Why even bother with having science in the title?

Time: 9:50 am

Location: Back of linear algebra class

Should be: paying attention

Science fairs usually make me a little bitter (I never got to do one!), but this one just makes me giggle a little. Despite what they might state at the top of the page about teaching the scientific method, their goal is transparent:

7. Approximately 3rd Weekend in February: our science fair presentation at Har-Mar Mall in a public-secular setting for three reasons: 

1) To promote home schools, 
2) To show that Homeschool students can do good science.
3) To present our science fair project to non-Christian people. This should be a great Gospel outreach.

We heard about one lady who saw the Science Fair displays at the Mall. She began to read some of the verses on the displays and was convicted to start attending church and get right with God. There are probably other stories like this we have not heard but it shows the power of God’s Word through our program.

Notice how there’s no anecdote about how they demonstrated to a passerby the beauty of science? Instead, we get one of the most vague testimonials I’ve ever seen, about how they heard there was one (!) lady who “got right” with god through one of their displays. So, not only does this imply she already believed in god, but also that she probably would have been swayed by a bible verse she saw scrawled on a public restroom stall. Also, I enjoy the use of the word convicted.

I don’t know a whole lot about homeschooling, not having encountered much of it here in the great white north, but this gives me the impression that it’s a bunch of yahoos who are worried that if their kids aren’t being indoctrinated in their faith 24/7, they’ll slip in to sin?

Anyways, I think a science fair is an awesome way to expose kids to science, even those unlucky enough to lead such sheltered lives. The joy of discovery is the backbone of science. So, if I were close enough to attend an event like this, I would go, and engage the kids in a discussion about their experiment. I’d ignore any of their comments about the bible, or what have you, and inform them that, if they had fun with this, there is loads more fun to be had at secular institutions, be it a public high school or university. Maybe, just maybe, a seed would be planted.

Ten Things Science Fiction Got Wrong (with good reason)

Time: 3:38 pm

Location: Science Library

Should be: Studying linear algebra and genetics

Neatorama ran a reprint from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into The Universe yesterday entitled Ten Things Science Fiction Got Wrong. As much as I enjoy the Bathroom Reader series (I have, to my best estimation, 6 of them), I’ve got a few bones to pick here.

1. Sounds in Space:

Most of space is a hard vacuum, with a molecule or two of hydrogen floating around in every cubic meter – not nearly enough to transmit sound. Every sound in the movies, from photon torpedoes and laser beams to exploding starships and hyperspace booms, would never happen in real life.

For that matter, you’d never see laser beams in space either, since in a vacuum there’s no medium to reveal them. So a real-life laser dog fight in space would be really boring to watch.

Well, I can’t complain here; any high-school physics student could (hopefully) explain the basics of the process of compression and rarefaction that leads to sound being perceived. However, the final sentence really sums up the important issue here. The whole point of science fiction (read: fiction) is to entertain. So, in making a science fiction film, the artist has two choices: 

1. Follow the science 100%, alienate 95% of your prospective audience, and make a silent movie where an X-Wing actually plausible space fighter and a Tie-Fighter inferior yet equally plausible space fighter appear to miraculously blow one another up, or

2. Make a movie that people want to see

Don’t get me wrong, I love realistic(ish) sci-fi, but 2001 isn’t exactly the most thrilling movie of all time. If you’re going to bitch and moan about unrealistic science in your entertainment, blast media that claims to be factual, like Dr. Oz on Oprah.  

2. Faster Than Light Travel

Warp drives and hyperspace are very useful in science fiction, but there’s one catch. According to Einstein, the speed of light isn’t just a good idea, it’s the law. Nothing can go faster than the speed of light in a vacuum (that’s about 186,000 miles per second).

You’re damn right they’re useful. But do you need them to be real to appreciate all the boring shit they save you from? 

3. Laser Bolts You Can Dodge

 

Most “laser” beams in science fiction movies travel slower than bullets do today. Let’s see Obi Wan whip his light saber around fast enough to stop the spray of a Mac-10 (and let’s not even begin to talk about all the things wrong with a sword made of light).

Obi Wan wouldn’t need to stop the spray; he’d sense your presence beforehand,  bend your will and make you shove the archaic device up your nether regions. Or, if you happened to be a Hutt or Toydarian, he’d lift it out of your hands WITH HIS MIND and stick it up there (my point being, if you’re going to call blasters ridiculous, call bull on his mind tricks, too, and ruin Star Wars).

And as far as light-sabers go, Michio Kaku has something to say about that.

4. Human Looking Aliens

Given that any planet with life on it will have that life evolve in it’s own way, the chances of the universe being stocked with chesty alien princesses who crave human starship captains is slim at best.

You can take away my light sabers, my Jedi, my deep-space dog-fights, but you will NOT take away my chesty alien princesses. 

5. Half-Breed Aliens

 

Humans don’t even interbreed with other species here on earth. Our DNA is simply too different from other species to allow such a mating to produce offspring.

Given this, what are the chances of successful mating with an alien species that may not even have DNA as its genetic encoding medium?

Isn’t Cher proof enough that this can happen?

If this isn't an alien-human hybrid, I don't know what is.

Actually, I have to agree with just about everything said in this point. Moving on.

6. Brain-Sucking Aliens

Ditto aliens that control your body by using your brains, or gestate in your chest, or whatnot. Let’s posit that any creature that controls the brain of any other creature (not that any exist here on Earth) does so only after a few million years of what’s called “speciation” – i.e., one species eventually enters a symbiotic relationship with another species. This relationship would have to be pretty specific, as symbiotic relationships are here on Earth.

Not that any exist here on Earth? Science begs to differ. Plasmodium, for example, can make mosquitoes more likely to bite multiple targets in a single night, and has been shown to cause adult canaries which were infected as youth to sing simpler songs. 

There’s four more, but matrix transposes and three-point test crosses are calling me.

(Dawning of a) New Era

And so it begins…