Free rice game – more subjects!
You can now change the subject in the Free Rice game – you can identify art, learn languages, be quizzed on the multiplication table, and identify chemical symbols.
Science
Raising praying mantises
I’ve been curious about raising praying mantises for a while; according to Wikipedia, there are 2,000 species of mantids; only 20 of them are native to the United States. I’ve heard of people using them for a natural pest control, but apparently they’ll eat beneficial insects as well as pests, and will even eat hummingbirds! […]
Spore and science
Science writer (and science tattoo gallery curator) Carl Zimmer recently wrote an article for The New York Times about the science of Spore. He’s also linked to this video from Seed of a conversation between astrobiologist Jill Tarter and Spore creator Will Wright. Here’s a print version of the conversation.
Learning Graphically – Comics About Science
I was a comic book fan way before I was a mom. I’ve always liked exposing my kids at an early age to simple forms of complex ideas; I think it makes concepts familiar, letting kids get comfortable with sometimes difficult topics before they’re presented with the adult, “serious” versions – comics are the perfect […]
A simple Marx Generator
You may think a Marx Generator is a device for spitting out strident communist rhetoric, but it’s actually a type of high-voltage circuit for spitting out HV pulses. This is probably one to put in the “Don’t Try this at Home” or “Touch = Die” file as we are dealing with current here that can […]
EMS Labs on the monetary density of things
If we look at good-quality 1 carat diamonds, we find that they are quite expensive compared to the industrial diamonds we saw earlier. Now, the diamond monopoly hasn’t kept prices quite as high as LSD, however they are doing a very impressive job of trying. LSD doses measure in the micrograms, which makes the per-pound […]
California Academy of Sciences sneak peek
Official shot of the complex (above). From Shawn’s Flickr set (below). Living roofs with skylights. They are heat sensitive and open automatically when they reach a certain temperature to get a breeze going inside Bloggers and Bay Area journos were invited on a behind-the-scenes, not-quite-ready-for-primetime tour of the updated Steinhart Aquarium and California Academy of […]
