FDA Approves Boosters for Over 65
Today’s boosters news is not a “setback” for anyone. It’s a sign that the vaccines are mostly doing their job.
Category: Science and Technology
Thursday Throughput: Jovian Impact Edition
That time a comet actually hit a planet, darkening the Jovian atmosphere, and creating titanic explosions of six million megatons of TNT.
Video Throughput: Addicted to Love Still Has Bad Science
Wait. How can a romantic comedy have bad science in it? Well, make the main character an astronomer and you can pack an amazing amount of bad into two minutes.
Thursday Throughput: Moonwalking Rocket Edition
The rocket has a thrust to weight ratio of 1.25 so with one engine out, thrust and weight were exactly balanced. So it levitated in the air
Video Throughout: An Astronomer Reacts to 2001: A Space Odyssey
This week, another video throughput where I talk about the science of a classic Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey
The Unvaccinated: Nothing Happens in A Vacuum
The “unvaccinated people only hurt themselves” idea needs to die in a fire. It then needs the ashes dug up, reassembled & set on fire again
Thursday Throughout: No, the Other Simpsons Pandemic Edition
Do not read this headline and think a generation of children are damaged goods. Read this headline and roll up your sleeves.
Thursday Throughput: Why Masks Are Coming Back, In 1030 Words
Disease and pandemics used to be the norm. And, contra the historical revisionists, we often imposed restrictions like masks to control them.
Thursday Throughput: Leaving on a Superluminal Jet Edition
We are in a golden age of astronomy, with capabilities exceeding anything we’ve ever had before. And we’ve just gotten another glimpse into the universe
A Bad Number in A Good Cause: A Scientist’s Plea About COVID Vaccine Numbers
I am going to ask folks nicely: please please stop putting out COVID vaccine numbers like this. Without context, it is absolutely meaningless
Video Throughput: Kill the Moon? or Kill the Science with Doctor Who
We look at the science behind the Doctor Who episode “Kill the Moon” which has been a particular bete noir of mine.
Thursday Throughput: Units of Measure Edition
In describing the grandeur and scope of the universe, units intended for the human experience — meters, kilograms, liters — are simply not up to the challenge.
Calling All Grifters: On Hawking The Freedom Phone
How can one “Bitcoin millionaire” suddenly create a competing “Freedom” phone overnight? The answer is that…he probably can’t.
OT Contributor Network: Heard Tell Podcast on Facial Recognition Use by LE and Big Tech Regulation
The latest Heard Tell has James Czerniawski telling the story of facial recognition technology gone wrong at the hands of law enforcements
Video Throughput: The Science of Navigation
I take little moments of astronomy in the films Moana and Master and Commander to talk about how our ancestors navigated using the stars.
Thursday Throughput: Billionaires In Space Edition
For some reason, this billionaire space race has set off a wave of hand-wringing articles about how awful billionaires in space is
Video Throughput: Pericarditis From COVID-19 Vaccine? Edition
Are the recent reports of young people getting pericarditis from COVID-19 vaccine a reason to stop vaccinating them? Let’s take a look at the risks involved.
Tech Tuesday: Auto Code
Tech Tuesday’ normally about exciting new things that work. Today’s is about an exciting situation where new things likely to fail: code.
Thursday Throughput: Not So Fat Obesity Edition
The turn-of-the-century predictions of skyrocketing obesity proved incorrect and the scale we are using to judge health appear to be a few pounds too light
Video Throughput: HCQ Revisited
A video Thursday Throughput explaining why, no, the use of HCQ to treatment COVID-19 has not been vindicated by a recent preprint.
