Monday 3 December 2007

The Journal of Unlikely Science

For some bitesize chunks of science, you should check out Null Hypothesis, the Journal of Unlikely Science. But I am reserving judgement as to how 'scientific' it actually is. I don't think that all science needs to be made funny or faintly ridiculous to be engaging.

For example, one section is about little known and unusual science journals - the most recently featured is the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics. It describes the logo and the impressiveness of the formulae, but unfortunately give no clue as to what combinatorics actually are.

The site is also full of random useful facts - did you know that an average olive tree can live up to 1500 years, and make over 10,000 olives. So you can see the site is useful for trivia at dinner parties, but beware if anyone asks you about more of the detail. However, as a light hearted look at the quirky side of science, it is definitely worth a look.

The news section is probably the more useful part of the site. A recent story describes a solution to global carbon emissions which involves transforming carbon dioxide into bicarbonate of soda. An American firm claims it can capture 90 percent of the CO2 emitted from a coal-burning power station and turn it into the harmless baking ingredient. Bicarbonate can also be used for cleaning products, and if there is too much, it can simply be buried in mines. But I would like to hear more about this claim, before I decide that cake is the way of the future.

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