All posts by Heather D. Marshall

The Elements: A Visual Exploration

Books, Science Activities,

ElementsThe periodic table of elements is one of humankind’s iconic symbols. Despite the fact that you may only know the names and properties of several elements, you no doubt recognize the grid. Theodore Gray takes this famous table to a new artistic standard in his now world-renowned book The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe. A bright and glossy black tome with a single element on each open 2-page spread, this is a great beginners resource for the visual depiction in high resolution photographs (if possible) and written description of each element. Accompanying each page are things in the world that are made up of the element. From common metals used in jewelry like silver and gold to rare earth metals like Lanthanum whose oxidation lights up camping lanterns, each element includes stories of how these elements are interesting to many more than just chemists.

Screen Shot 2014-11-15 at 10.02.51 AMIf you or your kids are more digitally stimulated, there is also an iPad app ($13.99) that includes each page of The Elements book in HD. Or visit www.periodictable.com for free interactive fun with the elements. On this website, you can also purchase posters, placemats, and cards to enhance your child’s chemistry IQ.

FullSizeRenderA great companion activity to The Elements, is this 1000 piece puzzle that I recently put together.  As you and your child add pieces to the puzzle, searching for similar-looking elements and browsing each name, symbol, and atomic number, I suggest looking up each element in the book or iPad app. When adding a new element to the puzzle, make sure to discuss what the element is and what it makes up in the world. Shout out, “I found Europium!” when adding this flaky rock to the puzzle, “And Europium creates fluorescence in light bulbs!”

Who knew chemistry could be so much fun!

The “Not” Zone

Books, Cloudy Media, Medical Musings, ,

THZIt has recently come to my attention that a lot of people out there are reading (or re-reading) Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone as a reference because of the current Ebola outbreak. I was shocked to hear this because I remember swiftly flipping the pages of this enthralling novel in high school. Yes, you read that correctly, novel. I thank my Twitter acquaintances (and science writer idols) Seth Mnookin (@sethmnookin), Maryn McKenna (@marynmck), Ed Yong (@edyong209), and Vincent Racaniello (@profvrr) for bringing a horrifying truth to my reality, The Hot Zone is classified, distributed, and sold as a nonfiction book!

Continue reading The “Not” Zone →

Many more than 2 “T’s” in The Big Bang Theory

Scientific Pondering, TV & Movies, ,

The CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory is a nerdtastic comedy about a group of highly intelligent but often clueless physics guys and their wannabe actress gal pal. The later development of a pair of female characters as biologist girlfriends has mitigated some early complaints of too much sausage (though, to be fair, not very much testosterone), but it also added a much needed range of geekery to the ensemble.

bbt

One of the greatest unspoken aspects of The Big Bang Theory has been the assorted attire of the group. From Raj’s Cosby sweaters to Howard’s retro belt clips, every element of these characters’ clothing is meticulously chosen and meaningful to their personalities. My favorite clothing choice has been the various tee shirts worn by Sheldon and Leonard. Like the physicist characters that adorn them, many of these tee shirts have a scientific element (albeit mostly carbon).  Here are a few of my faves:

Continue reading Many more than 2 “T’s” in The Big Bang Theory →

OK, Ebola is here. So now is it time to panic?

Cloudy Media, Medical Musings,

With headlines like these:1280px-Ebola_virus_virion

There has been a resurgence of fright over the Ebola epidemic on social media.  So, is it now time to panic?

Continue reading OK, Ebola is here. So now is it time to panic? →

Blinded by “Science”

Cloudy Media, Medical Musings,
Single from Thomas Dolby (image borrowed from wikipedia)
Single from Thomas Dolby (image borrowed from wikipedia)

In the 1980’s Thomas Dolby sang and synthesized:

It’s poetry in motion
She turned her tender eyes to me
As deep as any ocean
As sweet as any harmony
Mmm – but she blinded me with science
“She blinded me with science!”

First, the metaphor of an intelligent woman “blinding” (confusing) a man with “science” (technical jargon) is both humorous and accurate.  Unfortunately, scientists have not made much progress in the last 30+ years to bridge the chasm that exists between us and the general public.  Of course, this song could be a topic for an entire post, but I bring up this classic 80’s tune because it appears that many people are often “blinded” not by true scientific research, but what they think is science.

Continue reading Blinded by “Science” →

Bad Science review

Alternative Medicine, Books, The best of science in the media, , ,

Upon initiating the design of my YalBad Sciencee College Residential seminar class, Biomedical Science in the Media, I scoured the interwebs for good and bad science reporting.  One of the notable sites I came across, which later served as an inspiration for this blog, was Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science website.  In his blog, Dr. Goldacre discusses and discredits science that is inappropriately reported and often misconstrued in the news.  Along the way he presents the facts, if they are known, and highly educated conjecture if they aren’t.  Goldacre is also an active broadcaster, campaigner, medical doctor, and academic that still manages to find the time to update his blog and write books.  His first book, Bad Science, has sold over 500,000 copies worldwide and just happened to be on my personal summer reading list.

Continue reading Bad Science review →

What if you could ask insanely wacky hypothetical questions and someone would answer them for you?

Books, Scientific Pondering,

Former NASA roboticist and current webcomic author Randall Munroe takes wacky questions posed by just about anyone and applies his physics expertise and sarcasm to provide answers.  His website xkcd is a hilarious tour of jokes, mathematical modeling, life stories, and the titular answers to just about anything.  In celebration of Munroe’s recently published book What if? Serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions, here are a few of my favorite What If? posts:

What If?Relativistic Baseball – What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball going 90% the speed of light?  This one is cool because the end result would be a ‘hit by pitch’.  However, the plasma explosion that would first disintegrate the batter, catcher, and umpire and a microsecond later level everything within a mile of the ball park makes the ruling kind of moot.

Pile of Viruses – What if every virus in the world were collected into one area?  How much volume would they take up and what would they look like?  Presumably taking into account the average size of a virus, which can range from 5 nanometer phages to the newly identified Pithovirus at 1.5 micrometers (more than 300x bigger than the phage), Munroe estimates that if all the viruses in the world were piled up, it would be the size of a small mountain.  He also posits that it would be the consistency of pus and meat slurry…mmm.  Enveloped viruses would undoubtedly provide lipid fats to the proteinous mountain, so I think he’s onto something with this meat slurry hypothesis.

A Mole of Moles – What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place?  Munroe takes us on a hilarious journey to describe the mass of 602,214,129,000,000,000,000,000 moles, which he hypothesizes could take up the space approximately of the moon.  This is also the start of many interesting (or missing) citations.  Click on them, they are great.

Glass Half Empty – What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty?  I’m just going to give the punchline here, “The lesson: If the optimist says the glass is half full, and the pessimist says the glass is half empty, the physicist ducks.”  Go read it.  You know you want to.

 Droppings – If you went outside and lay down on your back with your mouth open, how long would you have to wait until a bird pooped in it?  Apparently ~195 years.

Extreme Boating – What would it be like to navigate a rowboat through a lake of mercury?  What about bromine? Liquid gallium?  Liquid tungsten? Liquid nitrogen?  Liquid helium?  Mercury: the boat would sit on top, but it would be difficult to paddle through.  Bromine:  smelly.  Gallium: easier to row than in mercury, but avoid aluminum boats as it will be destroyed.  Tungsten:  immediate incineration of you and your boat.  Nitrogen: you would either asphyxiate or die of hypothermia.  Helium:  you’d develop hypothermia and die hearing the “third sound”.  Good stuff, eh.

The Ebola Frenzy

Cloudy Media, , ,

Earlier this month, Facebook and Twitter were loaded with posts like this one from Donald Trump:

Screen Shot 2014-08-28 at 10.13.10 AM

There was immediate and wide-spread panic among U.S. citizens, perpetuated by reports like this, and this.

At first, I too, was alarmed at the thought of bringing such a deadly disease to America.  Then I thought about the virus life cycle, how it infects humans, and how it spreads and I was, at least somewhat, relieved.  Continue reading The Ebola Frenzy →

First post!

Medical Musings

As a first post to the Cloudy Media blog, I thought I would begin with the missions of the website.  I created this blog to:

1.  Highlight and promote good science reporting in the media.

2.  Identify poor science in the media and research and report the facts.

3.  Review books, movies, and tv shows with a spin toward whether it depicts scientific reality.

I hope that this website becomes a resource that anyone can routinely visit for clarity on technical jargon and/or misrepresented science in the general media.  Please feel free to email topics that you find confusing and I will do my best to research and report back to you.  I appreciate your patience while I get this site off the ground.

Thanks,
Heather