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Author Archives: jlredford
Mad Science #3: Land Mine Follies
Two stories of mad science this time about this vicious class of weapons, and one about how they ought to be done: Radioactive Nazi Land Mines Like Mad Science #1, the first story comes from Atomic Adventures (2017) by James … Continue reading
Is STEM Recruitment Working?
The technical world, that of math, science, and engineering, has been trying for decades to get more young people interested in it. It collectively sponsors TV programs, high school contests, and scholarships. Politicians are constantly touting the benefits of STEM … Continue reading
Mad Science #2 – Zapping ICBMs with Nuke-Induced Radiation Belts
Another great recent source of crazed science stories is Sharon Weinberger’s thorough and refreshingly skeptical history of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, The Imagineers of War. DARPA has been all the rage for the last few years because … Continue reading
Mad Science #1 – Soviet Space Station Rayguns
I’ve been reading a lot of juicy stories about completely crazed projects recently, so I’d like to pass some on. These were projects that made sense to someone at the time, but were really awful ideas, ones that you can … Continue reading
The Least Substantial Lasts Longest
A few days ago a friend noted that this was the 40th anniversary of the VAX computer line, one of the most successful and most criticized machines ever. Its first model was the VAX 11/780, which was announced on Oct … Continue reading
Who Are the World’s Leading EEs?
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) is the world’s largest technical society, with about 420,000 members. Although founded in the US in 1884, over half its members are international. Its highest rank is Fellow, which can only be … Continue reading
Recent Posts on Let’s See This Work
I’ve been putting movie-related posts over on this other blog, Let’s See This Work. Here are some you might like: Stats on the Most Influential Effects Movies – When were these made and who did them? “The Founder” as Design vs Finance … Continue reading
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The Engineering of Biology at MIT
One of the big reunion activities at MIT is Technology Day, a series of lectures from faculty done shortly after commencement. This year the theme was Synthetic Life, and the talks were just as creepy and interesting as you might … Continue reading
“The Earth After Us” – Humanity in Deep Time
So I was once sitting in an introductory geology class, and the instructor was talking about limestone. “It’s sometimes formed by calcium carbonate precipitating directly out of seawater,” he said, “Until life evolved 600 million years ago, and it then became … Continue reading
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Boston, City of Other People’s Bad Memories
My home city has had a remarkably long run of peace. The last time war touched Boston was when it was besieged for almost a year by the colonials during the American Revolution, some 240 years ago. Few places in … Continue reading
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