Real Clever Science

My name is Ari Einbinder. This is the journal of my travels into the realm of science and science education.
I've worked at science museums in NY (NYSCI and AMNH) and across Europe. Currently I'm studying "museology" (aka museum studies) at UW in Seattle, WA. I'm also one of Tumblr's Science Section editors.

I discuss anything that fascinates me, but popular topics include evolution, transhumanism (e.g BCI), futurism, psychology, quantum computing, climate change, sustainability, genetic engineering and occasionally politics - to name a few.

Enjoy!

~~~

Talk To Me


For a quick glance at previous posts, check out the Archive

Visit my website: RealCleverName.com
Wed May 30

Will banning plastic bags help anything?

A friend forwarded me an article, “Plastic bag ban will put los angeles in the landfill.” The author, Jay Beeber, had some good points, but also some poor points, and I take probably a different lesson from the points than himself. That said, I’d also say that I don’t necessarily endorse a total ban on plastic bags {and especially paper bags}, but I would favor incentives for people to reuse bags, such as an extra tax on using plastic bags.

First, banning free plastic grocery bags won’t reduce waste. California’s Statewide Waste Characterization Study [pdf] shows that “Plastic Grocery and Other Merchandise Bags” consistently make up just 0.3 percent of the waste stream in the state… In comparison, organic waste such as food and yard clippings makes up 32 percent while construction debris comprises about 30 percent. The effect of eliminating free grocery bags on the amount of waste generated in the city would be insignificant…

This is an interesting point, but I’d point out two things. Firstly, food and yard clippings are not, afaik (and I’m not an expert by any means), really harmful. They biodegrade and can actually give nutrients back to the soil. [Edit: I’ve been informed that this is not actually the case! I’ll have to look into it more.] Plastic bags don’t biodegrade and they’re known to break down into small particles that poison living things. Secondly, I would personally say that we should try to make progress where we can. I would be strongly in favor of any feasible way to reduce waste, especially industrial. But I’m not sure those are available yet. In contrast, asking people to bring their own bags is very feasible.

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Tue May 29

Wish Me Luck

I have a job interview today at the Pacific Science Center. It would be a massive understatement to say that I’m desperately wishing that I get this position.

I just want to talk about awesome science stuff with people. Please?

“My Water’s On Fire Tonight”
is a product of Studio 20 NYU (http://bit.ly/hzGRYP) in collaboration with ProPublica.org (http://bit.ly/5tJN). The song is based on ProPublica’s investigation on hydraulic fractured gas drilling (read the full investigation here: http://bit.ly/15sib6).

A funky song about the pros & cons of fracking. Honestly, not too shabby.

P.s. H/t to TYT.

Mon May 28
smarterplanet: Powerhouse Solar Cell Inspired by Leaf Biomimicry A team of scientists headed up by Princeton University has achieved a whopping 47 percent increase in electricity generation from flexible plastic solar cells, simply by texturing the surface to mimic the wrinkles of a typical leaf. Full Story: Cleantechnica via emergentfutures: 1) Biomimicry is amazing. I love that human design is now recognizing that it has so much to learn from natural design. Especially when it can replace eco-questionable solutions with much more eco-friendly solutions - such as simply creating wrinkles on a surface as opposed to something like nano-sprays with unknown side-effects. 2) As the article notes, solar is getting very, very close to the 10-15% efficiency needed to make it competitive with traditional energy sources. And with the various solar innovations coming out, I expect we’ll hit that goal soon… and then surpass it by quite a bit. But of course, this requires research and funding. *cough*fund_science*cough*

smarterplanet:

Powerhouse Solar Cell Inspired by Leaf Biomimicry

A team of scientists headed up by Princeton University has achieved a whopping 47 percent increase in electricity generation from flexible plastic solar cells, simply by texturing the surface to mimic the wrinkles of a typical leaf.

Full Story: Cleantechnica

via emergentfutures:

1) Biomimicry is amazing. I love that human design is now recognizing that it has so much to learn from natural design. Especially when it can replace eco-questionable solutions with much more eco-friendly solutions - such as simply creating wrinkles on a surface as opposed to something like nano-sprays with unknown side-effects.

2) As the article notes, solar is getting very, very close to the 10-15% efficiency needed to make it competitive with traditional energy sources. And with the various solar innovations coming out, I expect we’ll hit that goal soon… and then surpass it by quite a bit. But of course, this requires research and funding. *cough*fund_science*cough*

Sun May 27
theanimalblog: Zhang Bangsheng, a very dedicated Chinese zoo keeper, had to lick a constipated monkey’s bottom for over an hour after the three-month-old Francois Leaf monkey swallowed a peanut whole. The monkey showed signs of stomach problems and was unable to defecate. It was too young to be given laxatives so the only way to encourage it was by licking its behind (Zhang used warm water to clean the area before he began). His efforts were rewarded an hour later when the monkey defecated a single peanut.  Picture: Quirky China News / Rex Features Next time you think, “oh, working at a zoo must be so much fun and so easy” remember this image, burn it into your retina, think of the self-sacrifice, and show zoo-keepers the respect they deserve! Also, doesn’t he have interns for stuff like that?  =P

theanimalblog:

Zhang Bangsheng, a very dedicated Chinese zoo keeper, had to lick a constipated monkey’s bottom for over an hour after the three-month-old Francois Leaf monkey swallowed a peanut whole. The monkey showed signs of stomach problems and was unable to defecate. It was too young to be given laxatives so the only way to encourage it was by licking its behind (Zhang used warm water to clean the area before he began). His efforts were rewarded an hour later when the monkey defecated a single peanut.  Picture: Quirky China News / Rex Features

Next time you think, “oh, working at a zoo must be so much fun and so easy” remember this image, burn it into your retina, think of the self-sacrifice, and show zoo-keepers the respect they deserve!

Also, doesn’t he have interns for stuff like that?  =P

(via ahippoonyourcampus)

Sat May 26
Recycle dude!

Recycle dude!

(Source: lovevandalism, via slympikkinz)

Fri May 25

Greg Gage, The Cockroach Beatbox

(Yes, you read that correctly!)

Continuing on the theme of amazing ted talks about living things, here’s a jaw-dropping short video about hacking cockroaches’ neurons. Honestly, you have to see it to believe it! (And every single school on the planet should let students try this amazing experiment!)

(Source: ted.com)

Thu May 24
Facial recognition to be used in art history research

infoneer-pulse:

Three University of California, Riverside academics recently won a $25,000 startup grant in the “digital humanities” from the National Endowment for the Humanities. They’ll use the money for a research project that would use facial recognition technology in areas that it historically hasn’t been used in.

“What we want to do is to see to what extent facial recognition is applicable to art.” Conrad Rudolph, a professor of art history at UC Riverside, told Ars on Monday. “We just want to see what the limits are according to the current technology.”

» via ars technica

Have I mentioned lately how much I’m digging the new application of tech to art and museums.

Also, I wonder how helpful this kind of technology can be for investigating things like the Getty Kouros case which Gladwell wrote about in “Blink”.

Wed May 23

Frans de Waal, Moral Behavior in Animals

I’ve been getting back into Ted talks and have found a bunch which are really amazing. This, though, is perhaps the most fascinating one that I’ve seen in awhile.

Morality is always an interesting subject, as are animals and what they’re capable of. Morality in animals gives us a sense of where our morality came from and perhaps where we can lead it.

Highly recommended.

(Source: ted.com)

Tue May 22

christiantheatheist:

BBC report on Creationist Museum

My first quarter as a Museum Studies grad student we were put in teams and asked to do a project about a museum controversy. My first suggestion was creation museums - that they teach non-science and ruin the reputation of museums as authorities, yet they may not be crazier than the “museum of mustard”. Anyways, we ended up doing a project about the suppression of LGBT exhibitions and another team did creation museums. I was/am rather jealous.

Mon May 21
homoelectronicus: I’ll just leave that right here… The little girl is Ellie Challis, youngest person to be given the “cheetah leg”, or flex-run feet. The man is south-african athlete Oscar Pistorious (nicknamed Blade Runner”).  This is so beautiful.

homoelectronicus:

I’ll just leave that right here…

The little girl is Ellie Challis, youngest person to be given the “cheetah leg”, or flex-run feet.

The man is south-african athlete Oscar Pistorious (nicknamed Blade Runner”). 

This is so beautiful.

(via wildcat2030)

Sat May 19
Science On!

scienceon:

Hey, everyone. I just thought I’d let you know that all submissions have now been published!

So far I feel “Science On!” has been a great success! Overall, we have around 150 bloggers who have submitted to scienceon.

As of right now, we have no submissions in the queue, but there are many more science bloggers out there!…

If you haven’t submitted your science(y) blog to Science On! what are you waiting for?! =O

Share the love and get some back =)

anthonyrossomanno asked: In regards to that last question about sustainability and the current standard of living, I recently watched this documentary called Fixing the Future and in it they featured Wild Sage - a community in Boulder, Colorado - an entire town built with zero emissions. The secret is going back to local. If everyone did this then all else would just fall into place and the world would be inspiring again.

Hey Anthony,

I’ll have to check out that documentary. And no doubt “going local” {not “going loco” lol) helps a lot, but I’m not sure it can solve everything. Too much stuff is specialized and can’t be produced or obtained locally (e.g. medicine).

And it doesn’t surprise me at all that this place is in (or near?) Boulder, CO. That place is so awesome - and green! I visited a friend there and simply fell in love with it.

Thanks for writing,
-Ari @ RCS

staceythinx:

Setareh Mohtarez’s space inspired Brightness Dawn collection will make you look like the fabulous star stuff that you are.

I would instantly fall for any girl wearing that dress.