New Resource

I discovered a new science website yesterday. It is CSICOP: The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

Check it out, and keep us updated if *you* find any awesome sites.

Step on a Crack, Break your Mother's Back

Last night marked a mightly return to all things Sunday and Science. Hosted by the always delightful April (and Tim and Annie Oakley) at their new studio, we ate candy and muffins and cake and drank tea, but most importantly we talked science.

The topic was Science of Myth, Urban Legend, and Superstition. We had a presentation about ancient maps (hmmm), medical treatment of collies (Three white feet: don't treat!), the "five second" rule, the full moon, and lycanthropy.

In attendace were Agnes, Sheryl-Ann, Laura, Demian, April, Ainsley, Nathan, Tim and Tim. There was also an interesting folder of science wonders passed around that had been saved (along with a number of other folder oddities) from the trash by Kate and Laura. They will most likely be making appearances in upcoming club meetings.

Next week will be a general interest/open concept topic of Science that I cannot Live Without (Please please don't leave me, science!). Can you not survive without t.v.? Without vulcanized rubber? Without CDs or photographs or airplanes? Or maybe you just can't live without beer (chemistry), riding a bike (geometry/physics) or books (technology/development of language/industry!!).

Make it something you love and meet us at Union Station at 8pm.

Machinists

The first Science Club meeting of 2006 was filled with building, small machines and - our favourite - technology!!

We began to put together some of the fantastic kits given to the club by Graeme before he left for Japan.


We started by building out own clock! Wowee, it was kind of tough (not recommended for 5-year-olds, no matter what the box says) and by the end of the evening we had a clock keeping [more or less] good time. It sure was noisy though. It had to be stopped so that the residents of Benson St. could get to sleep.





Next we put together a crystal radio. This was a kit that Bryn had had for sometime and finally got to assemble. This one was also a bit complicated (for a kid's project). It had small parts and required some time-consuming/patience-trying steps. I spent about half-an-hour wrapping wire around a tube!

winding and winding...

Remember these earphones! Totally crazy!

This is a cool project that doesn't use any batteries, and if encouraged properly - by borrowing an antannea or attaching it to something *grounded* - can totally pick up radio stations! We were only able to pick up static, but still have high hopes for our crystal radio.

Testing out the radio with the kitchen tap...?

Next week: We will be meeting at D'Arcy St. and putting together some more science projects. Also, please being any science news of interest or any project you have been meaning to present over the past while.

Spaced out and loving it

Last week's meeting was at April's lovely house and the topic was astronomy.

There were enough people to fill a room, finish a bag of Doritos, and cover topics from ocean navigation, to the solar system, to super-heavy black holes.

Thanks to the large turnout, we were able to have a good discussion. I was particularly amazed at the concept of a super-dense black hole. It's hard trying to imagine it as anything except for the traditional cone-like vortex, but apparently, it's spherical and pulls at the fabric of the universe from all directions. Even that explanation doesn't actually do it justice though.

OK..........Think of it as a one-dimensional point, that has immense mass, but takes up no space. Weird, huh? It kinda defies those "absolute" rules of science, like "matter cannot be created or destroyed". It seems that when a black hole soaks up enough matter, sometimes it just vanishes, taking with it planets, suns, space dust, and unlucky cosmonauts.

Where does it go? No one really knows...
But speculation at the meeting was that it could be an inter-dimensional Fed-Ex company, that ships all this matter to a different universe.
......I know, I know. But if you have any better ideas, let us know.

science is a spicy dish!

This past week we had a lovely (but et again underattended) meeting at Graeme's house. There were three great presentations made on the topic of pre-Latin ancient American science. Bekah's presentation was short but gross enough to last awhile! She talked about trephination, which is sort of a form of surgery that involved drilling though a person's skull. There are several different ways of doing this and many different reasons (in different cultures and times) but Bekah had found that the south american practice was very successful with most who went under the, ermm, knife, surviving.



This upcoming Sunday December 4th we will be studing Astronomy, after a previous attempt to cover the topic had to be cancelled.

Please stay tuned for time/location info.

Suddenly science is a lot more like indie rock

The internet is amazing. It allows people from every place on earth, with every opinion, background, education, and interest to share their ideas and philosophies and discoveries.

But this also creates a dangerous terrain, does it not? We search for information and have no way to really authenticate what we find. Wikipedia, which I *adore*, is open source and can be contributed to by anyone. This is just an example, of course of how useful yet dangerous the internet can be.

Anyhow, while creeping around on to web researching my last topic I discovered a new resource. A science messageboard!! ow the experiences that I have had with messageboards have been only in relation to music scenes. People post about their shows, their favourite records, going for bike rides, what they ate for lunch...whatever they want to talk to other indie-rock kids about.

I am interested to see how the science version works out. Is it still they same type of people? Young-adults, trying to prove their cred? A website filled with science scenesters?

Medicine...and I'm not talking booze!

So last Sunday was fun! It was a smaller group with 2 expert, medical-science students.
Fittingly, the venue was Toronto General Hospital's MASSIVE, glass patient court.

The topics included endothelial vascular disorders, the black plague, some disease that affects motor neurons (I forget the name, but imagine being paralysed and still being able to feel the unmovable parts! Yikes!), and also new technology in cochlear implants (ie. the bionic ear).

We had a vascular slideshow! Hehehe..."totally vascular, dudes!"
Also another interesting bit of info was that Andora (Yes! The kingdom of SHE-RA, princess of power!) was completely immune to the plague! And that you can cure it by surrounding yourself with redness!

Ok. Here is a pic of the way that physicians dressed during the bubonic pandemic!


Ok. See you next Sunday when the topic is Mathematics. And 'til then have a vascular weekend!

call out

Dear Science Club,

I am not the only one who can update this blog. And it can be used for so much more than just meeting information! Post interesting science stuff you read about! Link to amazing websites you've found! Post projects or experiments you are working on that can't wait for a meeting!

Anyway...This week we're meeting at Laura's house and we are having a free-for-all with no particular theme.

Sunday November 6th, 8pm.

See you there.