oh my godddess, if this isn't ON the mark.....

colbert has this dude on from time to time. he also hosts nova on pbs
via tywkiwdbi

because we ALL should love

molecular physics





via

one of my all time favorite subjects

Scientists tour the Creationism Museum
Posted by Cory Doctorow,

Tony sez, "Recently, a group of paleontologists were in town for the North American Paleontological Convention at the University of Cincinnati, and decided to take a field trip to the Creation Museum just across the river, in Kentucky. My aunt went to cover it for AFP, and I had the doubly good fortune of living just a stone's throw away, so I tagged along to see what these guys were up to. It was an eyeful, to say the least. Gorgeous facilities with amazingly engaging displays and animatronics, and at least a few hundred cubic cubits of bad science and misinformation. One young lady stood, furious, and grumbled, 'It's bullshit. Bullshit pretending to be science.'..............

....................Daryl Domning, professor of anatomy at Howard University, held his chin and shook his head at several points during the tour. "This bothers me as a scientist and as a Christian, because it's just as much a distortion and misrepresentation of Christianity as it is of science," he said...................

she's 17 and she's in HIGH SCHOOL

and i just have to shake my head and say, holy shite! wow, brilliance

and i dedicate this posting to ANYONE who has said (or thought) women cannot 'do' math (a big eff you to them anyway)

(another boing boing ht)

because there is NO science

not for a 19 year old, a 90 year old OR a 9 year old. there's NO science, only 'intelligent' design. that rules out god creating ANYTHING other than christian women and christian men who think of themselves as ONLY a boy or ONLY a grrrl.

fuck you too. the kid ("z") was only presenting REAL AND VALID EVIDENCE he collected. just because the school won't share it like they shared all the others, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

i'd like to extend a giant shout out to 'Z'

from boing boing


Nine year old's survey project excluded from school because he learned some people don't think of themselves as male or female

Posted by Cory Doctorow

A reader writes, "TheFourthVine's nine year old nephew, Z, wrote a survey that she encouraged her friends to take. However, when his mother went to the school's open house to take a photo of the end result, she couldn't as out of all the science projects Z hadn't been shown."

Except she couldn't. Because my nephew's project, alone among all of them, was not displayed. After much back and forth with various people, my sister learned that apparently some people were uncomfortable with his conclusions. Specifically the part where he said that what he really learned from this project was that some people don't want to be called boys or girls, and that those people need an "other" option. (And also that they tend to prefer blue to green.)

Follow up on Z's Science Project

speaking of 'science'

wtf WERE THEY THINKING? obviously they WERE NOT THINKING at all


Zoo pulls Creation Museum promotion
By Dan Horn • dhorn@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Zoo and the Creation Museum launched a joint promotional deal last week to draw attention to their holiday attractions. It worked, but not the way zoo and museum officials had hoped.

The zoo pulled out of the deal Monday after receiving dozens of angry calls and e-mails about the partnership, which offered reduced prices to anyone who bought tickets to the zoo’s Festival of Lights and the museum’s Christmas celebration, Bethlehem’s Blessing.

Most of the protests echoed the same theme: the Creation Museum promotes a religious point of view that conflicts with the zoo’s scientific mission.

Some complained that the zoo, which receives public support through a tax levy, should not become involved with a private museum dedicated to the teachings of the Bible’s Book of Genesis. Others said a scientific institution shouldn’t link itself to a place that argues man once lived side by side with dinosaurs........

you would think the LAST thing we need is ANOTHER computer game

you would be thinking wrong then
because there's ...
foldit

Foldit is a revolutionary new computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research. This page describes the science behind Foldit and how your playing can help.

from jane's e-learning pick of the day

Foldit is a revolutionary new computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research.

Foldit uses spare computer time, via a screensaver, to work out how proteins fold. Proteins are the building blocks of life inside cells; they are first made as long chains of molecules and work properly only after they have folded into their final shape. But understanding the rules of protein folding remains one of biology's central problems. Players use their computers to fold proteins. The more chemically stable the folded protein becomes, the more points the players are awarded.

from kotaku

Foldit Makes Protein Folding A Game

Could you win a Nobel Prize in Medicine for playing a computer game? Foldit is a game for the PC and Mac that takes the Folding@Home concept and adds a more human element to the mix. Instead of having a network of computers work through all of the possible shapes for folding proteins, a problem so huge it could take centuries for all of the computers in the world to solve, Foldit presents unfolded proteins to the player in the form of puzzles, on the basis that human intuition could tackle the problem much faster.

"Some people are just able to look at the game and in less than two minutes, get to the top score," said (UW associate professor of computer science and engineering) Zoran Popovic. "They can't even explain what they're doing, but somehow they're able to do it."...........

tuesday humor posting

sometimes we just need a little laughter in our lives, no?

Vitter secures $100K for Louisiana anti-evolution group
Nick Juliano
Religous conservatives receiving funds have political ties to embattled senator
In a move ostensibly aimed at providing "better science education" in Louisiana schools, Sen. David Vitter has secured $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund an anti-evolution effort spearheaded by a religious group politically connected to the alleged prostitute-soliciting Republican.
Vitter secured an earmark in an upcoming labor, health and education financing bill for the Louisiana Family Forum, which The New Orleans Times Picayune reports has "taken the lead in promoting 'origins science,' which includes the possibility of divine intervention in the creation of the universe.".......

bye mr wizard!

he was special. i'm dating myself, but i did watch him (he DID have a show AFTER the 50s you know)

like MANY others, HE was my first introduction to science.

i'm glad we had him in our world

Don Herbert, ‘Mr. Wizard’ to Science Buffs, Dies at 89





By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN





Don Herbert, who unlocked the wonders of science for youngsters of the 1950s and ’60s as television’s Mr. Wizard, died yesterday at his home in the Bell Canyon section of Los Angeles. He was 89.





The cause was bone cancer, his son-in-law Tom Nikosey told The Associated Press in confirming the death.
Mr. Herbert held no advanced degree in science, he used household items in his TV lab, and his assistants were boys and girls. But he became an influential showman-science teacher on his half-hour “Watch Mr. Wizard” programs, which ran on NBC from 1951 to 1965...;