Science Ads

There is something seriously wrong with science ads these days.

"Boom De Ya Da" (ad for the Discovery Channel)


"epMotion" (ad for Eppendorg automatic pipetting machine)


"'The PCR Song' by Scientists for Better PCR" (ad for Bio-Rad PCR [DNA analysis] machine)

Plastic Bag Yarn

I just saw an interesting idea for "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle": plastic bag yarn! Instructions on how to make it are here, and some examples of final products are here.

Now, I'm not a big knitter or crocheter, but I think making such "yarn" could be fun, so I'm curious if anyone would buy the yarn to make their own things out of. What do you think?

X-posted to Zandperl's Fancies

Science in DC

This week I'm in Washington DC for the annual meeting of my teacher's union - yes higher ed professionals are unionized too, especially the ones in public higher ed. I've had three interesting science sightings.

1. The DC Dental Spa has advertisements all over the Metro stations. Click through to that and look in the upper left. Look familiar?


2. Further down the same platform, I saw ads for the Spy Museum sporting photos of the Very Large Array. I wasn't able to Google a picture of their actual ad, nor snap one in the Metro (anti-terrorism security and all that), but the ad had a shot much like this one with the colors altered to yellow and red tones, and the very strong implication that the dishes were intended for communications with spy satellites. (And yes I'm sure it was the VLA - I always examine the pedestals for the three feet since when I visited Socorro, NM, that was the easiest part for us to see other than when I got to walk out on the face of one.)


3. And the last interesting sighting: in the Vendor Exhibition Hall of the NEA convention I saw a giant model T-Rex head. Delighted at the prospect of literature saying how evolution is a great tool to teach about the Scientific Method and critical thinking, I instead discovered that it was a booth by the Creation Museum. (No I'm not linking to them to drive up their traffic - if you really care, they're the first Google hit.) I am planning to tomorrow bring my camera and get a picture in front of the booth, just because I have to. It'll be funnier than my Segway shot.

Ohio: Not quite doomed

The Bad Astronomer is fond of the phrase "State: Doomed" in the context of State approving creationism in the classroom. He'd probably be happy to hear that Ohio is not doomed, or at least only a little doomed.

An Ohio school is firing a middle school science teacher for the joint sins of teaching creationism in the science class (including keeping a Bible on his desk), and burning a cross into a student's arm. Shame it took the student abuse for the other part to surface.

Plant sensing

Plants may not have brains, but some new work shows that they may have a sense of smell that can let a parasitic creeper pick the most hospitable host from others surrounding, and let other plants choose to invade the root space of "unrelated" plants within the same species while not competing with their "relatives." Bizarre.

Greenhouse calculator

Made by the Aussies, it's a greenhouse gas calculator - it determines how much CO_2 you produce in a year (3 tonnes per year per person is the sustainable amount, 24 is the average Aussie), and therefore when you should kill yourself so you don't use more than your fair share.



I produce 15.0 tonnes of CO_2 per year (according to their calculator), and therefore I should die at age 15.4. At least I'm better than average! :-P

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