Category: Have Science Will Travel

Phillip Island

Everything about this post is very small: it’s very short because I only have a few minutes, and it’s about little penguins. That’s what they’re called: Little Penguins.

Little penguins live along the coast of New Zealand and the south of Australia, and are, as advertised, not very big. They’re about the size of a chicken or duck, if not smaller.

I’ve seen them both at Melbourne Zoo and at Phillip Island, an island close to Melbourne. At Phillip Island, you can even watch the penguins on their “penguin parade“, when they return to the island at night. You’re not allowed to photograph them, so it’s hard to find pictures of it online, but someone uploaded an old video to YouTube:

Adorableness starts about a minute in, and then gets increasingly cuter as the penguins get closer.

Exploratorium at Fort Mason

I was at a workshop last week, about article level metrics. It was in San Francisco, and I was hoping I might have some time to check out the new location of the Exploratorium, but my schedule was too packed, and it wasn’t worth paying the entrance fee for just an hour or so of museum time.

Luckily, the workshop itself was at a nice location, at Fort Mason – an area of warehouses converted to art studios and the like. The walk from the hotel to the venue went past Ghirardelli square and had a nice view of Alcatraz. There were people walking dogs along the water, there were little boats moored at the docks, and there was a strange little house called “House of Days”. I know an art project when I see one, so I walked up to the pee-scented doorway to take a closer look.

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It was an Exploratorium exhibit!

House of Days shows pictures taken of the San Francisco coast at different times of day over the past weeks to illustrate how the view changes over time. I had no idea there were any Exploratorium things outside the Exploratorium itself, so this was really exciting, and I took several pictures.

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As I got closer to the workshop venue, I found another Exploratorium exhibit.
Continue reading “Exploratorium at Fort Mason”

The International Cryptozoology Museum

Esau-head-smI think this post might be better categorized as Have “Science” Will Travel. A few weeks ago I went up to Maine to see some nature and get my lobster on. In my search for interesting things to do, I came across the International Cryptozoology Museum. At first I thought it was a museum of micro-organisms (my grasp of Greek prefixes may not be what it should)…but oh my, it was so much better than that. Cryptozoology is actually the study of and search for animals whose existence has not yet been proven (Like Nessie…or Bigfoot). Continue reading “The International Cryptozoology Museum”

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

I’ve been busy lately, as you may have noticed by my lack of posts. I desperately need a vacation, but since that’s not an option, I can look at some of my favourite photos of previous vacations. Like this photo of sunrise at Uluru:

Sunrise at Uluru

Uluru is the iconic enormous rock that sits all by itself in the middle of the Australian desert. It looks so imposing and out of place that you can’t help but wonder how it got there. Australia’s indigenous people have had explanations for the rock for ages, all involving spiritual stories. Both a government website and the site of the local tourist resort are unable to share those tales, though, because the stories are restricted by sacred rules. Luckily for us, geologists are more forthcoming with their interpretations about the origin of Uluru, as well as the neighbouring rock formation Kata Tjuta. Continue reading “Uluru and Kata Tjuta”

Monuments

Joe Hanson‘s web video series, It’s Okay to Be Smart*, went to Washington, DC to talk about the science of the US’s national monuments. While our Have Science Will Travel series has generally focused on travel to locations with a specific science focus (eg, science museums) or obvious connections (eg, national parks), it is important to remember that science is everywhere. Joe’s discussion of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Smithsonian Castle makes simple, straightforward connections with the fields of geology, biology, and astrophysics.

Continue reading “Monuments”