Jeff Danner's Common Science

The Origin Of Water On Earth

Posted by Jeff Danner | Jan 25, 2015 | Common Science

From the 1960s through the 1980s, my Aunt Shirley was a third grade teacher in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. After she retired, she gave me a copy of one of the science text books that she had used. In the section about water...

The Polar Vortex and Quantum Physics

Posted by Jeff Danner | Jan 18, 2015 | Common Science

January of 2014 brought record-setting cold temperatures to Chapel Hill, NC, and the words “polar vortex” dominated the local lexicon for several weeks. Given that we are likely to experience these dramatic cold...

Electric Cars Are Not Actually Emissions-Free

Posted by Jeff Danner | Jan 11, 2015 | Common Science

Over the holidays I did a fair bit of driving, including the abject drudgery of navigating Route 95 between Richmond and Washington, D.C. in both directions. At one point, it took two hours to advance just 40 miles. All of this...

Common Science Comprehensive Index

Posted by Jeff Danner | Dec 21, 2014 | Common Science

April 2015 will be the fourth anniversary for Common Science®. In each of the past three Decembers I have published a hyper-linked index for the columns from that year. This year I decided to do something different. Below is an...

Results of my 2014 Predictions

Posted by Jeff Danner | Dec 14, 2014 | Common Science

In January, I made predictions for what I expected would be important science stories during 2014, five positive ones and four negative. Now it is time to see how well I did. Below I review my predictions, tell you what did or...

Fracking: A Raleigh-Riyadh Connection

Posted by Jeff Danner | Dec 7, 2014 | Common Science

As you may have noticed at the pump recently, gasoline prices have fallen by 35% over the last few months, from just below $4.00 per gallon down to around $2.60, a five-year low. During this same time period, the price of...

An Engineer On A Diet: Part II

Posted by Jeff Danner | Nov 30, 2014 | Common Science

Last week in Part I, I reviewed the energy balance for the human body and explained how it controls whether or not we lose weight while dieting. This week, I’ll share with you some my observations on how this energy balance...

An Engineer on a Diet: Part I

Posted by Jeff Danner | Nov 23, 2014 | Common Science

Dieting is big business in the United States. If you include the $21 billion spent on diet sodas, the weight loss industry takes in over $65 billion dollars a year. A commonly cited statistic is that at any particular moment,...

Why Are The Norwegians Burning Trash?

Posted by Jeff Danner | Nov 16, 2014 | Common Science

Several weeks ago, my daughter came home and said “Dad, why does Norway have to import trash to keep its power plants running? You should write a column on that.” And so I have. First, in the interest of full disclosure, I love...

Is The Toilet The Greatest Public Health Invention Ever?

Posted by Jeff Danner | Nov 9, 2014 | Common Science

Last week’s column, Spinal Cord Miracle?, was an inspiring story about how scientific progress enabled a man whose spinal cord had been severed to walk again. This remarkable achievement came as a result of the expenditure of...

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