The Lounge

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change published their Fourth Assessment Report today. The report implicates anthropogenic CO2 emissions in its strongest language ever as being primarily responsible for the majority of average temperature increases in the past half century. The report largely provides refinements over previous assessment reports, narrowing the expected minimum and maximum ranges for various predictions with the most likely possibilities increasing across the board (with an expected sea level increase of a half meter over the next 50 years, compared to .2m in the IPCC TAR) It was authored by thousands of scientists in more than a hundred co…

I always thought perfect/absolute pitch was one of those rare abilities where people did extraordinary things. I wasn't sure what, exactly, the ability was, but then again I never really cared. According to wikipedia, "Absolute pitch, or perfect pitch, is "the ability to attach labels to isolated auditory stimuli on the basis of pitch alone" without external reference." That is not only easy, but I know of several people that can do it! In band you play scales all the time to warm up and rehuming the scale is as easy as humming a tune. Every director I've met would sing pitches. "No, up, this note (sings) tah..." And dont actors do warmups like this as well? …

Does anyone know anything about Galileo's beliefs about vision (the mechanics of how we see)? Are there any books or on-line papers that address this subject? I'm particularly interested in his beliefs regarding the relationship between vision and the brain, his beliefs about the relationship between color and light, etc.

This thread is for ongoing global warming discussion. There's another thread over in the Ecology and the Environment sub-board: http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?p=321613#post321613 This thread is entitled "Global Shadowing" and the OP is asking how this area of study relates to global warming.

Not sure if anyone's seen this, quite funny... http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/winrg.php

hi all i am new to this forum. my name is dyako... i live in UK in the city of London. i am 16 years old and i am studying btec sciene in a school. and i am arrived just 7 months ago in england... and thats why my english isnt that ferfect! LoL. and i am coming here to communicate with you and to get help from you about science if needed! than you!

Just got reconnected with xbox live with Halo 2 (never play any other games on live ), anyone want to be on my friends list? On live I'm MstrEcho. Guess where that's from

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5164417-111414,00.html Interesting article. Over 250 scientists were asked and they hand-picked the best responses

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1996612,00.html A new tuberculosis strain is highly infectious (spread by airborne droplets) and kills 98% of those infected within 2 weeks :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

This is just an observation based on the popularity of the physics forum on SFN and a few others which I'm not a member...but physics 'as an area of interest' is rife, however as an interest of study it's dwindling. I realize this isn't a good comparison to measure interest of a subject, but it's easy to take interest, but not participate. I see this as saddening, what do you guys think...there appears to be a popularity of interest, but a lack of anyone who really wants to put the work in. It is (without a shadow of a doubt) a 'hard' subject, but the fact there is still scope for discovery is a very appealing aspect of physics, as much as it is refined there is s…

...for a decade!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo_Suk There is great speculation over the growing evidence that Hwang woo suk, the South Korean biomedical scientist who admitted to fraud, had only done so under pressure from the American scientist, Prof. Schatten. It is believed that Prof. Schatten wanted credit for the breakthrough and hence pressured Prof. Hwang into admitting something which he did not do. There are several websites (relativley reliable) however they are in korean so I didn't post them up (ask me and i wil post it up.) What are your thoughts on this issue? Has it happened before? I personally don't believe there is enough evidence as of yet, but I do have a rath…

Hi, I consider myself a rational person--or at least as rational as any human can be. I'm posting this question here because it could fit in several categories elsewhere on this site. My question is this: is there any empirical evidence--by that I mean controlled studies, not just hear-say--that any stone has any powers at all to improve one's physical or mental health? I'm asking because some friends of mine have set up a website to sell their custom jewelry, and on their site they are making what to me seem like highly questionable health claims about various stones. Some time in the future, they may ask me to redesign their web site, and before agreeing to…

Hello, I was just wondering what you guys thought of my video I made for a class project? The link is

yes, thats right. cures. who knew http://www.cancertutor.com/Other02/AIDS.html

Before the first atomic bomb was tested in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945, some of the scientists working on the bomb thought there was a three-in-one-million chance that an atomic bomb might melt down the entire earth. They went ahead and tested that first atomic bomb. - from http://www.intellectual-playground.com How much out of control experimentation is going on today? Have fun pondering! - Jeff

A 'Who's Online" search, http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/online.php?sort=username&order=asc, shows that SFN is infested with spiders: MSNBot Spiders, Google Spiders, Google AdSense Spiders, and a horde of Yahoo! Slurp Spiders. I have noticed a marked decrease in performance from SFN as of late. Is this spider infestation the cause of this degradation?

Hi all, I’m currently creating a sci-fi animated film in my spare time for fun. I have some questions on the content which I would like you to look at. Before I actually turn this into a collaborative team project I need to iron out all the cheesy factors in the story. I'm worried about spending a few years on this only to find major holes in the story line. My knowledge on science is poor so I'm hoping I could get some really basic help on realising my script. Firstly, in the story there is a new rocky planet similar to Earth discovered by scientists. A shuttle is sent to this planet and returns with samples. How long would it take for a shuttle to reach …

i am a highschool chemistry student who needs to interview a chemist... they are just simple questions that need answering for a project... I won't mention your name/you don't need to tell your name. if anyone is willing to help you can email me the answers at poopmuscle@yahoo.com (thats really my email address) 1. what education was needed for you to get this job? 2. What is your approximate salary(i want this stuff emailed beacaus you may not want to show salary to the whole world) 3. Where did you go to school? 4. Do you like your job? 5. Why'd you choose to become a biochemist? 6. How do you like it? 7. Where do you work? 8. And what do you like i…

I've been hearing lots of varying reviews of Michael Crichton's book Next. Has anyone read it? I'm not sure I want to buy it yet...I might wait until it comes out on paperback...if it's as good as his others...

I am drunk. I be not sober. In the morning, i'll be hungover. Some drunken poetry from the alien thats insane. woohoo!

Remember Michael Brown, the man who was qualified to run FEMA because he ran horse shows? His number 2 man at FEMA was equally well qualified: Former television reporter Patrick Rhode. Now the Bush administration has blessed NASA with Rhode's space expertise. From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201671.html: Patrick Rhode, who was chief of staff and deputy director of FEMA under Michael Brown, was hired as a senior adviser to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on communications issues, NASA spokesman David Mould said.

how do you make sticky threads?

I want to stop biting my nails, get a weekend job, get over my ex gf, finish my current experiment, get kick ass grades, practce my music... the list keeps growing anyone else?

Found this while browsing the net... It's another anti-gravity idea But hey, we've gotta keep thinking right? But anyway I'd just thought you guys might like to dissect it (er, tear it to shreds, whichever suits your tastes ). BTW, did anyone see that Popular Science article on Nasa building their superconductor thing? I haven't seen an article on how it turned out...which I assume means failure but I'd still like to know what EXACTLY happened, if anything. Thanks ~JT EDIT: Er, here is the guy's idea; this is NOT my work: