Have science, will travel
Home to the finest science shows this side of the Big Bang performed by the two best science guys in this (or any other) universe. Have science, will travel.
reaction when Don conveniently pointed out we had done just that, a long time ago. So strap yourself into your way-back machine and let's take a trip down memory lane to the Big Bang of Explosions Inc.
Read MoreHey, hey, hey! I'm back from my travels (you know, the travels that led Aaron to write about my super-cool doppelganger Ron Diefler) with a video that combines some sweet underwater footage my wife and I got while scuba diving in the Caribbean with a whole bunch of science. I talk about water pressure, dive medicine, optics, and, of course, marine biology. Click through to check it out!
Read MoreWe got a new camera! An honest-to-goodness, shooting stuff, all the bells and whistles, type camera......And I'm completely terrified of it. Like a suspicious peasant who won't go near the creepy old castle without muttering and making cryptic signs to ward off the evil eye. But I put on my big boy pants, burned some sage to discourage the negative humors, sacrificed a fatted calf to any deities who may be around (okay, so it was a slim jim) and I made a brief video to check it out. And it worked! Kinda.
Read MoreIn the annals of scientific research there are many sober, conscientious minds, meticulously following protocol to slowly, inexorably advance the state of human knowledge towards the goal of being just a little bit less wrong about the universe. There's also a lot of silly whack-a-doodles who can't be trusted not to run with scissors. Guess which group I'm going to write about today.........
Read MoreLet’s say you’ve sealed a cat in a box with a killing device powered by the radioactive decay of an element (Don’t ask why. In this hypothetical you’re a sociopath). If the element decays, the device is triggered, the cat dies, and the ASPCA will come gunning for you. Whereas the average decay rate of elements is well known, exactly when each atom actually decays is not able to be predicted. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory states that until an observation is made of the inside of the box, the quantum system described above is represented by a wave function in superposition. That is, the cat can be considered both alive and dead.
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We may live in a holographic simulation. Everything that can be conceived of must exist somewhere in the universe. There's this cat, you see, in this box that's both dead and alive, man. Dead and alive.
s much as I love the mind-bending ideas of scientific conjecture, sometimes the use of these ideas rankle my common sense. Especially when ideas like the quirks of quantum theory are accidentally or, even worse, purposefully misinterpreted and the model of the universe science is trying to build is mistaken for the actual thing
Read MoreI'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet. I'm not a teacher but I sometimes play one in a classroom. It can be argued that I'm an educator because I like to tell people stuff about things but so does the sketchy guy on the street corner who yells at trees and trashcans. I prefer to think of myself as part of a proud tradition that stretches back into antiquity.
Read MoreI was reading through science news, like you do, when I came across this article about some chemists at UC Irvine who have developed a way to un-boil hard-boiled eggs. The process wasn't developed specifically to turn back the clock on boiled eggs, though, but to "reset" proteins that have been tangled and misfolded through some sort of chemical process so they can be recycled or reused. Medicine, biotech, and food production rely on the steady production of proteins but sometimes the manufacturing goes awry. Currently the only way to reuse the misfolded proteins requires an expensive and time-consuming process. This new one cuts the time and the cost to a small fraction of what it used to be.
And it doesn't really unboil the whole egg, either. It just resets one of the proteins in the egg what to what it was before the heat screwed it all up and solidified the albumen. The protein is lysozyme, which makes up only a few percent of the albumen. The egg isn't completely reset; heck, the egg white isn't even mostly reset, but it's still a really cool proof of concept.
This got me thinking about two things: first, if we're now one step closer to reversing the Maillard reaction and fixing overcooked steaks (probably not) and second, entropy.
Read MoreA few weeks back Don wrote an article on the spectrum of scientific inquiry where he talked about the loss of respect some of the "softer" sciences suffer due to the lack of hard evidence, explosions, and the stereotypical trappings of the scientific endeavor. In that subtle love poem written to his wayward mistress of Anthropology I saw myself mirrored and this week I'd like to make reparations and start by apologizing personally to Biology, Biologists, and a girlfriend I had long ago at whom I sarcastically rolled my eyes when she made the same points.
Read MoreWell, my voice is back in good working order so it's time for another episode of Constant Science! This week I've decided to embark upon a long and hopefully fruitful journey across all 118 elements of the periodic table, giving myself just one minute to tell you some basic facts and cool stuff about each of them in order. Today we start with hydrogen and end with boron.
And don't worry; this won't be the only thing I do for the next 23.6 videos. I'll just come back to it from time to time. Click through to check it out!
Read MoreAs someone who has been, for years now, essentially a professional Science Guy (not nearly on the level of Bill Nye, of course, but a man can dream) it might surprise some people that my background is not actually in hard science. In fact, neither is Aaron's. We both have oddly parallel histories when it comes to college education. Both of us have degrees in philosophy. Both of us later went back to undergrad for second degrees, mine in anthropology and his in music. Both of us went into informal science because of a deep love and appreciation for science and the scientific method even if our formal schooling wasn't in hard science. We're living, breathing examples of what we preach: that science is for everyone, whether or not you studied it specifically in school.
Read MoreBrace yourselves. Winter is……well, winter is here. As parts of the US are being savaged by the polar vortex, indoor activities take on a whole new appeal. To help pass the time, here’s a fun, hands-on activity to make your very own super ball. As usual, please do this activity under the supervision of a responsible adult or at least someone who satisfies the legal definition of adult and has the self-delusion to believe he/she is responsible.
Read MoreHappy Monday, everyone! Unfortunately, I have fallen victim to whatever bug has been going around the Midwest for the last month or two. I’m not dead on my feet by any means but my voice is not exactly ready for prime time. Today, then, instead I’m going to write a short entry about why we do what we do.
I already answered the question “Why Science?” in a previous post. Today I’m going to try to answer the question “Why science shows?” In other words, why do Aaron and I perform science on stage? What do we get out of it?
Read MoreLast week Aaron braved back pain and a medication haze to give you his top five science moments of 2014. Today I sat in front of the camera, as I am wont to do, and did the same. There's a bit of crossover but not as much as you might think. Happy New Year to the gentiles in the audience and sorry about the constant assault of Christian holidays with pagan overtones and the Gregorian calendar to all the Jews in the audience. You can't level the International Zionist Conspiracy against me anyway because Aaron will protect me. As long as I keep up with my payments. Anyway, without further ado, click on through to the other side to find out my best of 2014.
Read MoreAs the arrow of time rockets us inexorably towards the goyish New Year* it is once again appropriate to whittle down by arbitrary rules the amazing complexity of events of the past year into what amounts to the lowest hanging dingleberry on the literature bush: The Listicle. So without further ado (or much ado at all) I present:
Aaron's Top 5 Sciencey Thingies of 2014
Read MoreHappy anniversary, everyone!
What, you’re not sure what I’m talking about? How could you all forget? I’m so insulted. Yesterday was the second anniversary of the December 21st, 2012, the day the world was supposed to end according to a number of nutjobs, crackpots, and professional film-flam artists. Congratulations on surviving another year past fake doomsday!
Read MoreMusic and science, yo. That’s my jam. Sure I have other hobbies like breathing and occasionally eating food, but the lion’s share of each and every day is spent engaged with science, music, or some combination of the two. I particularly love it when they are combined and today I want to talk about a couple of my favorite intersections of music and scientific technology.
Read MoreHappy Monday, people! Sorry I missed last week; life got in the way, but Aaron made up for it with a great take on science-themed webcomics (Link mildly NSFW). Today I bring you a quick lesson in a common fallacy in reasoning that prevents you from thinking scientifically: cherry picking your data. I decided to use pop culture as my point of reference instead of something overly technical and, well, I think it works pretty well. See for yourself by clicking through.
Read MoreToday, Aaron gets physical!…And Chemical!…With Chemistry!
And for a limited time only a special play-along-at-home experiment for no extra charge! Satisfaction guaranteed or double your money back! Click now. Operators are standing by.
Read MoreToday on Constant Science I decided to talk about chemistry. In all honestly it's odd that it's taken us this long to get around to it because a lot of what we do is chemistry. Fire and explosions? Straight-up chemistry. Some nice chemical reactions with an attendant release of excess energy as the atoms switch themselves up, forming new compounds.
In the video I only go into the very basics of chemistry and what chemicals are; things get way more complicated than that but you gotta start somewhere. Click through to watch!
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