the good old days

Falling in the “I wish I made this up” category…

image from the Stanford School of Medicine

Next year, I’m paying for grad school by participating in a program which puts graduate students in science or engineering (like me) in middle school classrooms every week, to do demonstrations which help translate often vague scientific concepts into a form that kids can understand. So I’ve been scouting around for ideas of how to present science in ways that are both fun and educational.

Here’s an example… Let’s look at the concept that “The Universe is Regular and Predictable”. This is very important to science, because it means when we discover something (such as the law of gravity), we know it will always work the same way. Stuff always falls down due to gravity; it doesn’t sometimes float, it doesn’t sometimes fly up to the ceiling, it always goes down at 9.5 meters per second squared. Science WORKS because things are predictable, as long as we can figure out HOW they are predictable.

Now, please watch this little video below, and tell me if it helps you understand that idea.

It’s all so much clearer, isn’t it?

The sad thing is, the Science Cheerleader wants to make science more relevant to public discussion and policy-making choices. That’s a goal I completely support, and something that is desperately needed — but this series of videos, even though they are posted at the Science Cheerleader blog with paragraphs describing the science concept, make science look dumb and desperate in addition to obscure and confusing. It should be able to succeed on its own merits — there are plenty of ways to make science sexy without resorting to cheerleaders. The many, many women in science and engineering are not going to like this, at all. Many (hopefully most) men in science aren’t going to like it. It doesn’t even teach anything about science. So WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?

Apparently I’ve been driving around for eight years with this bit of insanity in my steering wheel.

If an affected inflator deploys, the increased internal pressure may cause its casing to rupture, possibly sending metal fragments through the cloth airbag cushion material and into vehicle occupants.

With my luck, my first head-on collision will be the day after I learn about the Shrapnel Airbag, while I’m driving to the dealership to have it repaired.

And the Honda site about this says I can’t take it in for repair until I get an official notice in the mail about it. I better not get the same story from the dealership when I show up with my deathtrap and ask nicely for it to be fixed now please.