Beatrice the Biologist (aka Katie McKissick) is a science-loving cartoonist who loves to use simple drawings to explain big concepts in science. She has just published a book of some of her favorite science cartoons, called Amoeba Hugs and Other Nonsense. Buy it, review it, read it to your kids!
Today is my 8th wedding anniversary (bronze, apparently), which was kind of like getting IRB approval for the human genetics experiment my wife and I are conducting (n=2).
Congratulate me. Pity my wife. Always remember:
It’s better to be lucky than good-for small values of N.
Today is Mary Anning’s birthday. This is a repost of an announcement (21 Dec 2012) of a book recommendation I did for Skeptically Speaking about reading to my daughter about Mary Anning. To this day, she knows the name of one paleontologist, and it is Mary Anning.
I will be providing a quick book review of a book that is very special to my older daughter and me, Rare Treasure: Mary Anning* and Her Remarkable Discoveries by Don Brown, for the Skeptically Speaking “Science Books for Your Gift List” episode. The episode will be available to download at 8PM (ET) tonight (Friday, 21 December 2012)
*The band Artichoke has a fantastic song about Mary Anning that is available to download for free (MP3 – 2.2MB).
UPDATE: According to the producer of Skeptically Speaking, KO Myers, my review comes up at 47:33 in the podcast. While I would be flattered by anyone downloading the podcast only to listen to my two minutes, I would strongly recommend listening to the other reviews, which I hear will include Bug Girl reviewing Spider Silk by Leslie Brunetta & Catherine L. Craig even though spiders aren’t bugs.
Giroofasaurus Vexed is a cool new etsy shop filled with ceramic jewelry featuring scientific motifs. Always wanted a pink bacteriophage to wear around your neck? Voilà. If viruses aren’t your thing, you can choose from paramecia, DNA, test tubes and many others. For those we prefer their science a little less microscopic, there are insects, spiders, birds and even dinosaurs.
The creator of Giroofasaurus Vexed knows her scientific stuff – she’s a Toronto-based lab rat with years of experience at the bench. She won’t tell you her real name, but you can follow her on twitter, where she drops hints about the life she shares with 2 gray cats and a husband – all three of whom are more notable for their looks than their brains.
Anton Zuiker, co-founder of ScienceOnline and communications director for the Duke Department of Medicine, is one of the nicest, kindest people you can meet. Annoyingly, while thanking people for being generous and kind, he manages to be more generous, kind, and thoughtful than the people he is thanking.
The Finch and Pea 