Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Dressings for your dish. | Photo by Michael Rosenstein, CC.

Most of my life, I’ve always felt like I don’t quite fit in. Not at home, not with any of my families, not at school. I sometimes joke that I was hatched from an egg

Yesterday was Pi Day (3.14, approximately), and appropriately enough comes this analysis of the irrational number by Vi Hart , a recreational mathemusician at Khan Academy . You might remember her from her viral video about love and self-delusion on the Mobius strip . In the video below, she explores in seven sonnets whether Romeo and Juliet and other of the Bard s works are encoded within pi.

Japan is situated in the collision zone of at least four lithospheric plates: the Eurasian/Chinese Plate, the North American Plate, the Philippine Plate and the Pacific Plate. The continuous movements of these plates generate a lot of energy released from time to time in earthquakes and tsunamis of varying magnitude and effects ( Geologist Callan Bentley discusses in great detail the geological setting of the Japanese Islands ). Written records of strong earthquakes date back at least 1.600 years.

According to a popular Japanese myth the cause of earthquakes is the giant fish Namazu , often depicted as a giant catfish in woodcuts called namazu-e . He is considered one of the yo-kai , creatures of mythology and folklore causing misfortune and disasters. Only the god Kashima can immobilize namazu and with the help of a heavy capstone he will push the fish against the foundations of earth

Who says science can’t swashbuckle with the best of them? Jen-Luc Piquant was so very thrilled to learn this week that MIT has been harboring bona fide, certified pirates in their midst.

Few places on Earth are so full of geological mayhem as a subduction zone.

So goes popular opinion: the lottery s an egregious societal evil implemented and overseen by shape-shifting, blood-drinking reptilian aliens. And that may be largely true designed to slowly and quietly bleed dry your pockets that is, unless you learn to drive it

The Bronx Zoo Monkey House. | Photo by Geoff Stearns, Creative Commons

Ponytails in motion. Credit: Mike Adams/Flickr via Creative Commons BOSTON At long last, one of the hairiest problems in modern physics has been solved. Researchers have devised a theoretical model to describe the shape of a ponytail.

The detector at the Gran Sasso end of the OPERA experiment. Credit: OPERA The faster-than-light neutrinos seen by the OPERA particle physics experiment last year may have just been explained. By a loose cable.

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Following up on my post yesterday about my own journey with science, I wanted to offer some words of encouragement to those who are still in the early stages of their own journey.

One of the standout anecdotes in Carl Zimmer’s most excellent compilation, Science Ink (a.k.a. My Favorite Science Book of 2011 And Possibly Ever) occurs in the first few pages: “A former student [physics major] got a tattoo of a cartoon atom on the back of one of his legs

Giants parade down the Canyon of Heroes after their victory in 2008. They will retrace their steps today