Lincoln and Darwin

I just read this article comparing Lincoln and Darwin. It was quite interesting. They were both born on the same day in the same year. They both changed the course of history - one for a nation, one for science. They shared personal issues: depression, loss of a mother at a young age. They were both magnificent writers. The article goes on to ask who was more important. The author brings up the point that it is like comparing apples and oranges - with which I agree. They were both extremely influential in their respective fields, but Darwin lived in England and was a scientist and Lincoln lived in the US and was a politician (to this day, politicians don't listen to scientists - at least not the ones that they haven't paid). However, he decides he must have a winner and decides that Lincoln was more important. His argument is that without Lincoln, who knows what the state of our union would be, but with Darwin, someone else was bound to come along and think up the theory of evolution (this is true as Alfred Wallace indeed did also come up with the idea); but who is to say that no one else would have come along to abolish slavery? Also, Darwin's idea influenced scientists world-wide, Lincoln preserved the nation, which eventually gained world-wide influence, but not until half a century later. I just say they were both extremely influential, intelligent men, without who, we would be ther poorer.

Science rules!

Being a science dork, I like it when science it applied to all aspects of life and fantasy. Check out this article about The Science of Fairy Tales. Now, if they could only come up with a genetic mutation to change mice into horses.....

Happy Valentine's Day!

Shaping Young Minds

At my work, the scientists are invited to share our knowledge with the youth that comes through our doors to study the X-fish. You could say that we are hounded to break up the everyday presenters monotonous routine with a few minutes of something 5th graders might find interesting or exciting. After a while of procrastinating about this, I decided it was time to share my exciting life of science with these kids (plus, then I could add it to my resume). One of the reasons I procrastinated so much was because my job is so boring - I had a hard time figuring out how on earth could I make it seem exciting to 5th graders. So, instead of telling them the truth about being an everyday scientist, I told them about the exciting things I have gotten to do, like go out on boats, catch fish, collect water samples and the like. I showed them cool pictures of a fishing net full of fish, the gross eggs and babies of a dogfish that had died, and a cute baby blowfish. It was actually pretty fun and I think the kids thought it was interesting. By far, the picture that for the most oohs and aahs was this one:

Thanks Endeavor!

The Plastic Ocean

Today I read this article about plastic. It is a bit long, but worth the read if you care about your health and the environment. I consider myself among those who are concerned about the planet. Plastic is a material that has many benefits and many harms. The invention of useful plastics has lead to the invention of life-saving medical devices, bulletproof vests, and silly putty. However, it seems that the harms are far outweighing the benefits: we breath toxic gases released by melting plastics during the recycling process, we breathe dust particles containing small bits of plastic, and huge volumes of plastic are polluting the oceans (one area in the Pacific contains a gyre full of debris the size of Texas.) Some food that we ingest (even if it is wild, organic - whatever that means) probably contains some sort of plastic, whether it be the sushi you had at lunch or the shrimp cocktail you had as an appetizer.

This information is disheartening on many levels. Plastic seems to be great since it can be recycled, however, the recycling efficiency levels are still so low, it hardly seems worth it; and the recycling process releases toxic fumes into the atmosphere. Alternatives to plastic are starting to get mass-produced, but some of those materials are made from corn, a crop when grown for food isn't so bad, but if we start to grow it for products other than food, land will become less available, the cost to process it will go up, more soil for other crops will be destroyed, and prices of most products will continue to increase.

I am having my own personal dilemma today. I received an email from the Body Shop informing me of a huge sale they are having. Many shower gels and body lotions are 75% off. This is a great deal. I love the body shop and everything it stands for. My issue is that most of their body gels are only 8 oz. They are on sale for $3 which, considering they are usually $12 is a great deal. Herein lies my problem. I know I can get 24 oz. of St. Ives body wash for $3 at Target. So here we go - one plastic bottle at 24 oz vs. 3 plastic bottles at 8 oz. each. The product inside is fairly similar: natural ingredients, never tested on animals. The one bottle is less plastic that the three bottles and is cheaper. Which of my morals do I go with? Less plastic? Community trade? I would just give up and go back to plain old soap, but every soap box is coated in some sort of waxy coating which probably has some sort of plastic base also. Maybe I should learn to make soap, with all my free time (yeah right).

Finally, I thought it was weird that this article was in the Men's Lifestyle section of MSN. I found it from the msn.com cover page. Shouldn't it be in the overall health section?

Cruise Cruise Baby

I know I am a science dork, but this is hilarious!

RIP Mr. Wizard

Mr. Wizard (aka Don Herbert) passed away yesterday after battling bone cancer. He was 89. Mr. Wizard had a show on Nickelodeon when I was growing up on which he had dorky kids (much like myself) do cool science stuff. My favorite episode was when he measured how tall a tree was with a plate full of water. Science is cool!

Coffee, Quesedillas and Monkfish

Aahhhh, Fridays. The end of the work week. At least that is usually the feeling when there are no looming deadlines, such as today. This morning, after taking Sean to the train, I got a nice White Satin Mocha and a piece of blueberry cake - yum! After getting to work and failing to do something for Sean, I did a little of my own work, then my office-mate and another co-worker and I went to lunch at Granny's Burritos where I had a mango chicken quesedilla - yum!! Then, we got back, I did some more work, tried to explain to my boss something I did that was very simple, yet somehow sounded complicated when she explained it, then we went to a slide show about the Gulf of Maine. It was awesome. I love the Gulf of Maine, there are so many cool things that live there - camouflage flounder, frilly sea anemonaes, sunstars, and of course, lobster. Now there is only an hour left and I might even leave a little early. Everyone else has.