Posts Tagged ‘science’
My Love Affair with Space
July 7th, 2011
On the eve of the final mission of NASA’s – and the nation’s – 30-year-long space shuttle program, I present to you a video love letter – my newest piece for Time Magazine’s website, wherein Tara and I journey to Florida to witness our first launch. STS-133, in February, was the last mission of space shuttle Discovery…
Click for bigger version at Time.com
Link:
My Love Affair with Space on Time.com
Lunar Eclipse Defined by Wikipedia
June 15th, 2011
In celebration of today’s lunar eclipse, Google‘s logo features an animated moon. When you click through, as usual, you get a page of related search results.
A little while ago, one of the top results included a surprising definition of “lunar eclipse” from Wikipedia:
According to Wikipedia:
Lunar eclipse: A lunar eclipse is when the moon turns black and explodes, releasing a poisonous gas, killing all of humanity. Of course this can occur only when the Sun, …
The page had already been corrected by the time I saw it. But the false definition was apparently cached and showing up in Google’s search results, until a little while ago.
I love Wikipedia. But it’s still funny.
Check out the page devoted to Google Doodles.
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!
Guest hosting Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour with Greg Gbur
March 24th, 2011
For the next few weeks I will be guest host of Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour on Leo Laporte’s TWiT network. Dr. Kiki is out on maternity leave, having just given birth to a beautiful baby boy 20 days ago! Previous guest hosts have included Phil Plait, David Harris, and Jeri Ellsworth.
The show streams live every Thursday on TWiT at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern. For other time zones, do the math! You can also watch or download it later.
For first-time visitors: in addition to my science-flavored stand up comedy, I also make science videos for Time Magazine’s website. That link will send you to my vids on Time.com, or you can click the VIDEO tab above and see them on this site. Quite a variety of topics in science and science fiction. I am also a contributor to Neil de Grasse Tyson‘s radio show StarTalk Radio.
Follow me on Twitter: @sciencecomedian
Subscribe to my YouTube videos: youtube.com/sciencecomedian
“Let There Be Light!” – my first show will be about light and weird science facts. My guest is Greg Gbur, an associate professor of Physics and Optical Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, specializing in research on theoretical classical optics. Since August of 2007 he has blogged as “Dr. SkySkull” at Skulls in the Stars, where he covers optics, the history of physics, historical weird fiction, and the interconnection of these subjects. Greg also co-founded the history of science blog carnival The Giant’s Shoulders. He has over 60 peer-reviewed publications and is the author of the upcoming textbook, “Mathematical Methods for Optical Physics and Engineering”.
– Follow Greg on Twitter: @drskyskull
– Skulls in the Stars blog
– Go directly to the Weird Science Facts category on Greg’s blog
– Greg’s recent invisibility article on Scientific American
– Read his very in-depth post The Saga of the Scientific Swindler! (1884-1891)
When the show is available, I will post the video here and perhaps some additional notes and links. Please follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and get on my Email list.
Next week my guest will be science writer extraordinaire Carl Zimmer!
Thanks for stopping by!
Science Online 2011
January 5th, 2011
Jan. 13-16, 2011 – ScienceOnline2011, Research Triangle Park, NC
I’m thrilled to be attending and participating in ScienceOnline2011 – the fifth annual conference on science and the web in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. My first time! I’ll be leading a session with Joanne Manaster on communicating science with humor, and I’ll be speaking/performing at the Saturday night banquet. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with some friends and making some new ones.
#scio11
Good Day, Sacramento!
September 27th, 2010
This past Friday, I performed at the Sacramento Comedy Spot (in , uh, Sacramento, CA). To promote the show, I made an early morning appearance on a local TV show, “Good Day, Sacramento.”
I said, “Good day!”
We talked about science and comedy and insect photography. They even pulled up my photo blog: InsectPaparazzi.com .
Schmahl Science Workshops Fundraiser
September 27th, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010. I’m performing at a fundraiser for a very worthwhile cause – Schmahl Science Workshops offers an after-school career mentorship program that enables pre-K through 12 students to participate in on-going science and engineering research programs.
16th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser: “The Science of Success”
Food, wine, live entertainment (that’s me!)
6-10pm, Saturday, November 6, 2010
Quadrus Conference Center
2400 Sand Hill Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Tickets available at http://sswevent2010.eventbrite.com
More info on Schmahl Science Workshops:
The Bay Area is home to significant innovation in science and technology. However many local school districts have eliminated science education from their curriculum. The key is more Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) educated graduates if we want to continue to be leaders in the global economy. By partnering with schools, institutions of higher education, science based institutions, museums, local governments, and the business community our non-profit, Schmahl Science Workshops (SSW) develops young scientists to participate in the next wave of scientific innovation. We need your help to keep Schmahl Science Workshop strong. We invite you to join us to celebrate the accomplishments of our students and to learn more about how you can inspire the next generation of scientists.
Science Comedy at the Purple Onion, San Francisco
August 9th, 2010
8pm, Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010
An evening of science comedy – and a couple guests on the show. Get tickets here!
San Francisco’s Purple Onion, in North Beach, is an awesome venue with a lot of history.
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/129964
140 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 956-1653
Sacramento Comedy Spot
August 8th, 2010
8pm, Friday, Sept. 24, 2010
An Evening of Science Comedy at The Sacramento Comedy Spot
Tickets are $12, available here:
http://saccomedyspot.com/shows/brian-malow-science-comedy/
Sacramento Comedy Spot
1050 20th Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
(916) 444-3137
SkeptiCal 2010 Science & Skepticism Conference
April 19th, 2010
I will be speaking at SkeptiCal 2010, the Northern California Science & Skepticism Conference in Berkeley, April 24.
Other speakers include Eugenie Scott, Seth Shostak, Kirsten Sanford, Brian Dunning, and more. See the list of speakers.
- Date: Saturday, April 24, 2010. 9AM to 6PM.
- Location: Brower Center, Berkeley, California.
- Sponsors: Bay Area Skeptics and Sacramento-Area Skeptics
- Tickets: Tickets are $40 for the regular registration and $55 for registration and a t-shirt. See the fantastic t-shirt design by Ranch7 Creative. This event is expected to sell out, so please reserve your ticket as soon as possible!