Friday, May 30, 2008

Bird brains

OK, for my pal Sminthia, who has been suffering through my prolonged silence while her DH watches Kung Fu movies (did I get that right?), I have some interesting science-related links:

The first one is New York Science Festival, which I would be attending if I were anywhere nearby. Brian Greene, a physicist at Columbia University and festival organizer, said,
“We all start out as little scientists,” Dr. Greene said, but adults often lose touch with that, which is dangerous. “Science is an element in our lives,” he added. “We need a general public that is willing to engage with the ideas of science.”
That is one of those things that I like to remind myself of when I am writing science books for young people. I really hope that I am inspiring future scientists, or at least kids who are engaged in science.

The other thing is that I just discovered an interesting website, 3quarksdaily, a collection of science, design, current affair, literature, and art. Here is a great video from the blog about the intelligence of crows. I love this:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that. I enjoyed it a lot. Sent the link to the crow video and the blogsite to my sons.

Oh, and picking up on the Beowulf post earlier, tomorrow night I'm going into Berkeley to see Beowulf, the Musical. Right. Only in Berkeley. Patbracewell

Sminthia said...

Thank you, Sara.

It's not Kung Fu movies, it's the 1970s TV series. You know, where Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) tries to snatch the pebble from the hand of Master Po (Keye Luke), who calls him "Grasshopper."

Yes, it's 3,168 minutes of expressionless delivery by David Carradine, punctuated by fight scenes.

So now I feel like a hypocrite, since I haven't posted in ages. I guess I'll have to put my money where my mouse is.