Writings and videos about science activities with an emphasis on environmental science and energy measurement

Some of you may recall the book/movie Jurassic Park, where biotechnologists cloned dinosaurs from DNA samples extracted from ancient mosquitoes preserved in amber. In order to prevent their products from endangering the outside world, they incorporated a mutation that made them highly dependent on the lysine supplements provided by the park staff. Since lysine is a naturally occurring amino acid, this strategy was not very effective when they did escape (this was not in the m...

I just made a significant update for this video on measuring work efficiency. To keep it low budget, I just included the option of using a power drill for measurement of work involving rotary motion. Since this option is barely described in the lab manual I decided to include it in the video. Most of you who teach environmental science may never use this activity because it seems more appropriate for physics or engineering. Nonetheless, I always use this activity when I teach...

I generally hate shopping, but I like going to IKEA. There’s something about the way they arrange the space that makes strolling through their store much more interesting than being in a mall. Predictably, nearly all the furniture in our house is from IKEA. My first exposure to the elegant minimalist style of Northern European furniture was a small store I knew as a teenager called “Scan” (short for “Scandinavia”). This store near our house is long gone, and I was i...

According to this article human activity has increased the rate of erosion about 100-fold. This is not surprising to me. I recall my agronomy instructor about 35 years ago using the last day of class to give a slide show to discuss the erosive effects of plowing and building construction. This is also why I have always been strongly against using land to grow biofuels. In this article I wrote a few years ago, I reference other research suggesting that biofuels may have played...