A lot of my friends seem to like owls, if their tendency to post photos of adorable fluffy feathered faces on Facebook is anything to go by. I rather like them too; we live close to a gully & it’s lovely hearing the moreporks calling at night. Once or twice one has sat in a […]
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cows and physics and urban myths
In which we encounter – cow-tipping! This is apparently the focus of both myth & mirth in the US: the idea that cows, asleep on their feet, are regularly tipped over by tipsy youths. Now, apart from the inconvenient little fact that cows tend to sleep lying down & thus are supremely untippable at that […]
Continue readingsome seasonal fun (with the spice of science)
When I was a kid – & we're talking a looong time ago now! – we had a gorgeous Advent calendar that was designed to look like a renaissance-era painting. At least, that's how I remember it. And there was certainly none of this new-fangled stuff involving chocolate behind the little doors! But Advent calendars […]
Continue readingzombies & lego – great combination!
Actually, that's a bit of a fib as the zombies & the lego don't actually meet in these videos 🙂 But both have a science focus. Lego is the focus of a clip called 'Building Curiosity', which is something of an ode to science; I rather enjoyed it. And the zombies? Well, you're likely to […]
Continue readingquirky science demonstrations
A very brief post before I dive back into marking! My friend Cathy pointed me at this short, fascinating video that shows some quirky chemistry & physics demonstrations (afficionados of Facebook will find it here). I had a couple of 'wow!' moments while watching it; science teachers will probably get the same response when sharing […]
Continue reading6-second science
This video is a compilation of the best clips from the 'Six-second science fair' run by GE recently. (Apparently it attracted more than 600 entries!) Could be really interesting to set something like this as a classroom project – rapidly changing technology (including the apps) has really opened up the options 🙂
Continue readinga bunch of fascinating animals you’ve never heard of…
… unless you've been following this blog for a while, in which case you may already have read about the sarcastic fringeheads (who are not members of a rock band, despite the wonderful name!). The dumbo octopus, the pacu (a fish with teeth like nutcrackers, an attribute that has given rise to an urban myth […]
Continue readingan entertaining take on plants & plant cells
The new semester kicks off tomorrow & right now I'm adding resources to my first-year bio moodle page & running through the powerpoints for the week's lectures. After a couple of introductory sessions we're diving into the section of the class that focuses on plants, and I'm giving some serious thought to how I present […]
Continue readinghomeopathic first aid
Some of my fellow Skeptics have been discussing a homeopath who offers courses in 'homeopathic first-aid for the home'. Might work for dehydration, I suppose, given that a 30C dilution (that's a 1 in 100 dilution, repeated 30 times) will have nothing in it but water… But I rather think that homeopathic arnica – recommended […]
Continue readingof whale poo, wolves, and spiny s*x
Whales – competing with us for food, or helping to sustain the phytoplankton production on which most life in the oceans depends? The story and video at this link make a good case for the latter. Then there's the wolves – their return to Yellowstone Park in the US has led to a whole cascade […]
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