Science In Daily Life

Weird Science – The Inner Workings Of The National Science Foundation the National Science Foundation is an independent government agency in the United States. The National Science Foundation is responsible for providing support to basic science research, which is primarily accomplished through research funding.  The National Science Foundation mostly provides research funding in the form of grants. These grants are most often given in the form of individual grants to graduate students and professors. In fact, with an annual budget of approximately $5.5 billion, the National Science Foundation provides about 20% of federally supported funding for basic research to America’s universities and colleges.  Under the leadership of its director, Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr., the National Science Board meets six times per year to determine the policies of the National Science Foundation. The National Science Board consists of 24 members, all of which are appointed by the President of the...

Using the Sun for Power - How It Works - With massive rebate programs and tax credits being issued by state and federal governments, using the sun to generate electricity is very popular. So, how does it work? Generating electricity from the sun is all about converting sunlight into power. Importantly, the process has nothing to do with converting the heat produced by sunlight into energy. This common misconception leads to a lot of confusion regarding solar systems. The technology behind solar systems is known as photovoltaic technology. Essentially, this technology involves using sunlight to create a chemical reaction. During the chemical reaction, electrons are released from the relevant material and collected by tiny wires. This process creates a direct current of electricity. The electricity is then converted to usable alternating current electricity and stored in a battery or fed into a utility grid system. Solar platforms use this exact process to produce energy. The arrays are...

Using Biomass Power for Our Electric Needs - Electricity is a fundamental pillar to any modern society. Unfortunately, we need fuel to create electricity. This brings us to the subject of biomass as a new source of power. Using Biomass Power for Our Electric Needs Biomass is a term used to describe natural, biological materials that can be used as fuel to produce energy. Biomass is a broad term that includes many different types of fuels, from garbage to landfill gas to ethanol. The electricity biomass produces can be used to power many different things from industries to homes, and once properly researched and put into use, biomass will definitely cut down on the world's use of fossil fuels and other harmful sources of energy. The most common types of biomass can be grouped into one of three categories. Wood (and related) products are things like lawn clippings, wood chips, leftover wood scraps from lumber production, dead trees and leaves. Garbage products are items within garba...

USB ditibal microscope - A portable USB Digital Microscope that fits in the palm of your hand, providing remarkable picture and video quality.  Effort-less USB plug and play setup and the easy to install software allows magnification 10X-200X with the ability to display & capture snapshots and movies on your PC. The microscope is detachable from the stand to allow you to get closer to large objects.  This allpurpose USB Digital Microscope provides unmatched features and flexibility suiting a broad range of applications with advanced image processing and webcam capabilities. It is a cost effective and a innovative way to discover, capture & share still images and videos. This product is wide used in following industries: Jewelry / Gem Industry Lab / Pharmaceutical R & D Education and Research Insects / Plants Dissection Dermatology/ Medical Analysis Paint / Plastic Industry Antique / Collection Textile / Printing Industry Computer / Electronics Currency / Credit Ca...

Understanding the Scientific Method - Understanding the scientific method and how to follow it is critical to building a good reputation in the technical community. In regards to science fairs, as a student progresses in grade levels the judges are going to demand more and more focus on using the scientific method. Here is my seven step description of the scientific method. 1. Define the question 2. Gather information and resources 3. Form hypothesis 4. Perform experiment and collect data 5. Analyze data 6. Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypotheses 7. Publish results In science fair competitions, if you can show that you are following the scientific method, you are well on your way to impressing the judges. Basically, start out by defining your question and topic. After that, form a hypothesis and perform your experiments. Step 6 is where you use that data to make any new hypotheses or theories about your science topic. If you want, you can ...

Understanding The Check Engine Light - On all modern vehicles there is a computer that controls the way the engine operates, this computer is called Electronic Control Module, or ECM. The purpose of the ECM is to maintain the engine running within emissions limits and at top efficiency. With the very strict emission regulations of today, this is not an easy task to achieve. Precise and constant adjustments to match various conditions of the engine must be made by the ECM in regards to speed, load, engine temperature and others. How the ECM works: A number of sensors are available that provide the ECM with the information it needs, such inputs are engine and ambient temperature, vehicle speed and load. The ECM makes adjustments by advancing or retarding the ignition timing, adds or subtracts fuel or increases and decreases the idle speed. In the exhaust, before the catalytic converter, an oxygen sensor monitors the quality of the combustion produced in the cylinders. The sensor produce...

University Accredited Online Bachelors Degree - True Any four year college or university that is accredited to grant an online bachelors degree may do so.  engineering online universities online degrees from accredited universities online college universities bilkent university online academic .  Even the basic college experience has been changed dramatically, favoring more elements of an accredited online university than ever before.   We were unable to find results for your search term - "accredited online college and university".  Texas college online college course online computer accredited online bible college community college online accredited college degree online university.  College course online university internet college degree online online college credit computer classes online accredited college degree program spanish college online courses.  WGU is the only online accredited university and online college in the U.S.     An ...

Tremendous Science Fair Tips - If you're reading this article it is possibly science fair project time. Don't put it off until until the very last moment to choose what science project you expect to try. Maybe you're agonizing over deciding on a science fair projects subject matter or just do not actually like to do science projects, that's OK because there are at this point science kits that are aimed just for science fairs.   You'll find that our website has many kinds of science kits to select from. Several are aimed towards people that would like to do a project but don't think they can make one up on their own, when others grant you the freedom to design your own experiments using the kit.  It is the most awesome method to create a terrific project and meet your teacher's requirements.  If you are homeschooling, we have special <a href="http://www.super-science-fair-projects.com/science-homeschooling-resources.html" target="_blank...

Top Bar Hive - an alternative beekeeping method The topbar beehive is not a new concept. Historical reference to the top-bar hive date back to the 1600's. Most of today's top bar bee hives are derived from work in the 1960's. It was perfected for use in Kenya, Africa, and is often referred to as the Kenya Hive. Today it is also used in many other developing countries for it's simple design and cost effective management methods. In recent years it has also become more popular in the United States. The traditional Langstroth beehive consists of several boxes (supers) and numerous other parts that are either difficult to build or expensive to buy. In addition to the beehive, the Langstroth hive requires many other pieces of equipment to harvest honey and manage your bees. Not so with the top bar hive as you can read below. Simple and Maintenance-Free The top bar hive has only a few components: the hive body (box), 20 to 30 top bars (frames), and a lid. That's all you ...

Tiwanaku Alien and Evolution - It was mentioned on a biology blog that archaeological engravings from the Tiwanaku civilization in Bolivia are unlikely to be depicting an ancient astronaut for the reason that, even with an aquatic tail, the creature still looks too much like a human. The underlying argument was that the evolution of life forms is so diverse that it is highly unlikely an alien would come out looking even remotely like us. In essence, this is the opposite side of the pendulum to Hollywood's consistent imaging of aliens as humanoids. The biologist ignored the decorative and symbolic imagery added by the Tiwanaku artists and did not consider the given premise of an aquatic alien inside helmeted spacesuit. I have to assume, therefore, the biologist noted that the creature had two arms and two eyes, and since humans have two arms and two eyes, the biologist concluded that this cannot be an alien. What should intelligent aliens look like? Or, to phrase it another way, wh...

Tips for Coping with Lyme Disease - If you’ve ever gotten Lyme disease from an infected tick bite, then you know how uncomfortable the illness can be. Some people don’t realize just how frustrating and painful the disease can be for those suffering from it. Joint and muscle pain that lasts for days or weeks at a time, countless trips to the doctor’s office, misdiagnoses and failed treatments all can make for an extremely stressful period of time.  Coping with Lyme disease can be particularly difficult because oftentimes the illness is misdiagnosed, which leads to treatment plans that don’t work and ongoing sickness and pain from the disease. Because there is no conclusive test to determine whether or not a Lyme disease infection is present, misdiagnosis is common. This can be especially frustrating for people that are told that their symptoms are “all in their head” or that the symptoms are purely psychiatric and that they need anti-depressants. There are more than 100 different s...

Thought Control - Thought control? How would you like to be able to turn on your television just by thinking? Or have the door to your house open by mind power when your hands were full? This isn't something that will remain science fiction for long. The technology necessary to make this happen is here now. First of all, you have basic thought control now, meaning you can control and direct your thoughts. You can imagine a friend talking in your mind, for example. Then you can choose to hear music in your imagination. If you are hooked up to an electroencephalograph when you do these things, it will also be clear that these two thoughts are handled in different parts of your brain. This electroencephalogram, or EEG, is important, because what we can measure, we can use to do things. Think about this for a moment. Modern electronics has made it possible to easily operate things as a response to measurement. A thermostat measures the temperature, for example, and turns the heater on...

The Wages of Science - In the United States, Congress approved, In February 2003, increases in the 2003 budgets of both the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. America is not alone in - vainly - trying to compensate for imploding capital markets and risk-averse financiers. In 1999, chancellor Gordon Brown inaugurated a $1.6 billion program of "upgrading British science" and commercializing its products. This was on top of $1 billion invested between 1998-2002. The budgets of the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council were quadrupled overnight. The University Challenge Fund was set to provide $100 million in seed money to cover costs related to the hiring of managerial skills, securing intellectual property, constructing a prototype or preparing a business plan. Another $30 million went to start-up funding of high-tech, high-risk companies in the UK. According to the United Nations Development Program...

The Tale of the Humble Popcorn - Corn pollen more than 80,000 years old was found in Mexico. Proper popcorn was known in China, Sumatra, and India for at least 5000 years. Popped popcorn and kernels 5600 years old were discovered in the "Bat Cave" in New Mexico in 1948-1950. Popcorn kernels - ready to pop - were unearthed in ancient Peruvian tombs. In a cave is southern Utah, fluffy, fresh looking, white popcorn was dated to 1000 years ago. Popcorn was used by the Aztecs and Indians as a decorative motif in headdresses, necklaces, and ornaments on statues of divinities. In the 16th century, both Hernando Cortes (in Mexico) and Christopher Columbus (in the West Indies) described these unusual uses of the snack. Father Bernardino de Sahagun (1499-1590), a Franciscan priest with deep interest in Mexican culture, described a ritual in honor of the Aztec gods of fisheries:  "They scattered before him parched corn, called momochitl, a kind of corn which bursts when parched an...

The Science Of Astronomy Really Is Fascinating - Galaxies, the cosmos, astrophysics, observatories, telescopes: How do we possibly comprehend the reality that the universe is beyond measure, infinite, and endlessly mesmerizing? We can't; that's why astronomy remains so completely fascinating. It's the things in life we do not understand that most often draw our interest; that's simply a natural human impulse -- to be curious, to wonder and to want to be in awe of something far beyond and outside ourselves. We know that stars, like everything else, live and die and that there are scientifically "correct" patterns in the remote sky that both perplex and bewitch us. If astronomy fascinates, it is because there exists in everyone a profound empathy with a world that is inaccessible in its complexity. Who among us has not felt, even fleetingly, spellbound by the immensity of this cosmos, this universe? Modern observatories regularly function as educational centers...

The Role of Private Enterprise in Putting Man into Space - Has NASA, the monolithic space agency, failed in it's quest to put man out into the cosmos? Will profit coupled with man's need to explore be the driving engine which sends man into the cosmos? Think about what has moved technology forward within the American society over the past 100 years or so.  Was Orville and Wilbur Wright employed by the government. Of course not. Most of their research and development for the invention of the airplane took place within a small bike shop in western Dayton, Ohio, the birth place of aviation.  Thomas Edison, who is accredited with 1,093 patents earning him the nickname "The Wizard of Menlo Park" used his own money to build the Menlo Park research labs in New Jersey. In 1889, Thomas Edison established the Edison General Electric Company. Thomas Edison is considered the most prolific inventor of our time and his inventions were created within the realm of private enterprise...

The Origins of Biological and Chemical Warfare - Solon (638-559 BC) used a strong purgative, the herb hellebore, in the siege of Krissa. During the 6th century BC, the Assyrians poisoned enemy wells with rye ergot. In the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), the Spartans flung sulfur and pitch at the Athenians and their allies. In the Middle Ages, besiegers used the bloated and dripping bodies of plague victims as readymade "dirty bombs".  In 1346, during its siege of Kaffa (present day Feodosia in Crimea), the Tartar army suffered an outbreak of the Plague. They hurled the corpses of their infected dead over the city walls and into the city's water wells. The resulting epidemic led to the city's surrender. It is widely believed that people afflicted with the horrendous disease fled the place and started the Black Death pandemic which consumed at least one third of Europe's population within a few years. Russian troops adopted the same tactic against Sweden in 1710. S...

The Odd Seven Continents Theory - Viewed from space, the Earth appears to have four or five major landmass areas depending on your viewpoint. Despite this, we hold on to the illusion there are more continents. As we all learned in grade school, there are seven continents. A quick look at a globe, however, reveals this basic assumption is just flat wrong. In particular, how can Europe be considered a continent when there is no clear division with Russia?  To the surprise of many, the Arctic is not classified as a continent. Instead, it is divided up between North America and Asia. Yes, Asia because Russia is considered to be part of it in the seven continents model. Following are the accepted seven continents in alphabetical order. Africa is undeniably a continent by any definition. It is also the second largest one as a measure of landmass, covering over 11,700,000 square miles and making up 5.9 percent of the total surface of the Earth. As a measure of population, Africa is secon...

The Mystery Behind Saturn’s Moon Enceladus - The Cassini-Huygens exploration of Saturn, a seven-year joint venture of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency, is getting a closer look at its current subject of attention, the small moon of Enceladus.  Enceladus is one of the most innermost moons of Saturn which scientists had assumed to be largely dead.  With a very bright surface it reflects nearly 100 per cent of its heat and thereby has a very cold temperature, minus 330 degrees Fahrenheit.   A surprising discovery was that Enceladus, unlike nearby similar moon Mimas, is geologically active due to the emission of ice particles propelled by water vapor into the atmosphere from its south pole.  Enceladus is a small moon of approximately 300 miles radius and the existence of any geological activity for a moon that size has scientists pleasantly baffled.  Discovery of geological activity on any moon has been a rare phenomenon so far....

The Life Cycle of Science "There was a time when the newspapers said that only twelve men understood the theory of relativity. I do not believe that there ever was such a time... On the other hand, I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics... Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?', because you will get 'down the drain' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that." R. P. Feynman (1967) "The first processes, therefore, in the effectual studies of the sciences, must be ones of simplification and reduction of the results of previous investigations to a form in which the mind can grasp them." J. C. Maxwell, On Faraday's lines of force " ...conventional formulations of quantum theory, and of quantum field theory in particular, are unprofessionally vague and ambiguous. Professional theoretical physicists ought to be able t...

The Invisible Ether and Michelson Morley - The concept of the invisible ether or 'aether' is an old concept dating to the time of the ancient Greeks.  They considered the ether as that medium which permeated all of the universe and even believed the ether to be another element.  Along with Earth, Wind, Fire and Water Aristotle proposed that the ether should be treated as the fifth element or quintessence; this term which literally means 'fifth element' has even survived down to the present day to explain an exotic form of 'dark energy' which is crucial in some cosmological models.  These ideas spread throughout the world until the advent of a new springtime in scientific thought.  The first person in the modern era to conceive of the idea of an underlying ether to support the movement of light waves was seventeenth century dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens. Many others followed in expressing their opinions on the ether concept.  Whilst Isaac Newton disagreed w...