Tag: science

Is it movie magic or just science?

In a recent column, you got the wrong answer to the "hummingbird" problem. Fifty years ago, my boss in an Air Force research laboratory used this problem to trick those who wanted to upgrade their "subprofessional" status to "professional." He...

I've heard that each gallon of gas burned by a car releases about 20 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. I'm not a chemist, but even allowing for some creative reactions and recombinations going on, how does combusting about six and...

What's happening to your brain that makes cell phones create all that havoc on the roadway?

Is distracted driving a problem in your community? This blog describes a simple way to study driver distraction.

You mentioned in a recent column that ethylene glycol (antifreeze) is toxic to animals. Is it also toxic to humans? I'm a doctor, and I prescribe a medicine for my patients that cleans out their colon called Go-Lytely (which makes...

Once, on a very long, boring trip, my passenger and I were reduced to asking each other dumb questions. We came upon one question that we couldn't settle. Imagine that I'm driving along at highway speed with the air conditioner...