From the Associated Press, via the New York Times:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, scientists said in the first statewide temblor forecast.
New calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 […]
The March-April issue of American Scientist is now available on the Web; paper copies should be on their way soon. My column is about hump yards and turnouts and wyes—in other words, about algorithms for railroad workers. “Computing with locomotives and box cars takes a one-track mind.” There’s a small puzzle near the end of […]
Driving over the river and through the woods yesterday, I was running low on fuel. My car has two kinds of instruments to tell me that I’ll soon be standing by the side of the road feeling foolish. A conventional gas gauge shows the fraction of a tankful remaining, presumably based on readings from some […]
The banner image at the top of this page might be taken for an algorithmic attempt to imitate a fern, although in my opinion the pattern bears a closer resemblance to the two-dimensional corals known as sea fans, or gorgonians. The image below also reminds me of some sort of sessile sea creature—if not a […]
Life has found its way into most of the nooks and crannies of this planet, including some inhospitable ones. Fish with antifreeze in their blood occupy the coldest ocean waters, and whole communities of worms and clams thrive at geothermal vents on the sea floor, where temperatures go well over 300 degrees Celsius. The harshest […]
A post here a few weeks ago discussed the late Luna B. Leopold and his work on the shapes of rivers. I mentioned in that item that Leopold collected data on a small stream called Watts Branch, near Washington, DC. The statement was correct, but I identified the wrong Watts Branch. There are two of […]
Scientists are selfless seekers after truth, unswayed by worldly emoluments, immune to the tawdry enticements of fame, indifferent to prizes and honors. Thus I can’t quite imagine why anyone would bother ranking a collection of scientific papers by applying the algorithm that Google uses to decide which Web pages deserve the most prominent display. Nonetheless, […]
Every morning I go fishing in the arXiv. Or at least that’s the way I’ve been thinking about this daily ritual: I cast my net over the waters and look to see what strange and wonderful creatures I’ve brought up from the deeps. Today it hit me that I have the metaphor backwards. I’m the […]
Luna B. Leopold, the foremost American student of rivers and the landscapes they create, died February 23 at age 90. I never met him, but I’ve been a follower and a fan of his work, which I first encountered in 1966, when Scientific American published an article titled “River Meanders,” by Leopold and W. B. […]
In today’s New York Times (registration required), Gina Kolata writes on rediscoveries and reinventions in the sciences. Her essay is based in part on the experience of Rakesh V. Vohra of Northwestern University, who has discovered that one of his own results has been rediscovered at least 16 times. Kolata also quotes Stephen M. Stigler […]