Science Merit Badges

[6_bleen_7]

The folks at the Science Creative Quarterly, keepers of The Truth, has established the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique, a kind of Boy/Girl Scout organization for scientists and science advocates. And like any good scouting outfit, the Order awards Science Merit Badges for experience and achievement in a

Comments

[ruthling]

nice! I saw those a few weeks ago. I think I could get a couple, but not as many as you can :) I did name my first bird "Xenon"

[6_bleen_7]

Thanks! Well, as a career scientist, I can hardly avoid collecting a few of these.

[chillyrodent]

My guess is that, at some point, Altair has spun rapidly enough to flatten her poles. At least temporarily.

[6_bleen_7]

Heh-heh-it's Yuki who has flattened at the poles; as cutiepi314 has observed, she's gotten enormous. Hard to believe this is the same cat (who had her third birthday on Monday!) as the half-starved kitten we adopted a couple years ago.

[6_bleen_7]

Correct-Math was named after the Celtic sorcerer.

[invaderxan]

Deep down, I think the majority of us are fundamentally opposed to administrative duties. Or we should be. Beaurocracy is evil.

And you have a good point there -- statistical linear regression is something of a tautology. I'd be surprised if more people haven't picked up on that!

[6_bleen_7]

Beaurocracy is evil.

Or, at the very least, extremely boring. : )

[stfg]

I know someone who lived in my dorm at Oberlin who doused his arm in alcohol of some sort and lit his arm on fire. The alcohol burned so fast that he did no harm to his skin. I think that would count as a level IV fire-starting badge, wouldn't it? He was seen outside Dascomb and security came by later looking for someone with a flaming torch of some sort, but no-one told on him. He was a physics major and went on to do graduate work at Ohio State while I was there, so I assume he is an active, working scientist now. You would not have met him; he was a year behind me at Oberlin, but I think you two would have gotten on really well.

[6_bleen_7]

Whoa-I completely forgot you have a LiveJournal now. My apologies for taking so long to respond! I've been sorely neglecting this journal for far too long now.

Depending on the type of alcohol and the dilution, alcohol fires can be quite cool. In my lab-science days I used to sterilize glass bacterial spreaders by dipping them in 70% (v/v) ethanol. A quick and effective way to remove all traces of the ethanol before reusing the spreader was to burn it off. The fire didn't even warm the glass. (I read somewhere that this solution burns below 300 °F, but at the moment I can't find any confirmation on the Web.) Flaming baked Alaska, whose central fire doesn't melt and caramelize the entire dish, works on the same principle, I believe.

This experiment describes how you can set fire to a dollar bill soaked in a 1:1 (v:v) ethanol:water solution, and the alcohol will burn off without setting the paper alight.