Composting Unit Study

My weekly column at Catholic Exchange is a unit study on composting.

If you've never composted or if you live in an urban area, I encourage you to still be open to introducing composting to your homeschool studies. Composting can be a wonderful addition to your science studies, in a very natural way. Both the novice and the urbanite can pull it off. This unit study introduces all the resources necessary for success.

Scrambler Team Makes Break Through

Coach Jerry (the homeschool dad who works with the Scrambler team, makes the following report:

ST. JOHNS
Creative Science Investigators Syndicated

The Creative Science Investigators Scrambler team made a major breakthrough in egg transport technology.

The Scrambler El Huevo Rapido served the team well, and its robust design was a major factor in championing over the rough floor of the regional competition. But it will be no match for the increased competition and propulsion restrictions at the State competition. Given three strategic alternatives: to use El Huevo Rapido in its current design and gain points for the team, reduce the weight of El Huevo Rapido hopefully gaining more points, or build a new vehicle, the team opted for a new vehicle. But a new paradigm was needed in the design of the state competition Scrambler, which is as of yet un-named. At the state competition, the propulsive force drops to half that used at invitationals and regional. The result was that the Scrambler needed to go on a diet, quickly.

At roughly forty-four percent the weight of El Huevo Rapido, the new Scrambler not only meets the lower propulsive needs, but exceeds the new restrictions. That ought to yield a net gain in speed, and a better placing for CSI.

The newly redesigned car features a lower aerodynamic profile, lighter chassis, lighter suspension and a braking system that is both more robust and lighter than previous design. The steering drift of the old design has also been resolved. Design began at the last team meeting, where the team performed a Pareto analysis of component weights.

Sally , the team's technical advisor, growled, "This latest Scrambler is no dog." Asked to comment further, she barked, "though initial design was ruff, the inspiration was taken from Indy car open-wheel racing. The all aluminum frame and laser-formed wheels make for an exceptional vehicle."

Additional details are difficult to come by, and security is tight, pending patent applications. The Scrambler is kept in an underground lab, patrolled by a guard dog, in the team's Northern Testing and Design Facility. It will be unveiled to the public at the April 28, 2007 competition in East Lansing.

Faith and Science are not irreconcilable still

"Scholarship supported science in this world where faith and science were not yet seen as two, irreconcilable cultures."

If one searches the web for information on Pope Saint Nicholas--who began what is today the magnificent Library of the Vatican--one may come across this very illuminating statement by the curators of a special exhibit of Library of Congress in 1993: Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture.

Of course, we know faith and science will never become irreconcilable, and yet this truth is so hidden in contemporary culture that one rejoices in a statement that acknowledges their "reconciled" existence even if five centuries in the past. The website of the exhibit is worth visiting and the fact that it happened over ten years ago is of little relevance. Visit it and enjoy the many photographs of the holdings with their fascinating descriptions, all part of a collection of renaissance manuscripts like no other in the world.

From the preface of the exhibit's companion volume:

The Library of Congress's curatorial team learned new and surprising things in the process of selecting the two hundred manuscripts, rare books, maps, and fine prints for display. Certain schools of western historiography have depicted the papacy as fighting a long rearguard action against the rise of modernization and enlightenment. Our curators discovered quite a different reality. They were impressed by the level and depth of papal sponsorship of the life of the mind throughout the Renaissance--especially the birth of Near and Far Eastern studies and the rise of modern science and classical studies. Beyond the well-known story of papal patronage of the arts remains another untold story of great historical interest.

From the Mathematics's section:

Until recently, historians of the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries treated it as a kind of rebellion against the authority of ancient books and humanist scholarship. In fact, however, it began with the revival of several tremendously important and formidably difficult works of Greek science. The mathematics and astronomy of the Greeks had been known in medieval western Europe only through often imperfect translations, some of them made from Arabic intermediary texts rather than the Greek originals. The papal curia became a center for the recovery of the original Greek manuscripts, often very old and remarkably elegant, and the production of new translations of these works. Ptolemy's "Geography"--the book which inspired Columbus to attempt his voyage, and remains the model of all systematic atlases--was dedicated to Popes Gregory XII and Alexander V by its first translator, the apostolic secretary Jacopo Angeli. Illustrated texts of this elegant atlas found readers everywhere in Europe. Nicholas V supported translations of the greatest of Greek mathematicians, Archimedes, and the greatest of Greek astronomers, Ptolemy. Cardinal Bessarion collected a vast range of Greek texts (which eventually wound up in Venice, as the nucleus of another great Renaissance library). A scholar whom he helped in many ways, Joannes Regiomontanus, became the first western European in centuries really to master Ptolemy's astronomy, which had been preserved and improved in the Islamic world. His work done in and for the curia laid the essential foundations on which Copernicus and other innovators built a new astronomy in the sixteenth century, using the Greek texts as their basic source of data and methods. Scholarship supported science in this world where faith and science were not yet seen as two, irreconcilable cultures.

About the picture:
Ptolemy, Handy Tables In Greek: Parchment, Ninth century. Ptolemy's Handy Tables,Handy Tables allow the calculation of solar, lunar, and planetary positions and eclipses of the sun and moon far more rapidly than the tables included in the Almagest. This early and elegant uncial manuscript is well-known for its illumination, which appears to descend from a prototype in late antiquity as can clearly be seen in this map of the constellations, drawn elegantly in white against the dark blue of the night sky, showing the northern part of the zodiac.

(Cross-post with Ana Braga-Henebry's Journal)

Print-out Space Shuttle Model (and more)

Space Shuttle
Douglas Skyray

hat-tip Good Morning Silicon Valley

Semi-identical twins

You've heard of fraternal and identical twins. But apparently, there is a (rarely-occurring) third type that scientists have dubbed "semi-identical twins." A recent article in the journal Nature details the only-known set of such twins, who developed when a single ovum was fertilized by two sperm. This situation does occur in an estimated 1% of all pregnancies, but usually the child does not survive.

The semi-identical twins were discovered because one of them is physiologically hermaphrodite, displaying features of both sexes. (The other appears as a normal male; however, both have a mixture of genetically male and female cells.)

See here for more.

A new interactive site on magnitudes

This is a very nice, interactive version of the old "Powers of Ten" concept. It is entitled Nikon-Universcale. Ultimately interactive, each item can be clicked on and explored-- fun, fun. Each unit of measure is explained -- the meter is "The Unit that Measures the World", the centimeter the "Realm of the Palm" and the millimeter is "The limits of the naked eye". And so forth. Each has numerous examples that users can explore further. The way the line actually doesn't move, but grows, or un-grows, is a fabulous idea.

The concept of linking all of the scientific areas of study in a size-scale is fascinating! This site does it so well!

Take a look here.

Hat tip: web lense.