We walked into the lab full of science. Promise for work, excitement, and discovery awaited We had an experiment to do We picked a plant, pink, purple or green We went up in groups refining it Turning it to powder with a crackling and squelching The nitrogen froze it brittle we ground it mortar and pestle We put it in bottles, filling it with a forest scent But then we destroyed it, with acetone yet It turned from transparent to green, But soon it was ready to be changed yet again More bottles were assembled, silica, acetone filled We then…
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!
HIS PURPLENESS
Shining. Draped in purple. The fresh smell. It calls to me. Mortar and pestle. Grinding. Crushing. Destroying the beauty that once was. Beauty lost, never to be regained. A last chance to recover: Acetone. Bringing back what once was? Purple to brown. Beauty to hideousness. They say we have gained, but forget about what we have lost. The beautiful coat of His Purpleness. On the outside, a gleaming pharaoh. On the inside, a murderous thief. Alter egos are his undoing. – – – (Written during a Science Creative Literacy Symposia – more pieces can be viewed here)
COLUMN CHROMATOGRAPHY
It started with an empty tube Filled with a murky green liquid, Clumps of plant clung on to the sides. Left to settle, the plant material and liquid eventually separated, Like oil and water. Extracting the liquid from the test tube, We mixed it into a combination of ethanol and silica. The solvent tore it apart The greasy, darker liquid sank to the bottom, While the lighter, purer liquid remained at the top. In the dark room, the UV light coated the mixture, Reverting colours never seen before. Neon! Red! Bands of colour! Who knew that a purple light could…
RUBBER GLOVES
This poem is a collective construction from one of our symposia days. Each student wrote one line about the topic they chose (rubber gloves), and then the students put the lines in order to create a poem. The instructors let the students have free reign over their collective creative process, and they wrote it and put it together within five minutes. More pieces from the day can be found here. – – – God! How do you put these ON?!?!?!?!? The rubber glove is blown up like a balloon, used to whack people. They snap! They really help nurses save…
COLLECTED WORKS FROM TECUMSEH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, MAY 8th 2008
Part of our Science Creative Literary Symposia. During this day, students from the Grade 7 class extracted compounds from various plant and flower samples, which were then loaded on a silica based chromatography column for characterization. – – – THE DIAMED FLOWER The DiaMed flower Magenta petals, Slightly browning, Texture of satin, In a single row. Varnished, stiff leaves, The colour of pine needles, Pointing up walls. Thin sheet of ice, Crackled and sizzled like afire Pestle ran over the helpless plant. Trampled on, chunks all over the place. A victim of the evil white smog. Out of the freezer,…
WHY I DO SCIENCE
When I look out my office window, I see two sets of nucleotide bases – guanine and cytosine. I don’t mention this as an admission of psychotic delirium. The building where I work just happens to have a DNA molecule emblazoned on its windows. Admittedly, it’s an odd workplace view, but in my case it fits. I’m a molecular geneticist—genomics, gene expression, cloning, and the rest of that good stuff – and these little guys are some of the fundamentals of what I study. In many ways, my field is actually about the flow of information in genes; how a…
A REVIEW OF “MOLECULAR REGULATION OF 23A2 SKELETAL MYOBLAST DIFFERENTIATION AND APOPTOSIS” BY DR. MARGOT FREER
(In the interest of full disclosure, it is worth saying that Justin has known the author for several years. Further, the author has often provided Justin with home cooked meals and emotional support following his frequent, painful breakups and other various frequent personal tragedies. Finally, it is the present reviewer’s opinion that as he received an “A” in biology his superior scientific mind will not be influenced by his relationship with the author.) This is the greatest book ever. Now, I should say that I’m not a real big reader of scientific literature, but I could not put this thing…
ODE TO A WHOPPING URN
A rap song – audio file here If the haze in my brain is smog what do you call the apathy of the cog inside the giant corporate shell. But truly I know this isn’t hell. So global warming may make us all blond, ironic the hockey stick will close my ponds And where did I put my CO2 sponge? Isn’t this a sponge-worthy monde? Now I listen to wisemen less to prophets out to spread amen but if this is apocalyptica maybe we should dig into our lexica find words to talk to those not in the choir. But…
THE CHALLENGES THAT THE GLOBAL POLIO ERADICATION INITIATIVE FACES.
In the last few decades, we have been able to curb the number of children affected by polio and the number of countries harbouring the virus with great success. This is made possible by the introduction of two very efficient vaccines and the establishment of a global mass-scale immunisation campaign that has already administered 10 billion doses of the vaccines[1]. This campaign was set up to eradicate the virus; however, recently, the campaign has been facing many challenges that have made it difficult to complete the mission. The polio virus (PV) part of the Enterovirus genus of the Picornaviridae family…