In 1912 Thomas Jaggar left MIT to start an observatory on the remote Kilauea volcano. The move was the culmination of a tortuous chain of events.
The origin of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory - Physics Today May 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Seawater creates neurotoxins
A relatively harmless inorganic form of mercury found worldwide in ocean water is transformed into a potent neurotoxin in the seawater itself. ... "After two years of testing water samples across the Arctic Ocean, the researchers found that relatively harmless inorganic mercury, released from human activities such as industry and coal burning, undergoes a process called methylation and becomes deadly monomethylmercury."
Sea turns harmless form of mercury into potent neurotoxin | News | The Engineer
Monday, May 2, 2011
Pleiades in Peru
On an ancient calendar
"Most historians agree that the Inca had a calendar based on the observation of both the Sun and the Moon, and their relationship to the stars. Names of 12 lunar months are recorded, as well as their association with festivities of the agricultural cycle... A count of this sort was described by Alexander von Humboldt for a Chibcha tribe living outside of the Inca Empire, in the mountainous region of Colombia... The smallest unit of this calendar was a numerical count of three days, which, interacting with a similar count of 10 days, formed a standard 30-day month. Every third year was made up of 13 moons, the others having 12. This formed a cycle of 37 moons, and 20 of these cycles made up a period of 60 years, which was subdivided into four parts and could be multiplied by 100. A period of 20 months is also mentioned. ...
In one account, it is said that the Inca Veracocha established a year of 12 months, each beginning with the New Moon, and that his successor, Pachacuti, finding confusion in regard to the year, built the sun towers in order to keep a check on the calendar. Since Pachacuti reigned less than a century before the conquest, it may be that the contradictions and the meagerness of information on the Inca calendar are due to the fact that the system was still in the process of being revised when the Spaniards first arrived.
Despite the uncertainties, further research has made it clear that at least at Cuzco, the capital city of the Inca, there was an official calendar of the sidereal-lunar type, based on the sidereal month of 27 1/3 days. It consisted of 328 nights (12X271/3) and began on June 8/9, coinciding with the heliacal rising (the rising just after sunset) of the Pleiades; it ended on the first Full Moon after the June solstice (the winter solstice for the Southern Hemisphere). This sidereal-lunar calendar fell short of the solar year by 37 days, which consequently were intercalated. This intercalation, and thus the place of the sidereal-lunar within the solar year, was fixed by following the cycle of the Sun as it strengthened to summer (December) solstice and weakened afterward, and by noting a similar cycle in the visibility of the Pleiades."
This is what we find at the page
http://www.lost-civilizations.net/inca-civilization-page-5.html
http://philosophyofscienceportal.blogspot.com/2008/10/pleiades-and-mythology.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_(constellation)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_chart
"Most historians agree that the Inca had a calendar based on the observation of both the Sun and the Moon, and their relationship to the stars. Names of 12 lunar months are recorded, as well as their association with festivities of the agricultural cycle... A count of this sort was described by Alexander von Humboldt for a Chibcha tribe living outside of the Inca Empire, in the mountainous region of Colombia... The smallest unit of this calendar was a numerical count of three days, which, interacting with a similar count of 10 days, formed a standard 30-day month. Every third year was made up of 13 moons, the others having 12. This formed a cycle of 37 moons, and 20 of these cycles made up a period of 60 years, which was subdivided into four parts and could be multiplied by 100. A period of 20 months is also mentioned. ...
In one account, it is said that the Inca Veracocha established a year of 12 months, each beginning with the New Moon, and that his successor, Pachacuti, finding confusion in regard to the year, built the sun towers in order to keep a check on the calendar. Since Pachacuti reigned less than a century before the conquest, it may be that the contradictions and the meagerness of information on the Inca calendar are due to the fact that the system was still in the process of being revised when the Spaniards first arrived.
Despite the uncertainties, further research has made it clear that at least at Cuzco, the capital city of the Inca, there was an official calendar of the sidereal-lunar type, based on the sidereal month of 27 1/3 days. It consisted of 328 nights (12X271/3) and began on June 8/9, coinciding with the heliacal rising (the rising just after sunset) of the Pleiades; it ended on the first Full Moon after the June solstice (the winter solstice for the Southern Hemisphere). This sidereal-lunar calendar fell short of the solar year by 37 days, which consequently were intercalated. This intercalation, and thus the place of the sidereal-lunar within the solar year, was fixed by following the cycle of the Sun as it strengthened to summer (December) solstice and weakened afterward, and by noting a similar cycle in the visibility of the Pleiades."
This is what we find at the page
http://www.lost-civilizations.net/inca-civilization-page-5.html
On Pleiades see
The Pleiades: the celestial herd of ancient timekeepers by Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, (Submitted on 9 Oct 2008). In the ancient Egypt seven goddesses, represented by seven cows, composed the celestial herd that provides the nourishment to her worshippers. This herd is observed in the sky as a group of stars, the Pleiades, close to Aldebaran, the main star in the Taurus constellation. For many ancient populations, Pleiades were relevant stars and their rising was marked as a special time of the year. In this paper, we will discuss the presence of these stars in ancient cultures. Moreover, we will report some results of archeoastronomy on the role for timekeeping of these stars, results which show that for hunter-gatherers at Palaeolithic times, they were linked to the seasonal cycles of aurochs.http://philosophyofscienceportal.blogspot.com/2008/10/pleiades-and-mythology.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_(constellation)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_chart
Sunday, May 1, 2011
John Paul II
A tribute to John Paul II
http://www.vatican.va/special/anniversario_gpii/documents/index_en.htm
http://www.vatican.va/special/anniversario_gpii/documents/index_en.htm
SETI forced to close
"The multi-million dollar American Seti Institute has fallen victim to government cuts.
It has had to shut down a series of telescopes that have been scanning the universe for extra-terrestrial communications."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13223633
It has had to shut down a series of telescopes that have been scanning the universe for extra-terrestrial communications."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13223633
Icy telescope
"The Baikal underwater telescope NT-200 in Russia has been set up to capture elusive neutrino particles in a bid to unravel the secrets of the formation of the Universe.
At 1.1 km beneath the surface of the world's deepest lake and pointing towards the centre of the Earth, it is one of the most unusual telescopes on the planet."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11384614
At 1.1 km beneath the surface of the world's deepest lake and pointing towards the centre of the Earth, it is one of the most unusual telescopes on the planet."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11384614
Plasma for textiles
My paper on the Plasma treatment advantages for textiles has been selected by
Ball’s ‘n’ fire
The best of the rest from the arXiv this week
The best of the rest from the arXiv this week
Leonardo Da Vinci sketch
My paper on the Digital Restoration of Da Vinci's Sketches has been selected by
Chops 'n' changes
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week
Chops 'n' changes
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week
Digital restoration of ancient papyri
My paper on the Digital Restoration of Ancient Papyri has been selected by
Drives 'n' droves
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23293/
Drives 'n' droves
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23293/