Pedagogía by Andrés Ibáñez

Pedagogía. Enseñar a enseñar. La falacia dice que  no sólo es necesario saber de algo, sino que también es necesario saber enseñarlo . Este principio o axioma casi místico se basa, como el amable lector habrá visto enseguida, en una presuposición no menos axial y mística, y no menos falaz que la anterior: A saber, que todos aquellos que no son pedagogos, no son ni pueden ser nunca buenos profesores.

Michelson–Morley experiment is best yet

Physicists in Germany have performed the most precise Michelson-Morley experiment to date,

confirming that the speed of light is the same in all directions

The experiment, which involves rotating two optical cavities, is about 10 times more precise than previous experiments – and a hundred million times more precise than Michelson and Morley's 1887 measurement.

U of S helps discover new family of superconductors

The superconductor family Tse discovered in conjunction with a number of international researchers is a group of hydrogen compounds known as molecular hydrides. Tse and graduate student Yansun Yao worked out the theoretical basis for the experiment as well as the key chemical structures involved, while German scientist Mikhail Eremets did the lab work.

First Solid Evidence for a Rocky Exoplanet

Mass and density of smallest exoplanet finally measured.

The longest set of HARPS measurements ever made has firmly established the nature of the smallest and fastest-orbiting exoplanet known, CoRoT-7b, revealing its mass as five times that of Earth's. Combined with CoRoT-7b's known radius, which is less than twice that of our terrestrial home, this tells us that the exoplanet's density is quite similar to the Earth's, suggesting a solid, rocky world. The extensive dataset also reveals the presence of another so-called super-Earth in this alien solar system.

First images of a carbon atom's electron clouds

The images were captured by  Igor Mikhailovskij 's team at the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, Ukraine.

The $150 Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget

The two students ( from MIT, of course ) put together a low-budget rig to fly a camera high enough to photograph the curvature of the Earth. Instead of rockets, boosters and expensive control systems, they filled a weather balloon with helium and hung a styrofoam beer cooler underneath to carry a cheap Canon A470 compact camera. Instant hand warmers kept things from freezing up and made sure the batteries stayed warm enough to work.

HTML5 Canvas Cheat Sheet v. 1.1

Author: Jacob Seidelin

video – more than just a tag

This article is written by  Paul Rouget , Mozilla contributor and purveyor of extraordinary Open Web demos.

Starting with Firefox 3.5, you can embed a video in a web page like an image.

This means video is now a part of the document, and finally, a first class citizen of the Open Web. Like all other elements, you can use it with CSS and JavaScript. Let’s see what this all means …

Juan Aréchaga: Las revistas científicas españolas y el fraude bibliométrico

 Son muchos los problemas que continúan teniendo nuestras publicaciones para competir internacionalmente , dice el autor.

El reciente informe 2008 Journal Citation Reports Science Edition ( JCR, Institute for Scientific Information, Thomson Reuters, 2009 ) ofrece algunas novedades de interés, como el incremento, más bien escaso, de revistas españolas entre las 6.598 seleccionadas ( 0,56 % del total ) y un nuevo parámetro bibliométrico, denominado 5-Year Impact Factor, que mejora notablemente ediciones precedentes. Con toda seguridad, el último JCR ha sido espoleado por su nuevo competidor, conocido como SCImago Journal & Country Rank, desarrollado íntegramente en España sobre la base de datos SCOPUS de la multinacional holandesa Elsevier. Así, este repertorio amplía su análisis ya a  16.033 revistas científicas y, entre ellas, 227 ( 1,4 % ) españolas...¡ No hay nada mejor que la competencia para renovar productos y servicios ! Pero, también, el 2008JCR dedica un espacio importante al tema de las auto-referencias ( no confundir con las autocitas de los propios autores, que esto es harina de otro costal ), un aspecto que suele pasar desapercibido para muchos, pero que merece una especial atención por su trascendencia en España.

The uncalculability of electron systems

The electric and magnetic properties of solids are impossible to calculate exactly: The complex interactions of the many electrons which underly these phenomena cannot be computed even by the most powerful classical computers. Here, the central task is to determine the ground state of the electrons moving in the field of the positively charged nuclei. The most widely used method for treating such systems is Density Functional Theory, which reduces the many-body problem to a single particle interaction. As Dr. Norbert Schuch, scientist in the theory division of Prof. Ignacio Cirac at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, and Prof. Frank Verstraete from the University of Vienna, report in Nature Physics ( DOI: 10.1038/NPHYS1370 ), there exist however fundamental limitations to the applicability of this theory. The scientists succeeded by using methods developed in Quantum Information Theory, demonstrating that these methods can give deep insights beyond the development of quantum computers.

Physicist Proposes Solution to Arrow-of-Time Paradox

The laws of physics, which describe everything from electricity to moving objects to energy conservation, are time-invariant. That is, the laws still hold if time is reversed. However, this time reversal symmetry is in direct contrast with everyday phenomena, where  it’s obvious that time moves forward and not backward .

For example, when milk is spilt, it can’t flow back up into the glass, and when pots are broken, their pieces can’t shatter back together. This irreversibility is formalized through the second law of thermodynamics, which says that entropy always increases or stays the same, but never decreases. This contrast has created a reversibility paradox, also called  Loschmidt’s paradox , which scientists have been trying to understand since Johann Loschmidt began considering the problem in 1876. Scientists have proposed many solutions to the conundrum, from trying to embed irreversibility in physical laws to postulating low-entropy initial states.

IBM eyes molecule 'anatomy' for future computers

IBM scientists have imaged the chemical structure of an individual molecule, increasing the possibility for creating electronic building blocks on the atomic and molecular scale.

Scientists In Zurich, Switzerland, have, for the first time, imaged the "anatomy," or chemical structure, of an individual molecule with "unprecedented" resolution, using noncontact atomic force microscopy (AFM), IBM said Thursday. Resolving individual atoms within a molecule has been a long-standing goal of surface microscopy, according to the computer company, which has a research and development program dating back to 1945.

Schoolgirl 'wanted to lose virginity before Large Hadron Collider caused end of world'

The girl, who is aged between 13 and 15, had heard rumours that particle accelerator under the Franco-Swiss border would bring about Armageddon when it was switched on last September. At the time leading scientists including Prof Stephen Hawking were forced to deny claims that the £4.4bn accelerator would generate a black hole capable of swallowing up the earth. In the event the collider kicked into life peacefully, although it has since been beset by technological problems. But police in Brisbane, Australia believe that the teenage girl was so scared by the doomsday speculation that she agreed to have under-age sex with a boy in their school lavatories. Her fears came to light after their sex acts were filmed by another boy at the school, with the footage circulated among pupils via their mobile phones. Police have launched an investigation  under child pornography laws , although The Courier-Mail newspaper reported that they did not expect to bring any charges.

El agujero negro más lejano tiene una galaxia enorme a su alrededor

El agujero negro más lejano que se conoce, un objeto supermasivo situado a 12.800 millones de años luz de la Tierra, tiene alrededor una galaxia tan grande como nuestra Vía Láctea, algo sorprendente en el universo primitivo tan joven ( sólo 840 millones de años después del Big Bang ), dicen los científicos.  La galaxia y el agujero negro, que tiene al menos mil millones de veces más materia que el Sol, debieron formarse muy rápidamente en el cosmos primitivo , dice Tomotsugu Goto ( Universidad de Hawai ), líder de esta investigación, en la que participan, además, cuatro astrofísicos de instituciones japonesas. De hecho, las observaciones se realizaron en agosto del año pasado con el gran telescopio nipón Subaru, ubicado en el observatorio de Mauna Kea ( Hawai ), sobre todo para probar un nuevo sensor ( CCD ) avanzado instalado en una de sus cámaras.

Rafael Cadenas agradece Premio FIL de Literatura

El poeta venezolano recibirá el reconocimiento dotado con 150 mil dólares que busca destacar al autor que haya aportado una valiosa obra de creación, en cualquier género literario

Luego de que el jurado decidió que el poeta venezolano Rafael Cadenas sea quien se lleve el Premio FIL de Literatura en Lenguas Romances 2009, el vate agradeció la distinción vía telefónica.

Cadenas, quien recibirá el galardón dotado con 150 mil dólares en el marco de la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, el 28 de noviembre próximo, manifestó que tiene muchas cosas que agradecerle a México y dijo estar muy contento con el Premio.

Autor de una obra marcada por una continua meditación sobre la relación entre ética, lenguaje y poesía, el escritor sudamericano nacido en Barquisimeto en 1930, aseguró en entrevista, desde Caracas, que lo que  brota ahora en mí es la palabra gracias .

Cadenas también habló de su relación con México y sus autores y recordó que su obra completa está publicada en el Fondo de Cultura Económica, que este día se sumó a las felicitaciones para este autor.

El acta del jurado, que fue leída por Gustavo Guerrero, destacó a Cadenas como  una de las voces más reconocidas de la poesía latinoamericana contemporánea .

Señaló que su obra  encarna hoy para los más jóvenes el horizonte de una palabra que se aleja del lirismo tradicional y trae consigo el imperativo de darle voz a aquello que, de otro modo, ya no encuentra espacios para decirse en nuestra época .

Dotado con 150 mil dólares y convocado por la Asociación Civil del Premio de Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe Juan Rulfo, el Premio FIL de Literatura en Lenguas Romances busca reconocer a un escritor que haya aportado una valiosa obra de creación, en cualquier género literario.