13 articles found
I just started writing my review for Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, by Claire L. Evans. If I had timed things better, I could have written this review earlier and published it today, on Ada Lovelace Day. As it is, I’ve paused writing my review of this amazing book for a quick blog post about this day and women in STEM in general.
Ada Lovelace, by…
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At lunch today I was talking with a colleague. She’s cool; I really respect her attitude towards pedagogy and also like her as a person. But our conversation on the environmental dangers of cows led us to talking about lab-grown meat, which then led to a discussion of whether food grown in a lab is any better or worse for someone than food grown in a farm. And my colleague mentioned that she thought the…
I’m comfortably ensconced (this is the correct word) in the well-worn couch in my grandparents’ basement. In a few hours I’ll be on an Air Canada flight to Thunder Bay, where I shall while away my summer in whatever manner pleases me (think coconut milkshakes, ninja dance parties, and suffocating under a massive pile of library books). Until then, though, things happen on the Internet.
Eight days of school left, and then I get to return to Canada for a month! I had a nice dinner in Norwich on Friday with the math department. My train ride home should have been uneventful, but I stupidly forgot my suit carrier on the train from Norwich. So it’s somewhere in London Liverpool St Station, with any luck, and I get it back.
I didn’t have that many links to share, and I…
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It’s been a good week. On Friday night I went to the school’s Year 11 prom. I wore a suit and trainers, with a new bow tie and even some bracers. And somehow I ended up winning Best Dancer (no one could step to that).
Meanwhile, on the Web this week, here’s what I found interesting:
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In order to better cover my experiences in detail, I’ve decided to write a post for each day I was away in England, publishing it on the same day this week. I also recorded video footage that I hope to have edited by the end of the week! Without further ado, here’s what happened on Monday.
My flight from Thunder Bay to Pearson left at 6:30 Monday morning, so I was up a few hours…
In 1633, Galileo was found "vehemently suspect" of heresy. His heretical opinion: holding and defending the belief that the Copernican, heliocentric model of the solar system was true in contravention to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Galileo was placed under house arrest for the remainder of his life and forced to recant, verbally and in writing, any belief in the Copernican model. His book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was…
Have you ever looked at someone who is walking down the street listening to an MP3 player and said, "Gee, I wonder if that person is listening to a rap song about physics!"((If the answer is yes, and you haven't heard of the Large Hadron Rap, then you may be a closet physicist. Don't worry, there's support groups for those now.))
Because that's what I spent most of Monday and yesterday doing. Seriously.
Today marks…
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Lauren, her mom, her friend Briana, and I went to Cincinnati today to see BODIES... The Exhibition. It was fantastic. The human body is just so wonderfully complex and amazing. It's almost enough to make me believe in Intelligent Design.
The exhibit went through each of the body's systems and structures. Since it used real preserved bodies, everything was realistic and amazingly detailed. I find the digestive system the most gross, the reproductive system…
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Many people, especially religious pundits who want to knock "cold, logical science" down a few notches, claim that science is as faith-based as religion. I would tend to agree. Those who disagree argue that science relies on painstaking experimental method and proof to back up its theories--which is true, but only to a certain extent. When it comes to the things that science just can't determine (or at least hasn't determined yet), we depend utterly…
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Pluto is not a planet anymore.
Get over it.
It's still orbitting the sun; it is a "dwarf planet", and it is not going to go away any time soon. So unless you happen to be an astronomer whose doctorate depends upon a study of Pluto's planetary characteristics--does it really matter? Honestly, we spend way too much time talking about semantics--it's maddening! Did everyone turn into lawyers overnight?
So if you're upset over all…
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The short answer: yes and no. (You can tell when science and politics mix.)
The long answer. Heck, I don't want to bother explaining it. If I did, would I really be writing it in a blog? Wikipedia sums it up nicely, as does this Washington Post article. Pluto is in trouble, but not of losing its planetary status--not quite.
You see, the problem with Pluto is that it's puny. It's the…
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Some scientists are working on artificially grown meat, which would be "test-tube meat" rather than from dead animals. It's an interesting concept, and one with many ramifications. They claim it would have lower fat content. Plus it would eliminate the need for 40 billion smelly animals that are kept in poor farming conditions, and solve that tiny problem of world hunger.
What about vegetarians, eh? If you're a vegetarian, why? Obviously if you don't…