Science Comedian

April Fool’s Tribute to Thomas Edison

April 1st, 2011

Last year, for April 1st, I was asked to make a guest post to a GE blog called Edison’s Desk.  So I made this April Fool’s Tribute to Thomas Edison.  I had a lot of fun with the links – try ’em all!

I must really be an April Fool because this is a big day for me.  I’ll be on NPR’s Science Friday with Ira Flatow – to talk about science and comedy with my friends Tim Lee and Norm Goldblatt.  The show streams live from 11am to 1pm Pacific/2-4pm Eastern, in addition to airing on your local public radio station.  Listen to it here.

Then later tonight I’m emceeing a great STEM education event (STEM = Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) in the planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences.  It’s called STEMPosium and it’s an evening to honor some fantastic education innovators.  This event will be live streamed from their website at 7:30pm Pacific. Check it out!

Nature Abhors a Science Comedian

December 12th, 2008

“I am at two with Nature.”  –  Woody Allen

* * *

Unlike Woody, today I am at one with Nature…  the magazine, anyway.  One page of it.

There’s a short Q&A with me in the current issue of Nature.  The writer/interviewer is Nick Thomas, who is not only a chemistry professor but also an impressively prolific freelance writer.

The photo was taken at SciFoo 2008 by John Gilbey…  although the background has been entirely photoshopped out, leaving me looking like a cut out for a Monty Python animation.

Still, I’m in Nature.  That’s pretty cool.

Did I say “abhors”?  I meant “adores.”

Gregory Benford Quotation on Passion

August 18th, 2008

“Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.”

– Gregory Benford‘s law of controversy (an adage from his 1980 novel Timescape).