Science
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Talent Quest, Round Two Voting!
Finally! Round Two of the Public Radio Talent Quest is now ready for your listening pleasure. There were three challenges: we had one story intro to write and record, one page of copy we had to read live with no prep, and then a “word association,” in which they gave us a word or phrase and we literally just took…
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A Moment of Science on YouTube!
Guess what, it’s a NEW SKEPCHICK CONTEST! Watch the above video and/or just read on for info . . . As you may recall, a few weeks ago we lost Mr. Wizard. To keep his spirit alive, I’d like you all to grab your cameras and record a clip of you doing a science experiment in 5 minutes or less…
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Update from Evelyn at Sea!
As many of you may recall, our dear friend Evelyn just recently boarded a research vessel to study an underwater chain of volcanoes in the Indian Ocean. She just sent me this update . . . if anyone has any specific questions for her, post them as comments here and I’ll e-mail them to her, but I can’t promise she’ll…
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Mr. Wizard has left the building.
We’ve lost a good one tonight — Mr. Wizard, who taught me all about the mechanics of swallowing upside-down (no, really) has gone to the great laboratory in the sky. Or the ground. If we can take any comfort during this time, it is that he accomplished a helluva a lot in his 89 years, and also that he lived…
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DDT, Malaria, and the attack on Rachel Carson
I’ve been spending the last weeks reading with increasing alarm (and frequency) nasty, vitriolic attacks on Rachel Carson. The folks promoting DDT aren’t just making claims that are scientifically and factually incorrect; they also targeted a gentle nature writer and are comparing her to Stalin and Hitler. Now, you all know what a calm, reasoned, and peaceful person I am.…
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Cross-Posting Goodness
The Public Radio Talent Quest guys have given me and my nine other semi-finalists blogs, and they’re asking us to discuss our experience going through the contest. I’ll be cross-posting so that I can continue to distribute love to my skeptical homies here while fulfilling my new role as contestant-under-the-spotlight over there. The direct link to my blog there: http://www.publicradioquest.com/blog/2760.…
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Tomatoes, bees, and sex toys.
I’ve been having an “ask an entomologist” session over at the JREF forums, and a question came up about tomatoes and pollination. Mercutio was concerned that with the disappearing honey bees, his tomatoes might not set fruit. Surprise! Honeybees don’t do much tomato pollination. Tomatoes are descended from ancestors in South America. Originally, they were pollinated by solitary bees. Today’s…
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Scientists Get the Finger
Take a look at your index and ring fingers — some researchers at University of Bath in the UK think the difference in lengths between the two could be an indicator of what your star subjects were in school. A recent study showed a correlation between boys with a large difference in length and those who excelled at math; there…
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