Archive for 2011
Identi.ca Weekly Updates for 2011-06-15
- crowdsourced radioactivity map of Japan http://bit.ly/miog8c via http://bit.ly/ijAtuh #
- Session on copulas at #AGU11 #AGU2011 http://sites.agu.org/fallmeeting/scientific-program/session-search/434 Yay! #
Rain, Hail, Storm
We just got one wicked storm, including rain, hail and wind.
Identi.ca Weekly Updates for 2011-06-01
- Probability distributions in #SciPy http://goo.gl/O55cb #python (via @SciPyTip) #
- Radar images [with descriptions] from the Oklahoma tornadoes http://bit.ly/mIhJuE [Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal] (via @theAGU) #
Identi.ca Weekly Updates for 2011-05-11
- Frank Schwartz on the importance of figures in scientific articles: http://ke-we.net/hjm #
Fiberglass Fluorimeter
Today was our first test using our fiberglass fluorimeters. They look very spectacular, don’t they? Unfortunately, the picture can’t capture the dynamics of the situation, which is created by the blinking lights. They appear to be constantly on on the photo.
The bad news is, that our first attempt of calibration curves looks really sucky. We’ll have to find away to improve those quickly!
Identi.ca Weekly Updates for 2011-03-30
- More people on our planet have cell phones than a toilet http://bit.ly/hVE6CT #water2011 (via @waterfortheages) #
Some Effects on Water and Statistics From the Recent Earthquake in Japan
This is a blog about water and statistics. Admittedly, in a very broad sense. Neither earthquakes nor related problems with nuclear power stations are at first glance directly related to these two topics. However, the earthquake was so strong that its consequences are felt widely. Even in groundwater wells in which the seismic waves from an earthquake induce water level fluctuations. This phenomenon has been pointed out both by the NGWA blog and by Dave Campagna at WaterWired
Image from WaterWired
If this earthquake has been felt by groundwater wells, it was really big. But how big? As theusrus.de points out, only one earthquake of the USGS data-set he used that contains all earthquakes since 1973, has been bigger.
The “size” of an earthquake is measured on the logarithmic Richter scale, which is used as the x-axis in the above histogram. The recent earthquake in Japan was linked with a value of 9.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake in the Indian Ocean around christmas 2004 was the one that was bigger since the recent one in Japan, with a value of 9.3 on the Richter scale. The folks at Mathematica seem to have a little larger time series, which contains one more earthquake of magnitude bigger than 9.0 — it happened in 1964 in Alaska, USA. It’s always fun to look at something logarithmic on a linear scale:
The folks at Mathematica also have a nice map of where earthquakes happen, and great info on seismic waves and plate tectonics.
And finally, two visualizations of descriptive statistics:
– xkcd has posted a nice graphic visualizing radiation dose units: what activity leads to which radiation exposure and how big is that dose compared to other activities
– IBM has produced a nice graphic showing the deaths per TWh by energy sources (nuclear energy is not the worst in that measure).
Identi.ca Weekly Updates for 2011-03-23
- For our next trick, we will attempt to fit entire methods section into a figure caption… http://twitpic.com/4c6z2f (via @modernscientist) #
- Fascinating article -The Scale of Nature:Modeling the Mississippi River. http://is.gd/W6NVsD (via @WaterWired) #
- #movie http://www.watermakesmoney.com tomorrow 22-Mar-11, 20:15 on #Arte – more info here: http://ke-we.net/eyq #
Optical Fibres
The other day I was playing with optical fibres. The top picture shows two not-polished ends under a microscope. Each edge in the grid is 1mm long. The bottom picture shows that the optical fibres we use can actually transmit light! 🙂
Tomorrow will be the great day: the first time we let water flow through our experiment!
Identi.ca Weekly Updates for 2011-03-16
- Send take-down notice now. Do you need help?RT @GeoEvelyn: This is an example of blatant plagarism http://www.cfact.org/ (via @highlyanne) #
- #Esri Press Publishes Arc #Hydro #Groundwater: http://bit.ly/hUBXId (via @deepseadawn) #
- what is Desertec #DLR #Stuttgart #Solarpower http://www.livestream.com/dlrstuttgart #
- Is there a trend towards strong earthquakes happening with increasing frequency? http://ke-we.net/emx #
- Geoblogger Evelyn Mervine interviews her dad, a nuclear engineer, about the situation in Japan: http://ke-we.net/emw #
- Douglas Wiens, PhD, chair of earth and planetary science, U Washington on #hitsunami japan: http://ke-we.net/emv (via @BrianShiro) #