Homely Scientist

How about a little Saturday fun?  Park?  Ice cream? Make a superball?  Huh?  Yeah!  Yesterday the kids and I did the park thing (Saturday is fun here on Island and it’s a holiday weekend to boot!).  Before heading home T wanted to check out the toystore … okay, sure.  First thing I saw was a tub of giant sidewalk chalk.  Done.  Later, after checking out trains, cars, knights, dragons, etc T and I were at the table fully of those little toys great for b-day party loot bags.  And I saw them.  Little kits for $0.50 to make your own …read more

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This is what we call a "feedback loop" …
From the CBC Science section this week

Phillips, a senior climatologist with the federal weather agency, says temperatures were four to five degrees warmer than usual this past winter. The higher temperatures come on the heels of dramatic losses in sea ice last summer, Phillips says, and so the natural cycle hasn’t had a chance to recover.
"There has been no rebounding back," he said. "The ice just hasn’t had a chance to bounce back, to grow during the winter, during the cold season of the year.
"Essentially what’s happening is there’s been so much warm weather, week …read more

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People learn in lots of different ways … how about song?  Deb pointed out a site that has MP3 versions of a whole set of records on a huge number of science topics.  I listened to the fossils one.  I’m going to have to download them all and burn them to CD for the kids … nice car music.
Okay, geeky, but better than Rafi!
Tags: science songs, science mp3

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I read on the CBC website this week that a new potential antibiotic, one that might be effective against antibiotic resistant "superbugs", was identified when studying South African soil bacteria.

Platensimycin, the newly discovered antibiotic, also has a new mode of action, Wang’s team says in a study published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
It blocks enzymes that bacteria use to make fatty acids – the building blocks of cell membranes and bacterial surfaces.Source CBC

This is great news.  An antibiotic that works in a new and novel way hasn’t been discovered for years.  This particular compound holds promise to hit some pretty nasty bugs …read more

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So where have I been?  I mean my last posts were May 12 on CFS awareness day, mammoths, and the impending summer hot spell coming our way.  Well I’ve been Meshing.  Huh?  Yeah I was at the Mesh 2006 conference in Toronto.  I’ve been wearing my Qumana Blogi Master hat all week so posting about science hasn’t really been possible.  I have been blogging my fingers to the bone about Mesh, though, so if you’re interested you can wander over to my "other" blog and read about it (sorry no beakers of coffee there).
So, weather.  I’m experiencing some "weather" at …read more

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Today is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness day.  Adelle and Grace over at CFS2 have information and advice galore over there.
While I don’t suffer from CFS, I do have a friend who does and it is strange.  She looks okay, but she runs out of steam, so quickly.  In many ways CFS might be like ADD and depression.  You look normal, but there is something wrong.  While ADD can be tested for (but only in the sense of take these tests, meet these criteria … ) depression is a little more difficult.
CFS, like many modern-day syndromes, is a scientific quandary.  People …read more

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Before humans arrived on North America, there were large numbers of what we call "mega-fauna" (mega=big, fauna=animals).  We’re talking mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, giant beavers, and smaller critters like the short-faced bear and horse.  But … they are gone now.  Why?  Okay, there were several competing theories.  One of the major ones, and the one that we were debating when I was in school, was the theory that humans slaughtered all the mega fauna.  Oops.  So much for being "one with the Earth".  But … it turns out while while early North Americans were enjoying their mammoth ribs and mastodon …read more

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Breakout the grills, shorts, and umbrellas because according to Environment Canada, most of Canada is going to be hotter than normal this summer (May through July). Drier, they aren’t sure yet, but conventional wisdom is pointing to the “well, yeah” spot on the dial.
You might think, sweet! Beach weather! Fun in the sun! There are serious problems that come with the dog days of summer (that saying comes from Roman times BTW, because Canis the dog star started to be visible in the night sky during the hottest part of the Roman summer). First let’s …read more

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Hsien Hsien Lei (The Sci-Health Channel Editor here at b5) comments on a C|Net article talking about how our DNA is still mutating and evolving (this is a good thing, BTW) with a catchy headline about becoming X-Men (nice tie-in with X3 coming out in a couple weeks).
Sigh.  As a commenter left on Hsien’s blog:

river2sea72 Says: May 6th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Well, what else can you expect of media that has to pander to a science-illiterate readership?

And this is what the Sci-Health blogs are all about, especially this one.   Unfortunately the media isn’t about promoting good science or education as …read more

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As you all know I’m in the process of quitting smoking.  I say process on purpose because it isn’t an overnight thing.  Myself, I opted to use the patch, which gives my body the nicotine it craves through my skin.  I had a check up (more like check in for a refill) with my doctor today and he had some really interesting things to say about the patch.
While he thinks the patch is good for starters, there is a flaw in it.  The lowest dose available is 7 mg (miligrams).  I’m on the 14 mg right now (and will be …read more

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