category Archives: Students

Items for students and others, interested in learning about science and engineering and the application of science in our lives. We post many of the general interest items here.

Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake Photos

I have posted photos from the first day of my Utah trip: Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake and Salt Lake City. The Great Salt Lake is

The largest U.S. lake west of the Mississippi River
The 4th largest terminal lake (no outlet) in the world
A remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric freshwater lake that was 10 times larger than Great Salt Lake
About 75 miles long, and 28 miles wide, and covers 1,700 square miles – it fluctuates in size during the year and over the years
Has a maximum depth of about 35 feet
Typically 3 to 5 times saltier than the ocean
Fish free, the largest aquatic critters are brine shrimp and brine flies
One of the largest migratory bird magnets in Western North America

Providing Computer to Remote Students in Nepal

photo of students using computers in Nepal

Pupils conquer fear of computers

“I was really scared when I saw the computer,” he says. “I didn’t go near it. I was worried it might explode and kill me. “It was only when the teacher called me saying it was harmless that I went into the room, but I still hesitated.” Things have changed now, he adds.

“I’m feeling much better. The E-library has helped with my studies. “We can see the periodic table of science, and also maps and other geography things in a pictorial way that is easy to understand. It’s not only that – we can also play games and have fun.”

Kamal says his parents were very excited when he told them about the computer and came to watch the very next day. It was not only Kamal. His computer teacher, Shankar Prajapati, says all the pupils were afraid. “They all worried they would catch some virus and fall ill or even die. But now they are familiar with computers,” he says.

“Even we teachers are gaining knowledge from the E-library. It’s really helpful for us, too. “The students can see science experiments carried out on screen and search for whatever they want in the encyclopaedia.
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This is a free and open-source (accessible to everyone) package which connects one powerful central server in the school, using the Linux operating system, to a number of diskless low-end computers. When linked to the server, each computer receives a full Linux desktop.

Read more about the Help Nepal Network’s eLibrary program. Photos from this web site shows students in Nepal using computers.

In the face of rapidly changing technological advancement and the exorbitant cost of proprietary hardware and software solutions, which had stymied Nepal in attempting to participate in ICT for development, the use for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is emerging as a solution.
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Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) can be a low cost solution for deprived communities who cannot afford a bigger volume financial expense.
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LTSP, a system that works with only one central high end server and other diskless low-end thin client computers, allows to run Linux on a server, and then use thin clients (almost any computer will do) to connect to the server and receive a full-blown Linux desktop.

I believe strongly in the ability of kids to learn if they are just provided some tools that help them do so. See a great post on Hole in the Wall computers.

Does the Earth Have Two Cores?

Did Earth’s Twin Cores Spark Plate Tectonics?

a new theory aims to rewrite it all by proposing the seemingly impossible: Earth has not one but two inner cores.

The idea stems from an ancient, cataclysmic collision that scientists believe occurred when a Mars-sized object hit Earth about 4.45 billion years ago. The young Earth was still so hot that it was mostly molten, and debris flung from the impact is thought to have formed the moon.

Haluk Cetin and Fugen Ozkirim of Murray State University think the core of the Mars-sized object may have been left behind inside Earth, and that it sank down near the original inner core. There the two may still remain, either separate or as conjoined twins, locked in a tight orbit.

Their case is largely circumstantial and speculative, Cetin admitted. “We have no solid evidence yet, and we’re not saying 100 percent that it still exists,” he said. “The interior of Earth is a very hard place to study.”

The ancient collision is a widely accepted phenomenon. But most scientists believe the incredible pressure at the center of the planet would’ve long since pushed the two cores into each other.

I must say two cores seems very far-fetched to me. But it is another great example of the scientific discovery process and an interesting idea.

Read the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog in 35 Languages

I have added a Google gadget to the right side column of the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog that translates our blog into 35 languages. I have been proving a direct link to 6 languages, so this is a great increase in languages covered.

All that is required to add this capability to your site is add a short bit of javascript from the Google Translate gadget site. And as they add more languages that additional coverage will automatically be reflected on your site.

The usability of the Google translate is excellent, I think. If you are reading the translated page, say in Chinese, and you follow a link to another page on our site it translates that page for you automatically.

I hope you enjoy this new capability.

Correlation is Not Causation: “Fat is Catching” Theory Exposed

“Fat is catching” theory exposed

Their study was reported to have shown that you can “catch” obesity from having fat friends and that obesity is so contagious, it can be spread long-distance by email and instant messaging. Even healthcare professionals, who didn’t understand the etiology of true obesity or how statistics can be misused, failed to detect the implausibility of “second-hand obesity.” In fact, some doctors became so enamored with the new “science of networking” they believed it should be a new medical specialty: network medicine.
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Jason M. Fletcher, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut, along with Boston economist, Ethan Cohen-Cole, Ph.D., designed an ingenious study. They selected conditions that no one would seriously believe were spread by social networking and online friendships: height, headaches and acne. They then applied the same standard statistical methods used in Christakis and Fowler’s social networking research to “find” that acne, height and headaches have the same “social network effect.”
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As they explained, patterns of association among people can lead to correlations in health conditions between friends that are not caused by direct social network effects at all.
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There is a need for caution when attributing causality to correlations in health outcomes between friends using non-experimental data. Confounding is only one of many empirical challenges to estimating social network effects.

Excellent reminder of the risks of analyzing data for correlations. We continue to, far to often, fail to interpret data properly. Both authors of the study, received PhD’s from the University of Wisconsin-Madison which strengthens my belief that it is teaching students well (just kidding).

Also another example of the scientific inquiry process where scientists challenge the conclusions drawn by other scientists. It is a wonderful system, even if confusing and not the clean idea so many have of how science works.

Rumors of Software Engineering’s Death are Greatly Exaggerated

Rumors of Software Engineering’s Death are Greatly Exaggerated by Steve McConnell

Indeed, one of the hallmarks of engineering as opposed to science is that engineers will work with materials whose properties are not entirely understood, and they’ll factor in safety margins until the science comes along later and allows more precision in the engineer’s use of those materials.
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Software engineering already has been defined as engineering, we have an international reference standard for that definition, the field’s two largest professional bodies have jointly adopted a professional code of conduct for software engineers, we have accreditation standards for university programs in software engineering, we have university numerous programs that have already been accredited, and several countries are licensing professional engineers in software.

How Marbles Are Made

More posts on how things work: Why do We Sleep? – Why is it Colder at Higher Elevations? – What Are Flowers For?

A Microscopic Layer of Diamonds Beneath the Surface of North America

Diamonds show comet struck North America, scientists say

A discovery of microscopic diamonds a few feet beneath the surface of North America reveals that a comet caused a cataclysm of fire, flood and devastation nearly 13,000 years ago that extinguished mammoths and mastodons and dealt a blow to early civilization, scientists said Friday.

The nanodiamonds, so small that they are barely visible in an electron microscope, are thought to be remnants of that comet, which would have hit about 65 million years after the much larger collision that wiped out the dinosaurs.
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Battered by fire and ice, as many as 35 species of mammals, including American camels, the short-faced bear, the giant beaver, the dire wolf and the American lion, either immediately vanished or were so depleted in number that humans hunted them to extinction.

The humans, a Paleo-Indian grouping known as the Clovis culture for the distinctive spear points they employed, suffered a major population drop, disappearing in many areas for hundreds of years.
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gems can only be created under the extreme temperatures and pressures of a massive explosion, such as a comet striking the Earth’s surface.

“There’s no other way we can interpret the presence of these diamonds other than an extraterrestrial impact,” said James Kennett, a paleooceanographer.

Such an impact would be the most likely source of nanodiamonds, critics agreed. But many argued that the one-page paper in Science did not provide enough evidence to support the authors’ claim.

“Nanodiamonds could be a good indicator of an impact event . . . but after reading the paper, I wasn’t convinced they found diamonds,” said physicist Tyrone Daulton of Washington University in St. Louis. “Maybe they found diamonds and maybe they didn’t.”

Post 2009

My first post in 2009 is the 2009th post for the blog. Here are some highlights from 2008:

Swarm of Yellowstone Quakes Baffles Scientists

photo of Yellowstone's Old Faithful by John Hunter

Photo of Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park by John Hunter

Swarm of Yellowstone Quakes Baffles Scientists

Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but it’s very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah. “They’re certainly not normal,” Smith said. “We haven’t had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years.”
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“There doesn’t seem to be anything to be alarmed about,” Vallie said. Smith said it’s difficult to say what might be causing the tremors. He pointed out that Yellowstone is the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago.
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Yellowstone has had significant earthquakes as well as minor ones in recent decades. In 1959, a magnitude 7.5 quake near Hebgen Lake just west of the park triggered a landslide that killed 28 people.

So far the most powerful quake over the last few days has been one at 3.8 on the Richter scale. An earthquake of 4.0-4.9 “Noticeable shaking of indoor items, rattling noises. Significant damage unlikely.” The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale, meaning a measure of 4.0 is 10 times as powerful as 3.0 quake, and 5.0 is 100 times more powerful than a 3.o quake.