A Schooner of Science

In Vancouver

// February 12th, 2012 // 1 Comment » // Jibber Jabber

Picture taken from the plane at dawn

So I’m feeling pretty exhausted! I’ll recover some energy before making a big push to post plenty of contact during the conference, including the IgNobel award ceremony and a visit to nuclear science lab TRIUMF.

Here’s some of the seminars I want to attend:

Saturday 18 Feb: Globalising Indigenous architecture: The Power of tradition, providing for the future.
Sunday 19 Feb: The next agricultural revolution: Emerging production methods for meat alternatives.
Monday 20 Feb: Radioactive isotopes in medicine.

If anyone else, specially my peeps in Aus, are coming to the AAAS meeting, send me a comment with your tips.

Must snooze! over and out.

On being busy and finding time to write

// July 20th, 2011 // No Comments » // Jibber Jabber

So you may have noticed my blogging schedule has been a little lax lately. I’ve been pretty busy with other writing and research, and been finding it really hard to give the blog attention and love.

To balance things, I’m dropping my posting frequency down to once a week. I just wanted to let you know that I’m not abandoning the blog, I still love you, it’s not you, it’s me – all that kind of stuff.

I’ll get back to you in a day or two with a proper (gasp!) post about the Red Queen hypothesis and the evolution of sex, with some sweet research on nematode worms with bacterial parasites.

In the meantime, have a rum for me!

Oh, Oh OMG I’m included in Open Lab 2010!

// January 10th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Jibber Jabber, Science Communication

The finalists of Open Lab have been announced. I’m all a-quiver with excitement because I’m included in the list!

That means I’m going to be PUBLISHED in an ANTHOLOGY of science writers. Among the list of those included are some big names like Scicurious, Ed Yong, Carl Zimmer, Kevin Zelnio and many more excellent bloggers.

Many thanks to Jason Goldman for his work as the editor, and to the reviewers and everyone else in the project who give up their time (and probably sleep) to put Open Lab 2010 together. The book will be published in early February and available online and in some stores.

Here’s my award winning post How aqua regia saved Nobel Prize medals from the Nazis.

Merry Christmas from Captain Skellett

// December 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // Jibber Jabber

Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas.

My motto is “If it ain’t merry, drink more rum!”

Thank ye for reading me blog this year, this blog wouldn’t be the same without you. It’s been a very busy and interesting year. I’ve lived interstate, become a published writer, and pillaged not a few cruise ships. I’m looking forward to pointing the Schooner to new ports in 2011.

Happy holidays, and have a jolly Roger Christmas.

New MolBio Carnival is up!

// December 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // Jibber Jabber, Science Communication

Ahoy there,

A quick note to send you over to me good mate Lab Rat, who blogs regularly about the amazing world of microorganisms and provides insights into life as a lab rat. She’s the host for the latest MolBio Carnival, a collection of the best blogs on molecular biology about.

I’m honoured to have been included on the list, although I blogged about something a little bit bigger (the marsupial joeys of the last post.)

Check it out here, and enjoy the picture at the bottom!

Gift ideas for a biochemist, medical scientist or neuroscientist

// December 2nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Jibber Jabber, Science Art

Get a pair of double helix earrings or a neuron necklace. Each piece began as a sketch, then was modeled digitally, and finally cut with a laser beam.

These gorgeous creations are courtesy of Morphologica, a Sydney-based scientist completing a PhD in neuroscience.

More brain style jewelry from etsy: Funky anatomy style jewelry here – mostly pictures printed on plastic. Proper plastic models, brightly coloured and very cool brain earrings. Simple, stylized, silver neurons.

These happy anatomy magnets are incredibly cute, and would probably make you feel happier every time you walked past your fridge. $10 is a good deal, and they ship to the US & Canada (but worth a shot getting international shipping if you live elsewhere like me.) I also like this hotdog wielding anglerfish. Not exactly sciencey, but undeniably awesome.

There is no better way to say “you’re the best dang neuroscientist I know” than to give someone a brain in a jar. This one is green because it’s A ZOMBIE BRAIN IN A JAR!!! Awesome. They also come in pink.

And as decorations for a truly terrific tree. I’ll stop with the excessive linking, you should just check out the Your Organ Grinder etsy shop.

There’s heaps of handmade anatomy including lungs, hearts, ovaries, livers, kidneys, testicles. Ships worldwide.

You might also be interested in
Gift Ideas for a Pathologist or Microbiologist
Gift Ideas for a Chemist or Chemistry Grad

Talk like a pirate day coming soon! Prepare yerself.

// August 30th, 2010 // No Comments » // Jibber Jabber

Ahoy there!

Just a quick reminder that the most important day in the year is coming up – Talk like a Pirate Day! It’s on September 19, which this year is a Sunday. ‘Tis an excellent day for some serious pirate frivolity, particularly in a drinking-in-the-backyard setting. Start planning yer party now!

National Science Week

// August 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Jibber Jabber

Just a quick one to say that National Science Week has officially started. If you’re in Australia, there’s tons of awesome science shows and stuff to do this week. Post a comment if you know of something particularly incredible that’s happening.

I’m in Parkes, NSW (home of the Dish) at the moment, so I’m missing out on most of it. I’m feeling pretty FOMO actually. FOMO is a great adjective, isn’t it. Start using it too and maybe it will really take off.

Big Blog Theory announced – Second place in best Australian blogger!

// August 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Jibber Jabber

A somewhat belated announcement – A Schooner of Science was awarded second place in The Big Blog Theory, sharing the runner up position with Mr Science Show. Huzzah!

Congratulations to the winner, Bec from Save Your Breath for Running Ponies. The blog has a really interesting writing style, a bit like a novel with characters and dialogue. I’m looking forward to seeing her coverage of National Science Week.

Thank ye to all who voted for me, I’m honoured to be Australia’s equal-second-best science blogger and I couldn’t have done it without your support. Let’s dance a merry jig about my ship and down a mug o’ rum in celebration!

The strangeness and charm of subatomic particles

// June 7th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // How Things Work, Jibber Jabber, The Realm of Bizzare

In early high school I was told an atom was the smallest piece of matter in the universe. If you divided matter into pieces as small as they could be, the smallest piece would be one atom. Utter BS, according to later high school years. An atom is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons can be further divided into quarks.

When I get to reading about subatomic physics and chem I quickly get confused and frustrated. My love is for the elegant simplicity of chemical reactions, effervescence, fluorescence, quenching and conjugation. Quarks are not so simple.

There are six flavours of quarks, and yes, “flavour” really is the technical word for it. They are called up, down, top, bottom, strange and charm. A proton is made of two up quarks and one down quark. A neutron has two down quarks and an up quark.

The quarks were discovered by particle accelerators. Strange quarks are found in cosmic ray particles with a strangely long lifespan. Charm quarks are charmed because they complete the symmetry of the quark set. Top and bottom quarks are similar to up and down, and were originally called truth and beauty. The top quark has a mass almost as much as an atom of gold, which is pretty dang heavy!

Pictured above, UK band Florence and the Machine has written a new song about love and quarks. It’s called Strangeness and Charm and has only been played live. Here is the best quality audio I’ve been able to find of it, I’d love to see it live. There are rumours that her new album is science-inspired, can’t wait to hear it.