worldsfair | January 11, 2010Was it one of these (From wiki)?
In any event, hopefully you picked the one about Henrietta Lacks. If you didn't: then you really need to get yourself a copy of this book, entitled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and written by Rebecca Sloot, to find out why you should have.
I've just pre-ordered it, and am looking forward to reading it. The advance reviews are really good, and the story of Henrietta is really one that needs to be spread widely (this is speaking as someone who use to be pretty deep into the signal transduction field where use of HeLa cells is pretty much par for…
vlicata | January 10, 2010Greetings from Louisiana State University. By some odd fluke, I've been asked to blog here at the World's Fair (who says the world is fair?) while the venerable Ben goes emeritus for a while. Don't worry, you still have Dave!
Anyway, just so you're not too surprised, here's the usual kind of posts to expect from me: inappropriate humor, vicious attacks on anti-science conservatives, heart-warming stories about puppies and kittens, celebrity gossip, movie reviews, unauthorized peer review, pharmaceutical industry general disrespect, and lots and lots of art-and-science stuff.
So, let's…
worldsfair | January 7, 2010I don't drink lattes myself, but these are pretty cool and fitting for the IYB.
(From Flickr member, tonx)
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(From Flickr member, dasedesign)
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(From Flickr member, springleap.cpm)
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(From Flickr member, bun buku)
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(From Flickr member, springleap.com)
I'm actually surprised no-one has done a decent squid one yet (although if you know of one, do pass it along).
worldsfair | January 6, 2010Hope everyone had a nice holiday, but I guess it's now back to the grind with a brand new year. For myself, I'm pretty stoked with a number of things coming up that will focus on this thing we call "Biodiversity."
And why is this? Well, basically, 2010 has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Biodiversity.
I also think it's going to be an interesting year for me coming up, because of the following:
1. Yesterday, whilst driving home from work and going a good 50 or so clicks on the road, a squirrel ran out in front of me in such a way that it entered somehow in…
worldsfair | January 4, 2010
Hmmm... this should be interesting...
To follow the physical laws of the universe (on twitter), click here. (O.K. back to work)
bcohen | December 24, 2009"The world is full of light and life, and the true crime is not to be interested in it." A.S. Byatt
"What seems a detour has a way of becoming, in time, a direct route." Richard Powers
I had more fun doing this series than anything else in the past 3+ years here at the Fair. It was a unique opportunity and one that wouldn't have been possible without the blog format. I was able to start down a track and let it run as far as it would go. What seemed like a detour at times had a way of becoming a direct route so that, in the end, the meandering came to encircle epistemology, technology, and…
bcohen | December 23, 2009(Ten Best of the Decade from Half of the World's Fair)
This series began with the kindness of a friend who agreed to let me ask him about his book about Barry Commoner, science, and modern environmentalism. It then spawned a series of 17 interviews with authors of books in science studies, environmental history, the history of science, and all combinations in between. Every one of them was enjoyable to do; every author was generous and insightful. I've been able to use some of these as thumbnail sketches of readings I use in class. In that, they stand as the best example of blogging as a…
bcohen | December 22, 2009These never got formalized into an official series (not to demystify it too much, but that formalization process requires mostly that Dave make an icon to put on the sidebar). Nevertheless, they ended up as an eight-part set of posts about landscape art of various types. I'll put a representative sample from each one below, each one clickable back to the original post. For clicking duplication, that first set (of western U.S. landscapes), ran in October 2008; the last, and most appropriate for this blog (it was about World's Fairs) ran this past June. I loved these.
Series #8: The World's…
worldsfair | December 21, 2009
Well... shouldn't everybody?
Follow the physical laws of the universe here (also check out who the physical laws of the universe are following).
bcohen | December 21, 2009This one was immense. It was also a dual effort (and not by "one of the guys" at the blog). Like the Puzzle Fantastica, this one is very difficult to re-post in its entirety. Luckily, Dave made a great graphic with links embedded to each game. I'll reprint the Press Center, then, which includes links to every game that had running commentary. For those who never saw this, it started here and, all told, the best feature was that it involved a slew of bloggers across scienceblogs, all working in conjunction to run the tournament.
(March 12th)
Grand opening. Introductory remarks. Brackets…
bcohen | December 20, 2009Halfway there. This one first ran earlier this year, back in February. I was actually preparing for an interview, sitting in a bed and breakfast when I posted it, as I recall, which in retrospect makes it yet more meaningful to me. It was snowing, picturesque, comforting. Now a memory.
I had the chance to see a talk by William Cronon last week here at U.Va. He's a professor at the University of Wisconsin and a recognized world leader in environmental history and environmental studies. His work, while helping define the field of environmental history as it became one in recent decades,…
worldsfair | December 18, 2009With respect to this and much apologies to all the "shoulders of giants."
Whereby:
(1) mystery tweet = M2c2(A/Ï)(mx+b)-XF(q/t)
And given that:
(1.a) A = ÏR2 (area of a circle)
(1.b) y = mx+b (linear equation)
(1.c) F=MA (from Newton's laws of motion)
(1.d) S=q/t (classical Entropy definition)
Then:
(2) mystery tweet = M2c2R2y-XMAS
And given that:
(2.a) E = Mc2 (Einstein's equivalence of mass and energy equations)
Therefore:
(3) mystery tweet = MER2y-XMAS
(4) mystery tweet = MERRy-XMAS
That's probably it from me until the new year. Have a happy and restful holidays!
bcohen | December 18, 2009In a countdown from just one of us, this one isn't just from one half of the World's Fair; it's from both of us. Truth be told, Dave did most of the work here and in the end this was a hallmark achievement for the blog. There isn't a great way to repost the totality of the Puzzle Fantastica, the solution to which was first posted here in September 2006. But I'll try. If you've never seen the PFs, then it's probably best to start back at the beginning and work your way up.
The Worlds' Fair is thinking, pondering, mulling over, mulling under, obsessing around something, something not to be…
worldsfair | December 17, 2009... well this. This being the (now pretty much) annual SCQ Christmas offering from structural biochemist and playwright, Vince LiCata.
NARRATOR: Every Who
Down in U-ville
Liked their research a lot...
FACULTY: (pipeting): I sure like research a lot.
I love running gels,
I get bored when I'm not.
NARRATOR: But the Pinch
Who lived just North of U-ville
Most certainly, did not.
FACULTY: Now, who wouldn't love labwork?
I'm sure I don't know.
They'd have to be a real jerk,
Or perhaps a bit slow.
He sings:
Fah who for-aze
Dah who dor-aze
Welcome Research
Come this way
Fah who for-aze
Dah who dor-…
bcohen | December 17, 2009Moving along (see here), the order of quality for Halloween candy has been a source of constant conversation for years in my family. Since my kids became full-on trick-or-treaters a few years ago, it seemed necessary to get down to the science of it. That led to the first hierarchy, in 2006, which was supplemented with revised versions in 2007 and 2008. The version below was posted in October 2008
The data presented below were first published after Halloween in 2006. After further (non-anonymous) peer review, we pushed into the second phase of the research in 2007. We are proud to…
worldsfair | December 16, 2009Well maybe not, but wouldn't that be fun?
Sporting his full white beard, Darwin is hired to impersonate Santa Claus at the local mall. He initially does well in this job, looking the part, being punctual, amicable, and knowledgeable about reindeer. However, he soon begins to insist on teaching children words like "invertebrate." He also starts giving out stylish feces beads instead of candy canes. Later, he gets in an argument with another Santa Claus in another mall over biologically sound explanations for Rudolph's glowing nose. The "Darwin vs. Santa Claus" fistfight goes viral on YouTube…
bcohen | December 16, 2009For a year or so, we had the privilege at the World's Fair to garner our own sponsors, corporate and otherwise, so as not to rely on money from Dow Chemical or Shell, money that Seed Media Group was all too willing to take. In the end, we had nine separate alternative sponsors, each coming with its own tale to tell about the morally tenuous, environmentally destructive activities of Dow Chemical. The first ran in May 2007, the last in April 2008. Below are all the sponsors together, a class photo of sorts.
The evidence of Dow's debased policies that went with some of these ads:…
worldsfair | December 15, 2009
Has anybody reading this post used twitter in the classroom? Not in the sense of:
"Students, write something witty in less than 140 characters"
But rather:
"Students, we don't mind you using twitter during class, but keep the tweets class specific. Oh yeah, and use this hashtag #subject101"
In other words, use the online tool in much the same way as a conference, but specifically for a class in, say, university.
I've had a chance to look at a number of articles here and there by searching "using twitter in classroom." This one, in particular, was interesting:
Professor Encourages Students…
bcohen | December 15, 2009Continuing on with the ten best from half of the World's Fair, as noted earlier, this is a reprint of a post that first ran in August 2006. When Dave and I got to take part in Roald Hoffman's Entertaining Science last year, I read it there too.
Dale Peck Reviews Einstein's Latest---
Pedestrian crap. Albert Einstein's "General Theory of Relativity" (Annalen der Physik, Leipzig: Verlan Von Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1916) is crap. It's oblique, it's opaque, it's bloated with transparent effort. Salted, sanctimonious effort. I literally fidget turning the pages. Einstein is the worst physicist…
worldsfair | December 14, 2009Yesterday, we had a little bit of snow fall in my neck of the woods. What was cool was how the conditions must have been just perfect so that what you saw falling was actually "little six sided snowflakes." I mean, it was like a scene from a Christmas special, with flakes often as big as 3mm in diameter. Seriously, it was magical almost, and my kids and I spent a good chunk of time just looking at them as they rested on our clothes, our hair, or on the terrain around us.
I tried to take photos, but my camera is not well suited for macro work. Still, I think this picture gives the general…