This is another drawing by artist Becky Moon, about her favorite Ig Nobel Prize winners. Moon has been a scholar of the Ig Nobel Prizes since she was a young teenager. This one celebrates Ig Nobel Public Chemistry & Geology Prize that was awarded in the year 2023 to Jan Zalasiewicz, for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks. That […]
LIttle things complicate humans’ attempts to explore places other than the earth. Here’s a study about a small example: “The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Ejecta of Lunar Landers,” Philip T. Metzger, James G. Mantovani, arXiv.2305.12234, 2023. The authors explain: “This manuscript analyzes lunar lander soil erosion models and trajectory models to […]
Joannasaurus gives firsthand testimony about why geologists lick rocks, in this one-minute video: The 2023 Ig Nobel Chemistry & Geology Prize was awarded to Jan Zalasiewicz, for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks. Zalasiewicz will explain his explanation as part of the Ig Nobel show at Imperial College London on Saturday, November […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Mapping black holes — Richard Notley has been wondering down a dark path… and found enlightenment in remarks made by mathematician Roger Penrose (New Scientist, 19 November 2022) about the structure of the universe. He writes: “Roger […]
