inkycircus

How to build a better bacon sandwich

I like a bacon sandwich as much as the next person. To make a top notch sarnie, you need nice thick white bread, lightly toasted, crispy grilled back bacon, fresh sliced tomato, a nice smooth layer of Hellman's mayo, and a single leaf of round lettuce. See how easy that was? Did I need a PhD to know that? No. That's why this research is quite cute, but doesn't really do science any favours. There isn't exactly lots of spare funding sloshing around at the moment, and I'm not sure this is the best receptacle for what little there is. Although I know it makes me a party pooper to say that.

(PHOTO: WINJOHN)

Science vs Science

Ever felt very strongly that one particular vein of science is just that much better than other ones? Well now's your time to have your say and vote before the world in the Spring Science Showdown of 2007 over at World's Fair blog. The first and second round have now finished narrowing down the competition. But make sure to get in on the third round where Fossil fuels vs. Erlenmeyer flask, General Relativity vs. Bosons,  Invertebrates vs. Photosynthesis Phylogenetics vs. HIV, Kuhn vs. Theory and Corporate vs. Darwin duke it out.

Stay up to speed at the Spring Science Showdown Press Center where links to results are released as they come in.

One more reason to love lego

Their latest ad: via Advertising/Design Goodness

If Ester Williams was a science teacher...

Here it is folks. Mitosis as you've never seen it before. In a pool. With UC San Francisco grad students, pool noodle spindle fibers, and the Blue Danube waltz.

Inky Pod

(PHOTO: SUGA SHACK)

So. I actually have misgivings about telling you circus goers about this. Cause it's sorta kinda, like, sigh, reeeeally embarassing but John Lindner, from the Baltimore Sun, is so nice and did such a great job of editing together this interview with our inky trio that it would be remiss of us not to spill the beans.

There's a long interview posted over at the Baltimore Sun today, Blography with Anne Casselman, Anna Gosline and Katie Law of Inky Circus

We asked John how he started this series of podcasts and he told us about how he was interviewing a blogger and she just told him straight up: dude, you mainstream journalists gotta communicate with us more. At which point he realized she was right and that he needed to compile a bunch of bloggers' insights and backgrounds and ambitions for dialogue's sake. Lucky for him, the Baltimore Sun let him run with it.

He churns out one a week at Blography audio. Soon he'll have a tome. Complete with overarching blogging themes. Just you wait.

PS. You have to forgive the static on the track because we were using Gizmo's conference calling room for the first time. And boy does it kick ass.

Game On! at the Science Museum

There's a new exhibition called Game On starting at the Science Museum this Saturday, and I have big plans to go. It's set up like a whole timeline history of computer games and will apparently feature lots of old style nostalgic arcade games like Pacman here, and visitors will actually get to play on them. I approve. I was doing some research into the history of computer games for work today, and I found out that the blue ghost in Pacman is called Inky which pleased me quite a lot. And in the spirit of nostalgia I even dug out my old Gameboy and rode home on the tube today playing Super Mario Bros. Once a girl nerd always a girl nerd... See you at the Science Museum...

Greatest Moments in Materials Science & Engineering

The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society is holding a vote, open through January 7th, to decide what the Greatest Materials Science & Engineering moments of all time are:

A Great Materials Moment is defined as a pivotal or capstone event of human observation and/or intervention that led to a paradigm shift in humanity's understanding of materials behavior, that introduced a new era of materials utilization, and/or that yielded significant materials-enabled socio-economic changes.

What makes a material? The definition goes like this: "Materials are everywhere!"

The list used to be 600 moments long. Now it's 100 and ranges from the earliest ceramics some 28,000 years ago to 1991 when Eli Yablonovich produced photonic crystals, the first step towards photonic transistors. I'm most intrigued by the seven meter high iron pillar in Delhi, India, that iron smiths forged in 400. The same pillar "defies deleterious environmental effects for more than one and a half millennia, creating an artifact of long-standing materials science and archaeological intrigue." Now that's a tall order.

In anycase. Take a look at the list. And vote for your favorites. And keep an eye out the winning moments 26 February 2007.

A WRITING CONTEST THAT CONCERNS IMAGES CHOSEN BY OUR SCIENCE WRITERS, AS WELL AS SOME MATHEMATICAL NOTATION

Alright readers. I've got a task for you, courtesy of Dave "ever creative" Ng over at the Science Creative Quarterly.

Come up with funny captions for the above 17 images by March 31st that give you the highest cumulative score according to the following equation and you could win yourself a brand spanking new video ipod.

Here's the contest page that includes larger versions of the photo collage. May the funniest geek win.

Game time. For those fun guys (badum tschh!)

Prototyprally has posted some very simple games up on his website. And most of them have a science twist thereby justifying my telling y'all about them. Take Fungus where you need to grow as many big mushrooms as you can in two minutes. Scores are counted in biomass. To spread the goods, just drag the circles without breaking their mycelium. Else there's Isotope which lets you draw radiation-ish patterns by changing the speed of rotation and length of the segments. Very cool. And very dangerous to those prone to the big procrasties.

VIA MF

Potatoes Potahtoes.

As a science journalist I spend a lot of time on the phone with people, talking about their research that appeared in this or that academic journal. Often, that journal is Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, known to most by its acronym PNAS.

Like most children who read way more than they speak (I read genuine ghen-you-een until grade six), my mind started to pronounce this acronym pee-nas. And my mouth followed suit. As in "Mister/Missus Scientist, with respect to your pee-nas paper..." or "could you please comment on whosy-whatsit's recent findings in pee-nas" or "pee-nas totally rocks Science and Nature's ass!" It wasn't until one week ago that I realized how wrong was when my dear friend was nice enough to laugh at me. Pee-nas? Pee-nas?!? That's insane. And obscene.

My cringing is only slightly tempered by the fact that I'm not alone. I have it on good authority that a distinguished climate change ecologist at the University of Alberta joins me in the pee-nas camp. "Pee.en.ai.ess" be damned; it's a whole two syllables longer. Grow up people. Pee-nas is nothing to be ashamed of.