Archive for February, 2007

« Older Entries

All wet

Monday, February 26th, 2007

I have often joked that, in addition to fume hoods, chemistry laboratories come equipped with giant invisible brain vacuums mounted above the door. These giant vacuums suck the common sense right out of students’ heads as they walk into the laboratory.

How else can we account for the fact that many students lose all common sense while they’re in the lab?

Here’s an example. We’re performing a specific heat lab in my introductory chemistry lab. Students heat up a metal sample by placing it into a test tube suspended in boiling water. Since the water is boiling, the metal evnetually reaches the same temperature as the boiling water: 100oC. The metal is then put into a cup which contains a known amount of room temperature water. The students then measure how much heat goes from the metal sample to the room temperature water.

The lab manual asks students a queston: Why is the metal sample placed into a test tube and then lowered into the boiling water rather than being placed directly in the boiling water?

Putting the metal sample directly into the water – obviously – gets it wet. Transferring hot water along with the metal sample to the cup will make the temperature inside the cup go up more than expected, and the energy calculated will be too large.

One student had some trouble with the answer, and asked for a hint. But the problematic part of the answer might not be what you think …

Me: So, how is the metal sample going to be affected if you put it directly into the boiling water instead of the dry test tube?

Student: I don’t know.

Me: Okay. Hmm … Let’s say you’re riding in a boat and you fall overboard. What do you get?

Student: You get … tired? From swimming?

Me: How about this? You jump into the pool. How are you different after you jump into the pool from the way you were before you jump in?

Student: You’re … wet?

Me: Good. So now all you need to think about now is how that metal sample being wet with hot water before you put it into the cup would affect your results.

Posted in Science education | Comments Off on All wet

Stupidopedia

Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

There’s a new web encyclopedia in town: Conservapedia, which seems to be trying to position itself as a “Fox News” version of Wikipedia. In other words, it caters to people who call themselves conservatives.

I think they’ve got the branding all wrong. If the site’s serious – and not just meant as a silly jab at conservatives – they ought to call it “Stupidopedia: Two-bit articles for two-bit minds”. Am I being harsh?

Here are some samples. I’m a chemist, so I’ll look up some simple chemistry-related topics.

Here is the entire, unedited Conservapedia entry for water.

Water is and oderless, tasteless, colorless substance. Its chemical formula is H2O. (That is two hydrogens and one oxygen. I apologize for the lack of subscipts.)

Here’s the atom

An atom is the smallest unit chemical matter in creation. The word atom comes from the Greek term for indivisible, átomos. There have been many ideas about how atoms may look. The current one is called the Quantum Mechanical Model, and is very complex.

Who writes this crap? Fifth graders? Compare with the Wikipedia entries for water and atom, which are just a bit more useful and well-edited.

I think the best chemistry Conservapedia article I’ve seen so far, though, is one that was discovered by The Disgruntled Chemist: The law of mass conversation. Do conservatives not know how to spell the word “conservation”? 🙂

If the site wasn’t satire before, it’s satire now. Some folks have been spicing the entries up a bit. Now, the “The Law of Mass Conversation” entry says

Matter cannot be created (except by the Almighty during the Genesis creation event) or destroyed (except by the Almighty at the End of Days), it can only change form.

Posted in Silly stuff | Comments Off on Stupidopedia

Curse you, evolution!

Monday, February 19th, 2007

This is the second time in about a month than I’ve been infected by one of these annoying noroviruses.

The symptoms of norovirus illness usually include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people additionally have a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick.

No kidding … I get up to get ready for my morning classes, and … blam! Instant illness.

Anyone can become infected with these viruses. There are many different strains of norovirus, which makes it difficult for a person’s body to develop long-lasting immunity.

Curse you, evolution, for making so many different strains of this bug!

Posted in Personal chatter | 2 Comments »

Science knowledge in America

Sunday, February 18th, 2007

Good news, everyone!

A new study shows that Americans of 2005 (28%) are much more likely to understand science articles in the news than Americans of 1988 (10%). The study’s author says that the major reason is that more colleges have basic science courses as an entry requirement.

I’ll buy that line of argument. Put more people through basic science courses early, and at least some of it will stick. More people with some scientific knowledge is certainly a good thing. But there’s one little problem – there’s also the issue

that people are giving increasing credence to pseudoscience such as the visits of space aliens, lucky numbers and horoscopes.

Why?

One problem, [Carol Susan Losh of FSU] said, is that pseudoscience can speak to the meaning of life in ways that science does not.

What, does no one read Carl Sagan anymore?

I’m not sure I buy that belief in pseudoscience is up because of some sort of search for the meaning of life. Wasn’t that need just as real in the past as it is today? I might be inclined to buy into the idea that, since pseudoscience is all over the web, people are more exposed to nonsense than they ever were previously.

As silly as I think astrologers and people who claim to talk to the dead are, I don’t worry about them that much. Why? Mainly because most practitioners of pseudosciences like astrology aren’t seeding school boards with candidates to try to sneak astrology into the science classroom.

But there’s one pseudoscience out there whose practitioners can’t keep their mitts off the science curriculum. Creationism.

Back to the article …

[…] there also has been a drop in the number of people who believe evolution correctly explains the development of life on Earth and an increase in those who believe mankind was created about 10,000 years ago.

(emphasis mine)

To believe that the world / mankind was “created” six to ten thousand years ago, you have to throw away the foundations of almost all the sciences. Fundamental facts and theories in chemistry, physics, geology, biology, etc. are simply incompatible with the young Earth viewpoint.

And the numbers of these people are growing? That’s a frightening thought!

Posted in Science education, The culture wars | 2 Comments »

Peach nuts

Sunday, February 18th, 2007

In South Carolina, we might send nutty people to the psychiatric wards for treatment. But the ones who are incurably insane? The ones who have no hope of ever living in reality again? We send them to the State House.

We are not alone in this practice.

Let me introduce you to Georgia representative Ben Bridges.

The Anti-Defamation League is calling on state Rep. Ben Bridges [Republican, of course] to apologize for a memo distributed under his name that says the teaching of evolution should be banned in public schools because it is a religious deception stemming from an ancient Jewish sect.

The memo, sent to lawmakers across the country over Bridges’ signature, tells readers to go to fixedearth.com, which is probably the third most insane site on the whole Internet. Here’s a sample (original here) of the content of the site Ben Bridges apparently wanted lawmakers to see. I’ve removed the formatting to save your sanity.

From those years on through Newton’s mathematical inventions and overloaded gravity theory…through lawyer Lyell’s factless Uniformitarian Geology…to Darwin’s mythology (which gave wings to Marx’s and Freud’s and Dewey’s deviltry)…to Einstein’s Cabalistic Relativism and Zionism…to LeMaitre’s and Gamow’s and Penzias’ Big Bangism…to Extraterrestrialist extradinaire Sagan’s programming of NASA’s computers…to Goldin’s controlling philosophy for the Space Program which he officially named the “Origins Program” and defined as “a search for man’s cosmic roots”…

…From all of this and a hundred more examples from Copernicus to Wickramasinghe and back, the “restructuring of mathematics” into an “art form”… the recent fraudulent use of computer-programmed communications technology… the development of near-instantaneous tele-communications worldwide…have all worked together to progressively shrink the world into today’s virtual Global Plantation. In this environment, news, academia, and other media-managed outlets continually bow the knee to the Evolution and Big Bang Idols while simultaneously dumbing-down whole populations with moronic entertainment drivel laced with amoral and sexual perversion themes and punctuated with violence and horror….

On the other hand, near total censorship of information and entertainment upholding Christian values and Biblical teachings is in effect in the schools and everywhere else where belief systems are molded and were once reinforced in once Christian nations. This combination of forces that has nearly destroyed the Biblical foundation of the best parts of Western civilization is rooted and grounded in the mythical evolutionary Origins fundamentals imposed upon the world by “science falsely so called” (e.g., “Hitler, Stalin…”). This false science Idol has birthed and now nurtures the Kabbalist mythology a 15 billion year evolution of the universe, the earth, and all life forms including mankind. This Idol has almost succeeded in making its “creation scenario” the foundation of all “knowledge” which determines modern man’s behavior in all areas of life.

On second thought, it’s probably not enough to remove just the formatting to save your sanity. I apologize; the text alone is enough to induce migraines. 🙂

Bridges, after he was caught distributing this hateful nonsense, denied having anything to do with the memo. Of course, it came from his office – over his signature.

The two sites on the Internet that are more insane than fixedearth.com?

Enjoy!

Posted in Politics, The culture wars | 1 Comment »

Friday cat: Soft and crafty

Friday, February 16th, 2007

Everyone knows that cats love anything made of cloth.

[Tom and fabric]
Tom: Soft and crafty

… but did you know that cats like to make their own quilts?

Posted in Animals | Comments Off on Friday cat: Soft and crafty

Friday Cate: Grab life by the horns

Friday, February 16th, 2007

Here’s Cate in her new walker. (It’s probably best called a “stander” until Cate’s tall enough for her feet to reach the floor.)

[Cate in walker]

It’s got rotating toys, electric lights and sounds, tray-forward design …

…and it’s got a hemi!

Posted in Toddler stuff | 3 Comments »

The more things change …

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

Here’s one writer’s take on the state of biology education in schools.

[N]ot one in a hundred graduates of our public schools could state any evidence showing whether vaccination is beneficial or harmful, or describe how malaria, diphtheria, or yellow fever are acquired, and how they may be prevented.

The pupils have spent much time in learning meaningless words, but when information is sought concerning the evidence that typhoid fever is caused by drinking polluted water they remain silent. A pupil is rarely found who can state clearly how the fact has been established that bacteria produce disease. In consequence very many do not yet believe that disease is preventable, and so pay little heed to the laws made by the state for the welfare of its people.

Y’all could probably guess the time frame by the style of writing and the particular diseases named. The quote above was from Alvin Davison’s The Human Body and Health, written in 1908.

These days, I’d wager that closer to 99 in a hundred public school graduates do know that bacteria (and viruses) cause disease – and know that much disease is preventable.

The moral of the story? Whatever the state of our educational system, it’s never good enough for us. That’s no bad thing; we should strive to improve education. But – we need to keep things in perspective. Things are a lot better now than they were in the “good old days”!

Posted in Education | 3 Comments »

They’re ba-ack! Vouchers in South Carolina

Monday, February 12th, 2007

Well, it looks like anotherthe same old voucher proposal is back on the table here in South Carolina:

[Tracy] Edge has reintroduced his failed proposal from last year, which would offer:

* A $1,000 tax credit per child to all families who pay private school tuition, regardless of family income
* A $500 tax credit for home-schoolers
* A $4,500 tuition reimbursement for poor students who leave low-rated public schools

(I’ve highlighted the only part of this proposal that Edge probably even cares about – a $1000 tax credit for rich families who put their kids in exclusive private schools.)

Last time I saw this proposal, I thought it was breathtakingly dumb. I still feel the same way. How is this not simply a free cash handout – with no strings or accountability attached – for private schools?

Poor kids still won’t be able to afford the good private schools, which run as much as $13,000 per year – even with the tuition reimbursement. That assumes that such schools would accept kids from poor families in the first place. If the bill passes this time around, I’d expect to see private school tuition adjusted accordingly – so that exclusive schools stay exclusive.

There’s also the issue of accountability. With a measure like this, we subsidize private schools with our tax dollars. For public schools, we have accountability – even if we’re not always thrilled with the way the state measures school quality. When we give tax money away to private schools, how do we know what we’re getting in return?

In short, how is this proposal a good idea?

Having said all that, South Carolina is behind the curve when it comes to giving tax money away to private schools.

Utah is “allotting up to $3,000 for any public school student to put toward private school tuition”. We’ll see how well that turns out.

Posted in Education, Politics | 3 Comments »

Parody or not? You make the call

Monday, February 12th, 2007

It really is extremely hard to tell parody from serious “efforts” to find scientific evidence for the biblical literalists. So, you make the call. Parody, or not?

From WorldNetDaily, here’s a Kentucky “science student” who claims to have scientific evidence for creation.

“If God spoke everything into existence as the Genesis record proposes, then we should be able to scientifically prove that the construction of everything in the universe begins with a) the Holy Spirit (magnetic field); b) Light (an electric field); and c) that Light can be created by a sonic influence or sound,” Samuel J. Hunt writes

(emphasis mine)

Behold your all-powerful and mighty god!


God

Posted in Silly stuff, The culture wars | 5 Comments »

« Older Entries