(From the Periphery) Pending the results of an Environmental Review Board (ERB) hearing scheduled for next Tuesday, Dr. Susan Millar is scheduled to commence work on the long anticipated Glacier Restoration Project early this winter. “We’ve been working at this for a long time,” Millar said at a press conference in the James Library. “It feels like its coming to an end, but “It feels like its coming to an end, but we expect that it is just the beginning of a new epoch in glacial research, if not a new glacial epoch.” Dr. Millar and her team was awarded…
The Science Creative Quarterly
From archive
JOURNAL CLUB: ABOUT THE NINTENDO WII (AND KIND OF OBVIOUS)
Energy expenditure in adolescents playing new generation computer games. (pdf) (2007) British Medical Journal 355:p1282 In which we learn that you use more energy “jumping around” playing video games, than say “not jumping around” playing video games. – – – ABSTRACT: Objective: To compare the energy expenditure of adolescents when playing sedentary and new generation active computer games. Design: Cross sectional comparison of four computer games. Setting: Research laboratories. Participants: Six boys and five girls aged 13-15 years. Procedure Participants were fitted with a monitoring device validated to predict energy expenditure. They played four computer games for 15 minutes each.…
SNOOZE OR LOSE
Here we go again. In order to finish my term paper on time, I must pull an “all-nighter”. It is a tactic I employ increasingly often despite knowing the consequences: I will be a zombie the next day, with my eyes drooping and my head embarrassingly bobbing as I ride the bus or ‘attend’ Powerpoint presentations. The complaint of “not enough hours in the day” is heard from many people, not only last-minute students such as myself [1,2]. This frustration begs the question, what is the evolutionary reason I need to sleep for 8 of the 24 hours in a…
THE NERVE NOT CHOSEN
Because I was reading Robert Frost (“The Road Not Taken”) instead of studying for Gross Anatomy Two nerves diverge in a withered hand And sorry I cannot select the pair Just one answer – so I stand My palms sweaty, expression’s bland Under the proctor’s icy stare The first one’s got a yellow hue And shines beneath fluorescent light Myelin sheath is holding true That once sped signals out of view Through carpal tunnel and out of sight The other nerve, so too it lay Yellow, glossy, full of charm A bit smaller, but who’s to say Less important if…
SCIENCE VS. SUPERSTITION: ROUND TWO
(previously) 1 Leonard Mendle is extremely superstitious. After he drops a hand mirror while trying to shave his back, he decides to steer clear of the dangerous outside world and stay in his house, where he will wait out the next seven years. A concerned friend arranges for Dr. Gloria Weiss, psychiatrist, to visit Mr. Mendle regularly in an effort to convince him to go outside, and to clear up his lingering mother issues. It’s an intense battle of wills that doesn’t end until some six and a half years later when Mr. Mendle suddenly comes to his senses, embraces…
ANIMALS WITHOUT FACES
“Hi everyone, I’m Jim Cuttlefish, your host for Animals Without Faces, says the big-eyed, tentacled face filling the television screen, “the show where contestants share face time with animals without faces.” “How about a big wave for today’s contestant — Marina!” he says, welcoming a young woman in SCUBA gear swimming into view next to him, “So Marina, tell us a little about your self.” “Well, I spend most of my time on the beach.” “Working on your tan?” Jim winks at the camera. “No, cleaning up litter, actually.” “I see. So tell us, Marina, what are you looking for…
STUPID LITTLE BUGGERS
polka dotted screen splattered from the bugs that try to hug it divided into a pattern already present in the fly’s eyes..
THE THEORY OF SPECIAL RELATIVITY… IT’S PRETTY SPECIAL
In 1905 Albert Einstein published a landmark paper concerning the properties of space and time. The theory that he introduced, the so-called theory of special relativity, forced a complete reformulation of our conceptions of these two fundamental structures. To get a sense of the far-reaching consequences of this theory it is instructive to look at an example. Imagine driving in a car at 100km/h alongside another car (say a Porsche) that is also driving at 100km/h (the velocities of each car of course being in reference to the road). If you looked out the window at the Porsche then it…
BREATHE… IT’S A NEW YEAR AND THE UNIVERSE SEEMS FINE
This Mandala was made from an image of the galaxy M74 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.