Man has been studying the fossil records for quite some time now—and we are not referring here to the investigation of old maid Sunday school teachers, Bob Dole, or others long presumed dead—and has discovered that there are many species of plants and animals which have become extinct. While many of these have simply evolved to more viable forms, there are others which seem to have run into a brick wall—or in more scientific terms, an up-thrust of metamorphosed iron-rich silt interlaced with veins of limestone. Although there is only inconclusive evidence as to the purpose, if any, of certain…
The Science Creative Quarterly
From archive
UNTITLED
all the walls are shaking softly & the sharp shining cuts the roof’s relief across cracked brickwork to show what went unseen before the light of evening pulls her black shawl over the city night as streetlights flicker & buzz to life, falling west across the breadth of habitation, right to left. the sunlight shakes the seasons & from fall winter springs So summer might shed raw, bright, Light on the heart of truth its Whole & its seed & its root & its leaves. The trouble is, truth neither sees nor believes, So how does it get off Being?
WHAT COLOUR IS A UNICORN?
What color is a unicorn? Well, let’s think about this for a second. There are paintings of unicorns. And there are movies about them. Also unicorns have shown up on tapestries, in novels, poems, songs, video games, tattoos, little sculptures made of plastic that children play with, etc. In fact there are many, many depictions and descriptions of unicorns out there, but are these real unicorns? No, not at all. So, with this realization I should like to amend my question to read: What color is a REAL unicorn? This is more difficult to answer isn’t it? To answer the…
DOES THE NAME DR. KRISANA KRAISINTU RING A BELL?
A review of Cocktail: A Play about the Life and HIV Drug Development Work of Dr. Krisana Kraisintu by Vince LiCata and Ping Chong Truth be told, I don’t read plays very often, if at all. In fact, I’m ashamed to admit that I think the last one I read was back in high school long ago, and if I remember correctly had something to do with vampires – ironic in that vampires at the time were not so popular. But this play was about something I am interested in – medicine and social responsibility – and it was referred…
WRITE SOMETHING SCIENCE-Y AND WIN ONE OF TWO IPOD NANOS
– – – Ahhhh… The summer is over, and although we seem to be generally slowing down with age, we still have some gumption in us. Consequently, we feel that it is that time of year to dust off the keyboard, renew our lists, and maybe get down to writing that science masterpiece you’ve been saving up for. In any event, we thought it worthy to provide a little bait to this endeavour. We would offer a trinket of prizes – two iPod nanos to be exact – for submissions that come our way over the next academic year. That’s…
IMAGINED TALKS WE’D BE CURIOUS TO SEE (A VIDEO)
For more information about TEDxTerrytalks 2009, please click here.
HOW I GOT OUT OF WRITING AN ESSAY ON H.G. WELL’S THE TIME MACHINE.
(Because it’s also the International Year of Astronomy, over the next few weeks, we are happy to present a few reprinted funny pieces that relate to this business of space – Enjoy!) January 17, 2005 I received the syllabus for my Humanities course. A humanities course should not be required for my B.Sc degree in Physics. To add insult to injury, we are supposed to do an analysis of Well’s The Time Machine. We are to focus on the historical context when the topic is time travel? Who reads a book on a time machine for social insights? I would…
DEATH FROM ABOVE: THE TORINO SCALE AND YOU
(Because it’s also the International Year of Astronomy, over the next few weeks, we are happy to present a few reprinted funny pieces that relate to this business of space – Enjoy!) Are you doomed? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to consult a colour-coded chart. Take, for example, the Torino Scale, which astronomers use to express the likelihood of an asteroid hitting the Earth. Asteroid impacts are believed to be responsible for several mass extinctions – just ask the dinosaurs (oh wait, you can’t) – and it’s only a matter of time until another killer rock…
DALE PECK REVIEWS EINSTEIN’S LATEST
(Because it’s also the International Year of Astronomy, over the next few weeks, we are happy to present a few reprinted funny pieces that relate to this business of space – Enjoy!) 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 of his generation. Yet it goes deeper. He also grovels to the reader–God, it’s hackneyed–trying to ingratiate himself with “quaint” turns of the phrase, “curved”…