Science Fair Project - Growing Bacteria Day 1

For this year's science fair project at school my 9 year old is testing the growth rate of bacteria from different sources.  In addition, she selected one of these sources, my cell phone screen, and is testing the growth of bacteria from the screen when dirty, when clean, and with anti-bacterial soap added to the petri dish.  The images below show the setup after we collected bacteria using cotton swabs.

All petri dishes setup.

Petri dishes swabbed from a doorknob, my keyboard, a clean cell phone screen, and a dirty cell phone screen but with anti-bacterial soap added to the dish.

Petri dishes swabbed from a doorknob, my keyboard, my 6 year old's mouth, and a dirty cell phone screen.

Petri dishes swabbed from a bathroom sink and the floor.

To get started we purchased a set of petri dishes pre-sterilized and pre-filled with agar.  If you are starting from empty petri dishes, here is a great website on how to fill them properly with agar.

Growing Bacteria

As you can see, we placed the petri dishes in a plastic tub with a bright light shining on them to increase to temperature to a stable 85-95 degrees F.  Bacteria will grow at lower temperatures, but much more slowly.  At the end of the day there wasn't much bacterial growth and at first we thought we did something wrong.  But then, just before bedtime, we started to see some growth in one of the plates!  Very exciting!  Unfortunately for you I'm making you wait until tomorrow to see the results after 24 hours of growth!  :-)

Re-Post: March for Science

This is a re-post from yesterday.  The March for Science is so important that I'm sharing this post again and will probably do several times in the coming weeks.  If we don't stand up and resist now, our children will not have a future on this planet.

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The steps the current White House Administration has taken in just the first few days since the inauguration are astonishing in a bad way.  There are so many things to say, but let me focus on science.  The administration is led by someone who thinks climate change is a Chinese hoax.  The administration is led by someone who has surrounded himself with climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers, and others who completely disregard science.  What do we, as those who understand the need for science, do?

We march!  I ask you, if you haven't already, to join the March for Science movement that has exploded in the last few days.  There is a not so secret secret group on Facebook with 500,000+ members.  This Facebook group started earlier in the week and already has a 1/2 million followers!  This movement is currently planning a march in Washington D.C., very similar to the awesome Women's March that took place on Saturday, January 21 in DC and in many cities across the country.  There are several ways to join the March for Science.  First, join one of the online social media groups.

March for Science Facebook Group

March for Science on Twitter (@ScienceMarchDC)

Share their posts to your friends on Facebook.  Re-tweet them on Twitter.  Do whatever you can to spread this resistance movement.  This administration may hate science, but we will not let this country ignore the power of science!  In addition, there are several resistance/alternative twitter accounts representing real science agencies.  Why alternative accounts?  Because the current administration has demanded these agencies stop sharing science.  Facts do not matter to this administration.  If it goes against their very extreme ideology, they shut down the agencies and people working for those agencies.  Government employees working for science agencies are in extreme danger of losing their jobs if they speak out.  Thus the revolt!  A few of the alternative Twitter accounts are:

@RogueNASA

@BadIandsNPSFans

@AltNatParkSer

There are many others out there too.  When I say "We March" that may not necessarily mean you need to go out and directly march.  There is much more you can do.  Spread the news.  Share the facts.  Promote real science.  Write and call your representatives in Congress and at the state level.  If you want to march but can't get to DC, it's very likely there will be other marches on the same day in a city nearer to you.  The date of the March for Science in DC is not yet announced, but when it is, I'm seriously going to consider going.  I don't know if I'll make it to DC, but I will definitely look at a march in a nearby city on the same day.

If we sit and remain silence, science will disappear.  When science disappears, we all lose.  And by lose, many will literally lose their lives.  This is not a joke.  Climate change denial, vaccine denial, de-funding of science agencies, and attacking scientists and their families will result in the loss of many lives.  There is a war on science going on this very minute.  We must stand up and RESIST!

March for Science

The steps the current White House Administration has taken in just the first few days since the inauguration are astonishing in a bad way.  There are so many things to say, but let me focus on science.  The administration is led by someone who thinks climate change is a Chinese hoax.  The administration is led by someone who has surrounded himself with climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers, and others who completely disregard science.  What do we, as those who understand the need for science, do?

We march!  I ask you, if you haven't already, to join the March for Science movement that has exploded in the last few days.  There is a not so secret secret group on Facebook with 500,000+ members.  This Facebook group started earlier in the week and already has a 1/2 million followers!  This movement is currently planning a march in Washington D.C., very similar to the awesome Women's March that took place on Saturday, January 21 in DC and in many cities across the country.  There are several ways to join the March for Science.  First, join one of the online social media groups.

March for Science Facebook Group

March for Science on Twitter (@ScienceMarchDC)

Share their posts to your friends on Facebook.  Re-tweet them on Twitter.  Do whatever you can to spread this resistance movement.  This administration may hate science, but we will not let this country ignore the power of science!  In addition, there are several resistance/alternative twitter accounts representing real science agencies.  Why alternative accounts?  Because the current administration has demanded these agencies stop sharing science.  Facts do not matter to this administration.  If it goes against their very extreme ideology, they shut down the agencies and people working for those agencies.  Government employees working for science agencies are in extreme danger of losing their jobs if they speak out.  Thus the revolt!  A few of the alternative Twitter accounts are:

@RogueNASA

@BadIandsNPSFans

@AltNatParkSer

There are many others out there too.  When I say "We March" that may not necessarily mean you need to go out and directly march.  There is much more you can do.  Spread the news.  Share the facts.  Promote real science.  Write and call your representatives in Congress and at the state level.  If you want to march but can't get to DC, it's very likely there will be other marches on the same day in a city nearer to you.  The date of the March for Science in DC is not yet announced, but when it is, I'm seriously going to consider going.  I don't know if I'll make it to DC, but I will definitely look at a march in a nearby city on the same day.

If we sit and remain silence, science will disappear.  When science disappears, we all lose.  And by lose, many will literally lose their lives.  This is not a joke.  Climate change denial, vaccine denial, de-funding of science agencies, and attacking scientists and their families will result in the loss of many lives.  There is a war on science going on this very minute.  We must stand up and RESIST!

Science on Top Podcast

I've said it before and I'll say it again here.  You can never have too many science themed podcasts on your podcast listening list.  Here's another you should add:

Science on Top Podcast

This is an Australian podcast that focuses on the recent research and discoveries in science.  The title on their page states "Putting Science on Top of the Agenda."  Yes!!!  That is EXACTLY what is needed.  A greater focus by everyone on accepting science as a path forward and not demeaning or attacking it because it goes against your pre-conceived beliefs.  This is particularly true in the United States with the constant attack on science and scientists by the party currently in control of all branches of the government.  You know which party it is.  :-)

Take a moment to listen to Science on Top.  I'm guessing you'll enjoy it.

Making Bathtub Fizzies

Over the holiday break, while visiting family, my two kids and two of their cousins made bathtub fizzies (bath bombs).  There are several different ways to make bathtub fizzies.  The one they made (my sister led them in this endeavor) came from a science experiment book my niece recently received.  It used tartar powder as the main ingredient.  There are other ways to make them, including a recipe at this link:

Making Bathtub Fizzies

When finished, ours came out looking like this:

Once back home my daughters tested one out in the bathtub.  My 9 year old said they fizzed in the water like they were supposed to and smelled good, but my 6 year old was less than impressed.  I think she was expecting some sort of volcanic like explosion when the fizzie was dropped in the water.  LOL!

Science Fair Project - Growing Bacteria

The science fair at my 9 year old's school is quickly approaching and she once again is super excited to enter a project.  We looked through several possible ideas together and she settled on bacteria growth.  We found a cheap kit of petri dishes filled with agar that included cotton swaps.  All of these can be purchased individually but the price was very good so I went ahead and purchased it as a kit.

We collected bacteria samples from several locations, including my 6 year old's mouth, a doorknob, my cell phone screen, my laptop keyboard, the bathroom sink, and the floor.  We also collected a sample from my dirty cellphone screen but added anti-bacterial soap to the petri dish to see if this halts bacteria growth.  Then we cleaned my cell phone screen and took a sample to test bacteria growth from a cleaned cellphone screen.  We then setup the petri dishes in our homemade incubator.  The goal is to determine which household objects contain the most bacteria as well as to test how anti-bacterial cleaners kill bacteria.

We placed the petri dishes in a plastic container and set a lamp over them to increase the temperature to promote bacteria growth.  Not shown is a thermometer to monitor the temperature.  The kit we used stated temps should be between 85 and 100 F.  Temps over 100 F can kill bacteria so we'll use the thermometer to keep the temperature in that range.  I'll keep you updated.  Hopefully in a few hours we'll start to see some growth!

The Attack on Science is Real

Mere minutes, possibly an hour, after Donald Trump was officially inaugurated as the next president of the United States, the White House's website devoted to climate change was removed.  Removed as if climate change doesn't exist!!!  I'm writing this on Friday, so maybe it's different today, but going to

www.whitehouse.gov/energy/climate-change

takes you to a non-existent page.  Just like that the government of the United States (as of noon on January 20, 2017) says climate change doesn't exist.  They throw all solid science out the window in favor of what?  Religion?  Ideology?  Money?  All three most likely.  The removal of a website itself is not the issue, but the meaning and message that goes along with it is.  This administration will blatantly ignore what is right in front of them.  This denial of science will KILL thousands, millions, possibly billions as the effects are played out over several decades.  Drought, destruction of crops, lack of drinking water, civil wars, disappearing islands, vanishing shore lines, more intense storms, etc.  These things, all a result of climate change caused by humans, will kill people in increasing numbers.

I'll probably be saying this a lot in the coming weeks, but is there hope for a future on this planet?  I've always said yes in the past but I don't know anymore.  I grew up LOVING science!  I loved learning new things and there is so much to learn in science.  But this constant attack on science is demoralizing.  I'll continue to fight, but it is more difficult to see hope for the future of life on this planet as each day goes by and the attack on science increases.  I have no idea what Galileo felt in the early 1600s when the Catholic Church arrested him for daring to share science, but I have to think it felt a bit like this.  At what point are scientists arrested for sharing science in this country?  It seems crazy, but then again, climate change has been wiped clean from the White House.  Arresting scientists for sharing science no longer seems crazy to me.

Update:  I've discussed many times the importance of being a skeptic and must therefore admit I was a bit unfair in my statements above regarding the removing of climate change on the White House website.  Snopes.com declares this a mixture of truth.  Yes, all mention of climate change was removed, but that is common with a new administration.  Obama wiped much of the website clean in 2009 and replaced it with his policies.  It is telling, however, that there are many mentions of 'energy' on the White House site, but they focus on 'clean coal', a technology to separate carbon into the ground without releasing it into the air.  This technology has its own problems and at this point is not a feasible method of carbon dioxide emission reduction.  Therefore I stand by my statements on the attack on science.  We'll see if the White House has a true climate change plan, but all evidence points to further denial.

Snopes.com on Climate Change Removal on White House Webpage

This Blog's History: LED Light Bulbs

For This Friday in This Blog's History I point you back to a post I wrote on the energy efficiency of LED light bulbs.  I had recently put a few in my house to replace a few fluorescent bulbs that had gone out.

LED Light Bulbs

Christopher Columbus Did NOT Discover Earth Is Round

In my continuing series inspired by Scientific American, titled 'Things We Know to Be True', I bring you today's topic, 'Christopher Columbus Did NOT Discover Earth is Round'.  There's this very common misconception that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and in doing so discovered Earth was round and not flat as the misconception states people believed.  I spoke briefly on this in a post a couple of days ago, so I'll make this simple.  Columbus did NOT discover Earth is round.  It was common knowledge at this time that Earth was round and not flat.  Columbus certainly knew this.  Aristotle, 2400 years ago, based on the shape of lunar eclipse shadows, knew the Earth was round.  Scientists before the time of Aristotle probably knew Earth was round as well.

So what did Columbus do that made him famous?  Well, not all that much to be honest.  For starters, he was a horrible navigator.  He wasn't looking for what we now call North America or South America.  He was charting a waterway path to India and failed miserably!  On top of that he brought disease to the natives already living in the Americas.  He also enslaved natives, forced them to accept Christianity, and killed many.  Columbus didn't even discover America as he is often giving credit for!  That honor goes to Leif Eriksson 500 years earlier!!!

Each year, in October, we celebrate Columbus Day in the United States.  What are we celebrating?  Not the discoverer of America, that's for sure!  We basically celebrate a lie and use it as an excuse to teach kids in school that Columbus discovered America and a round Earth.  Sigh.  Here's a good source if you're looking for more on Christopher Columbus.

Think You Know The Real Christopher Columbus?

BrainBox: Art

Now that Christmas has come and gone and my kids have had an opportunity to dive into most of their gifts I'm going to share a few posts looking at the science themed gifts they received, starting with the Art version of BrainBox.

We purchased several gifts for both kids from MindWare, including a set of BrainBox games for our 9 year old.  She had previously picked these out as something she wanted, so we purchased a set of four, giving her two for Christmas and saving two for her upcoming birthday.  One of the two she received for Christmas was the Art edition.  The game itself is very simple, but using memory and critical thinking skills to play.  Inside are a box of thick cards, each with a painting (replicas of real, famous paintings) on it with tidbits of information related to the painting.  You have ten seconds to examine your card on your turn.  Then someone else asks a question (several on the back of the card) and you have to answer it based on memory or possibly things you already know about the painting.  It was a fun game that only takes 10 minutes to play, so something you can play even if you don't have much time.

These BrainBox games are very cool gift ideas that run about $15, although you can buy them in sets at a rate cheaper than $15 per box.  If you're short on gift giving ideas for kids, consider one of these.

BrainBox: Art

Exposing PseudoAstronomy Podcast

It's time to look at a new (for me) science based podcast.  This one is titled Exposing PseudooAstronomy and does just that!  It exposes pseudoastronomy.

Exposing PseudoAstronomy

One of my goals with this blog is to debunk misconceptions commonly found in astronomy and science in general.  This podcast does the same thing.  There's quite a bit of fake science being passed around as the truth out there.

The last Exposing PseudoAstronomy podcast I listened to focused on the science and misconceptions of radiation.  Radiation is nothing more than light.  The light I see from the Sun is radiation.  The x-rays of my teeth last month are radiation.  Radio waves used for phones, TVs, etc., are radiation.  Radiation is not inherently bad.  Other recent podcast episodes looked at the flat Earth theory, searching for planet x, and dark matter.

If you enjoy podcasts, I highly encourage you to check this one out.  I wasn't disappointed and I doubt you will be either.

The Earth is NOT Flat

As part of my Scientific American inspired series of Things We Know to Be True I bring you the next thing we know to be true.  The Earth is NOT flat.  The Earth is round.  Spherical to be exact.  Although if you really want to get into the details it's not exactly spherical.  Regardless of the Earth being slightly deviated from a spherical shape, we know the Earth is not flat.  Yet there are people who are legitimately convinced the Earth is flat.  There's even a somewhat well known group arguing for a flat Earth.  I won't tell you who they are nor will I post their website as I don't think they deserve the publicity (by publicity I mean the 3 people who will read this).  If you really want to know, do a Google search. They are relatively easy to find.

How long have we known Earth is round?  A LONG TIME!  There's a misconception that Christopher Columbus discovered Earth was round in 1492.  No, not even close.  It was common knowledge at that time Earth was round.  Even Aristotle, around 2400 years ago, knew the Earth was round based on the shape of shadows during lunar eclipses.  It's quite likely people knew Earth was round hundreds, if not thousands of years before Aristotle!

Recently several members of the anti-science party in the United States (you know which one this is) used the 'flat-Earth' argument to claim people are wrong on climate change.  This was a group of climate denying politicians using the argument that people once thought Earth was flat and they were wrong.  They then say that because these people were wrong, climate change scientists are wrong too.  It's okay, you can smack your head on the wall repeatedly.  

Um...yes, maybe thousands of years ago people once thought Earth was flat because they had no evidence to suggest otherwise, but long ago evidence was obtained to prove Earth was round.  This is a horrible argument to use to deny climate change.  The key is evidence.  This is an amazing short-sighted view by these politicians that actually gets the entire argument wrong.  People may have once thought Earth was flat due to lack of evidence.  Then evidence showed us Earth is round.  We once had no evidence to support a changing climate.  Then, starting several decades ago we obtained stronger and stronger evidence Earth's climate is warming.  The truth is always on the side of evidence.  The argument these politicians are using actually argues FOR a flat Earth.  It argues for the no evidence side.  Sigh.  

This Blog's History: Evolution is the Only Reasonable Explanation for the Diversity of Life on Earth

For This Friday in This Blog's History I point you back to a post I wrote in the series 'Things We Know to Be True' titled 'Evolution is the Only Reasonable Explanation for the Diversity of Life on Earth'.

Regardless of one's beliefs, we know from solid scientific evidence that evolution is true.  There may be questions, but those questions do not undermine the quality of data that leads to this conclusion.  The conclusion is solid.  Very solid!  For more details, read the original post at the link below.

Evolution is the Only Reasonable Explanation for the Diversity of Life on Earth

Ghostbusters (2016)

As a kid growing up in the 1980s/90s, I was a huge fan of the two original Ghostbusters movies.  The first came out in 1984 and the second in 1989.  For years there was a possibility of a third Ghostbusters movie with the original cast, but that basically ended when Harold Ramis passed away in 2014.  A third Ghostbusters movie was made, but as a re-make of the original Ghostbusters movie.  The Ghostbusters became an all female cast with a male secretary, opposite the gender of the original movie.  Several of the original Ghostbusters cast had cameos in this re-make.

I loved this movie!  I thought it did a great job keeping the original feel of the first two Ghostbusters movies.  It had a great mix of humor and seriousness just as the originals did.  The cameos were very well placed and gave me a good laugh.  My kids loved it too!  They have not seen the originals, but we are adding them to our list of future family movie nights.

It's hard to believe there was so much nonsense surrounding the all female cast of this re-make.  Who cares if the cast is all female?  It was an excellent movie!  It did nothing to diminish the quality of the original in a franchise.  How is that even possible?  The re-make doesn't replace the original.  The original is still there!  

Anyway, if you're looking for a good movie to watch with your kids, you can't go wrong with the Ghostbusters re-make!

The Gum and Chocolate Experiment

We've all chewed gum.  We've all probably had our kids get chewing gum in their hair, clothes, bed, or the backseat of the car.  In fact, my kids are currently banned from chewing gum in the car due to a recent gum 'accident' that left gum all over the backseat of the car!!!  Swallowing gum is not harmful to you.  This is something I debunked close to 2 years ago.  There is a way, however, to make gum dissolve in your mouth!

There are several ingredients that go into gum, but at a basic level gum is made up of polymers.  A polymer is made up of several molecules strung together in long chains.  Polymers can either be natural or man-made.  Common polymers include wool, silk, DNA, teflon, nylon, polyester, and gum.  Chewing gum loses its flavor relatively quickly, but it doesn't dissolve in your mouth.  It eventually gets harder and harder to chew, but doesn't disappear unless you swallow it or remove it from your mouth.  There is, however, a relatively simple way to dissolve gum in your mouth.  Chocolate!

To test this out we grabbed a few gumballs from my daughters' gumball machine.  We chewed for a couple of minutes and then put a small piece of a chocolate bar in our mouths and chewed it with the gum.  At first it seems that nothing is happening and then suddenly it's hard to differentiate the gum and chocolate in your mouth.  You may have to chew a couple of chocolate pieces with the gum, but the gum does indeed dissolve until there's nothing left!  It's a weird experience that goes against one's common experience of chewing gum.  

So what's happening?  The cocoa butter in the chocolate softens the gum and breaks apart the polymers, causing the gum to dissolve.  Super cool!  This is a quick science experiment to try at home that only requires gum and chocolate.

The End of Cassini

You may not have heard, but one of the most well known NASA missions, Cassini, is coming to an end.  The Cassini spacecraft mission to Saturn first started in development in the 1980s and launch from Earth to Saturn in 1997, entering Saturn's orbit in 2004.  For the last 12 years Cassini has provided astronomers on Earth a treasure trove of data to answer questions on Saturn, Saturn's moons, and Saturn's rings.  Much of what we know on Saturn today is a direct result of this mission.  In addition, a probe, Huygens, was dropped onto the surface of one of Saturn's moons, Titan, in 2005.  This probe was a success, landing on the surface and taking several surface images, including the one below.

Over the last 12 years Cassini has taken many amazing images of Saturn's rings and atmosphere.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and Cassini is nearing that end.  Starting in late 2016 Cassini began its last mission, a multiple path trek (22 times) through Saturn's rings, hopefully giving us our best look ever at Saturn's outer rings.  Following this (September 2017) Cassini will plummet into the atmosphere of Saturn until the craft is destroyed, collecting and sending back atmospheric data as long as it can.  

It's sad to see the mission end, but the data Cassini has provided over the years is simply amazing!  Even in its final hours Cassini will continue to transmit back data until the very last second.  

Climate Change - SkepticalScience.com

I'm in the process of writing up a longer post on climate change, something we know to be true based on scientific data.  Regardless of one's beliefs, the world's climate is warming and that warming is primarily caused by humans.  The data is absolutely clear on this.  Before digging deeper into this, however, I want to share with you an amazing website that helps clear up some of the misconceptions regarding climate change.  The name of the site is Skeptical Science.

Skeptical Science

The thing I love about this website is that although it is constantly updated with recent updates in the field of climate science, there is also a huge section on the most used climate change myths that attempt to debunk climate change as real and/or human caused.  This site informs you of the pseudoscience climate change denialists try to pass as real science and then informs you of the actual science.

The website was founded and is maintained by Jon Cook, the Climate Communication Fellow for the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland.  Cook does an excellent job communicating the often complicated science of climate change to a general audience.  I get feed updates anytime Cook updates the site, typically a couple of times per day.

If you have questions on climate change or aren't sure how to respond to someone attempting to debunk climate change, then definitely check out Skeptical Science.  It's quite likely you'll find your question answered here.

This Blog's History: GMOs Are Safe

For This Friday in This Blog's History I share with you a post I wrote last month that was part of the Things We Know To Be True series inspired by an article in Scientific American.  The topic for this post was GMOs.  Despite the very big anti-GMO push by many groups in the U.S., GMOs are 100% safe to eat and almost certainly a necessity to solve food production problems associated with climate change (another thing we know to be true).  For more information and to read the original post, click the link below.

GMOs Are Safe

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - 1991

Yesterday I shared our experience of watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie from 1990.  Kids loved!  It was only one week later we decided to do another family dinner/movie night with the kids choosing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II.  The second of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies came out in 1991.  It was interesting to see that many of the characters were played by different actors/actresses.  A couple of the turtles have different voice actors.  No Cory Feldman (voice of Donatello in the first movie) in TMNT II.  :-(  April O'Neil was played by a different actress.  Despite this it was still an enjoyable movie.

My kids were also introduced to Vanilla Ice!  LOL!  Go Ninja Go Ninja Go!!!  LOL!  Love this part of the movie!  

I encourage you to watch the second TMNT movie with your kids.  It's a good fun movie for the family.  Next up:  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Original Movie

My 6 year old LOVES the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT).  She's watched several of the cartoon episodes, has read several books, and has a couple of TMNT shirts.  A couple of weeks ago we decided to have a family movie night and watch the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie from 1990.  I watched the movies as a kid and loved them and was super excited to share this experience with my kids.  We cooked up some nachos (a favorite of ours when we have a family dinner/movie night), started up Hulu, searched for TMNT, and pushed play!

I watched this movie several times as a kid, but it's probably been at least 15 years since I last watched it.  The first thing I noticed was the cheesy 1980s/early 1990s music.  And the hair!!!  LOL!  I have to say, however, this movie holds its own over the decade.  I still found it very enjoyable as an adult and my daughters both loved it too!  After watching it we picked up my daughter a few TMNT action figures for Christmas which she LOVES!  

If you have an evening and you're not sure what to do, I recommend a family movie night with the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles.  The series has recently rebooted with two new movies in the last couple of years (2014 and 2016).  We'll watch those eventually after we work our way through the originals.  

CGP Grey YouTube Channel

Another very cool YouTube channel to add to your list of YouTube channels is CGP Grey.

CGP Grey

This is not a channel devoted entirely to science as there are quite a few videos released discussing history and current events, but it is a very informative channel that will definitely increase your knowledge.  For example, two recent videos focused on the electoral college in United States politics.  These videos discussed the history of the electoral college, what it was designed to do, how it's not doing what it was designed to do, and the role it played in the recent November 2016 elections.

Recent science videos include animal domestication, transporters, and solutions to traffic jams.  Despite it not being entirely devoted to science, the channel is devoted to informing people on various topics and I look forward to new videos.  On average videos are released about once a month, although that has increased a bit with the electoral college videos coming out right after the election.

So check it out.  I think you'll like it!

Greater Activism in 2017

Welcome to 2017!  I hope you had a fun and happy time this holiday season.  For those of us who care about the environmental future of this planet, the latter part of 2016 was a tough pill to swallow.  The President-elect has publicly stated climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese and the United States House of Representatives has openly attacked scientists studying climate change.  In late 2016 the U.S. House Science and Technology committee has tweeted anti-climate change propaganda that is a promotion of outright lies.

The US House Science and Technology committee for crying out loud!  Unbelievable.  This, despite a year, 2016, that was the second hottest on record.  The hottest?  2015. (Update:  made a mistake here.  2016 officially finished as the hottest year on record.  2015 comes in as second hottest.) I suppose the climate change deniers claim this is evidence of global cooling.  Sigh.  It is extremely frustrating when our elected representatives blatantly ignore the science staring them right in the face.  It's even worse than that.  Not only do they ignore it, they call science a lie and actively promote anti-science!!!

So what do we do?  We become active.  I made a vow after the 2016 election to become much more active in politics.  I will sign petitions (arguments on effectiveness here, but that's another post) and make phone calls to politicians on topics that are important to me.  In addition I'm now attending my local school board meetings.  I went to my first last month.  This isn't directly related to science, but its part of my vow to become more politically active across the board.  In the coming days I'm going to contact the local democratic party headquarters to ask how I can help.  I'd love to do the same for the local republican party, but that will never happen as long as the party chooses to deny science.  At the moment I don't know what form that help will take.  It could be phone banking, helping put up yard signs at the right time.  I don't know.  But I'm not going to sit and remain silent.  I can't save the planet by myself, but I can do my little part.  To not do my part is to play a roll in the destruction of this planet.  I owe myself and my family more than that.  As I become aware of what form this help will be I'll post here, particularly if that help is directly related to science.