When I was lecturing on lasers this week, I was surprised to discover how many of my students were unaware that laser was an acronym (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). Science is replete with acronyms - Ira Levine once essayed that if you knew enough acronyms you could pretend you knew computational chemistry - good, bad, really funny and occasionally unfortunate.
On my desk is a paper which refers (with as near as I can tell with a straight face) to "PUS research." Public Understanding of Science. I swear this is true.
If you've got a favorite one - funny, famous or truly unfortunate - leave it in the comments for all of us to enjoy...
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Science in the kitchen: Jello lasersRomancing the stone (steampunk lit and lasers)
'tis the season for baking on the home front. It's been mostly biologically based leavening (yeast) at my house, but some strictly chemical rising has been going on as well. For an interesting mix of chemistry and biology in the kitchen check out Not So Humble Pie's science cookies: zebrafish, drosophila, gel electrophoresis and atoms are on
the menu. Something to keep in mind for the next snow day around here...
