Jesus then entered the farm, and saw creatures of every shape and size, and so said to his followers, “Hey, my Dad made that creature, and that creature, and also that creature… Actually, now that I think about it, he made them all.” And at the early dawn of the seventh day, just before He rested, God did a lot of pretty complicated things at super duper God speed. This was so that people would think the whole Creation thing probably took a lot longer than seven days. The heavens opened and the angels proclaimed, “Fear any literate man, capable…
The Science Creative Quarterly
From archive
IN WHICH OUR PROTAGONIST LEARNS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BASE CASE
I was three years old. By this point in my life, the residents of Sesame Street had educated me about as well as any community of puppets could reasonably be expected to educate any small child. Family legend has my father holding me, age fifteen months, as he selected an ice cream treat from the Dickie Dee vendor outside our Virginia home. I don’t know if I recognized the varieties of snacks, but apparently I could make some sense of their names. “I,” I enunciated, pointing. “C. E. C…” Incredulous, my father informed my mother, “She knows letters.” Since neither…
LOTIC
In electric confrontations, the clouds gather, grow dark, and grumble their dissent. They lumber about like gravid beasts, heavy bellies aimed at the earth below; a slow dance that lasts for days. Then, like a crescendo, it rains. Not an unusual phenomenon in this urban area of the west coast trapped between the mountains and the sea. The geometric nature of the city provides a horizon of percussive surfaces in the form of concrete stalagmites that have colonized what once was a temperate rainforest. What trees remain have been landscaped into place. And water batters into the foliage, each leaf…
THE SCIENCE/ARTS DIVIDE STANDS BETWEEN US: A LOVE STORY
“Tell me something interesting,” he says to me as we sit side by side on the bus. He looks so cold and calculated and I wonder if he feels anything towards me at all. He takes up room in his seat. I barely fit next to him. He is an overachiever, overeducated and impeccably self-reliant, with what most would call a bright future ahead of him. He is the science student. Is this what I want? Is this who I am? I feel torn within myself. He looks me over, bored, unsatisfied, and I feel an old familiar pain come…
THE LABORATORY CALLED LIFE
The study of cognition and theory of mind is an emerging field of science that receives its inputs from psychology, neuroscience and behavioural biology. Children are known to develop a theory of mind around the age of three to four years, and many experiments have been conducted to test this development in young children, and test the apparent absence of theory of mind in toddlers. If you know that I know something, you are said to have cognition, while if you know that I do not know something, you would have a theory of mind. Sounds fuzzy? An illustration might…
PRE-MED STUDENT ACCIDENTALLY CURES CANCER
Patrick McCarthy, a pre-medical student, who previously referred to his general chemistry lab requirement as “the dumbest thing [he’s] ever heard of,” has discovered the cure for cancer, Nature News reports. McCarthy, 22, discovered a special class of polyphenolics during last Monday’s extraction of the compounds from apples, says John Strova, a sixth-year graduate teaching assistant. “The students were required to complete an extraction of the antioxidants and complete a calibration curve to determine phenol activity,” Strova told the Associated Press. “Pat’s research results were mind-blowing. I didn’t even know this level of antioxidant activity was possible. But there’s an…
THE CHIMERA FILES: WHEN DOGGIE MET KITTY (PUN HEAVY VERSION)
“Woman Claims Puppies Were Born To Cat; Says Neighborhood Mutt Impregnated Feline“-Reuters Doggy: Before Ms. Pretty Kitty? I ran with a tough pack of stray dogs. I was always out chasing tail—usually my own. Kitty: In my strict Siamese family, we were discouraged from dating outside the breed—never mind outside the species! Doggy: When I first saw her, my heart went into heat—but she thought I was just in it for the chase. Kitty: I was like, “Down boy! You’re barking up the wrong family tree.” I don’t want to be anybody’s weird fetish-I am not into “kitty porn.” I…
PHRASES WHICH SOUND PLEASANT ENOUGH BUT ARE ACTUALLY KIND OF SCARY
Cruises in Iran Hummer coming through Intelligent design in the school Global Warming
EXCERPTS FROM A COLLECTION OF MICROBIAL RENGAS
My ideal microbe has sharp teeth, fury and green. It eats my homework. It likes math homework the best, but it will eat anything. My ideal microbe absolutely hates the sun, drinks ocean water. He smells like sour lemonade, but he doesn’t like lemons. Jonathan Chan and Carl Laurente David Lloyd George Elementary – – – My perfect microbe is a champion athlete: she has gold medals. She’s a male microbe magnet and is the envy of germs. My perfect microbe has never disobeyed me. She will come as I call. She is always by my side with elegance and…