Science Cheerleader

From Discover Magazine! Pop quiz: Which former NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year is a (literally) big fan of science, and this magazine in particular? That’s right, defensive end Hugh Douglas. See Philly Eagles and 76ers Science Cheerleaders here.

Recently, as part of an ongoing effort to playfully engage the public in science, he chatted with DISCOVER contributor Darlene Cavalier  (who moonlights as the Science Cheerleader) and shared his thoughts on the Large Hadron Collider, spiral galaxies, ROS suppression, and more.

Thanks, Jacquie, for this interesting news.

 Jacquie: “This football season brings us perhaps the utimate citizen science sacrifice: The NY Times reports 12 NFL players have donated thier brains (post-humously of course) to enable scientists to explore the long term effects of repetitive head injuries. (hint: not good) See full story. Not an original idea: in 1876 la Société d’autopsie mutuelle (The Mutual Autopsy Society of Paris) allowed members to donate thier bodies for study (by other society members) to advance science.”

And, from Wired,  here’s another example of passive participation in science–though incredibly whimpy when compared to donating brains to science! GPS-Equipped iPhone Could Enable New Citizen Science

More on this later but you heard it here, folks: near-future personal technologies will turn everyone into citizen scientists whether you want to or not. YES! My plan to take over the world is working [evil laugh].Here are my evil assistants strategizing the global take-over.