Field of Science

Showing posts with label science-fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science-fiction. Show all posts

Tara is on top of things

Tara Smith, my U. Iowa colleague and friend who is over at Aetiology, has a couple recent posts of particular relevance here...

Tara reports on the selection of University of Iowa's new president, Dr. Sally Mason, who is currently (until July 31) the Provost at Purdue. I'm thrilled about Dr. Mason as our new leader, as are many of us here. She's a biologist, which makes me happy, but that's not all. I heard Sally speak last week at her interview and I left the room feeling truly inspired. I was surprised to have that reaction, but I came to find out that I was not the only one who did. When I heard Sally speak at her introduction on Thursday, she left me with the same feeling. I think we scored a great catch here at Iowa.

Tara also files a detailed report on her recent "Field trip to the Creation Museum". As she concludes
"...$27 million spent on a Creation "museum," not to mention all the hours of donated labor. Meanwhile, our kids are failing to learn even basic science knowledge in school. Disheartening to a scientist, to say the least."

Thanks Tara!

Ken Ham's Creation "Museum"

It's probably not necessary to do so. But just in case it might get missed, I wanted to point everyone to the blog carnival that PZ Myers has assembled about the newly-opened Creation Museum. The "museum" is the product of Answers in Genesis and its CEO Ken Ham. As PZ put it:
"we can hardly believe that in 21st century America, this childish comic-book fantasy is being taken seriously by anyone."
The National Center for Science Education has posted an assembly of media reactions.

Hello (I Love You) from "The Last Mimzy"


Ok, here is my first YouTube video-embedded post. I took my family to see "The Last Mimzy" last night and we all really enjoyed the show; it required significant suspension of disbelief, but it was a good story. The movie ended with the theme song "Hello (I Love You)" by Roger Waters, which is the video posted above. Enjoy.