Topics: Civilization, Climate Change, Environment, Global Warming Humans can survive up to 108.14 F, or 42.3 C before our brains and constitutions (bodies) start turning to mush. As a species, we’re going to have to decide if enriching a handful of global oligarchs is more important than survival. Wealth cannot be measured on a dysfunctionalContinue reading “Dilemma…”
Author Archives: reginaldgoodwin
Soap-Like Properties…
Topics: Biology, Biotechnology, DNA, Molecules DNA molecules are not fixed objects – they are constantly getting broken up and glued back together to adopt new shapes. Davide Michieletto explains how this process can be harnessed to create a new generation of “topologically active” materials. Call me naive, but until a few years ago I had never realizedContinue reading “Soap-Like Properties…”
Zombie Apocalypse…
Topics: Biology, COVID-19, DNA, Economics, Environment, Evolution, Existentialism Ed Rybicki, a virologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, concentrated his article in Scientific American on the viruses dominating the news cycle in the early 2000s: Ebola, Marburg, and HIV. Not comforting, but he said, “HIV, which is thought to have first emergedContinue reading “Zombie Apocalypse…”
Thanks to Joe Manchin…
Topics: Civilization, Environment, Existentialism, Global Warming Four more people died that night. In the morning the sun again rose like the blazing furnace of heat it was, blasting the rooftop and its sad cargo of wrapped bodies. Every rooftop and, looking down at the town, every sidewalk was now a morgue. The town was aContinue reading “Thanks to Joe Manchin…”
Factions, Fascism, Dystopia…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, COVID-19, Existentialism, Fascism, Human Rights The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanentContinue reading “Factions, Fascism, Dystopia…”
Martians and Vulcans…
Topics: Astrobiology, Astrophysics, Civilization, Existentialism, Philosophy, Special Relativity The Cold War was a genesis of angst about the future due to the detonation of the atomic bomb by the Soviet Union in Kazakstan in 1949. After WWII (WWI was originally called, “the war to END all wars,” until the sequel), the existential nervousness is understandable.Continue reading “Martians and Vulcans…”
Perovskite and Maxima…
Topics: Alternate Energy, Applied Physics, Battery, Chemistry, Civilization, Climate Change A longstanding explanation for why perovskite materials make such good solar cells has been cast into doubt thanks to new measurements. Previously, physicists ascribed the favorable optoelectronic properties of lead halide perovskites to the behavior of quasiparticles called polarons within the material’s crystal lattice. Now,Continue reading “Perovskite and Maxima…”
Heart of Darkness…
Topics: Astrophysics, Black Holes, Cosmology, Einstein, General Relativity In a triumph of observation and data processing, astronomers at the Event Horizon Telescope have captured the first-ever picture of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The black hole is named Sagittarius A* (pronounced “A-star”), and the reveal of its image received anContinue reading “Heart of Darkness…”
Shadow of Infinity…
Topics: Black Holes, Cosmology, Einstein, General Relativity When galaxies collide, the central supermassive black holes that they contain begin to orbit each other. This supermassive black hole binary attracts gas, which flows through the system to form two disk-shaped structures, one around each of the supermassive black holes. The gas in these “minidisks” heats asContinue reading “Shadow of Infinity…”
Reality Daytraders…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Existentialism, Fascism, Human Rights Vladimir Putin is a reality daytrader. His invasion of Ukraine is a “special military operation,” not a war, or more accurately, an ongoing war crime. Gaslighting eleven Russian time zones is as easy to him as flatulence. With the GRU and American social media, he canContinue reading “Reality Daytraders…”
Physics and Nano 