worldsfair | May 15, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Yes, those forlorn looking children are my kids, Hannah and Ben. This post is another oldie but goodie, but with the summer looming ahead, this picture still cracks me up. Mainly because it's an example of total misrepresentation of the product.
Specifically, here is what the picture on the box looked like:
Obviously, you can tell the huge discrepancy between the image on the box and what we might call reality.
Anyway, a slide with both of these graphics now often makes an appearance in my talks on science literacy. Particularly as a great visual element to…
worldsfair | May 13, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
I'm thinking of highlighting a few of the silly things I write every Wednesday on this blog. And so this particular piece, which was written about 2 years ago, seems as good a place as any to start. At the time I was thinking "environment" and "Chewbacca" - how can I bring those two together? Yeah, I know - wierd.
HAN SOLO: Well, so far, it seems like it's a pretty good thing. Me, I'm not too up on the technology, but Chewie is pretty good at that stuff. Right Chewie?
CHEWBACCA: Uuuhhhggg. Rrrrggghhh. Hhhgg-aaa. Rrrrn.
HAN SOLO: Yeah, that's a good point.…
bcohen | May 13, 2009
I'll be headed to D.C. next week to start a research Fellowship at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (above). This is a signal of transitions in several senses. Not only has the semester ended here (with graduation this Sunday and so far only two students protesting their grades), but I am officially finished with the major research project of the last many years and into the next major one. This last project culminates in my book, Notes from the Ground: Science, Soil, and Society in the American Countryside, on shelves this September. The new project, "The Moral…
bcohen | May 12, 2009Differences tabulated. In columns. And marked by me. I'll start above the fold with an excerpt:
The main distinctions are between a system that tends toward domination and one that strives for harmony; between that which seeks to specialize and that which promotes diversity; between promoting competition and seeking community and cooperation; and between that which is defined by values of speed, quantity, and profit and that defined by values of permanence, quality, and beauty. One prefers mechanistic identity, that is, the other ecological.
Here is the full table, as reproduced from…
worldsfair | May 12, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Tonight, I'll be heading out to the Vancouver Cafe Scientifique, where noted bee biologist, Dr. Mark Winston, will be giving a talk about science and dance (May 12th, 7:30pm at the Railway Club).
Now, although the linkage between dancing, science, and bees would be normally fairly straight forward, I've been told that tonight's presentation would be more an exploration about dancing as an art form and as a way of creatively expressing science.
I'm pretty keen to check it out myself since my own lab does a fair bit of art + science endeavours (although…
bcohen | May 12, 2009I guest authored a post for the ineluctable The Education of Oronte Churm, over at Inside Higher Ed. The good Mr. Churm (John Griswold) has guest written for us as well, as with this John and Paul Project post from last year and this one, from two years past, on Hot Funky Love.
But please, by all means, go read the new post at his blog in full. It's theme? Creativity, imagination, grammar. It's purpose? To ponder the identity of the artist, the engineer, the department of vehicles.
And this one license plate I saw that really confused me: "ICR8 ART."
An excerpt below.
One would first…
worldsfair | May 11, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Chris Jordan has done it again. And if you're not sure who this fellow is, then let me be the first to introduce you to this digital artist extraordinaire, who creates these magnificent images of consumption in our world.
The latest is a little mindboggling to say the least. Called "Gyre," this image:
Depicts 2.4 million pieces of plastic, equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world's oceans every hour. All of the plastic in this image was collected from the Pacific Ocean.
Now these images are huge - this one being 8 by 11…
worldsfair | May 8, 2009Song 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
1. Waterfall - James
2. Wake Up - Arcade Fire
3. Never Had Nobody Like You - M Ward
Very nice - and a free download since this was the promo track released for his CD (which is very good by the way). Stereogum says it nicely:
If you're curious about why Matt Ward would pick this particular song (from an album that sounds like it's got a lot of great songs) as the first promo MP3, consider the fact that it features Zooey Deschanel. She's got all the great She & Him buzz. And also all the great I'm marrying Death Cab For Cutie buzz. So much buzz! So of course the…
worldsfair | May 8, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Continuing on with my promise to play around with this science songwriting thing (1, 2), here is the third song in my World's Fair repertoire. This one on the awesome mitochondrion!
Here is the demo mp3 for your listening pleasure (might be best with headphones), and the lyrics reprinted for all to see below:
MITOCHONDRIA!
(verses)
Floating round in a cell,
making A T P
In your own kind of hell
in the cytoplasmic sea
You got own DNA
Came maternally
Never sure how you stayed
Endosymbiotically
(Chorus)
Mitochondria, Mitochondria, Mitochondria, Mitochondria…
worldsfair | May 7, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
The other day I was looking for an interesting periodic table graphic for the background image of the science scout twitter account, and whilst doing so I came across many many different versions of the famous layout. However, I also noticed that a lot of them didn't have anything to do with elements at all, and so thought it might be interesting to collect a bunch of them for folks to check out here.
We'll start with my favourite (and one that has been previously showcased here at the World's Fair): the lego periodic table of elements.
When shown previously, I…
bcohen | May 7, 2009Pt. I | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3
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Part 3 with Martha McCaughey, discussing her book The Caveman Mystique, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-blogger series can be found here.
WF: So how is the use of evolutionary psychology to explain masculine actions not just quackery? Evolutionary biologists, and many who read science blogs, rightly announce and discredit the quackery of creationists or, more broadly, those who "deny" scientific truths. But, for the sake of argumentative symmetry, can one put that lens back onto evolutionary psychology? Besides the caveman issue, does that field…
worldsfair | May 6, 2009There a nice piece over that the New Scientist (hat tip to Rebecca), that gathers a number of comments from academics in philosophy, sociology, education, law, and literature into how relevant C.P. Snow's seminal essay is today. Here's a sampling from A.C. Grayling:
One of the major problems identified by C. P. Snow in lamenting the gulf between science and literary culture was that almost everyone in a position of power in society was a product of literary culture, with too little understanding of or sympathy for science. That remains a problem, one exacerbated, if anything, by the rapid…
bcohen | May 6, 2009Pt. I | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3
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Part 2 with Martha McCaughey, discussing her book The Caveman Mystique, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-blogger series can be found here.
WF: How do you see the relationship between the academic fields of gender studies and science studies? And how has that relationship changed in the past two decades? I'm asking for a few reasons, but one of them is that I remember from graduate studies that many of the most persuasive accounts of the politics of science and technology came from feminist scholars.
MM: It's a big question, so I'll offer but a start…
worldsfair | May 5, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
This is reprinted posting, but a few friends have ben asking me about traveling to Disneyland in light of the swine flu happenings. In any event, these discussions have reminded me of my own ponderings when my family visited the magic kingdom last year. Specifically, the above was a question that continually haunted my consciousness. Disneyland was remarkably pristine in that cookie cutter, artificial, yet aesthetically pleasing way, but it must be a major sink in terms of waste, energy consumption, carbon emissions, etc.
Or is it? Maybe in terms of…
bcohen | May 5, 2009The World's Fair is pleased to offer the following discussion about The Caveman Mystique: Pop-Darwinism and the Debates Over Sex, Violence, and Science (Routledge, 2007), with its author Martha McCaughey. McCaughey is a Professor of Sociology and the Director of Women's Studies at Appalachian State University.
Professor McCaughey's work fits at the intersections of gender, sexuality, science, technology, social movements, and the media. I first met her during her tenure at Virginia Tech, where she distinguished herself as a leading feminist scholar in science studies, an atypically…
worldsfair | May 4, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Just came back from a trip to Louisiana, and had a great time meeting the Faculty at LSU, eating cajun, and soaking up the Southern hospitality. Was also introduced to a great piece of music by Chris Smither, a New Orleans native (although now based in Boston) singer songwriter and amazing guitarist.
Called "Origin of Species" it features this great lyric.
Charlie Darwin looked so far into the way things are
He caught a glimpse of God's unfolding plan
God said I'll make some DNA, they can use it anyway they want
From paramecium to man
They'll have sex and mix up…
worldsfair | May 1, 2009Song 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
1. Waterfall - James
2. Wake up - Arcade Fire
Continuing on from last week's exercise in mixed tape science, the second song I've chosen is one that represents a number of different objectives in my playlist. First, however, take a listen if you haven't heard this one before.
If it sounds kind of familiar, it's probably because you've come across a movie trailer that's had a viral presence. This one specifically:
Although I'm familiar with Arcade Fire's Neon Bible (liked it enough to have a t-shirt of theirs, and oh by the way, very cool album website - weird too), I'd…
worldsfair | May 1, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
With Ben providing a nice substance abuse prelude, it seems like a good enough time to also explore other things related to death. Such as lethal doses - i.e. for things we scientists particularly indulge in (like coffee and alcohol and, yes - the free cookies at Departmental seminars). We'll start by looking at the fatality of coffee for this post, and here, for the scientist, the first place to look a little deeper into this is the vaulted MSDS (or Material Safety Data Sheet).
For those not initiated in this lingo, MSDS are those documents that provide risk…
bcohen | April 30, 2009I hadn't seen this Onion report before -- "Millions and Millions Dead" -- from a decade ago, although I have referred to this report -- "World Death Rate Holding Steady at 100 percent" -- before (in an old post). I am thus forced to repost the graphic about world death rates, but to pair it with the article about millions dead. They do make a good combo.
"Millions and Millions Dead"
June 2, 1999 | Issue 35â¢21
As the body count continues to rise, a shaken nation is struggling to cope in the wake of the mass deaths sweeping the world population. With no concrete figures available at…
bcohen | April 30, 2009Here's one from the vault. Specifically, an excerpt from Volume III of the Annals of Science, wherein we presented vignettes on auto-experimentation. We'll offer the first two here for starters, one of which is a counter-example.
George Berkeley and tar water
This guy was hooked on tar water. Yep, tar water. It's a
thick, black, viscous liquid obtained by the distillation of wood or coal.
(I googled it.) He drank it for everything--said it was for medicinal purposes,
but I think we know how that story goes. Here's a guy, an Irish bishop,
who once wanted to found a college in Bermuda. This…