How to Help Science: BOINC and Team FQTQ

Did you know you can help cure diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars, search for extraterrestrials, run particle acceleration simulations, and help construct a 3-D map of the Milky Way without ever leaving your home?

Meet BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing), an open source middleware system for volunteer and grid computing. The intent of BOINC is to make it possible for researchers in science, math, molecular biology, climatology, and astrophysics to tap into the enormous processing power of personal computers around the world.

Learn more about this amazing crowd-computing effort (and how to get the software) here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/how-to-help-science-boinc-and-team-fqtq/

The 50 Best Pictures of Science in Action - 2013

2013 was a great year for science. It was also a great year for science-related photography. For your viewing pleasure, FQTQ presents some of the best pictures of 2013.

Note: This article contains not only pictures, but gifs and youtube links as well. To avoid them from taking forever to load, we"ve divided them up into several pages.

http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/2013-in-pictures-page-1/

Public Perception of Evolution: A Reflection of Scientific Literacy in Society

Unfortunately, humans seem to thrive on controversy. Though people may come from diverse economic, social, and cultural backgrounds, there is one thing that we all love: Arguing. In fact, we’ll even argue about things that experts are decidedly *not* arguing about.

Case in point, the Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey (between March 21 and April 8, 2013) among a national sample of 1,983 adults. This survey dealt with individual views regarding evolution. The survey was conducted by professionally trained interviewing staff under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. According to the analysis, six-in-ten Americans (60%) say that “humans and other living things have evolved over time.” That’s a bit comforting; however, not all of the findings are inspiring.

Discover what the numbers say at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/common-views-on-evolution/

Image:
NASA

Understanding Evolution: What is Natural Selection?

“When it was introduced in the 1940s, penicillin was a miracle drug, especially effective at curing infections caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus ("staph"). In 1941, the drug could wipe out every strain of staph in the world. Now, seventy years later, more than 95% of staph strains are resistant to penicillin.” — Dr. Jerry Coyne, "Why Evolution is True"

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In "Why Evolution is True", Dr. Coyne used this example in the chapter entitled, “The Engine of Evolution.” The engine he’s referring to is none other than natural selection, and this little insight regarding the adaptability (evolution) of Staphylococcus aureus is excellent evidence for the theory of evolution by natural selection. It’s my go-to “proof,” if you will, when someone asks me to provide proof of evolution because (a) it’s simple and easy to understand, (b) it definitively shows that an organism can adapt to a new environment (in this case, a human body injected with penicillin), (c) it doesn’t require any discourse regarding fossils or the fossil record (which is probably the best evidence for evolution, but it’s very difficult to explain fossil evidence to someone who wants to “see” evolution if you don’t have fossils on hand!), and (d) bacteria are excellent for ‘showing’ evolution in action because they reproduce quickly, meaning that they can potentially evolve much faster than, say, a dog or a dolphin.

Learn all about natural selection at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/understanding-evolution-what-is-natural-selection/

Image:
NASA

Astronomy Picture of the Day: 12/31/13 - Zeta Ophichui

It would be an absolute travesty on all of our parts if we didn"t show you this splendid celestial region, which comes wrapped in its own cosmic bow! This image showcases one of the most massive stars in our celestial neighborhood, which is located about 366 light-years from Earth. Okay, so "neighborhood" might be a little bit too loose of a word given the immense distance a single light-year entails (about 6 trillion miles or ten trillion kilometers), but considering our galaxy alone is about 100,000 light-years in diameter, it"s safe to say, Zeta Ophichui is "near-by."

Interestingly, the star in question SHOULD be one of the brightest stars in our night sky given its mass and spectral classification, but since it is still a young star in the initial phase of stellar evolution, the star (which is 20 times more massive than the sun and emits about 80,000 times more light) is still enshrouded in its stellar cocoon, smothered by thick blankets of interstellar dust, much of the light from the dense, opaque material is absorbed from our line of sight and can only properly be observed in infrared.

In addition, the young star emits large quantities of energetic particles that wrap around the star. Paired with the rapid rate at which the star rotates through the surrounding dust (about 15 miles, or 25 kilometers per second), a wave-like structure is generated (called "bow shock"). Overall, this arc is about four light-years in length, which is equivalent to about 25 TRILLION miles (or 40 TRILLION kilometers).

Sources & Additional Resources: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/apod-zeta-ophichui/

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Your Particle Physics Guide: Part 2

The Standard Model is the theory that describes the interaction of forces affecting subparticles, like electrons and quarks. Although this physics deals with the major forces that govern our universe, it often seems disconnected from us--like it belongs to another reality. In truth, it does deal with matters outside out everyday experience; however, that does not make it any less important. Ultimately, understanding the Standard Model is a necessary part of understanding our universe; it is the best thing that we have at our disposal when trying to make experimental predictions.

So let"s take a moment to get to know the Standard Model, and the universe, a little better.
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/your-particle-physics-guide/

Image:
2011 Keiko Murano

The Incredible 3D Rendering of a Nebula:

Have you ever wondered what a nebula may look like in 3D? Wonder no more! (GIF link can be found below!)

Due to the vast distances that separates objects in interstellar space, it"s very unlikely that any of us will ever get to see these things up close and personal with our own two eyes. Though that doesn"t stop incredibly artistic people from breaking the mold and presenting us with something that is truly spectacular. This is one of those things.

See Here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/the-incredible-3d-rendering-of-a-nebula/

(Note: It may take a minute or so to load since the filesize is about 7MB, but it"s well worth it)

Image Credit: Sky Candy