The Science Creative Quarterly is seeking wondrous, thought provoking, and potentially slightly silly science questions. These we hope to present to our esteem Bill Hick, the Science Prick, who in turn will attempt his best to answer them in due course. As well, know that a little meat with regards to the questions submitted wouldn’t hurt. And to attract such queries, we would like to make this request for questions our October monthly book contest. This time around, the prize is Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems. This seems just about right, since Edwina…
The Science Creative Quarterly
By The Science Creative Quarterly
Castigat ridendo mores.
A SMALL SAMPLING OF LETTERS RECIEVED REGARDING TOILET SEATS AND GAME THEORY
In reference to this For once and for all, the argument is NOT about the toilet “seat” being left up or down, it’s the “lid” of the toilet that the argument is all about!!!! In 1975, Charles Gerba published a scientific article describing the phenomenon of bacterial and viral aerosols due to toilet flushing. It states, every time a toilet is flushed, an aerosol plume of contaminated water droplets is ejected into the air and lands on everything in the bathroom, including you, your toilet paper, clean towels & toothbrush! During the study, gauze pads were placed around the experimental…
“THE TRUTH IS WORTH MORE THAN AN IPOD,” PLUS “AN SCQ WRITING CONTEST EVERY MONTH!”
After a much need hiatus over the summer, the SCQ is back for it’s third volume. We thought we would begin by making a few announcements, tantamount to the giving away of free stuff. First on the agenda is a oh-so-pretty white 30G video iPod we still have in our possession. Essentially, when Mike won our last contest, he elected to choose the Amazon gift card option, leaving us with this fine piece of electronics. Consequently, we have decided to give it away to some random person who chooses to link to the truth before December 13th, 2007. We’ll be…
JOURNAL CLUB FIND: HOW TO BE A BORING WRITER – THE STUDY.
Fig. 1. ‘‘Congratulations, you are now capable of writing technical, impersonal and boring papers like myself and the other gentlemen – Drawing by Sverre Stein Nielsen. REFERENCE: How to write consistently boring scientific literature (page 1 pdf). (2007) Oikos 116: 723 – 727. ABSTRACT: Although scientists typically insist that their research is very exciting and adventurous when they talk to laymen and prospective students, the allure of this enthusiasm is too often lost in the predictable, stilted structure and language of their scientific publications. I present here, a top-10 list of recommendations for how to write consistently boring scientific publications.…
A BEHIND THE SCENES SITE OVERHAUL AND AN INVITATION TO JUST PAUSE FOR A MOMENT AND THINK.
Apologies if the Science Creative Quarterly site misbehaves today. We’re incorporating fancy and not-so-fancy upgrades – primarily to protect things like the truth and to introduce neat little sphere widgets. Since there is nothing new today, per se, we invite you to stop whatever it is you’re doing, look outside (or better yet, go outside) and just take a moment to think. You know, just think. That’s all.
ANNOUNCING: SCIENCE SCOUTS NOW ON FACEBOOK
science scouts home | facebook group We are delighted at the awesome response for the Science Scouts (many thanks to BoingBoing in particular), and are truly inspired by the many who view scientific literacy and badges with such passion. In order to best manage the many individuals who would like to keep up with the OOTSSOERAAP’s comings and goings, we’ve decided to set up a facebook group (link), which will hopefully result in some form of percieved order. Anyway, we did recently add more badges and have a total of about 80 or so. As well, through the mystery of…
JOURNAL CLUB FIND: WATCHING POKEMON IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH
REFERENCE: Pokemon contagion: photosensitive epilepsy or mass psychogenic illness? (2001) Southern Medical Journal 94(2):197-204. ABSTRACT: We studied a reported illness outbreak occurring on December 16, 1997, involving more than 12,000 Japanese children who had various signs and symptoms of illness after watching an episode of a popular animated cartoon, Pokemon. While photosensitive epilepsy was diagnosed in a minuscule fraction of those affected, this explanation cannot account for the breadth and pattern of the events. The characteristic features of the episode are consistent with the diagnosis of epidemic hysteria, triggered by sudden anxiety after dramatic mass media reports describing a relatively…
OUR HUMOUR WRITING CONTEST – ONLY THREE DAYS LEFT
Basically, an almost last call for entries. And to reiterate, a humour piece is needed, plus (plus) additional captions can be supplied if you want to take a chance at modifying your score for better or for worse. Also, note that the prize rocks! (full details below) * * * PDF | JPG The Science Creative Quarterly seeks science humour pieces for entry into our awesome new contest. Judging will be based on a number of criteria that can be annotated as follows: Briefly, final Score (FS) is equal to the the base score of the humour piece submitted (S),…
JOURNAL CLUB FIND: SORT OF PUTS THE IDEA OF ‘FOOT MASSAGE’ INTO A WHOLE DIFFERENT LEAGUE
– – – REFERENCE: Pseudomamma on the foot: An unusual presentation of supernumerary breast tissue. (2006) Dermatology Online Journal: 12 (4): 7 ABSTRACT: A 22-year-old woman sought medical care for a lesion in the plantar region of her left foot, a well-formed nipple surrounded by areola and hair. Microscopic examination of the dermis showed hair follicles, eccrine glands, and sebaceous glands. Fat tissue was noted at the base of the lesion. Clinical and histopathologic findings were consistent with the diagnosis of supernumerary breast tissue, also known as pseudomamma. To our knowledge, this is the first report of supernumerary breast tissue…