Brecon Beacons National Park wallpaper
Every so often like lists that accompany holidays someone will publish a list of the top phobias. I’m not sure fear of math is a phobia per se, but it is something that either people are nervous about or find boring. I’m not a mathematics savant, but sense I use some basic math and statistics quite a bit, along with the odd equation or two and conversions like imperial (American) units to metric and some chemical stoichiometry, I do have a deep appreciation of how much mathematics has to offer in solving problems we face every day. Seven equations that rule your world
We are afloat on a hidden ocean of equations. They are at work in transport, the financial system, health and crime prevention and detection, communications, food, water, heating and lighting. Step into the shower and you benefit from equations used to regulate the water supply. Your breakfast cereal comes from crops that were bred with the help of statistical equations. Drive to work and your car’s aerodynamic design is in part down to the Navier-Stokes equations that describe how air flows over and around it. Switching on its satnav involves quantum physics again, plus Newton’s laws of motion and gravity, which helped launch the geopositioning satellites and set their orbits. It also uses random number generator equations for timing signals, trigonometric equations to compute location, and special and general relativity for precise tracking of the satellites’ motion under the Earth’s gravity.
Without equations, most of our technology would never have been invented. Of course, important inventions such as fire and the wheel came about without any mathematical knowledge. Yet without equations we would be stuck in a medieval world.
Equations reach far beyond technology too. Without them, we would have no understanding of the physics that governs the tides, waves breaking on the beach, the ever-changing weather, the movements of the planets, the nuclear furnaces of the stars, the spirals of galaxies – the vastness of the universe and our place within it.
There are thousands of important equations. The seven I focus on here – the wave equation, Maxwell’s four equations, the Fourier transform and Schrödinger’s equation – illustrate how empirical observations have led to equations that we use both in science and in everyday life.
To make it a little more painless you can watch the video instead of reading the entire article.
NASA Shelves Ambitious Flagship Missions to Other Planets
Proposed budget cuts are forcing NASA to suspend plans for ambitious, expensive missions to destinations throughout the solar system.
The White House’s budget request for 2013, which was released Monday (Feb. 13), keeps overall NASA funding flat but allocates just $1.2 billion to the space agency’s planetary science program. That’s a 20 percent cut from the current allotment of $1.5 billion, and further reductions are expected over the next several years.
NASA officials say this funding picture leaves no room for multibillion-dollar “flagship” planetary missions — a departure for the space agency, which has launched roughly one such effort per decade since the 1970s. Those missions include the Cassini spacecraft’s study of the Saturn system and the so-called Grand Tour of the solar system by the twin Voyager spacecraft.
So for the moment, there are no plans to develop more planetary flagships beyond the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), which will drop the 1-ton Curiosity rover onto the Martian surface this August to investigate the Red Planet’s potential to host life as we know it. NASA launched MSL last November.
“There is no room in the current budget proposal from the president for new flagship missions anywhere,” John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science, told reporters Monday. [NASA's 10 Greatest Science Missions]
NASA is continuing to work on an astrophysics flagship mission, the James Webb Space Telescope. This huge instrument, billed as the the successor to the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope, is slated to cost $8.8 billion and launch in 2018 at the earliest.
This artist’s concept shows NASA's Jupiter Europa Orbiter, which would carry a complement of 11 instruments to explore Europa and the Jupiter system. The spacecraft is part of the joint NASA-ESA Europa Jupiter System Mission. CREDIT: NASA/ESA
While the proposed national budget is sensible in the sense that there are budget cuts, thus sacrifices in many areas, it is still sad that planetary missions will be cut.
Bangladesh declares three dolphin sanctuaries
Bangladesh has declared three areas of the Sundarbans mangrove forests covering 32km as “dolphin sanctuaries” for conservation of the species.
A gazette notification has been issued in this regard, forest ministry officials said yesterday.
Fishing in the 32-km waterway has also been prohibited.According to officials, the decision was taken on the recommendations of an experts’ committee.
A survey, conducted jointly by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project (BCDP) had found dolphin habitat in the coastal rivers of the Sundarbans in the Bay of Bengal.
The survey found that the Sundarbans and adjacent water bodies were home to over 7,000 dolphins of different species such as Gangetic river dolphin, Irrawady dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin, Finless porpoise, Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphin, pan-Tropical spotted dolphin and Spinner dolphin.
Besides, the experts found several Bryde’s Whales and Sperm Whales during the observation.
If enforcement follows the official designation this is tremendous news for the future of river dolphins. Many species have been only studied at the very basic level of identification and ecology. The ancestors of the Ganges and Indus River dolphins are now thought to have represent one of the earliest divergences within the odontocete (toothed whale) clade, after it separated from the mysticetes (baleen whales) during the Oligocene (30-35 million years ago). Indian river dolphins diverged after the Physeteridae (sperm whales) but before the divergence of the beaked whales. Up until somewhat recently, the early 20th century, river dolphins were doing quite well. Modern activity, human population growth , habitat loss and pollution have all played a role in their decline.
Slide show – Cuttlefish Cuties: Photos of Color-Changing Cephalopods
Sculpted Recycled Cardboard Fruit Bowl by SEMdesign
