ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 799

Polymer Blend Conducts Heat Ten Times More Efficiently Than Conventional Plastics

Chemistry





Photo credit:

Joseph Xu, University of Michigan Engineering

While plastics have become an indispensable material in modern society, they are not very useful for certain applications because of how heat doesn't disappate from them easily. However, a group of material scientists have developed a polymer blend that not only exceeds the heat dissipation of other plastics, but is about ten times more efficient than conventional materials like metal and ceramic as well.

Solar Technology Could Make Underground Parks In Cramped Cities Possible

Technology





Photo credit:

Lowline

It’s not easy to keep growing cities green when there is such a high demand for building space. But nobody wants to live in a concrete jungle, which is why a company in the US has proposed a rather unusual solution: underground parks.

Inspired by New York City’s High Line, an abandoned elevated freight railway turned urban park, “Lowline” hopes to use pioneering solar technology to repurpose a former trolley terminal into a public space.

People Love Their Smartphones but Hate the Batteries [Survey Results]

More than 2,000 Scientific American readers responded to last month’s online survey asking how they use their smartphone, which gadgets it has replaced and which new features they would like to see. The results show that—despite widespread frustration with battery life—smartphones are superseding music players, digital cameras and GPS navigation systems, but not tablets or personal computers.

Replacing yesterday’s toys is not surprising given that smartphones consolidate most of what those gadgets did into a single device. Survey takers (three quarters of them male) still like their PCs, however, indicating that even though they overlap in many functions, smartphones are not ready to replace our workplace workhorses. Nor are TVs becoming obsolete—screen size matters for certain types of content, notably video. E-book readers appear to still have their place in connected society as well. Even though smartphones can do everything e-readers can, only half of respondents report that smartphones have reduced e-reader use. In the survey we threw in “flashlight” as another gadget not necessarily associated with a smartphone, yet it turns out that about one third of respondents now leave their flashlights in the drawer in favor of their phones.

To what degree has your smartphone affected your use of the following:

 

Smartphones have had more impact on MP3 players, digital cameras and GPS devices than on e-readers or flashlights, and even less impact on TV use. Nearly 53 percent of respondents indicated that their smartphone has hardly affected use of their PC, but 44.6 percent said their handsets have cut their PC use in half.  Click here to enlarge

 

Two questions were open ended. The first—“What is your smartphone’s biggest shortcoming?”—elicited a wide range of responses. The most common problem by a wide margin was poor battery life. Other frequent complaints included poor camera quality, high cost (of the phone and of service plans), the small virtual keyboard, lack of device durability (the screen, in particular), handset size (too big or too small) and storage capacity (memory). Many respondents also cited shortcomings that are more the fault of the service provider than the phone maker, including slow connection speeds, poor network coverage, bad call quality and the high cost of data plans.

The second open-ended question asked which capability readers would most like to see in future smartphones. Responses varied widely. Some individuals wanted a flexible monitor (that bends on purpose, unlike the most recent iPhone), a waterproof design to protect their handset, and  sophisticated biometrics—especially face recognition—to protect its contents. Others asked for 3-D capabilities (projection screen, scanner and virtual keyboard), augmented-reality features (imagine your phone identifying and labeling individual flowers as you view a bouquet through the camera lens) and the ability to record with 4K video, a new resolution standard with high image definition, a more detailed picture, better fast action and high-quality visibility on larger projection surfaces than previous standards. To address battery woes, respondents suggested adding the ability to charge via body heat, motion or light.

What type of smartphone do you own?

 

Nearly all respondents—Scientific American readers—own a smartphone and fall into either the Google Android camp (48 percent) or the Apple iOS camp (44.1 percent). Among the more general population of smartphone users, Android use is actually several times that of iOS. Only 3.1 percent of our audience own Microsoft Windows phones and even fewer have a Blackberry. Click here to enlarge.

 

Nearly 62 percent of our audience owns both a smartphone and a tablet, primarily because they need the different screen sizes for viewing or working with different types of content. Only about 5 percent admitted they own both gadgets because they bought into marketing hype.

Why do you own both a smartphone and a tablet?

 

Obviously Apple, Samsung and several other companies that sell both smartphones and tablets are hoping customers will double up on these devices. Tablets have found a market even though their capabilities largely overlap with smartphones and PCs. Respondents largely say that they own both devices because they need different screen sizes for viewing or working with different content. Click here to enlarge.

 

More than half of the people surveyed have between 11 and 40 apps on their smartphone. Fewer than 18 percent boast more than 60 apps, and it is unlikely anyone uses more than a handful on a daily basis. It is not uncommon, after the initial excitement of discovering a particular app, for the novelty to wear off. In other cases apps are useful for a fixed amount of time—for a pregnancy, say—and then are abandoned but not deleted.

How many apps do you have/use?

 

More than 46 percent of survey takers use between 1 and 5 apps on a given day and only 2.1 percent use more than 20. Slightly more than 4 percent said they don’t use any of their apps.  Click here to enlarge.

 

Digital wallets that allow direct debiting of money from an account are one of the more intriguing technologies that smartphones offer, particularly because they are supposedly more secure than using credit or debit cards for purchases. Despite Google Wallet having been around for a few years now, the technology is still in the early stages of adoption. That helps explain why only one quarter of respondents have used or plan to use Apple Pay or Google Wallet.

Perhaps surprisingly, only about two thirds of respondents see the value of securing their smartphones. Of those who do, most use a passcode, while about 21 percent opt for a simple biometric sensor such as Apple’s Touch ID.

Thanks to all who took the time to fill out our questionnaire!

Birth Mystery of Stellar Snow Globe Deepens

Photograph By ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2

By Andrew Fazekas

The Hubble Space Telescope’s recent images of giant balls of stars in a nearby galaxy, reported on Thursday, have astronomers puzzled as to the star balls’ origins.

Multitudes of such “globular” star clusters, each filled with hundreds of thousands of the oldest stars in the universe, lie scattered around our own Milky Way and other galaxies. But how and why they’re born has long been a mystery.

Based on observations of our home galaxy, astronomers thought that globulars must form in galactic regions that are awash in elderly stars. But Hubble’s observations of the Fornax dwarf galaxy, a small satellite of the Milky Way some 460,000 light-years from Earth, have upended that idea. A paper in the Astrophysical Journal on the Fornax galaxy shows that it’s home to four globular clusters—yet there aren’t many old stars in its host galaxy.

“Our leading formation theory just can’t be right,” said astronomer Frank Grundahl of Aarhus University in Denmark, a coauthor of the new paper, in a press statement.

Read the full article by clicking the name of the source located below.

Lego’s Fantastic Instructions For Parents In 1973

Technology





Photo credit:

fryd_ Lego instructions to parents from the 1970s

If you care about inspiring children with an interest in engineering and aspirations not bound by their gender, this note may bring a tear to your eye. Two tears actually, both because it is so eloquently beautiful, and because it shows that in a lot of ways we have gone backwards over the last forty years.

Nietzsche the Dogsitter

By Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. (H/T: Kris.) If you go to the original page and click the red button in the lower right corner of your screen, Nietzsche has more to say. And last year a hilarious video came out on shit Nietzsche says. Your Thoughts?

Atheist Experience #470: Church/state separation boundaries

The Atheist Experience #470 for October 15, 2006, with Matt Dillahunty and Russell Glasser. Church/state separation boundaries. Russell talks about how great art, music, and architecture should be enjoyed regardless of its origin.

We welcome your comments on the open blog thread for this show.

► http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/

YouTube comments are at present disabled in our channel, to the displeasure of some. However, each video has a prominent link to the associated open thread that appears on our blog. In the past we’ve tried opening up the channel to comments, but we found that a very high number of episodes wound up being flooded with a combination of spam, long winded apologists, and various obscene or misogynistic comments directed at various hosts by people with an axe to grind. This seems to be the nature of YouTube comment sections, in our experience.

We do moderate the blog, the same way that we moderate chat during the show, as well as comments on our Facebook group. For comment sections that are “officially” associated with our show (and, to a much lesser extent, channels that may give the unintended appearance of being official), we prefer not to play host to straight up ad hominem attacks and bigotry. As a general policy we do not block commenters simply on the basis of disagreement with our point of view. However, we do prefer discussion environments that don’t actively chase off more reasonable contributors.

——-

The most up to date Atheist Experience videos can be found by visiting http://atheist-experience.com/archive/

You can read more about this show on the Atheist Experience blog:

► http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/

WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?

The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.

The Atheist Community of Austin is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.

We define atheism as the lack of belief in gods. This definition also encompasses what most people call agnosticism.

VISIT THE ACA’S OFFICIAL WEB SITES

► http://www.atheist-community.org (The Atheist Community of Austin)

► http://www.atheist-experience.com (The Atheist Experience TV Show)

More shows and video clips can be found in the archive:

► http://www.atheist-experience.com/archive

DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via:

► http://www.atheist-community.org/products

MUSIC CREDITS

Theme song: “Listen to Reason,” written and performed by Bryan Steeksma.

► http://www.youtube.com/bryansteeksma

► http://www.myspace.com/bryansteeksma

NOTES

TheAtheistExperience is the official channel of The Atheist Experience. “The Atheist Experience” is a trademark of the ACA.

Copyright © 2014 Atheist Community of Austin. All rights reserved.

Atheist Experience #479: Projection

The Atheist Experience #479 for December 17, 2006, with Matt Dillahunty and Don Baker. Projection. Don talks about how the psychological defense mechanism of projection is used by the religious right.

We welcome your comments on the open blog thread for this show.

► http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/

YouTube comments are at present disabled in our channel, to the displeasure of some. However, each video has a prominent link to the associated open thread that appears on our blog. In the past we’ve tried opening up the channel to comments, but we found that a very high number of episodes wound up being flooded with a combination of spam, long winded apologists, and various obscene or misogynistic comments directed at various hosts by people with an axe to grind. This seems to be the nature of YouTube comment sections, in our experience.

We do moderate the blog, the same way that we moderate chat during the show, as well as comments on our Facebook group. For comment sections that are “officially” associated with our show (and, to a much lesser extent, channels that may give the unintended appearance of being official), we prefer not to play host to straight up ad hominem attacks and bigotry. As a general policy we do not block commenters simply on the basis of disagreement with our point of view. However, we do prefer discussion environments that don’t actively chase off more reasonable contributors.

——-

The most up to date Atheist Experience videos can be found by visiting http://atheist-experience.com/archive/

You can read more about this show on the Atheist Experience blog:

► http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/

WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?

The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.

The Atheist Community of Austin is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.

We define atheism as the lack of belief in gods. This definition also encompasses what most people call agnosticism.

VISIT THE ACA’S OFFICIAL WEB SITES

► http://www.atheist-community.org (The Atheist Community of Austin)

► http://www.atheist-experience.com (The Atheist Experience TV Show)

More shows and video clips can be found in the archive:

► http://www.atheist-experience.com/archive

DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via:

► http://www.atheist-community.org/products

MUSIC CREDITS

Theme song: “Listen to Reason,” written and performed by Bryan Steeksma.

► http://www.youtube.com/bryansteeksma

► http://www.myspace.com/bryansteeksma

NOTES

TheAtheistExperience is the official channel of The Atheist Experience. “The Atheist Experience” is a trademark of the ACA.

Copyright © 2014 Atheist Community of Austin. All rights reserved.

Atheist Experience #478: Christian Radio; Theomatics

The Atheist Experience #478 for December 10, 2006, with Matt Dillahunty and Russell Glasser. Christian Radio; Theomatics. Russell talks about theomatics and other “bible code” nonsense.

We welcome your comments on the open blog thread for this show.

► http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/

YouTube comments are at present disabled in our channel, to the displeasure of some. However, each video has a prominent link to the associated open thread that appears on our blog. In the past we’ve tried opening up the channel to comments, but we found that a very high number of episodes wound up being flooded with a combination of spam, long winded apologists, and various obscene or misogynistic comments directed at various hosts by people with an axe to grind. This seems to be the nature of YouTube comment sections, in our experience.

We do moderate the blog, the same way that we moderate chat during the show, as well as comments on our Facebook group. For comment sections that are “officially” associated with our show (and, to a much lesser extent, channels that may give the unintended appearance of being official), we prefer not to play host to straight up ad hominem attacks and bigotry. As a general policy we do not block commenters simply on the basis of disagreement with our point of view. However, we do prefer discussion environments that don’t actively chase off more reasonable contributors.

——-

The most up to date Atheist Experience videos can be found by visiting http://atheist-experience.com/archive/

You can read more about this show on the Atheist Experience blog:

► http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/

WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?

The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.

The Atheist Community of Austin is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.

We define atheism as the lack of belief in gods. This definition also encompasses what most people call agnosticism.

VISIT THE ACA’S OFFICIAL WEB SITES

► http://www.atheist-community.org (The Atheist Community of Austin)

► http://www.atheist-experience.com (The Atheist Experience TV Show)

More shows and video clips can be found in the archive:

► http://www.atheist-experience.com/archive

DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via:

► http://www.atheist-community.org/products

MUSIC CREDITS

Theme song: “Listen to Reason,” written and performed by Bryan Steeksma.

► http://www.youtube.com/bryansteeksma

► http://www.myspace.com/bryansteeksma

NOTES

TheAtheistExperience is the official channel of The Atheist Experience. “The Atheist Experience” is a trademark of the ACA.

Copyright © 2014 Atheist Community of Austin. All rights reserved.

Atheist Experience #477: Authoritarianism

The Atheist Experience #477 for December 3, 2006, with Matt Dillahunty and Don Baker. Authoritarianism. Don takes a look at how authoritarianism sheds light on both religion and current politics.

We welcome your comments on the open blog thread for this show.

► http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/

YouTube comments are at present disabled in our channel, to the displeasure of some. However, each video has a prominent link to the associated open thread that appears on our blog. In the past we’ve tried opening up the channel to comments, but we found that a very high number of episodes wound up being flooded with a combination of spam, long winded apologists, and various obscene or misogynistic comments directed at various hosts by people with an axe to grind. This seems to be the nature of YouTube comment sections, in our experience.

We do moderate the blog, the same way that we moderate chat during the show, as well as comments on our Facebook group. For comment sections that are “officially” associated with our show (and, to a much lesser extent, channels that may give the unintended appearance of being official), we prefer not to play host to straight up ad hominem attacks and bigotry. As a general policy we do not block commenters simply on the basis of disagreement with our point of view. However, we do prefer discussion environments that don’t actively chase off more reasonable contributors.

——-

The most up to date Atheist Experience videos can be found by visiting http://atheist-experience.com/archive/

You can read more about this show on the Atheist Experience blog:

► http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/

WHAT IS THE ATHEIST EXPERIENCE?

The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin.

The Atheist Community of Austin is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.

We define atheism as the lack of belief in gods. This definition also encompasses what most people call agnosticism.

VISIT THE ACA’S OFFICIAL WEB SITES

► http://www.atheist-community.org (The Atheist Community of Austin)

► http://www.atheist-experience.com (The Atheist Experience TV Show)

More shows and video clips can be found in the archive:

► http://www.atheist-experience.com/archive

DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via:

► http://www.atheist-community.org/products

MUSIC CREDITS

Theme song: “Listen to Reason,” written and performed by Bryan Steeksma.

► http://www.youtube.com/bryansteeksma

► http://www.myspace.com/bryansteeksma

NOTES

TheAtheistExperience is the official channel of The Atheist Experience. “The Atheist Experience” is a trademark of the ACA.

Copyright © 2014 Atheist Community of Austin. All rights reserved.