Feb 21
The Science Duo
seen from China
seen from Norway
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from T1
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Norway
seen from India
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Ukraine
seen from Canada
seen from Canada
The Science Duo
He hasn’t slept in 6 blimps
So basically I’m in an object camp called Silly Science and one of the challenges was to make a drawing out of a scribble. Since I’m currently having MASSIVE shadows over loathing brainrot, I made this.
enjoy <3
Scientists are breeding ‘mammoth elephant’ hybrids which could help to stop permafrost thawing in the Arctic.
The woolly mammoth could be resurrected within a few years if a new biotech firm is successful.
Bioscience company Colossal plans to impregnate an elephant with an embryo made of mammoth and elephant cells.
This de-extinction is made possible by CRISPR gene-editing technology which, like molecular scissors, can insert the extinct DNA into the genome of an Asian elephant.
Mammoth DNA, collected from tusks, bones and other preserved body parts found in ice, will be sequenced to create an “elephant-mammoth hybrid” that looks like a furrier, larger elephant with smaller ears and a high-domed head.
continue reading
We can't care for the mega-fauna we have left. Why would we bring something back just so they can participate in the sixth mass extinction? Will the Arctic be cold enough for them?
It's funny cause it sounds like penis!
Ooooohhh!!!! Haha!!
BAHFest happened!
This year, I got to be a judge, following the tradition of asking the winners back. This was a lot a lot of fun. I was able to relax much more and enjoy the show, though there certainly was some gears-churning-thinking-about-what-questions-I-can-ask. This was motivated by kind of being on the spot, and some discussions beforehand – is it better to ask deadpan serious questions, amping up the humour-from-seriousness? Or just go for laughs? In the end, I think I did reasonably well at both, though that does entail sacrificing some ability to be deadpan.
So, just for the sake of airing out the thoughts that have been trapped in my skull for too long, here are the questions I asked, and some of the thoughts I had on what else I could have said:
James Propp – Dinosaur extinction by temporary gravitational reversal. Midway through, I thought up a question about pterodactyls – but found it answered very well in the presentation. I ended up asking about geological evidence, which I thought did reasonably well for taking it seriously, and which I thought was setting him up to talk about erratics (boulders a long way from home). His answer was basically “well, this is why we need more research”, which suggests it was less of a setup than it could have been. The other thing I had in mind was something about “how can we try to detect this dark matter”, and that may have had a more engaging response.
Olivia Walch – Stress & anger at terrible young people keeps old people healthy. I asked about practical applications, specifically for teenagers who would like to come into their inheritance sooner. Nice laugh from the audience, but little room for her to elaborate, since it was pretty straightforward in terms of her theory. When it came to the somewhat-inevitable “that sounds like murder” from Jodi, though, I kind of wish I had responded with “only in a statistical sense”.
Ben Tolkin – Aggression towards overly cute things. I asked about getting a more quantitative cuteness score by getting people to rate cute pictures on Amazon Turk. His response: scientists have already done this.
Beth Bearce – Weasels as Higgs Boson detectors. I asked about anyone noticing the difference when replacing physicists, and the possibilities of a menagerie of particle-particular animals, such as meson marmots and electron eels. Kind of softball, but also fun. I’m not sure it gave her much of an opportunity to respond with anything other than agreement, though.
Michael Anderson – Proposal to hire Conway & Spicer as MIT physics faculty, on the basis of their quantum politics. I had thought of ceding my question to Max Tegmark, because physics & MIT faculty & the personal references to him. But I ended up with a decent question of my own: as a faculty hiring committee that Cares About Teaching, is there any evidence of these candidates’ abilities? He answered with a bonus slide (his second!) that kind of sort of addressed the point, with something about different multiverses. In hindsight, I wish I’d specified in this branch of the multiverse, and/or set up something specifically for Max.
Jerry Wang – Babies as universal codebreakers/encryption devices. I led with a comment about knowing he was a biologist from his relationship to acronyms (there were a lot, all pleasantly corny). This got a laugh, but I wish I had specified “bioinformatics”. It’s more accurate to what he does, and also a better fit for the joke (and probably audience). The actual question I had was about clarifying the fault-tolerance of baby computers. I think this was a pretty good, straightforward technical-ish question. He responded with something about redundancy in numbers, along with a few other considerations which I forget.
So, those are my overly specific thoughts on my role as judge in the improv game that is BAHFest. Of course, it is improv, dwelling on specifics after the fact isn’t exactly the best way to improve. Also, the emphasis here is highly distorted in being my personal view – the other judges had good questions too, which a unique style. Nonetheless, this kind of reflection is a thing that brains are prone to do, so I thought I’d share it.
Pajama drive, Celtic program, Silly Science at Norton Public Library - News - Mansfield News - Mansfield, MA https://t.co/pMym9xB6Yn
Eggs can be un-boiled, at least partially. Mammals all pee for the same length of time. Every language has a word for “huh?” CEOs of risk-taking firms tend to have lived through—but didn’t suffer from—natural disasters. Police in Bangkok can get extra pay for refusing bribes. Allergic people get fewer hives if they make out with someone, and DNA persists in saliva after kissing such that saliva may provide evidence of an assault. It is mathematically possible for the Moroccan Emperor Moulay Ismael the Bloodthirsty (1672–1727) to have fathered 888 children, as lore holds. Chickens will walk like dinosaurs if they have heavy fake tails attached to their butts. A species of paper wasp has the most painful insect sting; the nostril is among the most painful places to be stung by a honey bee.
Here’s What We Learned From The Ig Nobel Awards | Popular Science