The Ant Farm goes High Tech
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008Remember the classic Ant Farm with the little plastic barn and silo? Well, it’s about as out-of-date as a VCR!
The Ant Farm has gone 21st Century! The updated model features a translucent gel medium that not only gives the Ant Farmer a better view of his herd but also provides the ants with […]
Happy Birthday!
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008My own little Science Junkie turns 10 today! Being that he also loves chess, I give you a chess joke:
A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of his office, and asked them to disperse. “But […]
Total Lunar Eclipse on 2/20/08!
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008On Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It’s a total lunar eclipse—the last one until December 2010!
This graphic by Larry Koehn depicts the sequence of the lunar eclipse in the Central Time Zone
The Sun goes down. The Moon comes up. […]
It’s Elementary My Dear
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008Just lately, my 9-year-old has started asking me questions about the Periodic Table of the Elements. Deciphering the periodic table is so fundamental to understanding Chemistry and virtually every other scientific discipline that I opted to buy him a good book on the subject rather than try to explain it myself. It has been a […]
Ice Ice Baby!
Monday, February 18th, 2008Just the other day I was talking to my brother, Lou and the topic of global warming came up. Specifically, we were talking about how the snow at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa is vanishing. Being quite the science junkie himself, my brother cited some recent studies indicating that the Snows of Kilimanjaro are not […]
The Sun, A Poem, and Some Facts
Monday, February 18th, 2008
This illustration accurately depicts the relational sizes of the Sun and planets of our solar system
a PIZZA the size of the SUN
A Poem by Jack Prelutsky
I’m making a pizza the size of the sun,
a pizza that’s sure to weigh more than a ton,
a pizza too massive to pick up and toss,
a pizza resplendent with oceans […]
A Day of Rest
Sunday, February 17th, 2008Because this site is so brand new, I’ve been feverishly writing content all week that will hopefully make your visit here a worthwhile adventure. For this novice blogger 20+ posts in less than one week may be my limit!
Being that Sunday IS the day of rest, I think that I will finish (or is it […]
Ready, Aim, Fire!
Sunday, February 17th, 2008The U.S. Military is making plans to shoot down one of its own satellites. The high tech spy satellite malfunctioned immediately after it was launched in December of 2006 and now poses a remote but real threat as it begins its plunge back to Earth.
The primary concern is not necessarily the satellite itself but […]
Photogenic Molecules
Saturday, February 16th, 2008The answer to yet another pair of stupefying questions posed by my nine-year-old…
What does a molecule look like?
Molecules have long been represented by ball and stick models that illustrate the number and type of atoms they are made up of and the way these atoms are bonded together. More recently representations of molecules are rendered […]
The Good, the Bad, and the Eyeless
Saturday, February 16th, 2008
In my last post I described how we measure visual acuity in people. That got me wondering how well human eyesight measures up in the context of the animal kingdom. Here’s what I found out:
The Good
Birds of Prey, such as Hawks and Falcons are believed to have an acuity of around 20/2, which is about […]
