Tech Support and I have been playing Pandemic for a couple years now, ever since good friends of ours introduced us to the game. The dreadful diseases we combat include sniffilis, syphilherpetitis, zombiebomb, and gout (don’t ask me, Tech Support named them), and it’s kind of astonishing how much anxiety we feel as the disease cubes spread across the board – almost as if we really are responsible for saving the world. Who knew the game would save us from ourselves? We were nearing the end of the game one night, prepped to cure the last disease on the...
Move Over, SUE, There’s a New T. Rex in Town
Of all the dinosaurs in all the world, SUE the T. rex might be the most famous. The most complete T. rex skeleton ever found, SUE is likely also the most well-traveled. Her bones, or at least casts of them, have been displayed all over the world. The casts I saw in Nova Scotia came with bilingual displays written in English and Arabic! But there’s a new king of the dinosaurs in town, and his name is Scotty. Named after a bottle of Scotch the scientists toasted his 1991 discovery with, Scotty is only 65% complete, compared to SUE’s...
Steminism Sunday: Dr. Ellie Sattler
Welcome to a new occasional series here on ye olde blog! As a former woman in science, I have a deep and enduring interest in the experiences and representation of women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). This series will be a opportunity for me – and you – to get to know some of these intellectual badasses. To kick us off, paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler. Yes, yes, I know. Ellie Sattler is not an actual person: she’s a fictional character from the book and movie Jurassic Park. But Jurassic Park launched one of the most profitable...