Category: Science

When a star dies, that can be a violent affair. I wrote about the birth of stars and planets before, and about black holes , but not their violent deaths. So today, I’ll discuss supernovae.

I was kind of fed up with the fire hose of Covid news items. Then the worship of Covid apps as the way to redemption came along, and, well, I had to write something. I’ve been developing software for over twenty years, and guess what, I fear Covid Apps are a pipe dream.

Ninety million years ago, the Earth was warmer than it is today. We might go to a similar world in the next few centuries, but we’re not there yet. I recently saw an article on what that meant for Antarctica. I was surprised.

Pick an actor, then find the shortest route through cast lists from that actor to a movie with Kevin Bacon. You can play a similar game with Spotify, by finding the shortest number of clicks to reach from artist A to B. The Kevin Bacon game has gained fame as Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Why is this relevant?

Take a look at a branch. Notice that the leaves appear in a pattern, every leaf in a specific place on the branch at a certain angle. In fact this is a mathematical pattern leading to something called the golden ratio. Time for some math.