Today, I feel like doing a plant – no, an animal. Yes, today, I am going to make an animal. And it will be a masterpiece. I shall call it the…. No wait! Maybe I should think of the name later. Yes, you should always name your pieces after you have completed them. Better that way. OK then. An animal it is. More specifically, a vertebrate. Large body, four legs, one tail, one head, usual stuff on the head – i.e., let’s just follow the standard animalia rubric. Nothing exciting there. Not yet anyway. So let’s give it an armored…
The Science Creative Quarterly
By David Ng
David (@ng_dave) is Faculty at the Michael Smith Labs. His writing has appeared in places such as McSweeney's, The Walrus, and also as an occasional blogger at boingboing.net. If you're looking for a graphic for your next science talk, he encourages you to check out his blog, popperfont.net.
A SCIENTIST’S GUIDE TO VOTING IN THE CANADIAN FEDERAL ELECTION (IN FLOWCHART FORM) – A SCIENCE CREATIVE QUARTERLY PIN UP (NO. 4)
(CLICK HERE FOR PIN-UP POSTER – pdf file ~177k) – We suggest photocopying at 129% – LTR to 11×17 – With the Federal Canadian Election is coming up fast! (October 14th), I thought it would be handy to provide a flowchart pin-up detailing the choices you can make based on: i. Wavelength of the Party’s colour. ii. Albedo of the party leaders’ hair colour. iii. Environmental platform. For a good overview of the policies that each political party favours, go read this. *Note that the Parti Quebecois is not included in this graphic as I was unable to find out…
ANGRY WORDS FROM A GNOME WHO TO THIS DAY CONTINUES TO THINK THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT WAS ACTUALLY THE HUMAN GNOME PROJECT
It’s hard to believe that 17 years ago the Human Gnome Project formally began. It was quite frankly a great day for all of us gnomes as we thought we had finally gained the attention and respect we deserved as a community. But 17 years later, we as a community are disappointed, angry, full of resentment, and still addicted to nicotine. To our knowledge, of the roughly $3 billion worth of research funds given to the human gnome initiative, none of it ever actually went to fund “gnome” research. Instead, a sizable portion went to human research, and in an…
HUMAN GENE COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH CANCER OR DROID FROM STAR WARS?
1. p21RAS 2. C-3PO 3. CD45 4. p53 5. C-SRC 6. RIC-920 7. FOS-JUN 8. R2-D2 9. 8D8 10. C-MYC 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10 are oncogenes: 2, 6, 8, 9 are droids from Star Wars.
LIKELY AND UNLIKELY THINGS THAT SIR ISAAC NEWTON STOOD ON DURING HIS LIFETIME.
Likely: Grass. A stage of some sort. Guard. Tippy toes. Unlikely Astroturf. Olympic podium. Someone’s throat. Shoulders of (Real) Giants.
A LIST OF PROMISING SALES SLOGANS THAT THE TOY MANUFACTERER, MATTEL, COULD POTENTIALLY USE IF THEY EVER DECIDE TO MASS-PRODUCE AND MARKET A “STEM CELL BARBIE.”
“Hey kids, this Barbie might get pregnant!” “Comes with refrigerated unit to prevent mold.” “Stem Cell Barbie uses only materials from the 60 cell lines approved by George W. Bush himself.” “See Barbie scab!” “Watch her fall in love with Cadaver Ken!” “Have fun with your religious friends – tell them she’s made from embryos!” “A quality product: only 1 in 4 will get cancer.” “Feels like real skin because it is real skin.”
WHY I DO SCIENCE
When I look out my office window, I see two sets of nucleotide bases – guanine and cytosine. I don’t mention this as an admission of psychotic delirium. The building where I work just happens to have a DNA molecule emblazoned on its windows. Admittedly, it’s an odd workplace view, but in my case it fits. I’m a molecular geneticist—genomics, gene expression, cloning, and the rest of that good stuff – and these little guys are some of the fundamentals of what I study. In many ways, my field is actually about the flow of information in genes; how a…
IT’S OFFICIAL – INTRODUCING THE “SCIENCE CREATIVE LITERACY SYMPOSIA”
Presumably, art and sciences interact a little like this? The Science Creative Literacy Symposia is a new fieldtrip program offered at the University of British Columbia, and is designed to provide an engaging outreach experience for students at the Grade 6/7 level. Here, the intent is to combine elements of science exploration with expository creative writing with the aim of fostering skills in written literacy, scientific literacy, as well as develop appreciation in interdisciplinary connections. – – – Hosted by the Advanced Molecular Biology Lab at the Michael Smith Laboratories, and by the fine folks at the UBC Creative Writing…
LETTER OF REJECTION TO DR. PHIL
Dear Dr. Phil, Thank you for submitting your application for the director’s position at the National Institutes of Health. As the N.I.H. is the principal force guiding America’s efforts in medical research, we have strived to consider every candidate’s application seriously. Our first impression was not a good one. You have a loud and exuberant manner that is an oddity in our network of colleagues, and for the duration of the interview process, you were physically sitting on top of Dr. James Watson (a man considerably smaller than you), oblivious to his muffled and strained murmurs beneath you. We found…