Princess wanted help with her science. She said she had to make a sentence out of each term, without repeating the definition. OK. “Transpiration, the process by which plants give off water through their stoma.”  Hmm. The Department of Transpiration announced new water saving incentives today. “Respiration, the process of releasing energy from food.” Hmm. My stupid mother thought respiration meant breathing. “Water cycle, the process by which water moves through the environment.”  Hmm. I always wear my helmet when I ride my water cycle.

She doesn’t ask me for help much anymore.



Stephen Hawking is soooooo bad . . . .

A duet of singing Tesla coils.

The 10 Most Bizarre Scientific Papers.

41 Hilarious Science Fair Experiments. And they are real, unlike the one to the right.

Research LOLcats.

String Theory explained in two minutes. They explained it, but I still don’t understand it.

What’s the difference between Physics and Chemistry?

The 6 Most Important Experiments in the World.

Two Forks, One Cup. It took me a an hour of reading comments to figure this out.

Neutrino Poetry.

It’s a crash course in science at your fingertips! Evolving Thoughts has a list of articles on Basic Concepts in Science.

Could you pass eight grade science? Take the quiz! I did well, partially because I help my fifth-grader study these exact things for her science class. (via Geek Like Me)

Hotel Mauna Kea, a song about the observatory in Hawaii. It’s clever, and really draws my sympathy for the poor folks who must make their living stargazing in paradise.

A Short History of Women Inventors and Scientists.

The periodic table of elements on tarot cards. My past is gold, my future is oxygen, and my lovelife is carbon.

Scientists are often considered to be geeks. Bloggers are always considered to be geeks. Science bloggers, however, are the geekiest people in the world. Put them together in one room, and you’ve got this post.

14 really cool research facilities around the world. Posted in three parts, because everyone has their own favorite to suggest.

xkcd explains the difference between scientists and everyone else, below. Click to enlarge.

Murphy's Ten Laws for Experimentalists

(1) if something can go wrong, it will do so just before your grant is up for review;

(2) if the reading on your detector is correct, then you have forgot to plug it in;

(3) if several things can go wrong then they will do so all at the same time;

(4) if nothing can go wrong with your experiment, something still will;

(5) left unto itself, your experiment will go from bad to worse; on the other hand, if you pay attention to the experiment then it will take three times longer to complete than you thought it would;

(6) Nature is both subtle and malicious (Murphy stole this one from Albert Einstein);

(7) a straight line will never fit your data, and using a wiggly line will result in the rejection by referees of the publication of work;

(8) if you make a great discovery today, you will find a major error in your methods tomorrow (experienced experimentalists call this effect "here today, gone tomorrow");

(9) in contrast to a radio, banging your apparatus when you are at peak frustration will not fix it but permanently break it (for this reason, it is important for experimentalists to remain calm at all times);

(10) when your experiment is just about to succeed, you will run out of grant money.

TRASH CANS

(via Phil’s Phun)
At a recent conference of science and mathematics, a physicist, a mathematician, an engineer, and a statistician were all staying on the same floor of their hotel.

The engineer woke up in the middle of the night to find his trash can had started on fire.

He jumped out of bed, quickly filled his ice bucket with water, extinguished the flames, and went back to sleep.

A little later, the physicist woke up and also discovered his trash can to be ablaze.

He paused for a moment, pulled out his slide rule, and made a few quick calculations. He filled up his ice bucket with exactly 1/2 liter of water and used it to extinguish the fire, and then went back to sleep.

Shortly after, the mathematician was awoken and his trash can was also on fire.

He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and frantically scribbled out pages and pages of equations. When he found the solution he went to bed, comfortable just knowing that the solution existed.

And the statistician?

He was found running around lighting other people's trash cans on fire because he needed a bigger sample size.

Previously at Miss Cellania: Science Class, Science for Dummies, Scientific Experiments, Advanced Science Class, Physics, Physics 201, Chemistry, Astronomy, The Laboratory, Bad Science,  Remedial Science Class,and  Schroedinger's Cat,

Thought for today: The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" but "That's funny..." - Isaac Asimov

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