ScienceOnline: More than a conference

The Finch & Pea would not exist as you know it today if it were not for ScienceOnline. Mike and I liked the pub idea, but also realized that a pub with only two people in it – no matter how interesting. clever, and handsome, was a pretty lousy watering hole. The enthusiasm for our approach to science communication I experienced at ScienceOnline2012 led to the decision to bring on more “staff” at The Finch & Pea and 60% of those additions are folks we only met because of ScienceOnline.

Science Online has not only been a positive force for The Finch & Pea, but for the development of online science communication as a whole. At the Science Writers 2012 conference, the Science Online community clearly represented a cadre of youthful (not necessarily young) and dynamic future leaders for science communication.

Now, they are asking for help to expand that community (not to subsidize the conference): Continue reading “ScienceOnline: More than a conference”

Blast Off!

Finish this sentence, “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”

Did you say, “Blast Off!” My wife and I both do. But, I suspect that our children won’t, because they will not grow up in an era heavily influenced by space shuttle launches.

I am an advocate for space exploration, but not necessarily manned space exploration. Still, this made me a little sad or nostalgic or it just made me feel old.

*If you start the countdown at 3, I invariably whisper “Contact” at the end.

Life versus the molecular storm

lifes-ratchetRichard Feynman put it best: “Things on a very small scale behave like nothing that you have any direct experience about. They do not behave like waves, they do not behave like particles, they do not behave like clouds, or billiard balls, or weights on springs, or like anything that you have ever seen… Because atomic behavior is so unlike ordinary experience, it is very difficult to get used to, and it appears peculiar and mysterious to everyone.”

The same could be said about things on a very large scale, such as planets and galaxies. It could also be said about extremes of time and temperature – we have no direct experience with microseconds and millions of years, or with what happens at thousands of degrees or near absolute zero. Scientific concepts that deal with such extremes defy our meso-scale common sense.

We respond to these assaults on our intuition sometimes with gee-whiz fascination, and at other times, when cherished beliefs are on the line, with resistance. Can our mundane actions really change the climate of something so large as the earth? How could we possibly have descended from small, furry dinosaur prey? And if a tornado whipping through a junkyard can’t spontaneously create a Boeing 747, can it really be true that complex, living, self-directing beings are formed out of molecules that merely follow the laws of physics and chemistry, without the guiding influence of vital spirits? Continue reading “Life versus the molecular storm”

Heidi says…

Our own, well leased from Nature Afield, Heidi Smith was interviewed by the lovely and affable Tyler Dukes for The Charlotte Observer. She says wonderful things about frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians, but not me. Oh, well:

People think of frogs as really simple organisms…But…They’re just really beautiful. And salamanders as well because they’re kind of secretive and we don’t always see them, but they’re really underappreciated. – Heidi Smith

She will also be defending her dissertation against the multi-headed chaos dragon of her thesis committee on 22 January.

You can follow Heidi on Twitter at @HeidiKayDeidi and Tyler at @mtdukes.

The Art of Science: The Gramineous Bicycle

gramin

The Dada movement of the early 20th century was a reaction against the conventions of artistic beauty and meaning.  Dada’s practitioners worked with images and materials which were not considered traditionally “appropriate” for art.  This painting, The Gramineous Bicycle (c. 1921) by Max Ernst is a perfect example. Continue reading “The Art of Science: The Gramineous Bicycle”