Venereal Terms

by josuecastellanos

During our nature walk on Thursday I was listening to Ryan J. and Alicia discuss grouping names. Now, I refused to believe that there are such terms as “a unkindess of ravens” or “an ugly of walruses”. But thanks to Google I discovered that not only are those the proper terms, but that they are properly called “venereal terms”. Yes, venereal terms. Those are the collective nouns, words used in the English language to describe groups of things.

Some terms are common place: a round of drinks, a pack of wolves, a school of fish, a heard of cattle. Some more obscure: a ohmn of electricians, a gang of elk, a troop of baboons. And some just horrible puns: a heard of audiologists, a audit of accountants, an archive of programmers, a debauchery of bachelors.

Some of my favorite venereal terms: a sneak of weasels, a rascal of boys, a giggle of girls, a congress of baboons, a flight of bees, an atlas of maps, a column of accountants, a glacier of freezers, a groan of puns, a stripe of zebras.

So, now the question is: what do you call a group of Explainers? An empery of Explainers? An enigma of Explainers? A museum of Explainers?
An armada of Explainers?

Philosophy Questions!

by asimien

Hey explainers! this is my 1st post and wont be my last…

Philosophy Questions

1. Would you want to be a kid again?
2. Should we be content to live a “normal” life span, or should we try to stop the ageing process?
3. If you believe something will happen is it more likely to?
4. Can money make you happy?
5. Should people always tell the truth?
6. Is having knowledge always good?
7. Can memories be fabricated?
8. Is there a difference between research funded by industry and that funded by the state? Should different regulations apply?
9. How do we know what is real?
10. Is the human race a virus?
11. What is gender?
12. How do you know you are not an alien?
13. What makes a family? Who is your family?
14. With the knowledge that you have now, would you go back in time to change anything?
15. What makes you, you? Clothes? Experiences?
16. Is it acceptable to use processes developed for medical treatment to enhance the human body, such as improving memory or slowing down the ageing process?
17. Would you want super powers? What would your responsibilities be?
18. Would you want to be a kid forever?
19. As you get older are you more or less scared of horror movies? Or do you feel the same?
20. What would life be like to be in more the one place at the same time?
21. What compels us to engage in small talk? Why do we feel obligated to fill uncomfortable silences?
22. What would life be like if you couldn’t see color?
23. Would you rather live in the past, present, or future?
24. Are there aliens?
25. Does life have one purpose? Many? Or none?
26. Would you want to know when you are going to die?
27. Can you make your mind stop thinking?
28. Could a robot be your friend?
29. When does sound become a language?
30. Would you want to live in a world without rules?
31. What animal best describes your personality?
32. Do you think it is possible to have psychic powers?
33. Do humans decide which plants grow or do plants ‘force’ humans to grow them?

Explainer Performances

by Ann Bartkowski

In study group this morning, the explainers made up educational songs about some of the demonstrations we do here.  Check out these flower videos.

To learn more about light, cow eyes, and scientific prefixes, check out the rest of the videos on our new and exciting youtube page!

Parietal Lobe Pizazz

by scaliscience

Recently, Tech Nation on KQED radio rebroadcast a 2007 piece about the brain body connection.  There is some fascinating stuff in there for us Explainers to learn to better facilitate sheep’s brain demos.  Here’s the link:

Tech Nation interview

Here’s a similar Science Friday interview on npr.