Strange Attractor

Episode 18: I've got evidence for a pea which is 2 centimetres wide


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What is science?
  • Where are you from? Send us a postcard! Strange Attractor, c/ PO Box 9, Fitzroy, VIC 3065, Australia
  • Understanding science: A great site Lucy found that kinda explains it all (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Tyler Durden (Wikipedia)
  • What is science? (University of California, Berkeley)
  • What is the scientific method? (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Some opinions on what is theoretical vs practical science (The Straight Dope)
  • What is pure mathematics? (Wikipedia)
  • What is applied mathematics? (Wikipedia)
  • Game of Thrones (Wikipedia)
  • Science is focussed on the natural vs supernatural world - the 'natural' world means anything in the universe, including anything that humans make (University of California, Berkeley)
  • ESP: What can science say? (University of California, Berkeley)
  • UriGeller.com
  • What is reproducibility? A key principle of the scientific method (Wikipedia)
  • The role of replication in science (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Dutch agency launches first grants programme dedicated to replication (Nature)
  • Lithium, sodium & potassium react with water (YouTube)
  • Magnesium ribbon burns bright white (YouTube)
  • Newton's three laws of motion (NASA)
  • Kepler's three laws for the motion of planets (HyperPhysics, Georgia State University)
  • Newton's laws are amazing but don't work at very small scales, very high speeds or very strong gravitational fields (Wikipedia)
  • How did NASA conclude that the general theory of relativity was not needed for Earth-moon flight path computation? (Stack Exchange, Space Exploration)
  • What is general relativity? (Wikipedia)
  • What is special relativity? (Wikipedia)
  • Relativity has everyday applications, like GPS (Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University)
  • The Martian (Wikipedia)
  • The discovery of genetics from Mendel to the human genome project is an example of a long-term group effort in science (CogWeb, UCLA)
  • Gregor Mendel & the principles of inheritance (Nature)
  • Interactive timeline on the history of genetics from Darwin to the 21st century (Wellcome Library)
  • Aristotle & ancient Greek genetic theory (About Education)
  • Gregor Mendel died in 1884 & his work wasn't taken seriously until after his death (Wikipedia)
  • Charles Darwin saw an important platypus in Wallerawang, NSW, near where Lucy grew up (Lithgow.com)
  • Einstein used to be a patent clerk in Switzerland (Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property)
  • Fermat's Last Theorem: "The first successful proof was released in 1994 by Andrew Wiles, & formally published in 1995, after 358 years of effort by mathematicians" (Wikipedia)
  • The Higgs boson discovery in the Large Hadron Collider (CERN)
  • Australia's CSIRO coated many of the ultra-high-performance mirrors used in the LIGO to detect the first gravitational waves (CSIRO)
  • The polar bear natural gas ad...sooo cosy (YouTube)
  • Scientists are more creative than you might imagine (The Atlantic)
  • Infographic: What is the cosmic microwave background? (Space.com)
  • Stanley Kubrick (bio.)
  • Crick, Watson, Wilkins, Franklin & DNA (Chemical Heritage Foundation)
  • Sexism in science: Did Watson & Crick really steal Rosalind Franklin’s data? (The Guardian)
  • Mendeleev apparently dreamt the periodic table! (Wikipedia)
  • A decade of deep thinking: Princeton Center for Theoretical Science celebrates 10 years (Princeton)
  • Australia's CSIRO overcame the problem of 'reverberation' to invent WiFi (CSIRO)
  • Alas the patent for WiFi has now expired, but not before earning the CSIRO millions of dollars, which was reinvested into more sciencey stuff (The Australian Business Review)
  • Fact or fiction?: NASA spent millions to develop a pen that would write in space, whereas the Soviet cosmonauts used a pencil (Scientific American)
  • Science relies on evidence (University of California, Berkeley)
  • The dark side of Linus Pauling's legacy: Debating the benefits of vitamin C (Quackwatch)
  • DNA was discovered in 1869 & its structure presented in 1953 (History)
  • James Watson is still alive (Wikipedia)
  • Francis Crick died in 2004 (Wikipedia)
  • Stanford Professor Andrei Linde celebrates physics breakthrough (YouTube)
  • Why Einstein was wrong about being wrong (Phys.org)
  • Corrections
    • Lucy meant Apollo 13 not Apollo 11 when talking about movies where stuff went wrong in space (Wikipedia)
    • Gregor Mendel published his main pea results in the 1860s, not 1870s (Wikipedia)
    • Charles Darwin's Beagle voyage lasted 5 years, not 8 (Wikipedia)
    • Sir Isaac Newton said the quote about "standing on the shoulders of giants", not Galileo (BBC)
    • Peter Higgs thought up the boson concept after a failed camping trip in the 1960s, not 1950s (Wikipedia)
    • Sorry Lucy, NASA didn't invent Velcro, some Swiss guy did in the 1940s...in fairness, Lucy heard this from a real astronaut - who wouldn't believe an astronaut? (NASA)
    • "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" is attributed to Carl Sagan, not Richard Feynman (Rational Wiki)
    • Cheeky review? (If we may be so bold)
      • It'd be amazing if you gave us a short review...it'll make us easier to find in iTunes: Click here for instructions. You're the best! We owe you a free hug and/or a glass of wine from our cellar
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