Sunday, October 9, 2011

Weird. Science.

I love science. To be more accurate, I should state that I love the scientific method and critical thinking skills. But I do love science as well. Aside from being an incredibly suave, irresistible Rake, I'm also a guy who gets to work in medical science every day, as a hematology consultant for a biotech company. Which would be awesome if it weren't for the fact that the job doesn't entail enough actual "science". It has too much emphasis on pushing certain treatments over others for my taste, and not enough legit teaching of all treatments for certain disease states.

But I have digressed before making my point. Science.

You may have noticed I haven't written as much about science lately. A lot of this blog is supposed to be about critical thinking, science, skepticism, and fashion accessories. For the two of you still reading, that last item was to make sure you were paying attention.

As vital as I believe critical thought is to the survival of the human species, I seem to have been remiss in promoting it here. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm afraid that I'll fall into one of the many traps that so often catch "science writers". They frequently do things like:

- Talk down to their audience (mainly because they suck at teaching).
- Talk over their audiences' heads (see reason above).
- Commit glaring errors which misinform their audience (Centripetal Force vs. Centrifugal Force - which will be a topic here soon).
- Promote pseudo-science. This one irritates me the most.

But I am planning to make some changes to that and give regular posts on the subject. However, my biggest fear is that I won't keep up with my duties, so I'll need regular input from you readers. You can help! Feel free to ask questions, bring up topics, or otherwise chime in. If I don't know an answer, I'll certainly make something up that sounds convincing.

And there's always Barbara, from Spasms of Accommodation. She's frighteningly brilliant, detail-oriented, and about a thousand times more qualified to write about science. Which is another fear of mine; I'll write something totally nutty and she'll read it. And then the shit will really hit the fan. Actually, I depend on people like Barbara to keep on an even keel. That's the way science works. I come up with something, and somebody else verifies it or shouts, "BULLSHIT!". Isaac Newton was really good at that. It had the effect of making everyone hate his guts and vice versa. So I look forward to the shouts. I think. You know what? Just read her blog instead. Well, throw me a bone now and then too, but really, read her blog. Legit genius and hell of a human being.

Next week will be, Centripetal Force: Or How I Learned To Stay On The Merry-Go-Round.

10 comments:

  1. Looking forward to learning more about Science. A friend is constantly sending me info on HAARP and I am ready to pull my hair out.

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  2. I can't wait for next week's post! I'm more of a swing girl.

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  3. I'm in too.
    Some questions:
    Why are some of us visual thinkers yet others are auditory and so on? What is it that makes us think the way we think?
    Who tells ants what to do?
    Can you have negative g-force?
    Is there really a hole in the middle of Greenland?
    If shit did indeed hit a fan would dispersing all that crap affect the intensity of the smell?
    Why can't I shut my brain off?

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  5. Did you just compare me to Isaac Newton? Famous for differential calculus and asexual disorder? Me? The unbridled libertine who worries when people have stuff on the dashboard of their car because I think when they slam on brakes it will hit them in the face? Because the concept of inertia is not intuitive to me at all and only through rigorous effort and excellent professors have I been able to overcome the effects of the roots of my blonde hair tickling my brain? Maybe you were just thinking of my resemblance to Isaac Newton in my ability to make everybody hate my guts. That's a fair cop.

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  6. @Nubian: I actually had to look up HAARP. I'm not off to a great start! Lol!

    @Mrs. Tuna: I'm almost (but not quite) ashamed for my immediate thoughts when reading your comment.

    @Nicole: I'll try not to disappoint.

    @ dbs: We really are brothers from different mothers. And if I don't give you satisfactory answers to all those questions, you can tell mom on me.

    @Barbara: Sorry, I didn't know about your problem with........



    ....calculus.
    :-)

    And now I'm picturing your hair roots as if they were some parasitic organism, wriggling down through your skin and skull, just to screw with you.

    Yeah, that was one backhanded compliment, comparing you to Newton, wasn't it?
    (note to self: use proper thought process next time, rather than picking the most prickly prick in science to compare someone to)

    If it makes you feel any better, the other week I told one of my best friends (a stunningly beautiful woman) that she looked like a Ferrari.
    She was wearing a red dress.

    I couldn't stop my mouth in time.

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  7. Huge pet peeve: People using the word theory when they mean hypothesis. How hard is it to learn vocabulary?!

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  8. Hello.

    We need more understandable science writers!

    Geek Support Team ;)

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