Ng's Clip List

Here is a selection of some of the writing I've done - Dave.

"True Encounters in my Research Career", The Walrus, September 2007 (with Chris Hutsul). (commented upon at The World's Fair)

"The Reason Is Math Bush Edit", Science Creative Quarterly, September 5, 2007

"Analyses of the Six Degrees of Separation of Bacons Other Than Kevin Bacon", Science Creative Quarterly, April 26, 2007

"Words I See When I Read the Phrase "Intelligent Design" While Squinting", McSweeney's, April 11th, 2007

"An Intelligent Designer on the Cow", Inkling Magazine, March 21, 2007

"Anytime", Science Creative Quarterly, January 31, 2007

"Home Molecular Genetics: Extract, fingerprint, and replicate your own DNA.", MAKE 07, 2007.

"A Gap Ad Celebrity Speaks to a Geneticist", Inkling Magazine, January 17, 2007

"It's a Lucky Thing for Evolutionary Biology that the Following Passages aren't in the Bible", Science Creative Quarterly, January 12, 2007

"Similarities I Noticed Between George W. Bush and the Burning Bush", Seed, December 2006 (reprinted at Terry)

"Medical Literature with the Word Shakespeare Figuring Prominently in the Title", The Believer, November 2006.

"The Crocodile Hunter Becomes the Planet Hunter", Science Creative Quarterly, September 15, 2006

"Vintage Science - When it comes to wine, will science trump tradition?", Maisonneuve, Summer 2006

"On Pitch and 'American Idol' - Are we hardwired to be tone deaf", Seed, May 24th, 2006

"Old MacDonald Speaks to a Geneticist", Terry, May 1st, 2006

"A Game of Twenty Questions Between a Hungry HIV-Infected, Expectant, Ethiopian Mother, and an Affluent North American, Where it's Clear that the North American isn't Very Good at the Game and Also (Frankly) Doesn't Have a Clue", Terry, March 20th, 2006

"Breakfast of Champions does Replication", Science Creative Quarterly, March 16th, 2006

"Harmony is Always Here", Science Creative Quarterly, February 20th, 2006

"Assorted Rays: Ranked According to Coolness", Monkeybicycle, February 10th, 2006

"Concerning the President of the United States of America - DNA as a Magic 8 Ball", Seed, January 11th, 2006

"Rant from a Glacier - Concerned, Bitter, and Somewhere Near the North Pole", Terry, December 20th, 2005

"Am I Everywhere?" The Believer (Letters section), November 2005 (unedited version at SCQ)

"Cartoon Episodes about Science." Yankee Pot Roast, November 14th, 2005

"When the Leaders of the G8 meet on Halloween Day." Science Creative Quarterly, October 30th, 2005

"Chapter Titles from my Creationist Textbook" McSweeney's, August 26th, 2005

"Mother Goose and the Scientific Peer Review Process." Science Creative Quarterly, August 22nd, 2005

"A Review of Your Disgusting Head." Science Creative Quarterly, July 25th, 2005

"Angry Words from a Gnome who to this Day Continues to think the Human Genome Project was actually the Human Gnome Project." Yankee Pot Roast, June 27th, 2005

"An Open Letter to the Human Resources Department of the Superfriends." McSweeney's, June 15th, 2005

"A Scientific Proposal to the Executive Program Directors of the ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC Networks." Yankee Pot Roast, June 1st, 2005

"When Celebrities, who have been Cloned in the Movies, get Together for a Coffee." Science Creative Quarterly, May 23rd, 2005

"Notes from Mattel's 'Future of Barbie' Brainstorming Session." Yankee Pot Roast, May 13th, 2005

"Euphemisms that also Sound like Strange Tissue Engineering Projects." Science Creative Quarterly, May 9th, 2005

"The Bestest, Most Kick Ass Human Genome Project." Science Creative Quarterly, April 11th, 2005

"It's a Lucky Thing for Stem-Cell Research that the Following Passages aren't in the Bible." McSweeney's, January 12th, 2005.

"Letter of Rejection to Dr. Phil" Yankee Pot Roast, December 8th, 2004.

"Grimace Speaks to a Geneticist" McSweeney's, October 27th, 2004

"The Von Trapp Children Speak to a Geneticist." McSweeney's, September 9th, 2004.

"DNA and Nigeria, Survivor for Science Geeks" Maisonneuve, Issue 9, July/August 2004 (unedited version reprinted at terry.ubc.ca).

More like this

I used Breakfast of Champions (as a printed-out handout) in teaching my (Intro Bio) class a couple of weeks ago. Do you intend to write one on transcription and translation as well?

To be honest, probably not. I originally scripted this piece, because in the world of molecular biology (a subject I often teach to the scientific community), replication is especially prevelant with regards to the enzymes involved and their use in experiments (i.e. ligases, polymerases, etc) - definitely more so than translation and transcription.

The tone of the piece is derived from my lecturing style, although when I do this in front of a class I actually have a puppet show of sorts.

If it helps, my lecture notes (or a one week version of it) is available here. There's a more printable version of the replication piece at the back.

"Vintage Science - When it comes to wine, will science trump tradition?", Maisonneuve, Summer 2006

Dave, when this comes out, how can I best obtain an electronic copy?

Hi Mr. Ng,
I have a personal blog in Chinese which is devoted to become a platform for science bloggers to share their articles.
This is not a commercial website.
When I read your article at http://scienceblogs.com/worldsfair/2007/12/at_this_lab_everyone_is_requ…, I think this is exactly what we need on this platform to encourage scientists think about writing on a blog.
I would like to ask your permission for translating this article to Chinese. The translation will not be made word by word, but will include all the points in the article. Your name (as the author) and the link for the original post will be mentioned in the beginning of the translated article.
If you think this is a good idea, I will send you the link after I finish. If you want to take a look before it is posted, I can send manuscript to you.
Best regards,
I-Fan

Dear Mr Ng
i am writing to you about the phylomon project, because i was thinking, do the creatures have various abilities as they age?
for instance, when most animals reach a rough age, they gain the ability to breed, or copulate.
i was thinking this could be adapted to the phylomon game project, afterall, one human or poisonus snake is 'powerful' in game terms, but give them a mate and a couple of turns or 'months' and you can grow yourself or your team a whole army, literally!!!

By Fred Price (not verified) on 22 May 2010 #permalink