#SCIO12 The Un-Conference

As you might have guessed, I’m a science guy. Sure, I’m not smart enough to understand most of it, but boy does it ever excite and fascinate me. I’m not, however, all that great in social situations. So going to a conference of 450 science communicators, educators, and fans had potential to be quite interesting.

Of course, it’s the only conference I’ve ever been to that had power strips every few feet and wifi hubs in every room to ensure everyone was connected to one another. Thank you organizers and sponsors!

I got to sit in on many sessions and even voiced my opinion once or twice, but by far the thing that makes ScienceOnline special is the people that participate. While I did go to a session during each slot, I got far more out of meeting people in between sessions.

All but about 2 people did I meet that were nice, awesome, and/or cool online turned out to be an order of magnitude more nice, awesome, and/or cool in person. I even heard more than one person say they, “heard that AmoebaMike was here.” That was kind of funny. Celebrity I am not. Not online and not in person.

While I am pseudonymous, I have never hid my actual identity on this blog. If you read the About page, you can see what I really look like (you do have to click through to FB ). Most people, though, just know me as a cute little guy in a lab coat with a cowboy hat riding an amoeba. So when I did introduce myself, I usually was greeted with, “oh, so you’re AmoebaMike.” I pretty much take that as “of course you’re not as cute as your avatar because how could you be.” Also, I look closer to biker than kid blogger.

Besides the awesome people–oh don’t worry, I will name names (keep reading)–the conference was great because of the inspiration. There were times when I thought of a great idea and surrounded by such greatness I said to myself why not? instead of no, that will never work.

Sure my shyness kept me feeling awkward where it probably shouldn’t have. Part of that since some of these people have been to 3 and 4 ScienceOnline conferences. But, there were more than a few people I connected with that I really hope I can grow a better friendship with in the coming years. Will I go to ScienceOnline in 2013? I don’t know. While it’s not expensive for what it is, it’s still money out of my pocket–I can’t get my employer to pay for it. With AmoebaJr on the way, I have to put myself on the back burner. Of course after more than 6 months of stay at home daddy time, that might just be the cost Mrs AmoebaMike has to pay to get me some sanity back.

Now I will publicly call out people I met at Scio12:

• Heidi Smith: We didn’t get to talk enough but she was very nice and I hope to make conversation online soon.
• Kaitlin Vandemark: Awesome physics undergrad I had never heard of before but am hoping to connect with much more and possibly even collaborate with.
• Carin Bondar: Even more gorgeous and friendly in person. Dr Bondar not only introduced me to Kaitlin, but also tried to help me get out of my shell.
• Jessica Morrison: A G+ buddy of mine, is just a sweetheart. One of the few to get to bring the spouse.
• Laura Wheeler: A very nice girl who was in a bunch of sessions with me. We’re kicking the idea around of collaborating together if we can come up with something good.
• Christie Wilcox: Exactly what you’d expect from her online, which yes, is a good thing. NerdyChristie got me introduced into a few good groups. She’s honestly my favorite science writer–and I told her as much.
• Cassie Rodenberg: More sweet in person than you could ever get from her great writing on addiction at SciAm blogs. Really hoping to continue conversations online and even collaborate with her.
• Cara Santa Maria: One of those rare people who just exudes awesome sauce. Yes, exuding awesome sauce sounds a little messy, but I assure you she’s the kind of person I could hang out with every day and continue to find fascinating.
• Mark Hahnel: Only briefly spoke with me, but really seemed like a genuinely good guy. Since I’m not a researcher, I don’t know that I have a use for his product, figshare, but he’s the kind of guy you want to share a drink and a pizza with.
• Sheril Kirshenbaum: Yes, she’s been featured here a time or two previously. She’s very much a sweetheart and I was sad I only got about 3 minutes with her.
• Scicurious: Also someone that has been featured on this blog before, sci is a really awesome person. Her intelligence and personality is like none other in the science community. I would totes be her friend if she let me.

And now, a proud recipient of a RUN PCR shirt I donated to the Scio12 film fest:

Photo courtesy of Joanne Manaster, http://www.joannelovesscience.com

Top 10 Gifts for Scientists or Science Lovers!

It’s the giving season and there are lots of great gifts out there, but it seems ideas and decisions are in short supply. So I’m here to give some great suggestions for the scientist or science lover in your life! Based on personality type, here are the 10 best science gifts:

For the book lover, like Joanne Manaster, I recommend Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart.

For the mom, like Carin Bondar, I recommend The Nerdy Baby’s ABCs Flash Cards.

For the science writer that no longer sees the inside of a lab, like Ed Yong, I recommend a nice piece of art such as Petri Dishes 5 by the talented Michele Banks.

For the marine biology lover, like Christie Wilcox, I recommend Blue Planet.

For the star gazer, like Phil Plait, I would highly recommend the book The Pluto Files by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

For the kid at heart, like Brian Krueger, I recommend a plush or bobble head famous scientist.

For the bug lover, like Bug Girl, I recommend a handmade plush insect sculpture, like the ones by Weird Bug Lady.

For the fashion forward, like Michelle Clement, I suggest a nice piece of jewelry and recommend this piece: silver DNA earrings.

For the funny one, like Brian Malow, I recommend something wearable that says: not only am I funny, I want everyone to know so I’m wearing this shirt.

For the person who has everything, like no scientist I know, a great gift would be a membership to the local science museum!

PCR Shirt

This is a microblog post. Otherwise known as a tweet (because my tweetdeck is all kinds of messed up lately.)

I wore my RUN PCR shirt the other day. A dentist saw it and was intrigued. I explained (or jogged his memory) what PCR is and he loved it. haha (I think he may have also been a Run DMC fan.)

Oooo! When I went to grab that link I saw white shirts are 50% off right now (’til Sunday using code HOLIDAYSSALE ). So hey, get your RUN PCR shirt at half price and impress your friends, coworkers, and random dentists!

Mail Order Disease

Sometimes a story so shocking comes along, I have to share it.  Usually, it’s a case of good shocking. This time, it’s a case of oh-my-gosh-what-are-they-doing shocking.

Pox parties; you may have heard of such a thing. Parents get kids together to play with one another when someone in the group has chicken pox. Chickenpox can be a pretty nasty disease–particularly in adults, but is usually not too bad in children. In fact, for many, it seemed a right of passage to get the pox and the associated fever.  I remember my case of chicken pox, despite it being maybe 25 years ago.

The idea of the pox party is that all kids in a group get chicken pox at the same time, and by getting it as children, they don’t face the wrath that comes with pox in adults. It’s not a bad idea in theory, but we’re not talking about giving everyone soda at the same time so they all crash and take a nap together. We’re talking about an extremely contagious disease being forced upon kids by their parents. If this doesn’t scream human rights violation, I don’t know what does.

Now, what happens when parents don’t know someone with chickenpox? It seems some moms have been linking up through Facebook to find pox across the country. Live disease is being sent through the mail to moms. Of course, not only does no one know the viral load being sent, since these are strangers even the disease itself can’t always be known or trusted. Parents unknowingly getting hepatitis or meningitis through the mail and giving it to their children is just around the corner.

The biggest kicker here: there’s a vaccine for chickenpox. That’s right, a safe and effective way to build immunity to chickenpox is a doctor’s visit away.

What these parents are doing is dangerous, not based on facts, and most likely illegal.

Read more at Mike the Mad Biologist (PG-13 for language) and Aetiology (includes video)

Related articles

• How Does Chickenpox Kill? (blogs.wsj.com)
• Chickenpox (PubMed – NIH)
• Chickenpox (KidsHealth)

A Little Something To Ponder…

“If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Isaac Newton

Mole Day — An Explanation

Happy Mole Day!

For many of you, it’s likely you have no idea what a mole is. Sure you know of a mole as a raised piece of skin that’s darker than the surrounding area. You also know a mole as a small underground-dwelling insectivore. It’s possible you even know a mole is a type of spy. There’s even the kind of mole that you put on your food, but that’s pronounced differently. “Mole-ay” sauce, as it’s pronounced, is a dark-red/brown chili-based sauce used in Mexican dishes.

But there’s also the mole used in science. A mole, whose unit is simply mol (mole : mol :: kilogram : kg :: meter : m), is a unit of measure used almost exclusively in chemistry.

A mole (mol) is an amount of substance that contains as many particles* as there are atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12.

*By particles, I mean atoms in a sample (such as C) or molecules in a sample (such as H2O).

So 1 mole of carbon has the same number of “particles” as 1 mole of anything else, be it water, sodium, or gold.

Now what is that number? The short answer is, it isn’t important. lol

The slightly longer answer is 6.02 x 10^23, which is called Avogadro’s number. Yes, it’s a HUGE number.

So if you have 1 mole of Carbon (pure carbon 12), it will weigh exactly 12 grams and will have 6.02 x 10^23 number of carbon atoms in it.

If you had a mole of water, it would have the same number of H2O molecules, but would weigh 18 grams (16 grams for the oxygens and 2 x 1 grams for the hydrogens).

So just as a dozen diamonds (made of carbon) would weigh a different amount as a dozen gallons of water, so does a mol of carbon weigh a different amount than a mol of water!

If at this point, you’ve missed what mole day could be celebrating, I will tell you that today is October 23rd. Otherwise known as 10/23, a magical part of Avogadro’s number. So scientists and numerologists unite! And at 6:02 am and pm, particularly, celebrate.