As in each of the past six years, I co-organized a Physics + Human Physiology day camp for 11th graders for a week in July, in which we explored wide swathes of science and also learned a bit about how college works. (It’s part of the SAIL umbrella of camps — see here and here.) … Continue reading The ice cream and the dead people
My older son’s school (Willagillespie Elementary) had its annual “Math and Science Night” tonight, which is consistently great. This year, I was asked if I would do something for it, and I decided to present some demonstrations and activities about surface tension. Here’s something that I didn’t show, but that I did for my Physics … Continue reading Water magic
Having nearly completely lost my voice, teaching* today presented a problem. I did a lot of whispering, and cranked my microphone up to eleven. The lack of a voice wasn’t a surprise — I had been sick, and was nearly mute yesterday — so I prepared a few very short videos beforehand in which my … Continue reading Sugar equals awesome
A quiz question for local readers: Where on the University of Oregon campus did I take this photo? Like most people, I tend not to notice things above me. S. (age 4) pointed out these beautiful abstract bicycles as we were wandering through campus. Who knows what other ceiling-situated art there is? Continue reading Up!
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
I finally finished copying CDs onto my new ipod, my beloved white-brick old one from 2003 having died a few months ago. 220 albums on one card-sized device! It boggles the mind. When I was a kid, all we had were LPs carved out of wood. Speaking of kids, here’s K. with the plug-in USB … Continue reading ipod
The Eighteenth Elephant 