Dreaming up languages…
What does our good friend and Secret Lifer Jean Berko Gleason have to do with Disney’s big-budget fantasy “John Carter”? The invention of fake languages, of course! This TIME magazine article shows how her famous “wug” experiments informed the work of those inventing Thark, the imaginary language used on Mars in “John Carter” and Na’vi, the language used by the inhabitants of Pandora in “Avatar.” In lieu of residuals, we say “oe irayo si ngaru” (Na’vi for “I give thanks to you”) to Jean for helping Hollywood discover the beauty of imaginary languages!
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“The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers” has scooped up another exciting award. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has selected “Secret Life” for the 2011 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award in the Online Category.
We’d like to thank the Academy–er, the Association–for recognizing us with his award. It is very prestigious and we are grateful.
While we love patting our own backs, we must tip our hats to three of our most beloved subjects, whose profiles were selected for the award: Jean Berko-Gleason, Andre Fenton and Steffie Tomson.
Back pats all around!
And oh yeah, in other news, we are finally starting to ramp up for our third season. Subjects are being chosen and shoots being planned. You and every other human on the planet will definitely want to be a part of it.
As a child (okay, as an adult, too), I suffered from extreme motion sickness. Cars, buses, boats – anything that moved, really – would set my stomach swirling.
Please fasten your seat belts.
I anointed many a random front yard on car trips and shut down more amusement park rides than I care to remember. Even now, the first thing I look for when I board an airplane is that special bag.
So I immediately took to this Popular Science article by NOVA scienceNOW correspondent, Jake Ward. He explains that the fundamental limit to all forms of travel is not technology, but humans. We’re flimsy creatures - our bones break easily, our bodies need oxygen constantly, and our inner ear is a mercurial beast.
We can make planes, trains and automobiles faster and manipulate them as we see fit, but the rub is that we can’t really improve passengers’ (oh lowly humans!) ability to withstand the technology. Sadly, it doesn’t look like I’ll make it to space anytime soon. And that special airplane bag isn’t going anywhere, at least not for me.
Want more Jake? Watch his NOVA scienceNOW piece on Plasma Rockets online!
Is there a connection between climate change and our recent spate of tornadoes? How about between climate change and the flooding Mississippi?
Who could possibly address these questions better than our own Climate Change Evangelist, Katharine Hayhoe?
All together, folks. NOBODY, THAT’S WHO.
Watch Katharine present the facts on the NewsHour. She comes in at about 2:48 in the segment.
I love blogging for The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers.
Katharine shows kids how they can help!
While I watch the videos every two weeks, ideas start forming about what I can do in my classroom. And when I watched Katharine Hayhoe, it was no different. In addition to being an elementary teacher, I am the Global Awareness Club advisor. And I immediately thought of sharing her video with my club members. But then I thought about contacting Katharine herself and seeing if she could Skype in to my club.
Not only did Katharine agree to Skype in, she willingly Skyped with two different groups. The fourth grade students Skyped with her to learn about how they can be empowered to help stop the climate changes caused by nonrenewable energies. And the fifth grade went more global, learning about how they can affect children around the world, for both good and bad. Katharine even went so far as to create two different presentations to change the focus for each group.
Ms. Parisi’s students learn what they can do.
Katharine spoke to the children in simple-to-understand language, using graphs and pictures to explain how our climate is changing, heating up, and what that heating up is doing to various parts of the world. She answered questions about Long Island (where we live), about how they can change their energy use easily, about the recent tornados in the Midwest, and about her job as a climate scientist. She was gracious, energetic, and exciting to listen to.
Katharine told the children about simple ways to save energy.“If each home in the United States changed one incandescent bulb for one fluorescent bulb, we would save the same energy as taking 1 million cars off the road!”
Continue >
