Science class was the best subject in school. I could slog through measuring moles of elements and compounds in chemistry class, because I knew in the end we’d have an opportunity to blow things up. Physiology was great because we’d eventually get to the fart jokes. Biology was especially cool when we went outside to listen the birds and feed the squirrels. That almost made counting dead fruitflies worth the effort. It sure beat grammar structure all the way to Berlin and back!

The Periodic Table Game. Can you guess the element from the clues given? I couldn’t! Not much, anyway.

A scientific study shows that people who were given a simple visual task while mildly intoxicated were twice as likely to have missed seeing the person in a gorilla suit than were people who were not under the influence of alcohol. Duh. (Thanks, Bill!)

Molecules with unusual names. Would you believe Curious Chloride and Moronic Acid? How about Arsole?

We know scientists have a sense of humor. Lets take a look at the names they give human genes. Can you believe Sonic Hedgehog, Tigger, Mad, and Max?

Science facts that people get wrong. (via Arbroath)

Quantum physics made relatively simple. The operant word here is “relatively”. (Thanks, Bill!)

Rockin little cartoon about water. Could be a neat way to teach little kids about the different uses for water.

You gotta watch this beautiful flash video on the inner life of cells. Then read an explanation of what you’re seeing. (via Neatorama)

Joey Greene’s Wacky Science Experiments.

Do you remember the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists™?  I posted a link for them last year, but with new members coming in, its always worth another look.

Yikes! Did you have any idea how many earthquakes occured just in the last week? (Thanks, Bill!)

The Dark Tale of Colliding Superclusters In Outer Space!

A waterball? Yes, with an explanation of a video in which a water balloon is popped in super slow motion. W00t! Now, you wanna see that in real time but zero gravity? I have that, too!

Does stuff exist or not? Read Schrodinger’s Cat. (Thanks, Bill!)

I could have skipped this entire post if I’d only read Science Made Stupid first. (via The J-Walk Blog)

Or if I’d read how science is dead.

KIDS AND SCIENCE

The beguiling ideas about science quoted here were gleaned from essays, exams, and classroom discussions. Most were from 5th and 6th graders. They illustrate Mark Twain's contention that the most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

* One horsepower is the amount of energy it takes to drag a horse 500 feet in one second.
* You can listen to thunder after lightning and tell how close you came to getting hit. If you don't hear it you got hit, so never mind.
* Talc is found on rocks and on babies.
* The law of gravity says no fair jumping up without coming back down.
* When they broke open molecules, they found they were only stuffed with atoms, But when they broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions.
* When people run around and around in circles we say they are crazy. When planets do it we say they are orbiting.
* Rainbows are just to look at, not to really understand.
* While the earth seems to be knowingly keeping its distance from the sun, it is really only centrificating.
* Someday we may discover how to make magnets that can point in any direction.
* South America has cold summers and hot winters, but somehow they still manage.
* Most books now say our sun is a star. But it still knows how to change back into a sun in the daytime.
* Water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. There are 180degrees between freezing and boiling because there are 180 degrees between north and south.
* A vibration is a motion that can't make up its mind which way it wants to go.
* There are 26 vitamins in all, but some of the letters are yet to be discovered. Finding them all means living forever.
* There is a tremendous weight pushing down on the center of the Earth because of so much population stomping around up there these days.
* Lime is a green-tasting rock.
* Many dead animals in the past changed to fossils while others preferred to be oil.
* Genetics explain why you look like your father and if you don't why you should.
* Vacuums are nothings. We only mention them to let them know we know they're there.
* Some oxygen molecules help fires burn while others help make water, so sometimes it's brother against brother.
* Some people can tell what time it is by looking at the sun. But I have never been able to make out the numbers.
* We say the cause of perfume disappearing is evaporation. Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things people forget to put the top on.
* To most people solutions mean finding the answers. But to chemists solutions are things that are still all mixed up.
* In looking at a drop of water under a microscope, we find there are twice as many H's as O's.
* Clouds are high flying fogs.
* I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know how to do it, and that is the important thing.
* Clouds just keep circling the earth around and around. And around. There is not much else to do.
* Water vapor gets together in a cloud. When it is big enough to be called a drop, it does.
* Humidity is the experience of looking for air and finding water. We keep track of the humidity in the air so we won't drown when we breathe.
* Rain is often known as soft water, oppositely known as hail.
* Rain is saved up in cloud banks.
* In some rocks you can find the fossil footprints of fishes.
* Cyanide is so poisonous that one drop of it on a dog's tongue will kill the strongest man.
* A blizzard is when it snows sideways.
* A hurricane is a breeze of a bigly size.
* A monsoon is a French gentleman.
* Thunder is a rich source of loudness.
* Isotherms and isobars are even more important than their names sound.
* It is so hot in some places that the people there have to live in other places.
* The wind is like the air, only pushier.

EINSTEIN

March was the anniversary of Albert Einstein's birthday. He was born March 14, 1879. Few remember that the brilliant mathematician and Nobel Prize winner married his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal, after his first marriage dissolved in 1919. He stated that he was attracted to Elsa because she was well endowed. He postulated that if you are attracted to women with
large breasts, the attraction is stronger if there is a DNA connection.
This is known as Einstein's Theory of Relative Titty.


Previously on Miss Cellania: Science Class and The Laboratory

Thought for today: When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.  -Albert Einstein

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