I’m involved in a lot of different outreach activities, but I added a new one to the list today that’s a bit stranger than the others: working at the physics booth at the Oregon Country Fair (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Country_Fair). The OCF is the yearly giant hippie gathering outside Eugene that’s full of art, music, performance, crafts, and … Continue reading Physics + Hippies = ?
Perhaps thinking about STEM education is warping my mind, since I found myself a few days ago discussing with my 7-year-old how the Empire in the Star Wars movies was generally inept at engineering, building fragile Death Stars and large walking vehicles that are easily tripped. K. has apparently decided to use engineering for good, … Continue reading The Dark Side of STEM education
Whales, apparently, learn from one another. That’s the message of this paper in Science last month on the transmission of feeding tactics among humpback whales. There are lots of fascinating things in the article, some of which are news to me but have been known for a long time to people who pay attention to … Continue reading Whales, culture, and graphs
The Eighteenth Elephant 