Doodling is Good!

To Doodle: to make spontaneous marks to help yourself think.
–Sunni Brown (2011): Doodlers, unite! (at 3:19) in TED.

Doodling on a notepad is often seen as evidence that a student is not paying attention. Very much to the contrary, argues Sunni Brown in this TED talk:

Studies show that sketching and doodling improve our comprehension — and our creative thinking.
— TEDtalksDirector: Sunni Brown: Doodlers, unite! on YouTube.

She describes doodling as a, “preemptive measure to stop you from loosing focus.” In addition, doodling helps integrate all four modes of learning (visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic) as well as helps provoke an emotional response, all of which greatly aid retention of information and creative thinking. Finally, doodling is most useful when we’re trying to process a heavy, dense load of information.

Brown has more details in her article in .net, Why the Doodle Matters.

(hat tip: The Dish)

Bug Power Generator

Most power plants create electricity by spinning a magnet while it’s inside a coil of wire. That how coal power plants do it, it’s how hydroelectric power plants do it, it’s how wind plants do it, it’s even how nuclear power plants do it; solar power panels don’t do it this way, however. The coal and nuclear plants, for example, boil water to create steam which spins the turbine that rotates the magnet.

In theory, you can use any type of power source to spin the turbine, including people power. On bicycles, you can use them to power your lights. But because you’re now using some of your mechanical energy to create electricity, it will slow you down a bit. Newer, hub dynamos, however, are apparently quite efficient.

So, in theory, you could use any type of animal to generate electricity. Including, for example, using bugs to charge your iPod.

I love how he holds up the voltmeter 34 seconds into the video to prove that his device works.

Popsicle Stick Cobra

Excellent demonstration of physics using popsicle sticks. Lots more here, including on how to make popsicle stick bombs and snakes (basically the tension of the structure gets released to create the movement).

Faster than Light

Physicists at CERN believe they’ve measured neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light. Since most of modern physics is based on the speed of light being the upper speed limit for practically everything, (remember, in E=mc², c is the speed of light) this is somewhat of a big deal. NPR has an article:

Notes

1. Neutrinos themselves are quite fascinating and elusive particles. Sciencemadefun has a nice video explaining what is a neutrino.

2. Victor Stenger provides an interesting perspective on these results. He points out that the theoretical particles, tachyons, move faster than light, but they can’t move slower than light, so, seen from the point of view of a tachyon, time would move backward. Only photons move at the speed of light.

Loom: Spider Catches the Moth

Ridiculously beautiful computer animation of a spider catching a moth by Polynoid.

Loom from Polynoid on Vimeo.

They have more on their website and on their Vimeo page, including a few animations showing how they created these works of art.

The Story of Stuff and the Life Cycle of a Cell Phone

life-cell — The life cycle of a cell phone. (Produced by the EPA. Link goes to a pdf).

The EPA’s student resource page has a few interesting publications on the life cycles of a few common products: CD/DVD’s, cell phones, and soccer balls.

They’re a bit noisy, and would probably benefit from being reproduced in a more interactive format (Flash maybe), but they’re still a useful resource for talking about life cycles.

They’re a less dramatic presentation which can supplement the advocacy of the Story of Stuff video.

Live from 1500 Meters Deep

cable-inspection — Link to live video feed from the ROV ROPOS surveying a cable on the ocean floor at the Juan de Fuca midocean ridge.

Live science. The remotly operated submersible ROV ROPOS is surveying an undersea cable recently laid across the the Juan de Fuca midocean ridge.

This scientific expedition will be going on until the end of August, and there’ll be live feeds every time the rover is deployed (which depends a bit on the weather at the surface).

If you have questions, they’re also answering your tweets.

Right now, the rover’s heading toward the caldera of the axial seamount volcano. It should get there some time tonight (if they don’t have to stop for anything). So far, we’ve seen dumbo octopuses, crabs, weird fish, brainless worms, sponges, deep sea corals, starfish and lots of pillow basalt. The basalts are unsurprising because these are the rocks produced when volcanos erupt under water.