The Protest Wave: COVID-19, Perceptions of Science, and Mass Events
Control of the virus is not because of lockdown orders or hashtags. It’s because the public demonstrated astonishing trust in public health experts.
Author: Michael Siegel
Mini-Troughput: The HCQ, Hydroxychloroquine Reloaded
If-and I stress that it is still if-this data turn out to be garbage, I can not overstate what a disservice this is to science. I really hope it turns out to be a big misunderstanding.
Farewell, Mr. King. Please Let the Door Hit You In The Backside
The defeat was most likely the final political blow to one of the nation’s most divisive elected officials. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
SpaceX Launches America
There is something primal, almost visceral about a rocket launch. It’s unlike anything else in the human experience.
Thursday Throughput: First Galaxies
[ThTh1] As we look deeper into the universe, we have to look with different eyes. The expansion of the universe means that the further something is away from us, the faster it is moving...
Hydroxychloroquine, COVID Truthers, Trump and Science
If Hydroxychloroquine fails-and it’s not looking good-my only response will be massive disappointment. Not entirely unexpected, but also a tragedy.
Thursday Throughput: Parallel Universes Edition
Parallel universes? t’s now time for me to be Dr. Buzzkill. While this explanation is not impossible, it’s far less likely than more mundane explanations.
Thursday Throughput: Finding the Missing Black Holes
Black holes are difficult to find because…they are black. They don’t emit light. And light is the primary messenger astronomers rely on to bring us information from the cosmos
Mini-Troughput: The Triple Lindy Stats Flop
That was the sound of every epidemiologist, economist, mathematician, scientist,s and every virologist simultaneously face-palming and crashing to the ground in a dead faint.
Star Wars And the Rule of Cool
As a scientist, I know everything in the Star Wars universe is ridiculous, impractical and overblown. And I don’t care one bit.
Thursday Throughput: Great Debate Edition
The Great Debate illustrates the scientific method so beautifully. Shapley was wrong. But he won the debate because the evidence was on his side.
COVID Clue
Too soon? Insensitive? Maybe. But imagining what COVID Clue might be like has got to better than watching another one of Trump’s insane press conferences from between my fingers.
Thursday Throughput: A Mighty Wind Edition
As a graduate student, Hubble took data for me on my birthday. No that’s not a humblebrag. It’s a straight-up brag. Nothing humble about it.
Trump Digression Index: The Trump Corollary to Godwin’s Law
The diversion of seemingly every discussion, TV show, and internet forum toward Trump can now be measured. Call it the Trump Digression Index.
The “BUT SWEDEN” Model: Already Outdated and Completely Wrong
In the end, that’s all we can do in a situation like this: stack the odds in our favor. And then hope and pray very hard that our gamble works.
Mini-Throughput: Visiting the Neighbors Edition
There’s obviously a long way to go before we send off our first interstellar probe. But we have a destination and a serious proposal on the table. And we have the money and the technology. It’s only a matter of time and will.
Ten Things I Think I Think About COVID As of April 3
I won’t say we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel yet. But I will say we’re seeing that it is indeed a tunnel and not a bottomless pit.
Thursday Throughput: Io Edition
The Era of Classical Astronomy — from Galileo through Newton — was full of these kind of elegant experiments to measure the shape and size of the solar system, the distance to the nearest stars and the speed of light
It’s Not Time…Yet
The options before us are not “burn the economy down through quarantine” and “burn the economy down through an epidemic”.
Original Fiction: Highest Noon By Michael Siegel
Original Fiction from Michael Siegel: “Kate made one last check, nodded to Samson and then slowly undid the seals on her helmet…”
