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esiegel | October 17, 2013"It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters." -Friedrich Nietzsche
Although the innermost planets, from Mercury through Saturn, were known since ancient times, it's only since the advent of the telescope that we've discovered what really lives in our Solar System. Over the past four centuries, the wonders of not only the distant Universe, but also our nearby neighborhood, have been uncovered in spectacular detail.
Image credit: NASA and – I believe – G. Bacon (STScI).
The third and fourth largest planets were…
esiegel | October 4, 2012“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.” -Joan of Arc
Regardless of what intrinsic differences any person or group of people have from another, everyone deserves to be treated as an individual, afforded the same opportunities to pursue their passions, goals and dreams, and evaluated on the merits of their performance. Although this is not yet the way the world works, I am confident that many strides are consistently being made in the right direction, and I was…
esiegel | June 12, 2012"I went into a clothing store, and the lady asked me what size I was. I said, 'Actual'. I'm not to scale." -Demitri Martin
When you look out at the Universe, what you can see is limited, at the most fundamental level, by the size of what you look with. This is why you can see dimmer objects at night -- when your pupils are dilated -- than you can when your pupils are constricted.
Image credit: National Institute of Health.
This same principle that applies to your eyes applies to telescopes as well. As telescopes have grown in size, so has our ability to see deeper into the Universe, as we…
kcollins | March 11, 2011
She has developed some of the world's most famous robots - humanoid
creatures like "Kismet" (a robotic head that has been widely featured in
international media) and "Nexi," a mobile dexterous social robot that learns from
and interacts with people in an intelligent, life-like and sociable manner.
But Cynthia Breazeal, associate professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she founded and directs the
Personal Robots Group at the Media Lab, says she has much more ground to
cover in the growing field of social robotics.
"My research explores…