Via Kevin Kelly.
Indeed, researchers say, the personal and idiosyncratic nature of informal science education is precisely what makes it powerful. The question that plagues classroom science — why is this relevant? — never even arises. And, because it is not tied to school, informal learning is equally available to adults — many of whom find themselves confronting issues surrounding genetically modified crops or Internet privacy that didn’t exist when they were students. If they are going to learn about these issues at all, most will have to do so outside the classroom.
Museums work.
You may think this is a trivial distinction, but let me assure you otherwise. I come from Wisconsin, where every child needs to know the correct answer for all three great shibboleths of regional identity: Packers vs. Vikings, pop vs. soda, and Duck Duck Goose vs. Duck Duck Grey Duck.
(Packers, soda, goose. Spluh.)
Via Strange Maps.
I hadn’t realized how much extant video of Richard Feynman there is. Here he is using his famous pithily accessible style to defend the compatibility of science and aesthetics.
My weakness for *saurids is well known, but I’m especially interested in this as an example of something I hope to see becoming a lot more common: A site maintained by a group of enthusiastic specialists and intended for the interested public.
“Group of” is the key idea here. Science is a thing we do in groups nowadays, and talking about in groups is a great way to keep up the enthusiasm. Compare pterosaur.net against your standard site devoted to a mostly-adademic subject and ‘maintained’ by a single author. They usually consist of one page, usually a glorified lecture handout, put online just before its author got tenure in the mid-90s.
Via Tet Zoo.
If you’re not already reading Wondermark, let this be your excuse to start.
H.M., probably the best-known and most thoroughly studied amnesiac, donated his brain for research and it is now being sectioned into very thin slices. I’m linking to a more permanent page, but today (December 2-3, 2009) you’ll be wanting to head straight for the live feed of the sectioning.
Via Vruba.
The Ig Nobels are only awarded once a year, but good laughable science never stops.
A sad story told in beautiful but disturbing photos. Use discretion if you’re averse to pictures of dead things.
Edit 2009-11-20: More details.
Note that their Fig. 1 omits the canonical “zombies” at the base of the trough.
Via Kottke.
As revealed by letting a very expensive video camera go into free fall.
Via LJ scientists.
Via Vruba.
If we studied radios the way we study living things:
A more successful approach will be to remove components one at a time or to use a variation of the method, in which a radio is shot at a close range with metal particles. In the latter case, radios that malfunction (have a “phenotype”) are selected to identify the component whose damage causes the phenotype.
cf. the previously-posted biochemical pathways wall chart for a taste of what we’re up against.
Via Platypus.
My favorite take-home tidbit is that it sure looks as if fast-food density is strongly right-skewed; that is, lots of places are average and some places have way more, but barely any have less.
Via Laurel.
I was lucky enough to work with this fellow for one day when I worked at Mt. Vernon back in 2001. He’s the real deal.
Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom.
Via Wes.
Via Laurel.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a bio major, it’s that beer and science go well together.
Via Freedom To Tinker.
High quality deadpan scientist humor. The more research seminars you’ve attended, the funnier this will be.
Half an hour long, in Flash.
Via Laurel.
Also: more details, including zoomable maps.
Via Vruba.
Turns out it may not be the stuff the Picts used, but pah. “Blue-green grass” doesn’t rhyme with “abdomen.”
“Thoughts like this are why I try not to extend my metaphors too far.”
They forgot the Driftless Area, but otherwise a good list.
It’s a good distraction while we wait for Spore, at least.
Via Laurel.
Near-live views of Mount St. Helens. Want to try predicting eruptions? Watch the earthquake map.
Bless you, Mark Davies. Bless you and anyone else willing to count 100 million words so I can find out whether ‘the’ gets used more than ‘and’.
Via Laurel.
Okay, so I’m easily amused.
Via Mossaia.
A: Short commutes and cheap housing tend not to co-occur.
B: It’s faster to bicycle five miles into central London than to take public transit.
I got 31 out of 50.
Via Vruba.
