Everyone in the class defined either “science” or “writing.” We compiled them to define “creativity.” – – – Creativity is learning, experimenting, teamwork and interest. It is putting things together to make the unknown, a really cool subject because there is no such thing as bad art. It is the unknown world of living things, expressing yourself, and emotions, what you are thinking, and taking risks. Creativity is painting drawing, poetry, learning about nature, the solar system, body, electricity, water, food and plastic. It is a project, something you make that can be a masterpiece to express your feelings. It…
The Science Creative Quarterly
The Science Creative Quarterly (SCQ) is not a quarterly, but instead publishes new material at a non-linear rate. Currently, it is sleeping and in a sort of stasis (turpor?) It used to seek science writing of any genre, and your contribution would have involved checking out our submissions guidelines.
The Science Creative Quarterly (SCQ) has a single print edition so far (half SCQ pieces, and half fake science journal – see here for more details). Also, badges?
Stay safe everyone!
PROFESSOR J. BLUCHER AND THE PROBLEM OF THE CLASSROOM
I thought I would share a funny story of what recently happened to a colleague of mine. The fellow in question, Professor J. Blucher, was recently trying to schedule a room for his undergraduate class, Mastering Sextants. This year, the class, which usually numbers only a handful of students, had nearly 150 sign up. Initially he surmised that perhaps people were finally taking global warming seriously and had decided to brush up on their nautical skills. However, it was later discovered that, due to certain constraints in the new course offerings software, the class was listed as: MASTERING SEX. So…
THE PHYSICAL LAWS (OF THE UNIVERSE) ON TWITTER
(You too can follow the @physicallaws of the universe). – – – The physical laws of the universe have just started a twitter account. Not surprising, but the 1st law of thermodynamics doesn’t think much of unicorns. The physical laws of the universe are at the mall. As usual, Archimedes Principle is hogging the bathroom. Even @rainbows should follow the physical laws of the universe. The physical laws of the universe have a thing for graphing calculators. Are you there @God, it’s us the physical laws of the universe. The physical laws of the universe would just like to say…
WRITE PRIME
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000009 900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000009 900088000088008888880000888888008888888800888888880009 900088000088008800088800008800000008800000880000000009 900088000088008800088800008800000008800000880000000009 900088000088008800880000008800000008800000888888800009 900088088088008888800000008800000008800000880000000009 900088088088008800880000008800000008800000880000000009 900008800880008800088000008800000008800000880000000009 900008800880008800008800888888000008800000888888880009 900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000009 900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000009 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 *10^375+1 – – – I obtain much pleasure from writing. Also from reading books. Literature is the greatest art form in the world. And so I imagine a writer living in a small efficiency apartment in the southern part of the United States. A third-floor apartment, 33 steps up black cast iron stairs in a back alley. The apartment has a main bed/living-room and a chair, a small kitchen, a tiny refrigerator, a stove, a small bathroom. No television, no cell phone, no computer. But the…
THE TIME TO SPEAK UP IS NOW
On Sunday, August 2nd 2008, in Santa Cruz, California, a firebombing destroyed David Feldheim’s car. The smoke from the fire filled the first floor of his house, so he and his wife, along with their 6-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, had to drop a ladder from the window of a second floor room to escape. Dr. Feldheim has no criminal record. He isn’t affiliated with organized crime, or even a member of some contentious political organization. Instead, the attack on he and his family was instigated because Dr. Feldheim uses mice in his research on how the brain develops. Animal…
WAITING FOR … THE WORLD (OR THE TROUBLE WITH CONSUMERISM)
A One Act Tragicomedy based on the style and characters of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot – – – A city street in Vancouver. No trees. Dawn. The near future. Vladimir flat on the ground. Sleeping. Estragon standing, teeth clenched, pressing buttons on his flip cell phone. Flips it open, flips it closed, flips it open. His frustration grows. Estragon: Go to hell! (Throws phone to the ground, the phone bounces and resounds.) Vladimir (awoken): That’s where we’re going. Estragon (picks up phone, pockets it): You’re awake! I thought you’d never wake up. Vladimir (pointing towards Estragon’s pocket): No signal?…
MY DINNER WITH MIKHAIL BAKHTIN
[We see the ‘father-of-global-warming”, James Hansen, walk out of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in downtown New York City. James has a blank expression. We hear his voice commenting on the action, as the narrator would. This narrating voice will be labeled “JAMES’ NARRATION” to distinguish it from James Hansen’s actual words within the story.] – – – JAMES’ NARRATION: The life of a preeminent climatologist is tough. You waste away your youth studying advanced math and physics, hunker down in a university library, eat only cereal, write a dissertation on the atmosphere of Venus, slave the next thirty…
DARWIN’S STRANGE INVERSION OF REASONING (VIDEO)
DANIEL DENNETT
JANUARY 14th, 2009
“Darwin’s Strange Inversion of Reasoning” (January 14th, 2009, Frederick Wood Theatre) – – – One of Darwin’s earliest critics noted his “strange inversion of reasoning: in order to make a perfect and beautiful machine it is not requisite to know how to make it.” This is indeed a counterintuitive idea, but it is central not just to biology but to computer science and, indeed, all of science. Resistance to this ‘strange inversion’ is at the heart of popular discontent with both evolution by natural selection and computer models of the brain and mind. It helps to understand some of the…
STILL LIFE WITH A MODEL ORGANISM
– – – Last Thanksgiving, I needed to bring my flies home for the holidays in anticipation of the eclosion of important potential recombinant male progeny. My goal was to use my freezer, a tray of ice, a dissection pad, a paintbrush, and some hoisted fly food vials from my lab to separate the males and the females. At some point during Thanksgiving, my mother asked if they “needed to be on the countertop” and when I said “no” they were moved to this photogenic area. Remarks were made about the apt proximity of fruit to fruit flies, the galosh…