With summer past, I remember the flies and other assorted citizens of bugdom at my house. Some were silent like models of mathematical motion, and some buzzed loudly, almost as if you could see their pursed lips – air forced through their invertebrate skeletons. All seemed pervasive, as if to target my children endlessly whilst they play. And I remember my paternal instinct kicking in, deciding that I must do something about these flies. Nasty flies. So in my efforts to learn more, I came across images of my enemy. Images like this one below: And looking closely, even as…
The Science Creative Quarterly
By David Ng
David (@ng_dave) is Faculty at the Michael Smith Labs. His writing has appeared in places such as McSweeney's, The Walrus, and also as an occasional blogger at boingboing.net. If you're looking for a graphic for your next science talk, he encourages you to check out his blog, popperfont.net.
THE CROCODILE HUNTER BECOMES THE PLANET HUNTER
Dedicated to the man who was one of the funniest things, ever, on television, and we mean that in only the best of ways Cor Crikey! And g’day mate! Right now we’re walking up to Hawaii’s Gemini Observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea. It’s got a beaut of a telescope inside, and we’re hoping to find a new planet today. (Whispering) Here we are at the front door. But we should first give it a bit of space. Patience is important when dealing with telescopes. And we’ve got to be careful with that door. It’s locked! Looks like the…
BE VERY AFRAID
A few months before he died, a Nobel Prize winner wandered into my office, sat down, and proceeded to talk about science and ethics. He did this for about an hour. In fact, most of it boiled down to something like this. “Science is in a very interesting predicament these days. It has accelerated so much, in so little time, and has led to a glut of information. It has progressed beyond our wildest dreams, such that we can do amazing things, exciting things, even frightening things.” Of course, he said this stuff in a much less verbose way. The…
THE BREAK BEFORE YEAR TWO STARTS. A LIST OF STUFF FROM FREQUENT CONTRIBUTORS. FIRST UP – THE EDITOR
As the SCQ begins to ready itself for year two, over the next few days, we will be presenting lists of likable (or non-likable) things by our most frequent contributors. – – – – PART I: A HAIKU – To be a poet is a major stretch for me. See – this haiku bites – PART II: TEN LINKS – “How To Tell People That You Are A Billionaire Without Sounding Obnoxious,” by Wendy Molyneux. This is basically the piece that piqued my interest in McSweeney’s and ultimately led to the pursuit and success of getting a few in their…
REVIEW OF “YOUR DISGUSTING HEAD”
YOUR DISGUSTING HEAD: THE DARKEST, MOST OFFENSIVE – AND MOIST – SECRETS OF YOUR EARS, MOUTH AND NOSE. By The Haggis-On-Whey World of Unbelievable Brilliance. 64pp. Simon and Schuster $24.50 (Hardcover) In Norway, you say “buse.” As a geneticist, I am a lot more familiar with the concept of snot than one might suspect. And although this may appear to be a sort of an odd soundbite, it can be quickly explained by the simple fact that pure genomic DNA, isolated from any and all variety of nature’s participants, will actually take on the appearance of the stuff you might…
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS DOES REPLICATION
To begin with, we’ll start with a chicken scratch drawing of a DNA molecule, which you know is double stranded. My poor pathetic attempt at illustration is therefore going to look like this: You also know that each strand of DNA is composed of building blocks called nucleotides, and that these nucleotides are always interacting in a complementary manner. For example, A’s are always with T’s, C’s are always with G’s, Beavis is always with Butthead, etc etc etc. Let’s draw them in like so: What you haven’t been told at this point is that chemically speaking, the two strands…
HARMONY IS ALWAYS HERE
The SCQ would like to introduce a new category, which we have tentatively called “impressions.” Think of it as an avenue to reflect on the music, words, or film that affect your relationship to science or your relationship to something that entails a small link to science. Hmmm, is that vague enough? – – – – – I’m not entirely sure if I became a rational scientific person by nature or nurture. Whether it is genetic or whether it is the obvious result of too many years of study. Whatever the case may be, I am a slave to my…
WHEN CELEBRITIES, WHO HAVE BEEN CLONED IN THE MOVIES, GET TOGETHER FOR A COFFEE
SETTING: A Starbucks in L.A. – three celebrities are sitting at a table with their coffees and sharing a newspaper, a fourth is walking towards the table with his coffee. FADE IN MICHAEL KEATON (Approaching the table) Man, I really need this now. (Sits down, whilst the others nod or wave). Is there a free section of paper? ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER You vant the sports section? MICHAEL KEATON Sure. (Takes the paper and starts looking at the front page) (A few minutes of silence as everyone reads their newspaper) HITLER (Slams his paper down and stands up). Dis ist terrible! As…
EUPHEMISMS THAT ALSO SOUND LIKE STRANGE TISSUE ENGINEERING PROJECTS.
Banjo On My Knee Bleeding Heart Foot In Mouth Dick Head Shit for Brains Get this Monkey off my Back He’s a Leg Man Space Between The Ears Baby Snacks White Meat Only Biggest Asshole * * * (REPRINTED FROM ISSUE ONE, MAY 9th, 2005)