As of 1 pm EDT, Hurricane Isaac has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale) and its minimal pressure central pressure is 976 MB.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Hurricane Isaac
It made it. I knew it had a chance once I saw that the prediction cone went over Key West, Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico. The warm waters there help strengthen storms.
As of 1 pm EDT, Hurricane Isaac has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale) and its minimal pressure central pressure is 976 MB.
As of 1 pm EDT, Hurricane Isaac has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale) and its minimal pressure central pressure is 976 MB.
Friday, August 24, 2012
SETI at Home; Folding at Home
Want to help out science on a daily basis just by using your computer? These are two options that are available to you - I find both to be great causes!
SETI, or the "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence," has been collecting and analyzing radio signals from all over skies since the 1960s in the hunt for other intelligent life in our cosmos. Unsure where exactly to point the telescopes or what frequency to find information on, SETI has more data than it can possibly go through. Instead of filling up the processing capabilities on a few computers, these scientists have decided to spread out the information on many computers across the world. Your computer, which will still functions normally while performing SETI analysis in the background, can be one! Look it up, sign up, and check it out here: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
Biological scientists study proteins every single day. Each one is created as a string of amino acids, but then folds up on itself to create a 3-dimensional structure capable of fulfilling some function (Lost? Check out my Central Dogma post!) Each string of amino acids folds into a shape that is specific, but we still don't understand many of the links between amino acid sequence and final, 3-dimensional shape. Programs exist to model protein folding, but they require large processing capabilities. Much like SETI@home, Folding@home also works by breaking down a large job into many smaller jobs capable of being run in the background on your home computer. The information gained from these models can be helpful for future treatments in all sorts of human diseases. Find out more on their website: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/HomePage
SETI, or the "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence," has been collecting and analyzing radio signals from all over skies since the 1960s in the hunt for other intelligent life in our cosmos. Unsure where exactly to point the telescopes or what frequency to find information on, SETI has more data than it can possibly go through. Instead of filling up the processing capabilities on a few computers, these scientists have decided to spread out the information on many computers across the world. Your computer, which will still functions normally while performing SETI analysis in the background, can be one! Look it up, sign up, and check it out here: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
Biological scientists study proteins every single day. Each one is created as a string of amino acids, but then folds up on itself to create a 3-dimensional structure capable of fulfilling some function (Lost? Check out my Central Dogma post!) Each string of amino acids folds into a shape that is specific, but we still don't understand many of the links between amino acid sequence and final, 3-dimensional shape. Programs exist to model protein folding, but they require large processing capabilities. Much like SETI@home, Folding@home also works by breaking down a large job into many smaller jobs capable of being run in the background on your home computer. The information gained from these models can be helpful for future treatments in all sorts of human diseases. Find out more on their website: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/HomePage
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Isaac and Joyce
While both tropical storms, Isaac and Joyce are churning down in the Atlantic, I jumped over to www.nhc.noaa.gov to check out the pictures! Unfortunately, I expected something more grand. Neither storm has the lovely cloud swirls yet and are instead more like cloud clusters.
Tropical Storm Isaac has a chance to turn hurricane before hitting the Domincan Republic and Haiti. The storm's current pressure (as of Advisory #10) is 1003 MB. As a hurricane strengthens, its central pressure drops, the eye becomes more well formed, and the hurricane takes on its classic cyclone shape.
Check for updated pictures of the storms every 30 minutes here: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/satellite.shtml (Atlantic views, GOES-East, Atlantic Wide View, Visible link)
Advisories, predictions, current stats of the storms can be found here: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
Here's a post I did last year on my main blog about hurricanes in the past: http://www.amedeo-amedeo.com/2011/08/hurricanes.html
Tropical Storm Isaac has a chance to turn hurricane before hitting the Domincan Republic and Haiti. The storm's current pressure (as of Advisory #10) is 1003 MB. As a hurricane strengthens, its central pressure drops, the eye becomes more well formed, and the hurricane takes on its classic cyclone shape.
Check for updated pictures of the storms every 30 minutes here: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/satellite.shtml (Atlantic views, GOES-East, Atlantic Wide View, Visible link)
Advisories, predictions, current stats of the storms can be found here: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
Here's a post I did last year on my main blog about hurricanes in the past: http://www.amedeo-amedeo.com/2011/08/hurricanes.html
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Aristotle or Plato?
Scientific American sent me a short, special report addition to their magazine this week. Apparently, physics predicts upwards of four different levels of parallel universes and this pamphlet was going to explain it to me. It didn't. All it really did was make me have this face:
However, I did learn something interesting about myself and I now want to pose the question to you.
Are you Aristotelian or Platonic?
Aristotelian: "Physical reality is fundamental and mathematic[s] is ... a useful approximation."
Platonic: "Mathematics is the true reality and observers perceive it imperfectly."
So, which do you believe? Our reality of gravity, planetary movement and energy is something math will only be able to approximate (Aristotelian) or that we are all governed by math, but we don't completely understand it all yet (Platonic)?
I am Platonic.
Reference: Tegmark, Max. "Parallel Universes: A Scientific American Special Report." Scientific American (2009).
PDF Copy: http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/PDF/multiverse_sciam.pdf
However, I did learn something interesting about myself and I now want to pose the question to you.
Are you Aristotelian or Platonic?
Aristotelian: "Physical reality is fundamental and mathematic[s] is ... a useful approximation."
Platonic: "Mathematics is the true reality and observers perceive it imperfectly."
So, which do you believe? Our reality of gravity, planetary movement and energy is something math will only be able to approximate (Aristotelian) or that we are all governed by math, but we don't completely understand it all yet (Platonic)?
I am Platonic.
Reference: Tegmark, Max. "Parallel Universes: A Scientific American Special Report." Scientific American (2009).
PDF Copy: http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/PDF/multiverse_sciam.pdf
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
I've joined Twitter.
With some things in my life winding down and other things just beginning, I've decided it's time to up my readership. Twitter seems to be a good way to go about it.
Check me out at @AmedeoBlog.
With some things in my life winding down and other things just beginning, I've decided it's time to up my readership. Twitter seems to be a good way to go about it.
Check me out at @AmedeoBlog.
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