Today in training we learned a little about magnets. Apparently they were found by a little boy named Magnus in a country called Magnesia (hmm?). We used regular magnets to tell north and south (which was the direction that all of our magnets pointed) (except Rose’s). Then Paul showed us something that was pretty freaky. [...]
Archive for November, 2007
Le Blog du Frog
Posted in exploratorium on November 29, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Kid Nation
Posted in off the floor, tagged Kid Nation on November 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I am so embarrassed to admit that I just watched the first three episodes of Kid Nation and I really enjoyed it. It is just as exploitative as I thought it would be, but it is also surprisingly endearing and even a little inspiring. Anyone else watch this show?
Aside from being entertaining, the [...]
The Geyser Problem
Posted in exploratorium on November 25, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Question
There are three art pieces in the museum just outside the office that are designed to mimic the behavior of a geyser. The geysers each have a different period; one goes off every 6 minutes, another goes off every 7, and a third goes off every 8. The question is, when will all three geysers [...]
What’s in a Name? – Part Deux
Posted in exploratorium on November 19, 2007 | 6 Comments »
So with the decision being made to change the title of the blog, we need to get all the suggestions out in the open in an arena where we can debate the merits of each possible choice. As a side note this topic can get us thinking about what we actually do in the museum. [...]
What’s in a Name?
Posted in exploratorium on November 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Some of you may have noticed the change of title of our little blog. I feel that the story behind the name change (albeit told from a single perspective) can shed some light on some issues that arise when attempting to create a blog of personal voice in an institution. Although the Exploratorium provides us [...]
DNA in the Future
Posted in exploratorium on November 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
As some previous posts prove, DNA comes up frequently in our discussions on-line but remains a challenge (at least for me) to present on the floor as one of our daily demonstrations. I think one of the harder parts of the DNA extraction is balancing the level of background information with the “meat” of the [...]
Drawing Board
Posted in exploratorium on November 13, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Last week I snuck up to drawing board a few minutes after closing with one of my closest friends, Daniel, who is also one of the biggest physics geeks I know. In the void and lonely mezzanine we boldly experimented with the one thing we were explicitly told never to do… we moved the weight. [...]
Make like a Tree and Leave
Posted in exploratorium on November 13, 2007 | 5 Comments »
So here are some pictures of leaves that I took while I was in Atlanta.
Pretty nice huh?
I was wondering if anyone knew why the leaves change colors there but not here?
I seem to be getting a lot of contradictory evidence online.
Maybe it’s something that no-one really knows for sure.
Thanks!
Optical illusion music video
Posted in exploratorium on November 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I like this video because of it’s high nerd-cool factor, which is inversely proportional to it’s skank-ho factor. This is also a video posting test.
Lots of these are similar to ones we have around the museum. Maybe the band, called Whitest Boy Alive, would be interested in visiting?
What’s wrong with that eye?
Posted in exploratorium on November 8, 2007 | 3 Comments »
I was dissecting a cow’s eye-ball today and there were two lovely elderly women who were very curious about various eye problems. I feel like those are questions that I get very often and don’t really have good answers. So I went to the Exploratorium’s most valuable resource: the people milling about the coffee machine [...]


