SETTING: A neighbourhood street, two people and a tree. Blaire: Hey Danny, it’s a beautiful day today. Danny: It sure is! Look at that weak sickly tree over there. Cornelius Oak: It’s not my fault! Blaire and Danny are startled. It’s the human’s fault that I look like this. Blaire: Who was that? Danny: It sounds like it came from over there. Blaire: But all I see is a tree! Cornelius Oak: It’s me, Cornelius Oak. Blaire: The tree’s talking Danny! Cornelius Oak: Yes, I am. You humans are polluting my environment and chopping us trees down for wood and…
The Science Creative Quarterly
From creative
HEY CARL!
SETTING: Carl’s house. Joe: Hey Carl! What’s up? Carl: Just sitting and throwing away recyclables… It’s really fun Carl is throwing stuff. Mariah: Why are you just throwing away recyclables for fun? Carl: ‘Cause it’s fun! Joe: Recyclables are called recyclables because they’re supposed to be recyclable in the recyclable bin, which is why they’re called recyclables! Carl: Whatever. Continues throwing recyclables. Mariah: Catches recyclable in midair and throws it into the recycling bin. SEE?!? All you have to do is throw! … Not walk to the other of the room for every bottle you drink. Carl: Yeah, you guys…
GO SEE A MOVIE
Three teenagers are hanging out, when Joe drops his cigarette butt on the ground. Zoey gets mad at Joe for polluting the environment. Zoey: Hey! Joe… Joe, you just accidentally dropped your cigarette butt on the ground. Joe rolls his eyes. Joe: That wasn’t an accident. Zoey gets VERY mad. Zoey THERE IS AN ASH TRAY RIGHT THERE!! Micky, tell him he is littering! Micky: Guys, just chill! It’s not a big deal. Joe: Yeah Zoey, just chill. Zoey grabs the cigarette from Joe and throws it in the ash tray. Joe: Hey! That was mine. Just because I hate…
CHRISTINA AND HER AEROSOL CAN
Christina wakes up with a huge smile. Christina: Yay! It’s finally summer! Wind comes and Christina shivers. Christina: Oh my gosh, it’s freezing cold today! I guess it’s time to bring out the aerosol cans! Christina brings out the aerosol cans and walks outside and starts to spray the cans while humming the “song.” Elif the butterfly flies towards Christina. Elif the butterfly: Cough, cough! Christina, you’re polluting the air! Spraying aerosol cans in the air is not going to heat up the Earth! Cough! Mark carrying a lunch bag walks gingerly towards Christina and stares blankly at the aerosol…
THE PROBLEM OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
—And today we are pleased to welcome the notorious “atheist creationist.” Thank you for joining us, Dr. Kranish. —Your sobriquet is only half right, but I accept it. It got me on your show. I’m making a fortune. —Why, Dr. Kranish, you sound positively cynical. “When you’re dead, you’re dead,” declares Stanley Kranish, disgraced engineering professor and charcoal chef extraordinaire. His son David watches dutifully. Wielding his long spatula like a baton, Kranish slices through the heat ripples over two hissing steaks and one mute veggie burger, and prepares to utter his key insight. “Like a rock,” he and David…
MARINE MOLLUSC (A HAIKU ON APLYSIA CALIFORNICA)
Aplysia (snail) bunny of the pacific hydroskeleton – – – (And also to say, that at long last our haiku phylogeny project will be coming to a close – stay tuned this fall…)
GEOL 1000: SUBDUCTION CAUSES OROGENY
I’ve always loved geology. I don’t know why I do, but something ’bout the changing earth excites me through and through. Subduction zones, orogeny, the earth’s great heaving powers, and cleavage, groins, and hot spots. I could study this for hours. I love to learn of hardness, swells, and continental rise; of columns, stacks, and mountain peaks, all pointing to the skies. Of caverns and crevasses, valleys, fissures, rifts, and trenches. I like to know what’s going on in beds, on floors, on benches. I like to learn near all things geological. And yet, I’m not so keen on permafrost,…
BISPHENOL-A: THE ONE-ACT PLAY
Our evening began in Peter Seychelles comfortable study in his New York townhouse, where the candlelight was just right, the hi-fi was in the background, and the Bisphenol-A was causing a stir. – – – Narrator: A worried friend rushes in worried about recent plastics news. She is worried. The scene is set. Worried Friend, rushing into the study (appears worried, gnawing fingernails, shifty, unsteady eyes, a mauve t-shirt that says “concerned” right across the chest): What do I do? What do I do? Other friend, not worried (puffing a pipe, which he is quick to note is not a…
COLUMN CHROMATOGRAPHY
Purple powder gently falling Safely in my hands Mixing it, shaking it, pouring it Suddenly it forms bands Coming back, finding it Red between white In the light. Picking flowers when I was three Scattering them next to my mother, On a tree Cherry blossoms in my hand Gently land On the sand Of the beach Now its time to go To leave that happy scene And return back home Where I belong with my Column chromatography – – – (Written during a Science Creative Literacy Symposia – more pieces can be viewed here)