worldsfair
Posts by this author
As someone who teaches the occasional university undergrad course, this is more real than you might think. Here an excerpt:
TELLER: Right. So, yeah, we split the plutonium atom I guess. And make a weapon out of it.
BETHE: When is this due anyway?
TELLER: I think tomorrow.
BETHE: What?!?!
TELLER: I…
Or rather, what word do you see first?
Ready?
Give your answer below...
(scroll down)
Now, mark off your answer in this poll.
This is what I see...(opinion)
Thanks for answering.
If you're wondering what this is all about, I'm just curious whether there's a particular word that crops up in…
So, the other day on television, I caught a rather nice rendition of Lennon's "Imagine." It was during an episode of Glee, which is newish show that has a lot of musical theatre elements (it's a favourite of my wife's).
Anyway, this episode had a plot that focused around the highschool glee club…
Just saw this at Inkling. Looks like there is a Welsh company that has taken to making paper out of feces. Their primary brand is Sheep Poo Paper and I think the logo alone is worth a visit. Click here to check it out.
Oh, and if you're in the festive mood (it is, after all, American…
Nov 27, 2009
Dear lovers of science, badges, and various degrees of alcohol consumption
Today, I'll be scanning the comments at the Facebook group to create a few more Science Scout badges to put up sometime tomorrow, but if you've got a great idea best way is to send via my twitter account (@…
All I can say is, is that this is brilliant...
And there's much more here from Christopher Niemann from the NYT Abstract City Blog. (via Magpie&Whiskeyjack)
I was listen to the radio as we were coming to the lab this morning, and one of the things that caught my ear was a quick mention of collective nouns. Now these are instances where there is a special and specific term that is coined for a group of things. Wiki describes it as follows:
In…
Since playing around with twitter for the last couple of days, I think I'm starting to a hit this threshold that's feeling a little like "twitter fatique." So, of course, this makes me curious as to whether such a thing has been studied. You know, in terms of behavioural sciences, but with the…
I recently attended the TEDxVancouver event, which was wonderfully done and also useful for being able to network with a lot of interesting people. There was, however, one thing that irked me - nothing to do with the conference logistics but rather a statement or two issued by one of the speakers…
... because I have tuesday afternoon cleared for updating the science scout site a bit. Plus, although I'm a bit apprehensive jumping into this media (more from a time suck perspective), I am keen to see if it has any utility in general for some of the programs I run.
Anyway, say hello @dnghub
I actually mentioned this video earlier, but you know, I don't think I did the pitch justice.
So...
Basically a TEDx talk by Jennifer Gardy, who outlines just how freaking fast that H1N1 information has been obtained. And all because of the open source and open access nature of the research work.…
Carl is currently in Vancouver, and he was gracious enough to come out for drinks with us last night. This was after a great talk he gave on the how scientists have been following the evolutionary tracks of the H1N1 flu, so that folks can get a sense of (1) what it is, (2) how it's been moving,…
So I'm based in Vancouver, Canada, and will be heading off to London, UK in July 2010, and I'm curious to hear any advice on how to best increase your chances for that low maintenance sabbatical house swap.
I've done the sabbaticalhome.com thing (link), posted on craigslist, will put stuff up on…
A humour piece by David Grimes which wonders what you'd hear if you could listen in on the thoughts of such a scientist on a minute by minute basis. Here is the start but it's worth a read all the way through at this link.
Why does my hair keep falling out? Why would it skip going gray and go…
Alex does a great job here on this topic. This would also, I suspect, take a lot of guts to do which is both inspiring and commendable.
(If you want to leave a comment about the talk, please do so here).
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Topic: Alex discusses the influence of gender in his own life in this TEDx talk,…
Science Scout Twitter Feed
Well, actually, mathematicians - but it would probably go like this:
CD Title: Inverse: (Special limited edition release) (2009)
Artist: VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Rating: 2.718 stars (out of 5)
- - -
The rating stands. (Spoiler alert: We rounded.) Actually, we took our cue here…
Realclimate.org has a great post today called "An Open Letter to Steven Levitt." In case, you haven't heard, this is the economist, and one of the noted authors of the Freakonomics, who recently published Superfreakonomics, a book that is fast gaining notoriety as being fraught with many errors on…
(I'm guessing that at least one of my five readers are from UBC, so here goes).
Of course, this happens just before Halloween...
The other night, I moved a human anatomy torso model from my lab to my car. This was in preparation for an elementary school visit the following morning. It's basically…
I've just had a piece published in the Walrus, and it's also available to read at their website. Basically, the piece is about how this 85ft Blue Whale skeleton was discovered and prepped for a new museum at the University of British Columbia.
It was really quite amazing to chat with Mike deRoos,…
Today, seedmagazine.com has a piece about Luke Jerram, the artist that I wrote about earlier (he of the incredible glass microbe structures). Anyway, I was asked to write something to go along with the piece, and have done so here.
It's funny, but I even felt a bit awkward writing this response (…
Let me explain...
First take a peek at this:
I actually posted this earlier, but basically, what you're seeing here is the promotional video for a student conference, called TEDx Terry talks. This, we just finished up the other day (it was amazing and you can see the synopsis here).
Anyway,…
Believe it or not, this is the second post at the World's Fair which just has the word "chicken" three times in the title. Anyway, this went viral a few years ago, but for some reason I find it really really funny. Plus, it's on my mind because it relates a little to an event I'm involved in…
... it's kind of funny.
Properties I Learned In Math Class On Brownian Motion (BM), with Explanations.
BY SCOTT LOWENSTEIN
- - - -
1. BMs come in two forms: "standard" and "multidimensional"
2. Law of large numbers: expected distance traveled during a BM = 0
3. Scaling: a scaled up BM is still a…
Not specifically about science literacy, but more about just what inhabits a person's brain space at a given moment, and how that can lead to a sad degree of ignorance in world affairs.
I was mulling over this, when watching a television program called the "Long Way Down" about two motorcyclists…
Dear Luke,
I just saw a photo of your glass sculpture of HIV.
I can't stop looking at it. Knowing that millions of those guys are in me, and will be a part of me for the rest of my life. Your sculpture, even as a photo, has made HIV much more real for me than any photo or illustration I've ever…
A review of Cocktail: A Play about the Life and HIV Drug Development Work of Dr. Krisana Kraisintu by Vince LiCata and Ping Chong
Truth be told, I don't read plays very often, if at all. In fact, I'm ashamed to admit that I think the last one I read was back in high school long ago, and if I…
This is up (I'm sure) everywhere, but I can't resist also showing it off, especially since I've played around with the science song genre myself.
And you can buy the CD/DVD set for yourself (or your kids) at Amazon.
First, take a quick peek at this Gapminder.org video for a general sense of the problem:
Now, this video is from May 2009, after the first few weeks of the initial outbreak, and it also has a focus on media representation, but with the recent worry over potential variants of the H1N1 virus…
It's that time of year again, where I need to make a goofy video to promote a student conference. Last year, I did one on Things to Avoid When Speaking Publicly; this year I had to make sure Chewbacca was figured prominently.
Do spread the word about TEDxTerrytalks 2009 (especially if you're…
Just saw the tally on the blog, and it seems that the last time I wrote here was well over two months ago. Well, most of that has to do with a trip to Ibadan, Nigeria, and an extended bout with jet lag, but I'm back into the blogging mood again.
To start with, I thought I'd have a hand at a Harper…