What is Digg?34 Comments
- funkytommyman, on 06/29/2008, -0/+36We need more Bill Nye
- BarriedaleNick, on 06/29/2008, -1/+27When I did science at school back in the day it was great. Not a week went past without us having to evacuate the science block due to experiements going badly wrong - demos of brownian motion involving smoke bombs going off to soon - bromide gas escaping - ripple tanks and strobes (mmm electricity and water - that one was fun) - magnesium flares dropped on teh wooden bench. It was great and I have a lifelong interest in science.
I work at a school now and you cant do squat in a lesson due to health and safety. The labs cost a fortune to build as they have to have every available safeguard and less and less students do the three sciences as it aint so much fun anymore. The experiments we used to do are all done virtually now.. ripple tanks arent as much fun when you have to them do in Flash... - HairyFotr, on 06/29/2008, -0/+13People today aren't cool enough for school.
- Nappuccino, on 06/29/2008, -1/+11I thought people were too smart for religion. Digg, you confuse me.
- TheMoniker, on 06/29/2008, -0/+7It's a complex situation. On the one hand, it's a bit harder nowadays to show off the latest findings in one's field; in order to be excited about a lot of it, you need some background. One needs to know a bit about say, particle physics, before they would be interested in looking at information to do with symmetry breaking.
On the other hand we have (what seems to be) a sizable portion of the general public who completely mistrust science. There are people who couldn't even tell you what the Navier-Stokes equation is about, or who couldn't tell you what tRNA is, but are prepared to tell you that they can criticize, better than all of the contributing scientists in the peer-review process, complex climate models and evolution.
Then again, looking to the future, some of the technology coming down the lines holds so much potential that I couldn't see people not being excited by it. - krnldmp, on 06/29/2008, -0/+5In most cases the distance between a dream and reality is closer than ever for scientists and further than it used to be for common people. It takes some effort to differentiate scientists from common people now, though, because modern technology has made it possible for just about anyone to contribute to most fields of science. Science is no longer the carnival it was first made out to be, which is probably a good thing. People still get excited about the parts they are able to understand but there is no need to get dressed up for it and gladly entertainment has been identified as a separate industry.
- inactive, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4There still is world's fairs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world%27s_fai ...
- BingoPower, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4Good read.
It would be nice if science could be taught the way it used to be, making it fun. Perhaps then, there wouldn't be so many armchair-idiots telling us that the Hardron Collider is going to create a black hole which will swallow the earth. - PabloIV, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4I think we need world's fairs again. General admittance shows of amazement and wonderment with demos for everyone of the technologies of the future. Give people an idea of what to look forward to and maybe spark the curiosity of future scientists.
- Cate320, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4Anyone else have "Mole Day" at their school? We had mole games, a sculpture contest out of a mole of aluminum foil, mole-dy donuts (Krispy Kreme ftw), and most importantly - educational "De-mole-strations"
My chemistry teacher in high school was amazing when it came to making science interesting. He was constantly doing stuff like: reading off of the back of a jar of Sodium: "Do not expose to moisture. Oh well, I'm going to just throw a big chunk of it in this beaker of water!" And then he did. Almost every day he was doing some insane demonstration that actually got us excited to go to his class.
This really does do wonders for keeping kids interested in science. His passing rate for the NYS regents chemistry exam was always near 100%. We *really* need more teachers like that in our schools. - poidh, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4Science at school was great. Some of us were so into it we'd get as close to it as possible. This led to burnt hair, burnt blazers, disolving our friends chemistry books in 18 molar sulphuric acid (it makes the pages disintegrate if you don't add water), slipping a piece of sodium into an academic rival's experiment to blow up his test tube, stealing ingredients to make nitro glycerine later on, stupidly staring into a 0.001 Watt lazer (it damages your sight and it never gets better), stealing radioactive sources and my favourite - pulling out your mate's Bunsen burner whilst it's burning (causes an explosion which if you're lucky will singe his trendy hair-do). Oh yes, and squirting potassium permanganate on your friend (or enemy's) skin will give them an instant tan. And of course attaching crocodile clips to the back of the teacher's blazer (the record was over 100 clips end to end). *****, I want to go back to school.
- poidh, on 06/29/2008, -0/+3I bet that more than half of it didn't happen to _you_. Because you seem pretty boring actually.
- LacY, on 06/30/2008, -0/+3I do believe we also sang Mole-Day songs. And that's sadly enough how I remember what a mole equals.
- fuzzybeard, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2Needs more Oingo Boingo.
- JDoms, on 06/29/2008, -1/+3where's the hot computer babe
- MMaster23, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2and I was expecting the 1985 movie or 1994 tv series .. damn :X
- vsujohn2, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2From my heart and from my hand, why don't people understand...my intentions
- inactive, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2Yes, ignore political correctness and enviro nimby *****.
- saigumi, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1Oh god, that movie sucked. A poor man's "Real Genius".
- r4ge, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1Mmmmmm wondermints..
- Cate320, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1Oh yeah, I forgot about the songs. Standing out in the dark and cold at 6:02am while singing songs and raising the mole-day flag wasn't the highlight of the experience I have to admit.
- chrissku, on 06/29/2008, -1/+2Somebody get Bill Nye the Science Guy on the horn.
- OC73, on 06/29/2008, -3/+4Do we have to wear bras on our heads?
- thebellmaster1x, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1Today is the third time I've seen a report released on the collider's inability to create mini-black holes. It's so simple to understand, and yet people still need to be told why. But they still don't get it because they think they know better than people with legitimate scientific backgrounds.
Even though they knew far less back then, the Renaissance looks attractive to me now. At least the population respected science back then. - poidh, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1I found that in science, you learned more if you ***** about doing your own experiments and having fun. We loved it. I used to make nitro glycerine at home then blow things up at the top of my garden.
- LacY, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1What the hell school did you go to? I mean, I'm all for fun science experiments and the occasional (planned and safe) blowing ***** up, but adding sodium, which if I remember correctly explodes in contact with Oxygen, to a test tube so that you get fun shards of glass flying around the room? 18M sulphuric acid? I do feel like schools now often are "too safe" but seriously, it's people like you guys who've led to it.
- Ramble, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1And had you told that to any lab hiring today you wouldn't get a job becuase they all require GLP.
- cfdude, on 06/29/2008, -2/+2Weird Science and no Kelly LeBroc? wtf ?
- iDoraemon, on 06/29/2008, -3/+2Buried for mentioning school uniforms but not following through with pictures of sexy girls in them.
- johndavidjack, on 06/29/2008, -2/+0You're right, I don't find playing with chemicals and radioactive material very fun. It would've been funny if you played that one prank on your friend with the bunsen burner except he lost his eyesight instead of a trendy-hair-do. That wouldn't be very boring at all I guess...
Maybe when I take my girl out next week we can split an atom or play with your science set. - johndavidjack, on 06/29/2008, -4/+1Yeah, I bet more than half of that didn't actually happen...
- inactive, on 06/29/2008, -6/+3Slow day on Digg?
- TheSalmonThief, on 06/29/2008, -7/+3boyah.net
- inactive, on 06/29/2008, -14/+2People nowadays are too smart for science.
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