35.735 years in science communication
Tech Talk – Miscellaneous discussion of gadgets, industry, computer science, social media, AI
33 people have searched the Sciencebase site for the phrase Erin Ellington since the beginning of the year and keen as I am to provide a useful service for all comers to the site I cannot yet think of a valid and scientifically sound excuse to include a picture of said centerfold.
Of course, those visitors may not have been searching for the model at all. There was an Erin Ellington on the 1995 UW-Oshkosh women’s cross country team, maybe she’s a scientist and that’s who they were after…
Most people have heard of the traditional wedding anniversary gifts – silver, ruby, gold, cotton, paper etc, but we’ve compiled a list of wedding anniversary gifts aimed at the chemical couple in your life. So, if you’re looking to celebrate a stable bond take a look, but please avoid if you’re easily offended, some of the entries might cause a reaction.
The Register’s write-up on the Epos Digital pen and USB flash drive bundle” got me all excited…for a moment. Just think, you can write notes when you’re on the road without having to worry about lugging a laptop everywhere, transfer them to your PC on your return and leave XP’s scrawl-to-text transfer software to convert them into real text, all for under 50 quid.
Then it occurred to me that the last time I used a pen for anything other than signing cheques was probably a decade ago! I doubt I could even write analog style these days. So, I might as well stick to the laptop, or writing on my cellphone and SMS texting it to myself for upload. Technology! Who’d have it?
The Pandora project, is an applet that emerged from the Music Genome Project, which analyses and categorises music and styles. It solves the eternal question facing every iPod user once they’ve worked through their old CD collection – “I’ve downloaded all my favourite bands, what do I download now?” Are you brave enough to lift the lid on Pandora’s Box and play some new mp3s?
The Register reports this week on the inclusion of the word “Podcast” in the New Oxford American Dictionary and the fact that certain other trendy words from the current vernacular failed to make the grade, among them Sudoku, bird flu, rootkit and bloggin. Maybe next year.
There is some uncertainty as to the true etymology of the word podcast. Most people assume it’s iPod broadcast, with no i’s. Others claim it’s short for Personal On-Demand -casting or Portable Audio-casting. It’s unlikely to be either of these latter two, and more obviously simply a trademark free abbreviation of iPodcasting without the legal problems.
Several readers hit the sciencebase.com site searching for gluconic acid. This sugar-like compound occurs naturally in fruit, honey and wine and is used industrially as an acidity regulator in food and drink (E574). It is also used in cleaning products to remove mineral deposits (it is a strong chelating agent for calcium, iron, aluminium, and copper).
Anyway, if you’re after more information and chemical structures of small molecules, you can find more than five million of them using the PubChem search box on ChemSpy.com
If you ever wondered what happened to RedNova then you need look no further, it signed the deedpoll and changed its name to RedOrbit, which has a much more esoteric but newsy I reckon. Anyway, it’s still got the great content, breaking world news in almost every field, and some fantastic images. The Discovery of the Day is an absolute treat. Today it was an Idea LED Maple Clock, which looks like a wooden brick with red LEDs, but makes a total change from all that brushed aluminium effect and translucent plastic that seems to be the order of the day for gadgets (iPods excepted, of course).
Nice to see their Quiz Me feature has a chemical question! Elemental, my dear Doctor…
The 20th Trouble in Toyland report was published in the US and is a damning tale of woe regarding toy safety. Fortunately, the report also provides those who wish to bear alms (bear arms? or bare arms? or bear arms?) with some timely Christmas present ideas. I only mention it because the report contains a festive touch of chemophobia.
A macro trojan that passes itself off as a document concerning bird flu symptoms is now doing the rounds. So, make sure your antivirals are up to date, you wouldn’t want to catch anything now, would you?
More info on Naiva.A can be found here
I just wonder how many British tabloid readers are going to be turned on to chemistry with the news this week that the Royal Society of Chemistry has decided to associate various celebrities with an appropriate element from the periodic table. They kick off by labelling Rebekah Wade Editor of infamous red-top The Sun with bromine and her partner soap star Ross Kemp with caesium. An RSC “scientist” is reported as saying that life is all about chemistry and recent violent reactions between Wade and Kemp could be down to the explosive chemistry between them.
Other “stars” elementalised by the RSC press office at the beginning of Chemistry Week include:
Jordan � Silicon, Mick Jagger� Neon, Wayne Rooney � Sulfur, Tim Henman � Boron, Anne Robinson � Chlorine, George Galloway � Mercury, Colin Montgomery � Beryllium, Steve Redgrave � Gold, Bruce Forsyth � Helium, Ken Livingston � Palladium, Russell Crowe- Iron, Jose Mourinho � Arsenic, Jane Goody � Lead, Thierry Henry � Silver, Anne Robinson – Promethium, Andrew Flintoff � Iridium, Roy Keane � Krypton
For some reason quizmistress Anne Robinson gets two mentions and they spell sulfur incorrectly using the old “ph” version despite a ten-year RSC/IUPAC ruling that it should be spelled with an “f” these days.
Drop me a line or leave a comment, if you cannot work out why a particular celeb gets assigned a certain element, although most are “obvious” (to tabloid readers, at least).