[url]http://ca.news.yahoo.com/earths-first-arctic-ozone-hole-recorded-190204400.html[/url]

Quaternary rainbow
 

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15197774"]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15197774[/URL]

I'm sure I have seen a tertiary rainbow within the last year or two.

Similarly, I'm sure I've seen a tertiary rainbow, though only twice, I think. The very localized nature of some of the desert thunderstorms here often makes for bright, direct sunlight through the raindrops, with a dark background. Bright, strong double rainbows are common enough that I wouldn't even think to film them, and put them on YouTube...

Norm

The 'first true scientist' -- al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham
 

[QUOTE=Flatlander;273617][URL]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15197774[/URL][/QUOTE]Beside that article is a link to this one:

[B]The 'first true scientist'[/B]

[URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7810846.stm[/URL]

al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham

Our science and mathematics texts need to include more credit for the achievements of "the period between the 9th and 13th Centuries [that] marked the Golden Age of Arabic science."

[QUOTE=sichase;273298]Truthfully, I'm not quite getting where your confusion lies.[/QUOTE]I've worked out the source of my confusion :blush:

I was fixated on E=h\nu and assuming v==c which, of course, works only for massless particles. I should have been thinking about momenta, not energy.

Paul

[QUOTE=cheesehead;273646]Beside that article is a link to this one:

[B]The 'first true scientist'[/B]

[URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7810846.stm[/URL]

al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham

Our science and mathematics texts need to include more credit for the achievements of "the period between the 9th and 13th Centuries [that] marked the Golden Age of Arabic science."[/QUOTE]

Actually, we were taught in middle and high school precisely what the author claims is missing from "Popular accounts of the history of science", i.e. that while Europe was in the [alleged] 'dark ages', mathematics, astronomy and other sciences flourished in the Islamic world. There is no small number of mathematical results (e.g. Heron's theorem, and of course the word 'algebra') which reflect this. The influence of Islamic science is especially obvious in astronomy, where most of the common bright stars have Arabic names.

[quote]It seems he had developed what is called celestial mechanics, explaining the orbits of the planets, which was to lead to the eventual work of Europeans like Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton.[/quote]
That would be impressive, but the author of the Beeb piece is alas rather vague as to precisely which elements of celestial mechanics Ibn al-Haytham discovered. (What are now know as) Kepler's laws? The inverse-square-law of gravitational attraction? Professor Al-Khalili, if you're going to make a claim as broad as that, please back it up with some details.

[url]http://news.yahoo.com/video/oddnews-22772304/odd-news-whale-in-field-ranch-chug-bikini-parade-26839206.html[/url]

beached ( actually fielded 800 yards from shore) sei whale, ranch dresing chug and a world record bikini parade ( really it's only the first that I care about).

[url]http://ca.news.yahoo.com/heads-again-pieces-german-telescope-return-earth-coming-090008634.html[/url]

heads up again, time to get your crash profile predictors out.

[url]http://ca.news.yahoo.com/russians-claim-indisputable-proof-yeti-231402825.html[/url]

Interesting possible explanation of the CERN faster than light neutrino observation:
[url]http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27260/[/url]

[QUOTE=Jeff Gilchrist;274491]Interesting possible explanation of the CERN faster than light neutrino observation:
[url]http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27260/[/url][/QUOTE]
This list by Czech theoretical physicist Luboš Motl of possible errors is nice reading: [URL="http://motls.blogspot.com/2011/09/potential-mistakes-in-opera-research.html"]Potential mistakes in the Opera research[/URL]