Don't Panic Geocast

By John Leeman and Shannon DulinScience Technology Education Natural Sciences

Don't Panic Geocast episodes

December 04, 2015Episode 46 - "The sweet sounds of square wheels rolling" Posters Continued
This week we continue our discussion of posters, presentation, and talk about splashing around with our fun paper Friday!
Graphing Software
Igor Pro
KaleidaGraph
Matplotlib
Bokeh
Veusz
Poster Tools
Inkscape
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Color (Formerly Kuler)
John’s AGU Talk
Fun Paper Friday
This week we talk about urine splashing and industrial uses of carbon nanotubes.
Abstract: M32.00010 : Creating a urine black hole
Phys.org with Videos
Vantablack Article
Vantablack Video
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
49 min
November 28, 2015Episode 45 - Revisit "What if you calibrated your candles differently?"
This week we re-visit one of our favorite shows while everyone is outside or in their turkey food-coma here in the US. We also read some listener mail about last week's episode on earthquake magnitudes!

Time is a very complex subject that you can devote your entire life to. Today we’ll cover a few of the basics and enough to get your interest up! We’ll see that it’s difficult to know what a second is and how long relative times are, but absolute time is even messier! We also discuss dried coffee and tetris!
Importance of Time (and why it’s on a geology show)
It synchronizes the world and our human interactions (need minutes - hours accuracy generally)
It allows us to talk about events in a common coordinate system
Allows synchronization of scientific measurements and comparison of data sources. This is really important for seismometers for EQ location!
Let’s us use GPS! 1 billionth of a second (nano second) error in 1 GPS satellite, GPS receiver is +/- 1 ft to satellite, which is 2–3 feet on Earth.
Early Timekeeping
Burning candles in marked cases
Hourglass
Water powered clocks
Pendulum clocks Galileo and Huygens (fancy temperature compensation as well)
Video on Galileo
Modern Time Keeping (Atomic Clocks)
First clock was ammonia maser at National Bureau of Standards in 1949, but it really wasn’t all that accurate. It was more of a proof on concept device
First cesium clock was in 1955 at the National Physical Laboratory (UK)
Leads us to the definition of the SI second he duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation corresponding to the transition between two energy levels of the caesium–133 atom
The NIST-F2, a cesium atomic fountain clock, is good to one second in 300 million years. How F2 works is a combination of feedback control loops, lasers, and really cold atoms.
Remember, atomic clocks tick away seconds, they say nothing about the hours, minutes, seconds notation we use to write time. We just define a frequency
Leap seconds
Can’t predict them far into the future because of irregularities in Earth’s rotation
Announced ahead of time in a bulletin by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service
25 leap seconds since 1972
Next leap second is this year! June 30, 2015
Real problem in computing, has caused software and GPS hardware crashes/issues before
Google smears the second out over a period prior to the leap
Time Standards
There are TONS of time standards, we’re only going to touch on a few. Most are known with highest precision in retrospect!
Solar time
Exactly what you would think, it’s about using the sun’s position as a time source. There is the sundial time (apparent solar time) that changes throughout the year, and the mean solar time which is like a clock time.
The equation of time represents the difference between the mean and apparent solar day
Star clock
International Atomic Time (TAI)
A measurement of proper time (it’s a relativity thing)
Weighted average of over 400 atomic clocks
If there is an error, it isn’t corrected. This makes it into terrestrial time.
Universal Time (UT)
This is what we used to call GMT!
Based on Earth’s rotation w.r.t different bodies (why there is UT0,UT1,UT1R,UT2,UTC)
UT1 is really mean solar time at the equator
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
Formalized in 1960
Adjustments were accommodated by leap seconds starting in 1972
Generally considered to be GMT, but GMT isn’t defined/recognized by the scientific community
This comes from TAI by accounting for leap seconds!
Epoch time (Unix Time)
Epoch time is the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), Thursday, 1 January 1970
No leap seconds by definition, but implementation is actually messy
Stored is an integer (32-bits) meaning that it will run out and roll over on Tuesday 2038–01–19 One second after 03:14:07 UTC, it’s the year 2038 problem.
The Timekeeper Video
Audio after the outro is David Allen
FunPaperFriday
Coffee rings and coffee disks: Physics on the edge
Particle shape controls movement during drying
The can be applied to surface design, paints, and more
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
1 hr 1 min
November 20, 2015Episode 44 - "It's not Richter magnitude!"
This week we talk about Bill Nye, earthquake magnitudes, and coffee.
Bill Nye
John got to see Bill Nye (@BillNye) talk at Penn State!
News article with photos!
Earthquake Magnitudes
Earthquake Size (C. Ammon)
Challenge is that earthquakes span a huge dynamic range. We measure ground displacements over about 9 orders of magnitude.
Largest Earthquakes in the World Since 1900
Kiyoo Wadati
Richter magnitude scale
Book: Richter’s Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man
Wood Anderson Seismometer
Body wave magnitude
Core Shadow Zone
Surface wave magnitude
Seismic moment
Moment magnitude
Example Seismogram
Resources
USGS Earthquake Notification Service
Harvard GCMT emails and catalog
Earthquake Storms - Dvorak
Introduction to Seismology - Shearer
An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure - Stein & Wysession
Fun Paper Friday
Do you like bitter tasting things? A study says that it tells something about your personality. Do you buy it?
Article about paper “Black Coffee Equals Black Hearts"
Sagioglou, Christina, and Tobias Greitemeyer. “Individual differences in bitter taste preferences are associated with antisocial personality traits.” Appetite 96 (2016): 299–308.
Contact us
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
54 min
November 13, 2015Episode 43 - “Life should be more than turning off drop shadow defaults”
This week Shannon is grading, John is modeling (numerically), and they both are mad about some graphs they have seen.
Data Visualization
We are colorblind
Tableau20 Colors
Rainbow Color Map (Still) Considered Harmful
A Better Default Colormap (video)
Perceptual Color Maps in matplotlib for Oceanography (video)
Evaluation of Artery Visualization for Heart Disease Diagnosis (Borkin et al.)
Make everything bigger than you think it needs to be!
Resources
Edward Tufte
Flowing Data
Visualize This (Book)
Data Points (Book)
The Craft of Scientific Presentations (Book)
Presentation Zen (Book)
Data Fluency (Book)
Ask people that make things you like!
Fun Paper Friday
This week we talk about thundersnow and the Trump tower. How can buildings strike clouds?
Warner, Tom A., Timothy J. Lang, and Walter A. Lyons. “Synoptic scale outbreak of self‐initiated upward lightning (SIUL) from tall structures during the central US blizzard of 1–2 February 2011.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 119.15 (2014): 9530–9548.
EOS Press Release
53 min
November 06, 2015Episode 42 - "Life, the Universe, and Everything"
Shannon was at the GSA 2015 meeting in Baltimore Maryland. She also won a raffle there for a Rite in the Rain notebook and holder.
The meeting app worked well, but we’re both nervous after the AGU app last year.
This is episode 42. A very important number to the show!
Life
Art of the Hadean Era
The Hadean sounds kind of like Seveneves
Geologic Time Scale
Shark Bay Stromatolites
Cambrian Explosion
Cambrain Arthropod Story (Berkeley)
Cambrian Creatures Slideshow
Rodinia (“The Motherland” supercontinent)
Deepest Volcanic Vent Video
Trilobite Guide

The Universe
Hawking on the origin of the universe
Big Bang, Deflated? (livescience)
Nuclear Synthesis and Stars
Cosmology from quantum potential (Ali and Das)
Everything
We do a Fun Paper Friday from listener Angie!
Heierli, J., et al. “Anticrack model for skier triggering of slab avalanches.” Cold Regions Science and Technology 65.3 (2011): 372–381.
Show Pumpkin
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
44 min
October 30, 2015Episode 41 - "The Nino (Pumpkin Spice Latte Season)"
This week we talk about El Nino, what it is, how it works, and what it means for this winter. We also discuss pumpkin carving injuries on this week’s Fun Paper Friday!
Spanish for “the Nino” reference
Bill Nye El Nino Skit
ENSO
The Southern Oscillation and Its Link to the ENSO Cycle (NOAA)
ENSO Current Status (NOAA Slide Deck)
The ENSO Cycle (NOAA)
ENSO Blog
ENSO General Info
El Nino
Indices of El Nino Evolution (Trenberth and Stepaniak, 2000)
National Data Buoy Center
Current Satellite SSTs
El Nino General Info
NOAA El Nino Portal
Nino Areas Map
Consequences
Triple Hurricane Picture
Hurricane Patricia
Exacerbating an already bad drought in the Pacific NW.
Helping to alleviate drought in the SW and OK.
El Nino years usually mean much lower chances of Atlantic Hurricane development and landfall
Fun Paper Friday
This week we look at experiments about how safe different pumpkin carving tools are. Not for the faint of heart!
Marcus, A. M., Green, J. K., & Werner, F. W. (2004). The safety of pumpkin carving tools. Preventive Medicine, 38(6), 799–803. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.01.008
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
40 min
October 23, 2015Episode 40 - "Pumpkin Sedimentation"
This week Shannon talks about back to back field trips, broken airplanes, and rain. John relates a story about a strange northeast tradition and shares a traffic related fun paper.
Shannon’s Trip
Paper about zebra dolomite
Sand Bar Videos
Glen Canyon Dam
Hoover Dam
Riffle
Lee’s Ferry
Kring Paper in Episode 30
Meteor Crater
Lowell Observatory
Punkin’ Chunkin’
Howard, PA Chunkin’ Website
Graupel
World Championship Punkin Chunkin
Smokin’ Lamas
Fun Paper Friday
Have you ever been stuck in traffic and wondered why the traffic jam moves like a wave? This week we discuss the dynamics of traffic jams.
Giant traffic jam in China
Kerner, B. S. (1998). Experimental features of self-organization in traffic flow. Physical Review Letters, 81(17), 3797–3800. http://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.81.3797
Flynn, Morris R., et al. “Self-sustained nonlinear waves in traffic flow.” Physical Review E 79.5 (2009): 056113.
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
32 min
October 16, 2015Episode 39 - "There are some blow up bubbles" Mars
This week we talk about water on Mars and aeroelastic flutter of bird wings.
John got married with drones and garter cannons. Keep an eye on his Twitter feed for more videos soon.
We have a GSA poster and AGU Talk!
Mars
Mars facts from NASA
Mars Cultural Fascination
The Martian Way
Seveneves
The Martian
Elon Musk Bio
Water on mars
Recurring Slope Linea (RSL), identified in 2011 by Lujendra Ojha (then student, now at Georgia Institute of Technology)
Great pictures of RSLs
Recurring slope lineae in equatorial regions of Mars (Nature Geoscience)
HiRISE observations of Recurring Slope Lineae (RSL) during southern summer on Mars (Icarus)
Detection of Perchlorate and the Soluble Chemistry of Martian Soil at the Phoenix Lander Site (Science)
Phoenix Lander *Spectral evidence for hydrated salts in recurring slope lineae on Mars (Nature Geoscience)
Fun Paper Friday
Clark, C. J., Elias, D. O., & Prum, R. O. (2011). Aeroelastic flutter produces hummingbird feather songs. Science, 333(6048), 1430–1433. http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1205222
Heterodyne
Convolution
Neat Audio Convolution Demo Video
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
37 min
October 09, 2015Episode 38 - "I was kind of crafty about it, switching aisles"
This week we interview Kina McAllister to talk about her science activity kits for girls and then talk about the optimal office temperature setting in this week’s Fun Paper Friday!
STEMBox Website
@STEMBox Twitter
STEMBox Facebook
Original KickStarter
@KinaButterJelly on Twitter
Woodland Park Zoo
HiveBio
EDC Show with Bullet Journal Links
Fun Paper Friday
This week we have a paper with a horrible title, but a very interesting study of what the best temperature is for an office space.
Kingma, B., & van Marken Lichtenbelt, W. (2015). Energy consumption in buildings and female thermal demand. Nature Climate Change, 1–5. http://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2741
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
57 min
October 02, 2015Episode 37 - "We solved all those problems, for all time" Open Hardware Summit
Open Hardware Summit 2015
Hackable badge!
Talks
AnnMarie Thomas (Univ. St. Thomas) “Making Makers”
Jason Kessler and Jon Ruston talked about ULTRASCOPE
Mach 30 president J. Simmons showed new cad/modeling linked tools that they are using to create open thrusters, rockets, etc.
Yavin cold gas thruster as test bed
Joshua Pearce showed how open hardware in science can save us a bundle think of all the outdated lab equipment sitting around unsupported.
Checkout Joshua’s book “Open-Source Lab” and new “Building open source hardware” by Alicia Gibb
Bruce Boyes on the Wright Brothers and Patents
Open prosthetic development
Open fluid chemistry for biology studies with an Arduino shield
Open Hardware Certification
Fun Paper Friday
This fun paper looks at how using ice shells can reduce drag and some of the non-intuitive physics behind it.
Gizmodo article
Pykrete
Vakarelski, I. U., Chan, D. Y. C., & Thoroddsen, S. T. (2015). Drag Moderation by the Melting of an Ice Surface in Contact with Water. Physical Review Letters, 115(4), 044501–4. http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.044501
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
53 min

About Don't Panic Geocast

From the publisher's feed

John Leeman and Shannon Dulin discuss geoscience and technology weekly for your enjoyment! Features include guests, fun paper Friday selections, product reviews, and banter about recent developments.…