Unicorns Arising

PZ Meyers at Pharyngula likes our Unicorn site. He posted about us. Yay!

Robots…

Amen

Unicorns

Over at This Week in Science we are having a contest to create a billboard for our future Unicorn Museum. My friend Casey came up with the idea, and I am running with it like a bat outta hell. The billboard will be installed across from the Creation Museum in Kentucky if all goes as planned. But, in the meantime, we are working on a website for the museum, and taking entries for the billboard. Eventually, people will be able to vote for their favorite billboard design, and with enough donations from kind folks we may see a dream become a reality. Unicorns facing off against Creation.

Some might get the impression from many of my posts that I am anti-religion, but that is not the case. I just have an extremely short fuse when it comes to dealing with people who misrepresent science. There may have been some act of creation by some greater being at some point in history. I have no way of knowing that. But, to twist scientific evidence or to completely disavow it because it doesn’t agree with ones beliefs is unforgivable.

You might be the nicest person in the world, but if you think the world is 6000 years old you are ignorant of and blind to the world around you. If anything is a sin it should be the benighted thinking that young earth creationists are marketing to the masses.

Let’s all open our eyes to the fact that the scientific mis-information that the Creation Museum is peddling is from the Dark Ages, and that is where it belongs. Not here in the 21st century.

So, now that I’ve opened myself to all sorts of abuse, let’s all think about Unicorns for a minute.

Doesn’t that make you feel better?

Does Science Need a Facelift?

So, I wrote this essay a couple of years ago. I can’t remember why I wrote it, but it’s message is as important now as it was then. I found it as I was rooting through my files and thinking about the Seed Magazine science writing contest, which asks the question, “What is scientific literacy?” I don’t know whether I’ll enter the contest, but I like this essay and think that more people should start thinking about not just what scientific literacy means in this day and age, but also how we can sell science to the public. Because we haven’t been doing a good job, and something’s got to change.

The essay after the jump…

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I’m in a Contest…

Well, me and Justin that is… I’m trying to get our little radio show/podcast into the big leagues. There’s this contest called the Public Radio Talent Quest in which they are looking for the next big public radio star. Well, I’m trying to give science a shot. Help me and This Week in Science out by registering with the contest website and voting for us.

It’s easy to do: go to the website, register, listen to our audio audition, and vote. Help us make it through the first round of voting!!!

Robot Humpination

Hahahahahaha!!!! This is the most hilarious robot movie ever. I heart this movie. Thanks, Farmboy for posting this on the TWIS forums.

Smack it, Hector!

Also, it seems that the robot domination theme is becoming much more of a cultural meme. We’ve been reporting on it for years, but more and more people seem to be jumping on the bandwagon. You can even get the t-shirt now. I’d love have our show to get a bit more credit, but ah, well… maybe we can get someone to make us a cool design for a TWIS World Robot Domination t-shirt.

How Often is Public Drunkeness OK?

I am serious. I think there should be a public Festival of Drunkeness this year.

The ancient Egyptian festival in honor of the Lion Goddess Mut is thought to have taken place once yearly around the time of my birthday (end of July, beginning of August - good excuse for a party, historical and celebratory). During the days long festival people would drink to excess and have wild sexual encounters in the hopes that they would eventually pass out and commune with the Goddess.

The Goddess during this time was being offered a beer colored red like blood to calm her violent tendencies and bring her into a drunken stupor. It seems as though the logic went something like, “Hey, if the Goddess is drunk and I’m drunk, then we should be able to have a great conversation.” I guess it worked considering the common folk weren’t suppoesed to be able to commune with the Gods and Goddesses. That was a job for the high priests. However, it seems more likely that the conversations were more of the kind you overhear in a dive bar than honest to goodness spiritual communing. But, then again, what really is the difference.

So, this festival brought the Goddess down to a human level, allowed the common folk to invite her into a conversation, and enabled people to do things they weren’t allowed to do during the rest of the year; namely, get drunk and screw.

Interestingly, there were people assigned to the roles of chaperones, the Mistress of Drunkeness being one. These people had to make certain that no one injured themsleves during the festivities, and to make sure they all had too much to drink. Remember, the main goal of this party was to pass out.

I swear this facet of ancient Egypt is sounding more and more like a fraternity.

The Egyptologist behind all this fascinating information is named Betsy Bryan, and the progress of her team in Egypt can be tracked on their diary-like website.

Over and Mis-Stated

This week has turned into the week of media fallacies. Or, if not fallacies then complete overstatements of scientific results. First, there were the bees, and now the berries.

A listener sent me a story from a British newspaper that reported on a scientific study supposedly showing that cellphones are killing bees. This headline has been everywhere, and since so many people were jumping on the bandwagon I felt I should investigate. I found the original paper, and unfortunately it is in German. So, I couldn’t read it, but I did take a look at a translated version and another earlier paper on the same topic from the same resaerch group. This article does a fairly good job of describing the situation.

It turns out that the headlines and stories being being reported by the majority of outlets are completely baseless. The researchers first didn’t use cell phones in the study. They used the base for a handheld household phone. And, they put it in a hive. Second, they didn’t look at bee death. they looked at whether or not the bees returned to their hives. They were interested in the effects of radiation on memory. Third, they didn’t even find a significant result. There was a trend, which indicates that further study might be useful. But, under no means did any aspect of the research out of this group warrant the media attention it has received.

Now, in the case of the berry fiasco, I’ll have to admit some culpability, as my radio show did report on the story. To be honest I hadn’t read the report and Justin took the lead on reporting it. So, I wasn’t paying enough attention, and we managed to tow the party line so to speak. Sorry, busy week.

The berry story was reported as alcohol increasing the antioxdants in berries (i.e. daquiris are good for you). However, even though the study, which looked at the abilities of several volatile compunds to affect decomposition and antioxidant levels, did find that ethanol increased antioxidant levels, ethanol wasn’t the best. A compound called methly jasmonate won out by far.

The study is nicely reviewed by Shirly Batts at Retrospectacle, which has turned into a nice little spectacle itself as a result. Very interesting to take a look at especially if you are interested in fair use copyright laws. Heh. From fruit to copyright in two easy steps. Sounds like a cookbook.

Anyway, the moral of the berry story and the bee stories this week is, “don’t trust the media.” Well, trust them a little, but always be willing and ready to do your own searching if something just doesn’t sit right, or if you think it interesting in some way. The headlines are meant to grab you, and the stories are meant to sell the paper, magazine, etc. The crazier they are, the better to get you to buy, right?

I think it comes down to the media wanting to tell a story. And, stories always have nice endings. But, science doesn’t work that way. Rarely, will a story be the end all be all on a subject. Even your textbooks become outdated over time. So, unfortunately, the disconnect between science and the media will remain until enough people blog and talk about the real stories that scientists are telling. The ones with the messy endings.

World Robot Domination

A listener sent me the link to this video through Pink Tentacle. I love it. The editing is terrific and you really get the ominous nature ofthe robots. The music is japanese noise pop, so if you’re at work watch the speaker volume level.

Thanks, Bill!