The Week in Science

This week's Science:

• Sean at Cosmic Variance answers the question: What Should I Say if Someone Asks Me, “Will the Large Hadron Collider Destroy the World?” (Go on: guess - then go and read it; I'm not giving it away.)


• Jen at Cocktail Party Physics discusses shoes, spike-heels to be exact: But could there really be any actual science associated with sexy stilettos? "Mais oui!" Jen-Luc Piquant exclaims. "How could you doubt it?" We need look no further than Jolly Olde England. Several years ago, The Globe and Mail ran an entertaining article about a physics professor at the University of Surrey named Paul Stevenson who calculated the maximum height of stiletto heels a woman could wear without falling over, and/or cramping up in pain.
  


• Julianne at Cosmic Variance looks at success and how to attain it: To be scientifically successful, you don’t need to have all of these factors, or even most of these factors. You just need to have enough of them, or a long enough suit in one or two of them, that people can’t ignore what you’re doing. Of this list, there are at least half that are almost entirely under a student’s own control, no matter where they go to graduate school.
  


• Jennifer at The Infinite Sphere looks at white nose syndrome, a virulent bat killer: Seems that the white nose syndrome in bats is spreading south. It's now confirmed in Massachusetts and "suspicious" cases have been found in Pennsylvania. In areas where bats have contracted whatever illness this is, there is a 95% mortality rate.


• Did you see the xkcd where the guy mentioned "friendly" numbers? Did you, like me, pass over the term because the strip was funny anyway? But you kind of wondered, and then forgot about it? Well, Mark at Good Math, Bad Math explains what friendly numbers are so we can all be a little better informed, not merely amused.

Enjoy!