Common Science

So far in 2012 in there have been over 1000 reported cases of West Nile Virus in the U.S. which have resulted in over 40 deaths.  The graphic at the top of the page from the CDC shows the locations of the confirmed 2012 cases...

Tuesday, August 28, 2012, is a big day for WCHL with the launch of FM broadcasting on 97.9. To honor this new phase in the station’s history, here is your Common Science® review of AM and FM radio waves.   Let’s start with some...

This week I am taking a detour from my usual topics and providing a bit of life advice.  Want to get married?  Find yourself a chemical engineer.  (Full disclosure for first time readers, your humble author is a chemical...

Good night, sleep tight, Don’t let the bedbugs bite. And if they do Then take your shoe And knock ‘em ‘til They’re black and blue! Old English Nursery Rhyme (~1860) – Author Unknown   Among the list of things that give us the...

As I write this, 600 million people in India – approximately twice the population of the United States – are in the midst of the most extensive power outage in the history of the world.  Take a moment and consider the chaos that...

I am on vacation this week, so we are running a “Best of Common Science.”  The NC Legislature’s overide of Governor Perdue’s fracking ban means that the process of designing the regulatory framework for...

I am on vacation this week, so we are running a “Best of Common Science.”  Something interesting is occurring in the scientific community in the response to the heat waves and droughts which are sweeping the country...

Last week I spent three peaceful and fantastic days volunteering at the Festival for the Eno.  The weather was steamy with high humidity and temperatures flirting with 100 oF.   In the course of delivering drinks and ice to hot...

July 4th, 2012, was a significant day in the history of science.    In a news conference in Geneva Switzerland, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider – a 16 mile long particle accelerator where matter is smashed together in an...

My oldest child enters high school this fall and, like most freshmen, will be starting her sequence of science classes with biology. From my perspective biology is not the logical starting point for high school science and it is...