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TCS Updated 6 July 2007


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The Nematode

Bill Dembowski

As an avid microscopist who is “transportationally challenged,” I have developed an interest in airborne life forms and keep a 20-gallon tub of rain water in my backyard to catch whatever falls out of the air.

Editorial: See You at the SAS Forum!
by Forrest M. Mims III

Forrest Mims' World of Science
by Forrest M. Mims III

Backscatter. Views and responses from TCS readers.

Wanderings with Ralph Coppola

Eye on the Sky: The July Sky by Paul Curtin

Leaving Science: Occupational Exit from Scientific Careers
Anne E. Preston, Russell Sade Foundation, New York, 2004, 201 pages.
ISBN: 0-87154-694-9

Reviewed by Michael Reed

Anne E. Preston is associate professor of economics at Haverford College, Pennsylvania. In Leaving Science, Prof. Preston describes some of the reasons why people leave their careers and majors in science for other fields, such as medicine and law.

SAS is Moving!

2007 SAS Citizen Scientist Conference Canceled

Remembering Mr. Wizard (1917-2007)

SAS Community Forum Update

Wanted: Contributions to The Citizen Scientist

Labrats Update by Shawn Carlson: Lesson Fourteen

Ready for your introduction to nuclear physics?

If you think that sub-atomic particles, cosmic rays and nuclear decays are things that only a professional scientist can observe, you're in for a treat.

A Progress Report on Replicating An Experiment to Measure the Absolute Motion of the Earth

C. Michael Edwards

Upon reading the results of Dr. Lance Osadchey's “An Experiment to Measure the Absolute Motion of the Earth,” (The Citizen Scientist, 2 Feb. 2007), I decided to attempt to verify his claim of a measurable absolute vector reference. I duplicated his apparatus (called a “Velador”), and set to work. Since Dr. Osadchey had already discovered this vector reference, I was absolved of that responsibility. Instead, I focused on known phenomena that could explain the reported result without a previously unknown vector field.

Update and Comments about An Experiment to Measure The Absolute Motion of the Earth

Lance Osadchey

I was asked to respond to reader inquiries and to provide more details on the velador setup described in An Experiment to Measure The Absolute Motion of the Earth (The Citizen Scientist, 2 March 2007).

First, I wish to caution everyone to be careful with the components. A responsible adult should be in charge of the construction and use of the velador. In particular, the laser and camera are potentially hazardous.

Mushroom Vignettes

Aaron Muderick

The mushroom Gymnopilus spectabilis is found worldwide, and I snapped this photo of a cluster in suburban Philadelphia. The species name is appropriate, for a spectacle is caused by a large cluster of bright orange mushrooms erupting virtually overnight. 

Hugo Gernsback, a Man Well Ahead of His Time

Part 2. The Second Half of Chapter 1

By Hugo Gernsback
Introduced and edited by Larry Steckler
Copyright 2007, Poptronix Inc.

If an old customers' list of this first company to offer wireless and other supplies to the then budding wizards of America could be found it would in a large measure read like Who's Who in Radio, Electronics, Television and Atomics.

This Week at Hilton Pond

Bill Hilton Jr.
Executive Director
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
York, South Carolina 29745 USA

Like Nature? Don't Cut Your Grass (8-21 May 2007)

Feel guilty about not cutting your lawn? You shouldn't, or at least that's the premise of our current installment of "This Week at Hilton Pond."

Quantum Mechanics Mini-Lesson

Shawn Carlson
Executive Director, Society for Amateur Scientists

Recently the following letter arrived at SAS:

Dr. Shawn,

I’m very confused about the properties of photons. When I used de Broglie’s equation, I found that a photon would have a mass inversely proportional to its wavelength, which I can’t understand because I thought photons were not supposed to have mass.
   
Copyright © 2007 by the Society for Amateur Scientists