Tag archives: science
Every organization had to pivot to produce programs during the pandemic. But for the MOXI museum, innovation comes with the territory. Indeed, that’s what the “I” in the nonprofit’s name (Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation) stands for. “What the pandemic forced us to do is to take what we do best — which is […]
On July 20, 1976, seven years to the day after humans first walked on the moon, a bunch of us new employees of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory trooped over to Caltech’s Beckman auditorium (the one that looks like a circus tent) to see the first landing of a spacecraft on another planet. Viking 1 was […]
As a kid I was always picking up rocks and wondering at the diversity of them all. Where did they come from? And family camping trips gave me a sampling of the varied landscapes of California and the West. When I found out I could combine my love of the outdoors with the study of […]
We all know that there is no such thing as real “magic.” As performed by “magicians,” it’s all trickery and deception, the best of which fools us in ways we like to be fooled, and takes advantage of our own weaknesses and susceptibilities. But science and technology have become so clever and adept that it’s […]
It took the Greeks to turn beauty into a science. They called it aesthetics – a word and concept we’ve been stuck with ever since. It’s not enough just to enjoy a starry night, or a fine piece of architecture, or a good-looking girl. We have to ask why. We feel the compulsion to analyze, […]
Even as a kid growing up in Southern California, I was always wondering: Why do things look the way they do? Why is the sky blue, but grass is green? I got into rock collecting and wondered at the variety of colors and textures – how did they form? As I studied geology in college […]
Scary Stats Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation circulating on the web and social media on political and scientific issues, and few people take the time to fact-check statements that contradict common sense or consensus science. In a recent letter to Montecito Journal, using sign removals and research conducted by a PhD in Sociology, […]
Designed to ignite the imagination and inspire creativity, Laguna Blanca School invites the Santa Barbara and Montecito communities to jump down the rabbit hole for the ninth annual Owls in Wonderland Carnival at its Lower School campus this Sunday, November 11. This whimsical day of interactive learning and creative play allows children of all ages […]
Dana Newquist stated in the latest MJ (#24/34) that the Montecito Sanitary District is “dumping partially treated sewage water just off shore at Butterfly Beach.” This is a false, slanderous statement. Secondary treatment is treated to the same level as tertiary treatment, but the salinity is modulated to match the ocean salinity. Tertiary is the […]
The Squire Foundation’s second mini-partnership residency this summer 2018 is Chicago-based music composer and conductor Jim Stephenson. He is working in partnership with Ben Halpern, Ph.D.,UCSB marine scientistand executive director of the UCSB National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and the Music Academy of the West (MAW) Montecito. Stephenson will be composing a […]
Do you ever long for the good old days, when the sun went around the Earth, and we were really the center of everything? Science keeps discovering new ways in which we are less and less significant, and the world more and more strange. Not many eras ago, if I were to quip, “They told […]
I have been in science my whole life, and as I age I realize it rarely has needed a Newton or Einstein; it has just needed information and common sense. As an example, I realized in recent weeks after witnessing the current hysteria over rain and flooding, there is a simpler explanation to our freak […]
Are man’s activities having an impact on climate change? Probably. Is the weather changing? Yes. It always has and always will. How much, I don’t know, and few if any of the current crop of prognosticators know either. Take note that the climate change crowd has conveniently changed its mantra from the climate warming chants […]
