I was going to try to be topical and do a post about odd things that have won the Nobel Prize. But then I read back through the list and was reminded that the Nobel Committee is in fact dreadfully serious. Needs more Andre Geim, apparently. That’s why we have the Ig Nobels. Then I came […]
I recently started as a Brownie leader (Dragon Owl, I hit the jackpot letting the girls pick my name). So I’m adding a new feature to this blog where I share science related meeting activities. Most of these will obviously fit with the Key to STEM, but science can fit in with a lot of […]
Star Trek Discovery premiered last week. This week is the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Whatever your opinions of the new series or of CBS’s distribution methods, that fact gets me thinking about one thing in particular. Star Trek taught us that space is awesome. When I discussed real world discoveries inspired […]
Since last week’s post was already pushing a thousand words with only the first five Ig Nobel prizes, today we’re picking up where we left out. Everyone else may be speculating about the actual Nobel Prize, but here at Science Shenanigans, we’re much too silly. Here are five more strange scientific studies that were recently […]
The Ig Nobel prizes were announced last night. Which was hilariously good timing seeing as yesterday I idly wondered if they’d been announced yet for this year. Sadly I didn’t get to actually watch the webcast live due to choir practice, but all the same it’s basically a gift wrapped post for this blog. So […]
There was a great discussion this week on Twitter about science communication inspirations. One thing that came up was how important it was that the Magic School Bus encouraged kids to go out there and make mistakes. During the discussion, it became clear that some of the public doesn’t realize just how important mistakes really […]
There are lots of reasons to undertake a scientific investigation. Sometimes it’s pure and simple curiosity. Sometimes it’s a directed effort to solve a specific problem. Often it’s pure curiosity that gets dressed up as a directed effort while writing a grant application. Sometimes it’s trying to solve one specific problem and accidentally solving another. […]
Star Trek has inspired countless scientist. The character of Wesley Crusher was essentially written for me: A young child watching Star Trek: The Next Generation because her father loved the original series. As a teenager, Kathryn Janeway was the first woman I saw on television who got as excited about science as I did. Sometimes […]
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is an incredibly useful characterization technique. Assuming certain properties are met, the nucleus of an atom interacts with a magnetic field. The exact nature of that interaction is highly dependent on the environment around the atom. So you can get a ton of information about the structure of a molecule by […]
When a new species is discovered, there are a lot of options for naming it. As long as you don’t name it after yourself, you can basically do what you want. A significant physical characteristic. The place you discovered it. An important mentor. Or, well, we saw from fruit fly gene names that scientists are […]