Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Q: Why don't we see green stars?

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Stars are black bodies in thermal equilibrium ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation ). Their spectrum depends only on their te...
1 comment:
Friday, May 4, 2012

Q: What is the safest, simplest, and most effective method to anchor an average-size sailboat?

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There is technique (and many strong feelings) to anchoring, but I don't think there are any great secrets beyond what is taught in saili...
1 comment:
Friday, April 20, 2012

Q: Does all "white noise" sound like the same hiss?

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The answer is no: not all white noise sounds alike! White noise can sound like "hissing" of a shortwave radio or it can sound li...
3 comments:
Thursday, February 9, 2012

Q: What were some surprising court decisions?

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American Council for the Blind v. Boorstin, 644 F. Supp. 811 (D.D.C. 1986), holding that the First Amendment required the U.S. Government to...
2 comments:
Thursday, February 2, 2012

Q: What are the most impactful inventions created in Boston?

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I think the telephone is probably the all-time top Boston invention, but also these: 1802 -- Modern navigation -- Bowditch 1886 -- Ma...
2 comments:
Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Q: If I mix 700nm (red) light and 400nm (green) light, is the result a color that can't be made by a single wavelength?

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The answer is yes -- if you mix light from a laser (monochromatic light) at 700 nm with another laser at 400 nm, the resulting radiation wil...
9 comments:
Sunday, October 16, 2011

Q: How does an investigative reporter get started?

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Many investigative reporters got where they are by starting as beat reporters. This is a good way to get story ideas and familiarity with an...
Saturday, July 2, 2011

Q: What are the most iconic images from astrophysics?

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Orbital decay of a binary pulsar compared with the prediction of general relativity. This won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1993. Powe...
1 comment:
Saturday, June 18, 2011

Q: Is there any technical data available to support claims of “best HD picture quality” when choosing a satellite, cable or IPTV service provider?

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I  have done a real-time comparison between the HDTV signals transmitted by local broadcasters in the Boston area (NBC, ABC, CBS) over broad...
4 comments:
Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Q: What was the first digital newspaper in the world?

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This is a provocative question, and it really depends on what you mean by a digital newspaper. Arguably any written language formed out of...
2 comments:
Saturday, May 28, 2011

Q: Is the Charles River safe to swim in?

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It depends -- on the day, your location in the river basin, and who you are. The short answer is that if you are young and have a robust i...
Sunday, May 8, 2011

Q: Do the odds in a horse race add up to more than 100%?

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It doesn't quite make sense to sum odds. But if we talk about converting the odds into the probabilities of each horse's winning, th...
1 comment:
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Q: How many read/writes does Twitter do a second?

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It depends how you count. I'm no Twitter expert, but here's my understanding from a tech talk by Raffi Krikorian and colleagues in S...
1 comment:
Thursday, February 10, 2011

Q: Given that the universe is expanding and the Solar System is hurtling through space, is there any frame of reference for zero motion?

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The laws of physics (Maxwell's equations, etc.) work the same in any inertial reference frame, so in that sense, no, there is no inertia...
Sunday, December 19, 2010

Q: How do you write a strong lede for an article?

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Practice! And read the best stories in print. And read Blundell's "The Art and Craft of Feature Writing." Go look up old stori...
2 comments: