The Society for Physical and Natural Sciences!

Our most recent meeting consisted of watching science-related clips on YouTube.  This will likely continue at the meeting tonight.  But I ask you again for your help, gentle readers.  What would you like to do?  Is there an experiment you’d really like to try (that wouldn’t be too expensive or illegal to conduct on a college campus)?  A documentary (or episode of Mythbusters) you want to see?  Should we do more Science Olympiad-style stuff?  More SET?  More science charades or Apples to Apples or Pictionary?  Do you want to build glial cells out of brightly colored edible things and then eat your creations?  (I don’t know who wouldn’t.)  Answer me this, fellow science nerds: Haven’t you always had a burning desire to actually do the Diet Coke and Mentos thing?  Not just watch the EepyBird guys do it, I mean actually drop the mints in yourself and let all foam break loose?

If the answer is yes, please let us know.  If the answer is no, please let us know.  (If the answer is no, we’d also appreciate it if you would tell us what your scientifically-related and not all expensive or dangerous burning desire actually is.)

The meeting on November 17th embraced the Apples to Apples word list yet again, this time in the form of charades.  This word list was without a doubt one of the best ideas we ever had.  That’s pretty much all we did that meeting, because it was way too much fun to do anything else.  We briefly discussed the recent field trip and possibilities for future field trips.  There may be some sort of science-y party at the end of the semester to use up some of our left-over funds, but we don’t know yet.  If you have ideas, sharing them with any member of the board would be awesome.

No meeting next week, as it is so close to Thanksgiving break, but when we get back, we will be building stuff, Science Olympiad style.  What kind of stuff, I honestly don’t know.  Scientific stuff, I would imagine.

The meeting of November the 10th took scientific drawing to new heights.  We began the meeting with a brief discussion of science classes, this being pre-registration season.  Camille then led us in a debate about the value of using animals in both real-world research and teaching labs.  We also discusssed the logistics of our upcoming field trip to the Franklin Institute.  All details will be emailed once they are finalized.  If you have not informed a board member that you would like to attend, please do so, um, now, really.  We need to figure out costs.  (Please note that everyone is expected to pay her own train fare.)  If you have questions about the trip, you should direct them to Claire W (cweichselb) or Camille (jpetre) as neither Yang nor I are able to go (so we’re not really in the loop on this one).  (Yes, we suck, sorry, but we’re seniors, and we’re trying graduate and get into grad school/med school.  Blame the real world.)

Following these activities, epicness happened in the form of Science Pictionary using some of our Science Apples to Apples words.  How does one draw the word “castration” without being obscene?  Answer: unknown, as of yet.  Nanoparticles are also rather difficult to draw, considering their size relative to the size of a Crayola marker tip (even a fine-line).

As always, please contribute to the Science Apples to Apples wiki.  I think we’re pretty much set for words.  But we need a lot more definitions.  You can either copy and paste stuff from Wikipedia (citing it, of course) if you just want to do a bunch quickly, or you can write your own amusing definitions if you want to be a show-off.  When it comes to a game like Apples to Apples, the opportunities for puns and word-play are fruitful (and don’t even ask me if that was intended, of course it was).

…because apparently I’ve gotten into an every-other-week habit.  I’ll try to break that next week.  The meeting for October 27, 2009 was, however, a rather poorly attended meeting anyway (it was pouring in a sort of end-of-the-world fashion, which may explain that), so not much happened.  The meeting on November 3, 2009, however, was far more exciting.

To start, we discussed field trips.  The general consensus was that this coming weekend’s trip to the zoo wasn’t really such a great idea.  Not a lot of people are available, it’s cold, and transportation is iffy.  So we’ve canceled that trip and hope to go sometime in the spring.  Maybe with some more time to plan ahead, we can arrange for a van.  Maybe not, I make no promises.  Such promises are not something I can make as a modest scribe.  What this means is that we’ll have more money this semester to spend on our trip to the Franklin Institute.  Which means we can pay to see Body Worlds.  Which is awesome.  This trip is currently scheduled for Sunday, November 15, 2009.

Following this discussion, Claire W led us in an experiment to calculate the speed of light using marshmallows and a microwave.  I was deemed “unusual” for my lack of culinary appreciation for marshmallows, a judgment which has been made many times before by others and is likely apt.  You can read about how the experiment works here.  Yang (our president) also demonstrated how microwaves tend to spark if turned on with nothing in them.

In the future, we’d like to do more activities like this.  If you have any ideas, please let one of the members of the board know.  (Commenting on this blog works just fine, as do email and shouting at us from across Merion green.)  It doesn’t have to be an experiment.  It can be a science-y game or something you think the club members would like to watch (like an episode of Mythbusters, which will totally happen as long as I’m still in the club).

Speaking of games, please procrastinate by writing a few definitions for Science Apples to Apples.  The sooner we get them written, the sooner we can play.  Obviously.

Since the meeting before Fall Break was short and I was busy, I figured I’d just do that and last week’s meetings together.  So no graphs this week, because I don’t feel like making two.

The results of the field trip surveys are all in, and we have finally nailed down our trips for this semester:

Sunday, Nov 8th – Philadelphia Zoo
Sunday, Nov 15th – Franklin Institute

We have begun brainstorming for the science version of Apples to Apples, a process which almost made my writing hand fall off, which would’ve sucked as I’m intending to enter the medical profession.  So don’t let my sacrifice be in vain. Head over to the wiki and write descriptions for a few words, or add words you think have been unfairly left out.

And speaking of the wiki, remember that you can always add fascinating science news to the discussion pages.  I know I get really excited when people tell me about cool science stuff I didn’t know about previously.  This is a club where people will actually listen when you start talking about gene splicing or carbon dating in great detail.  They may even ask you questions about it that you can then answer and feel smart.  If you’re lucky, they may start telling you about the new species of ant that was just discovered and what makes it different from the many other species of ants.  That doesn’t always happen out there in the real world, so make the most of it while you can.