Tag Archives: Brian Switek

ScienceSeeker Editor

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Hey all! I have some awesome, if a little old, news. I am one of the new editors for ScienceSeeker, which is a great site for finding all sorts of different science blogs. They list themselves as Science News from Science Newsmakers. Naturally, I was ecstatic to join the team. Each week I get to read awesome blogs, something I do anyway, and pick the ones that I find the most interesting. I thought you all might think it’s neat too.

My favorite picks of the week are listed below. You can also check out the Editor’s Picks page for our awesome team of editor’s picks of the week. Hopefully, working with ScienceSeeker will get me to start blogging more. I do love to share cool science. Have a lovely holiday weekend, and…

Happy Reading!

Mummified Fetus Found in Tiny Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagus (History): http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DiscoveryNews-History-News/~3/2Rxh_frDmaQ/mummified-fetus-found-in-tiny-ancient-egyptian-sarcophagus-140512-140512.htm

The Inexorable Melt: new evidence that glaciers in West Antarctica are past the point of no return (Goodnight Earth): http://gnightearth.com/2014/05/13/the-inexorable-melt-new-evidence-that-glaciers-in-west-antarctica-are-past-the-point-of-no-return/ by jptrinastic

Two New Huge Dinosaurs Discovered (Dinosaurs): http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DiscoveryNews-Dinosaur-News/~3/eGY4K5awUWM/two-new-huge-dinosaurs-discovered-140514.htm

Bones in Submerged Cave May Be Earliest Native American (History): http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DiscoveryNews-History-News/~3/O-_k7qeYfYU/bones-in-submerged-cave-may-be-earliest-native-american-140515.htm

Marine Reptile’s Weird Body Armor a Sign of Life’s Great Recovery (Laelaps): http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/15/marine-reptiles-weird-body-armor-a-sign-of-lifes-great-recovery/ by Brian Switek

New Thermoelectric Material May Boost Green Tech (The Daily Fusion): http://dailyfusion.net/2014/05/lipb-thermoelectric-material-28564/ by The Daily Fusion

About Nanotyrannus (Paleopix): http://paleopix.com/blog/2014/05/16/about-nanotyrannus/ by Penny Higgins

Earl Grey, Hot

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We have made it to the weekend! The combo of vacation allergens and the return of the Portland spring/winter have kicked my butt. I’m sucking down tea, and sleeping a ton, in the hopes that I can stave off getting even more sick. At least I have fun things to read.

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The two dino nerds, photo credit Dylan Benito.

I’m thankful that I managed to get a few things done before I started feeling poorly. Mainly, I got to go see Brian Switek read at Powell’s! Then I took him out for beer. It was the Portland thing to do. I have been following Brian’s blog, Laelaps, for a number of years, and we recently started talking on Twitter. I was very excited to hear that he had written a second book, My Beloved Brontosaurus, and was coming to Portland on a book tour. The book is great. It is engaging, has a ton of scientific facts, and manages to be fun, and funny. It is a must have for the dinosaur enthusiast.

Thank you for coming to Portland, Brian, and letting me take a goofy photo of the two of us.

I managed to find some great links this week too. As always, there is a ton of great science in the news.

  • Per the title of this post, from Space.com, 3D food printers in space! Of course, the first thing printed will be pizza. My StarTrek dreams are that much closer to being realized.
  • Do you have blue eyes? I do, and it seems that we share a blue-eyed common ancestor. Science Daily reports the blue eyed mutation is found at the same spot for everyone, on the OCA2 gene.
  • I have two great pieces to share that Carl Zimmer wrote: the first The Girl Who Turned to Bone, a story of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.
  • The second, and your autism article for the week: the genetic cause of autism may be found on the MET gene. MET is a gene found in both humans and dogs, and may be part of serotonin transfer. MET could be a good place to research cause and effect.
  • Since we are on a Dinosaur kick, how about an article about Dino poop?
  • Straight from Wil Wheaton’s mantra, “Don’t be a dick.” Scientists have found a way to train people not to be jerks. I like this idea.

That’s what I’ve got for the week, now I’ll be going back to bed. I hope you all have a fantastic, health-filled weekend. I’ll be back on Monday with the grammar lesson for the week. Any suggestions?

As always, thanks for reading, please share. 

Science Kids!

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Thanks for staying with me last week. It was a hard, but important subject to cover. This week was much lighter on the news front. I was really excited to see a bunch of cool kids in this weeks science news. I loved science as a kid, still do, and I’m trying my best to make science fun for the next generation. It is always nice for me to see cool things happening with kids.

There were TWO kid fossil stories, this week alone:

  • At Southampton University, in England, nine-year-old, Daisy Morris, discovered a new Pterosaur. Not only was it a new Pterosaur, but it was a whole new genus! Not only that, but the new specimen was named after her, Vectidraco daisymorrisae. I have some serious envy.
  • In Oxford, ten-year-old, Bruno Debattista, discovered a 300-million year old horseshoe crab footprint. You have to check out his picture, he has a great smile.
  • At the end of 2012, Eric Stamatin and Andrew Gainariu of Michigan, found a Mastodon axis bone in Eric’s backyard. If I were them, I would be out digging every day.
  • For the last of the fossil finds, we go to Russia. Yevgeny Salinder, an eleven-year-old, in Cape Sopochnaya Karga, found an almost fully intact Mammoth. Paleontologists nicknamed it after Yevgeny, who goes by Zhenya.
  • Nineteen-year-old (not really a kid, but he’s younger than me) Boyan Slat, from Delft, has designed a ocean going machine that would clean up plastic debris. He has a TED talk up that is really good.

For your weekly picture, I give you the Geckoella jeyporensis, which was re-discovered in India. It is super cute.

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I have been writing a lot on my own novel, and reading fiction, so I don’t have a good book for you this week. I can tell you that I’m very much looking forward to My Beloved Brontosaurus, coming out this April. The author (one of my favorite science writers) is Brian Switek, who I have been following since I happened upon a post of his about giant ground sloths. He will be in Portland in May, giving a lecture at Powell’s! I’m very excited. You can find him on Twitter @Laelaps.

Thank you for reading, feel free to share.