This week, Science for The People is exploring genetics, neuroscience, and psychology, to find out what makes every person – and personality – unique. They’ll talk to science writer Jennifer Ouelette about her newest book “Me, Myself and Why: Searching for the Science of Self.” And science writer Ed Yong takes a critical look at the hype surrounding the hormone oxytocin.
Considering that we just added our ninth member of The Finch & Pea this week, and that we are ostensibly an online science pub, and that six of our staff are ostensibly female, we thought it would be fitting to commemorate this week with a lovely illustration by my favorite comic artist, Sydney Padua. Sydney has a fondness for historical documents and has currently been working through the Britain’s 1881 Census of Women’s Occupations. The data not only show that a woman’s place has never just been in the home, but that 12,709 British women in 1881 were employed as “Inn or Hotel Keeper, Publican” – a tradition we are proud to keep alive, if only virtually.
I was reminded while singing my daughter a “lullaby” that this employment is also referenced in the classic drinking song The Wild Rover:
I went to an alehouse I used to frequent,
And told the landlady my money was spent.
I asked her for credit. She answered me, “Nay.”
Saying, “Custom like yours I could have any day.”
Boozy drinks that you can mix like instant lemonade? The internet was abuzz this week with reports that a company called Lipsmark had received US government approval to sell a form of “powdered alcohol” called Palcohol. Shortly after the company’s announcement, however, the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau said that it was withdrawing its approval.
So while we can’t immediately try out a powdered mojito, we can do as the internet folk do, and talk about it. Apparently, the idea of powdered booze has been around for decades, and versions of it are already for sale in parts of Europe and Asia.
Larry Greenemeier at Scientific American talks about the concept and the chemistry with chemist and blogger See Arr Oh, who notes that the alcohol isn’t so much powdered as encapsulated in a form of sugar. Paul Adams at Popular Science provides instructions on making your own “fluffy” powdered booze. And everybody everywhere warns you not to snort it.
The Finch & Pea is a fairly traditional pub, so we’re planning to stick with liquid alcohol for the forseeable future. We’re more interested in the product shown above, which could allow people to take lolcats on plane trips or bike rides, or even send them through the mail. This exciting development could bring a whole new meaning to Chemistry Cat.
I’m pretty sure we had one of these around the house when I was young.
In the same way that a sea otter’s pelt looks better on the sea otter, I think the Nauga is prettier than the chair.
*Hat tip to Rusty Blazenhoff of Laughing Squid.
Dear Readers of the Finch & Pea,
I want to thank you for tuning in on Wednesdays for a little dose of art and science. I really appreciate it. But I also want to ask you, have you blogged? Have you blogged weekly? Because if so, you’re probably familiar with the feeling that I’m feeling right now. I got nothing. I’ve been searching the recesses of the internet for, well, maybe not hours, but a good long time, and all I came up with was this molecule made out of discarded playground balls. Like it? I think it’s kind of cool. I could try to spin some deep meaning out of it, like that it’s a molecule made of things that are themselves made of molecules. But really, dear readers, I respect you too much for that. I’ll try to find something great next week.
Sincerely, Michele
The Finch and Pea 