Comments on: Three iPhone science apps

By: Ccu

Ccu — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 16:01:22 +0000

Lots of great apps here, thanks. The ‘lapetus’ app sounds great but I can’t find it. Any ideas?

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:01:29 +0000

The Skeptical Science app now comes in Android flavour!

So for those Droid dudes ( I’m talking to Morbid Florist, Mark S and V ) – enjoy.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 06:13:31 +0000

I’ve just released a free Android application called Solaris that displays STEREO extreme ultraviolet solar imagery on a 3D sphere. You can download Solaris for free at the Android Market. This is a “beta” version, with new features coming soon. All suggestions appreciated!

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:20:33 +0000

Re: Big Fat Earl…

“common” sense vs. science

I think I’ll take the science, please.

By: Big Fat Earl

Big Fat Earl — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:31:25 +0000

I don’t need to “dismiss it outright” when common sense and reality provide so much evidence (like, I don’t know, the entire geologic record, for one thing) that doesn’t support man-made climate change. What you call being a “denier” is known to those of us who live in reality as “looking at things objectively”.

By: SpoonmanWoS

SpoonmanWoS — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:24:42 +0000

To those who wish to “debunk” the Skeptical Science app before looking at it, your work is cut out for you. John Cook’s site has collected a vast amount of peer-reviewed science (despite Climategate & the Himalayan glaciers over-inflaters claims to the contrary, there’s LOTS of peer-reviewed science) to refute your claims. You won’t find “I just don’t understand point X, therefore climate change isn’t real” type arguments there. Of course, if you dismiss it outright without looking at it, you betray your position as an outright denier (Big Fat Earl).

By: Scott Evans

Scott Evans — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:42:51 +0000

Another sad android user here, love my phone, but hate all of the science apps are for iphone, well not all there is a ‘christian healing’ and a ‘science of fairies’ app in our marketplace…so all is not lost…./sarcasm…

By: Charles Boyer

Charles Boyer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:10:38 +0000

I am beginning to think Droid users have a lot of Mac or Linux-like fanbois.

Compare the numbers of the user bases between Droid and iPhone and it is as easy to see why apps go to the iPhone first as it is to see why apps are written for Windows before other platforms. That’s just Econ 101.

Besides, HTC has a nice little lawsuit from Apple for violating their patents with their Droid phone, and it looks like Apple is totally uninterested in licensing. Some say they may seek to brick all HTC Droid phones if they win the suit.

By: Jya Jya Binks Killer

Jya Jya Binks Killer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:01:02 +0000

STEREO probes are cool and all but when do we start getting the data & pictures in from the Solar Dynamics Observatory? Will that be made into an app too?

By: Mike V

Mike V — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:36:33 +0000

ANDROID SCIENCE APPS I HAVE:

Google Sky Map – The best astronomy app. Has been mentioned above.

Celeste – Similar to Google Sky Map but shows the location of the planets, Moon, and Sun superimposed over your camera’s current image.

Earthquake! – Notifies of earthquakes based on a user-defined magnitude threshold. Also able to notify of local quakes at a much lower threshold.

GPS Status – Raw info about location and orientation based on internal sensors and GPS

Iridium Flares – Shows upcoming flares based on current location

By: dan satterfield

dan satterfield — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:19:45 +0000

I agree that John’s App is great. He does an excellent job of blowing the silly skeptic arguments out of the water.
My patience with that silliness is quite limited. I often refer viewers to his site. Especially when I get one of the usual emails that mention Al Gore in the first sentence, and then repeat what they have read on one of these hoax websites.

By: Geophysicist

Geophysicist — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:28:12 +0000

Not a fan of the skeptical science app. I looked at it to see the answer to what seems to me to be the “elephant in the room” of the lack of tropospheric “hot spot” over the tropics predicted by modelling as reported by the IPCC. The app’s answer is basically: Correct no tropical hot spot has been observed, but the model is accurate everywhere else, so it’s probably bad data over the tropics.

Now to me as a scientist, If someone makes a hypothesis with predictable and therefore falsifiable implications; then undertakes detailed observations and measurements in the real world which do not support said hypothesis; I always get a little wary when they go on to say “Well, my hypothesis is still right, it’s just the observed data that’s wrong.”

Sure the observations might be poor quality, but should I be tarred with the brush of “denialism”? or is it fair to remain skeptical…

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:30:07 +0000

We need a PHONE for these apps? Bummer! It took me 20 years to get a decent computer and now I have to get a smart phone.

Whatever happened to land lines?

Cool apps but does the lunar rover have a built in 2.5 second delay?

Gary 7

By: Marcus

Marcus — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:54:59 +0000

ps. Note that the “IPCC”, created almost 2 decades ago, was named “the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” and not “the Intergovernmental Panel on Global Warming” despite the fairly evident warming at the time (and continued warming), because “climate change” more accurately depicts the multitude of changes that comes along with warming.

Sadly, skeptics have also pushed the “climate change” terminology in the past because it sounds less threatening than “global warming” – and then turned around several years later and ascribed false motives to the change.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:52:24 +0000

Before someone gets confused… Phil, could you edit the “1934″ comment to note that it refers to 1934 _in the U.S._ using one historical dataset? There’s enough confusion out there about “1934″ being the warmest year globally already with potentially adding more…

By: Old Muley

Old Muley — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:55:18 +0000

#32. The Chemist Says: “The Internet and Global Warming have something in common: Neither was invented by Al Gore.”

According to Futurama, Al Gore is the inventor of the environment, and first emperor of the moon. He has also ridden the mighty moon worm!

Back to the topic at hand, I like GoSatWatch, NASA in addition to 3D sun and planets.

By: Danno

Danno — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:41:01 +0000

Yet again, Blackberry users are ignored. sigh…

By: Phil Plait

Phil Plait — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:55:19 +0000

Big Fat Earl (#1): You can deny global warming all you want, but that doesn't give you the right to break my one commenting rule. I suggest you familiarize yourself with it. Especially the last paragraph, as it applies perfectly to what you wrote. Sheesh.

By: Miko

Miko — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:08:49 +0000

“It’s not bad” (and “it is bad”) are value judgments, not scientific judgments.

By: John C

John C — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:07:37 +0000

@ 6. Morbid Florist and @ 13. Kevin – Google Sky Map rocks my G1 world, but I have to resist squealing like a schoolgirl every time I use Tricorder. The SOL view has images downloaded from SOHO, plus “information on the state of the Sun and solar wind.” Both are on the Android market.

By: Steve in Dublin

Steve in Dublin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:00:42 +0000

fos @22

Yeah, it’s all just in our collective imaginations that mankind currently pumps 26 giga-tons of CO2, a known greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere every year. And doing that couldn’t possibly have any effect whatsoever on global heat retention, right?

By: The Chemist

The Chemist — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:50:29 +0000

@fos

Don’t you mean “hypocritcal geology”?

(I keed, I keed!)

Everything about your comment reeks of classic denialism. You could be 100% correct when it comes to your ultimate position, and your statement would still be riddled with problematic assertions. A “cabal”? Collusion? “Owl Gore” making millions?

Your main problem: Ascribing moral character to claims. This is a common mistake- people can be both evil and right. Also, and I will say this again and again until it enters people’s skull’s like an ax through a watermelon:

The Internet and Global Warming have something in common: Neither was invented by Al Gore. I automatically assume people who make this assertion have not so much as opened the Wikipedia page on global warming, since a cursory glance reveals that the hypothesis was put first forward by Svante Arrhenius back before color photos.

By: fos

fos — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:11:48 +0000

The first app should have an asterisk after it indicating that it is for selective skeptics. Those few “main stream scientists” that are like the flat Earthers of years ago. They just can’t believe that the Global Warming cabal was rife with corruption and collusion. A small number of scientists that did their own peer reviews and did everything they could to prevent differing views from being published. Even NOAA and NASA have selectively shut down “remote” weather stations that weren’t in urban areas that would skew the temp data in favor of global warming.

There is global warming. We are in an inter glacial period. It is not and never has been the Earth destroying crisis that the “politician” Owl Gore has been hawking to make him millions.

The Earth warms, the Earth cools. Try taking an intro hitorical geology course sometime.

By: MarcS

MarcS — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:51:10 +0000

Not trying to start a phone war, but Google Sky Map on the Droid is way cool.

http://www.google.com/sky/skymap.html

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:11:00 +0000

How does one turn a web page into an iPhone app? I am seeing some potential here for Facts, not Fantasy (or antiantivax as the case may be).