MetaFilter posts tagged with experiment

The Science of Cosby

Powerful Religious Baby — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:18:11 -0800

The Great Cosby Experiment 09. "As of the last actual count we have 185 Cosbies!"

Quick! Alert Ed and Lorraine Warren!

Pope Guilty — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:36:44 -0800

The objective of the experiment was to determine whether infrasonic frequencies and magnetic field fluctuations similar to those found in supposedly "haunted" spaces can elicit physiological or psychological effects similar to those experienced in "hauntings".

Where's Wiseman?

fearfulsymmetry — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:32:14 -0800

Richard Wiseman's Psychic Twitter Experiment starts today at 3pm UK time. May be he'll have better luck finding psychic powers than with this recent attempt

Morality and context.

limon — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:02:15 -0800

How wrong is it to use a kitten for personal sexual pleasure? Depends on whether you've washed your hands.

The history of the experimentalization of life.

tellurian — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:52:23 -0800

The Virtual Laboratory - A collection of essays, biographies, instruments and trade catalogues (e.g. experiment kit) from between 1830 and 1930. I must warn you that some of the films are a bit disturbing. Check out the eerie sounding vowel experiments in the audio section too.

What if...

divabat — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:03:15 -0800

The Signtific Lab invites people to develop cutting-edge ideas through experiments of imagination and discussion. Experiment One: what would happen if outer space becomes as accessible as the Web today?

A different kind of grey scale

Brandon Blatcher — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:19:03 -0800

This drawing toy responds to volume.

Eye of the storm

Afroblanco — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:57:31 -0800

Many of us have seen or read The Wave, but how many of us have seen A Class Divided? It depicts one third-grade teacher's attempts to teach Midwestern children about the civil rights movement, many of whom had never met a black person before. As part of a daring experiment, she split the class between brown-eyed children and blue-eyed children, and gave the "browneyes" special privileges. The children were told, in no uncertain terms, that the "blueyes" were inferior. What followed was a lesson in discrimination that the kids would remember for the rest of their lives.

Sooner or Later

justkevin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:57:55 -0800

Sooner or Later István Madarász's sci-fi film tells the story of a Nazi experiment in ten minutes. Or maybe longer?

By Jove!

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:00:46 -0800

Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) is the first video journal for biological research accepted in PubMed, featuring hundreds of peer-reviewed video-protocols demonstrating experimental techniques in the fields of neuroscience, cellular biology, developmental biology, immunology, bioengineering, microbiology and plant biology, free of charge.

Scientists Determine the Fishiest Election Ever (LiveScience)

bondgirl53001 — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:56:45 -0800

Scientists make fish "vote" by having them choose an artificial fish to follow. Shocker: There's not a lot of individual decision-making.. I always did say some people are as intelligent as fish..

Direct Postage

divabat — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:29:15 -0800

What happens if you post a letter using coins instead of stamps?

"You named your collaboration QAP? Really?"

fatllama — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:29:37 -0800

The DiVincenzo Code [youtube trailer, geekery]. Faced with a strict demand from a funding agency to allocate research funds towards the dissemination of research ideas to the public, an experimental physics group at the University of Oxford produced a feature-length (55 min) action thriller about murder, ancient prophecy, tea breaks, and quantum computation. [Trailer linked above. Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6] Named after the most basic requirements for a functional quantum computer, the DiVincenzo criteria [pdf], the student-directed effort is a superposition of The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix, and a live-action PhD Comics. Perhaps best viewed with either popcorn or your lab-mate's stash ofThorlabs Lab Snacks.

"Demonstrations” by Caleb Charland

Surfin' Bird — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:43:15 -0800

Caleb Charland's photographs artistically demonstrate the laws of physics. In "Solid, Liquid, Gas," for example, three similar glass-tumbler shapes are positioned on a film of water. One glass is filled with a separation of water, oil and alcohol. Another, overturned, contains an extinguished candle which, having burned up the oxygen inside the vessel, created a vacuum that sucked the water inside. The third vessel and the other pictures are just cool.

Like nailing Jello to the wall.

limon — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:28:53 -0800

"Nailing down Senator Obama's various tax proposals is like nailing Jello to the wall." Well, how hard is it, really? Initial attempts are not too promising. Some creative engineering fares better, but not a whole lot. Of course, Jesus can help. Oh well -- at least you can set it on fire. Previously.

It doesn't matter how much security you put on the box. Humans are not secure.

desjardins — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:12:47 -0800

The AI-Box Experiments. The hypothesis: "A transhuman can take over a human mind through a text-only terminal." Does Artifical Intelligence create moral monsters (PDF) ? Can we create friendly AI?

Infusions of Grandeur

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:17:39 -0800

Cantaloupe, garlic, ginger, habenero, kiwi, nutmeg, pineapple, spearmint, watermelon and many other vodka infusion experiments by the crack alconomics team of Waylan and Brendan.

Tree lined Eco Boulevard

Burhanistan — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:29:40 -0800

Madrid's "Air Tree" is a working experiment in combining public spaces with energy generation.

Suburban Moscow only seems like outer space

dkg — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:00:38 -0800

Russians are planning a trip to Mars, but first they want to better understand the psychological and practical issues involved with long, isolated human travel. So the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems will be locking volunteers into a small, closed system for ~500 days. The ESA is collaborating on the so-called Mars500 project. There is a current call out for volunteers which is open until the end of this month. Communication with the outside world will be possible during the experiment, but it will be time-delayed to simulate radio transmission from a remote spacecraft back to earth.