Author: mcshanahan

Science education researcher and writer

Plants as a metaphor for adulthood?: Frank Turner’s Photosynthesis [Repost]

Marie-Claire is going to be very busy over the next month educating the youth of Canada. Too busy to even listen to music, which is about her favorite thing to do, after educating the youth of Canada. In the meantime, we will be reposting some of our favorite Song of the Week posts…

A catchy and heartfelt folk song with a charming video and a scientific process in the title:  It’s hard not to love Frank Turner’s Photosynthesis. Continue reading “Plants as a metaphor for adulthood?: Frank Turner’s Photosynthesis [Repost]”

Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the first Rock and Roll show with…biological classification and Guided by Voices? [Repost]

Marie-Claire is going to be very busy over the next month educating the youth of Canada. Too busy to even listen to music, which is about her favorite thing to do, after educating the youth of Canada. In the meantime, we will be reposting some of our favorite Song of the Week posts…

Nearly 20, 000 people were beating on the doors of a venue that would hold less than 10, 000 shouting “Let us in!” Tickets for the  second night had all been printed with the same date as the first. The police waded into the crowd and ordered the opening act, Paul “Huckerbuckers” Williams to stop shortly after he began. A man was stabbed as the confused crowd dispersed. On the surface, The Moondog Coronation Ball, March 21, 1952 in Cleveland, was a total disaster. Continue reading “Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the first Rock and Roll show with…biological classification and Guided by Voices? [Repost]”

Unwind after your holiday party with Bill Callahan and a science drink

It not often that kids science classes and Holiday parties have much in common, but thanks to the delights of carbonated beverages there is at least one similarity: everyone loves watching dried fruit bob up and down in glass. Whether it’s champagne and dried cranberries to ring in the New Year, or raisins in a plastic cup of ginger ale on a school desk, this one is a classic. Continue reading “Unwind after your holiday party with Bill Callahan and a science drink”

Andrew Bird’s Lazy Projector decribes science learning too

It’s all in the hands of a lazy projector
That forgetting, embellishing, lying machine

With Lazy Projector, singer-songwriter/violinist Andrew Bird turns his insightful, poetic and more-than-a-little-heartbreaking lens to the topic of our brains. When we look back on a fractured relationship, all we can rely on is a  version our minds create, and our mind’s eye is not known for its objectivity. I’ve always thought of him as a classically influenced multi-instrumentalist Leonard Cohen with a silkier voice (and much more whistling), but this one struck me even more strongly than most. Continue reading “Andrew Bird’s Lazy Projector decribes science learning too”

Skeptically Speaking with Sean Carroll

Tonight I’ll be interviewing physicist Sean Carroll about his new book and particle physics as the guest host for Skeptically Speaking.

This week, we’re looking at one of the biggest science stories of 2012, and one of the largest instruments in the history of science. Guest hostMarie-Claire Shanahan spends the hour with theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of the new book The Particle at The End of The Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World. They’ll discuss the search for the particle that gives all the others their mass, the story of the Large Hadron Collider, and the challenge of communicating with a broad audience about difficult topics in cutting-edge physics. – Skeptically Speaking

You can listen in live via UStream at 8PM ET tonight 9 December, or catch the podcast version next Friday, 14 December.