Science Cheerleader

Michael C shared this article from CNET with us: “Science in the public view: a good gamble.” The author does a good job illustrating why more dialogue between researchers and the public is needed:

There are plenty of practical barriers between physicists and ordinary people, but too many of them are gratuitous. I don’t expect the public to regain its faith in science anytime soon, but rebuilding the ties between the public and the researchers, or at least opening the doors, will help the public be more sympathetic and the researchers be more honest with their ultimate audience.

Talk about a fun radio interview! Last week, the Science Cheerleader was featured on Weekend Workout (”a fun, entertaining, edifying and sometimes twisted look at the world of fitness, food, and supplements”).

My chat about science literacy, with the host Jose Antonio–who didn’t shy away from asking some provocative questions–followed a conversation on “functional underwear.” Success! Truth be told, it feels great each time I can spread the gospel of science to a new audience. Thanks Weekend Workout!

What if the media covered baseball like it covers science?

Larry Husten, founder of CardioBrief.org , poses this question and presents some interesting scenarios following this line of thought. For example, the World Series would receive one article in each major paper– after the series ended–set in no context at all (a la the Nobel Prize).

Check out Husten’s piece.

You’ll see this sweet intro where he has this to say about Science Cheerleader’s Brain Makeover effort to increase adult science literacy and bring science to the public:

“Beneath the highly attractive surface here there’s something important going on. I don’t know if the Science Cheerleader can single-handedly reverse the course of scientific illiteracy, but she deserves all the cheers we can give her for at least giving it the old college try. (Thanks to USA Today reporter Rita Rubin for tweeting about this.)”

In August, I participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund in North Carolina. To purpose of the event was to share with science education directors ways they can contribute to the public understanding of science and science education. The discussion was moderated by Russ Campbell, BWF Communications Director (and fellow Philadelphian–yo, Russ!).

Here are the presentations of the three panelists, in this order:

• Darlene Cavalier, Science Cheerleader
• Glenn Murphy, author of “Why is Snot Green”
• Troy Livingston, Museum of Life and Science

Hope you enjoy it. Tell us what you would add!

#8. Nuclear Energy Comes from the Conversion of Mass.

The nucleus of the atom is a dense collection of particles that carries most of the mass of the atom. In nuclear reactions, some of this mass may be converted to energy via Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 . The chemical identity of the atom depends on the number of positively charged protons in the nucleus, but the nucleus can have different numbers of uncharged neutrons. Nuclei with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes of each other.

Most isotopes are unstable, and undergo a process of disintegration known as radioactive decay. The time it takes for half of a group of nuclei to decay is called the half life. Half lives can range from fractions of a second to billions of years. Measuring the number of decays that have occurred in a material allows us to estimate the age of the material.

The decay process can proceed by the emission of alpha particles (two protons and two neutrons), beta particles (fast electrons produced in the nucleus) or gamma rays (high energy electromagnetic radiation).
Energy can be derived from nuclei by fusion (the coming together of small nuclei to form larger ones) or fission (the splitting of large nuclei into smaller ones). In the case where the mass of the final products is less than that of the initial nuclei, the difference is converted into energy as outlined above. Fission energy supplies and appreciable fraction of American electricity, while fusion energy is what powers the sun.