Blogs

The New Year started with an event anticipated by astronomers and scientists all over the world; a solar eclipse. Barbara Ferreira has been discussing the history and science behind the astronomical celestial alignment:

A total eclipse can only happen if the moon is in a position such that it’s apparent size is larger than that of the sun. When it is smaller, the moon’s umbral shadow does not reach the Earth. Instead, what is called the antumbra shades a portion of the Earth’s surface. Observers in the antumbra see an annular solar eclipse, a phenomenon in which the moon does not cover the totality of the sun and a “ring of fire” is visible.

While Viktor Poor, captures in cartoon format the problems many of us encountered when trying to watch the event for ourselves:

On a different topic Stephen Moss kicks off his first post of the year with a review of 2010 doing less with less. In his frank discussion he describes the turbulent year scientists have faced working in British universities. Meanwhile James Hendler has been unveiling his Semantic Web New Year’s Resolutions.

Elsewhere on the network…

In her Down to Earth blog, Karen Vancampenhout discusses the possible link between stereotypical personality traits of certain cultures with their soil conditions:

The Dutch or Scottish for instance, are stereotypically known for their economic nature. They do not like to spend too much money. Could this be related to some of their generally poor, sandy soils? If you depend on a soil like that, it makes sense not to spend your resources lightly. Highlanders are said to be tough and hard, as are the shallow, stony soils on which they live. People in the Mediterranean on the other hand, are known to live longer and happier than most other Europeans. And coincidence or not they live right on top of some of the oldest soil surfaces in Europe.

Meanwhile, Mark Schrope moves us from soil to sea as he continues to post updates from his expeditions around the Deepwater Horizon site.

And finally …..

GrrlScientist has posted an animation on one of the key concepts in science, the Central Dogma of molecular biology. The hypothesis being that DNA makes RNA and that RNA makes protein: