Question

How would I add info to my little K is for Kathy spot?

2 bits

Okay, here goes. I'm not sure how this posting works, but I'm going to try. I guess I'm going to say a little about each book...so that makes two bits. I think I've read far enough to make a post.

First bit: I'm through chapter 17 in A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's a fun book I think...although I've never had an alien class...which might be more fun. I must say the chapter about Yellowstone (Dangerous Beauty) made me quite nervous, but hey if the thing blows we won't around to worry about it, so no big deal. I like all the funny little details that Bryson gives about the scientists and their lives. It makes it an enjoyable read. To a certain extent though, I'm not sure he answers all the questions he says he is going to...for example, how do we know things. I realize he's not writing for a scientific audience, but it seems like he tells us who came up with a theory and when, but not entirely how, or why that theory actually works...we would all have to know a lot more science to understand all that perhaps. I also find it funny that he is more comfortable with zeros than scientific notation. My brain can't deal with a bunch of zeros in a row, but if I see the scientific notation I can get a handle on how big something is. I found the discussion of geology throughout quite interesting. I think it's fascinating how science develops in fads, just like everything else. I'm not sure I think of modern scientific societies as social clubs, or things people do as hobbies. But it feels like they were like that once. What do you all think of the scientific societies you take part in/observe?

Second bit: I have finished the Life, the Universe and Everything. I'm not sure I will have any spoilers here, but if you're worried, stop reading. Although the book was kind of fun, I must confess that I haven't read the first two books...so I was wondering about some things. What was Trillion like in the first two books? Does she have a story, other than being the girlfriend of the two-headed president?

Anyway, sorry it took me so long to find my way to the blog. I hope to hear from you all soon.
Kathy

A glip from Alien Class

I'm not sure if you've all heard about the silliness of Utah State, but one of the few integrated science generals is called 'Intelligent Life in the Universe.' I am currently enrolled in an alien class. Anyway, the first weeks of the class were spent discussing all the early models, theories, and discoveries of the universe. I was intrigued in class by something my Professer discussed, but I'm not sure is actually factual... One Johannes Kepler, (working under Tycho Brahe -- awesome name, I know) was playing around with Brahe's measurements and data, and A- discovered that orbits are elliptical, along with other important shiz, but B- hinted at something really cool that I'm not sure was ever proved (or understood). So I'm likely very wrong about most of this, but you geniusses are here here to correct me. There is/was an important order of shapes, don't know why, but it went Sphere, Pyramid, Cube, and then on to some other cooler words. When you start with a pyramid, enclose it by a sphere(1), enclose that by a cube, enclose that by another sphere(2), then on to other multiple sided objects, each followed by a sphere (3, 4, 5) you then have many spheres all increasing in dimentions. What Kepler discovered, is that the radius of each sphere is porportionally related to the distance between each of the planets in our solar system! He didn't know why, but he was pretty accurate in his measurements of the orbits, and found they matched these spheres he'd been playing with. If true, I really am baffled. Random thang for y'all to research for me.

Related Science Link

I know this is more of the same, but here is a funny project called "Street Corner Science" where they put a Nobel Prize winner on a street corner and encourage people to go ask him whatever questions they want about science. He talks about some of the things in the first chapters of Bryson's book. I thought you might get a kick out of it.

http://www.sciencentral.com/video/2008/08/21/street-corner-science-with-leon-lederman/

How should this work? (Erika)

So how do you suggest our discussions go....there are 34 chapters in Douglas Adams book, do we read read 17 chapters in the next two weeks and not comment on anything past that, or do we wait till the end of the month and comment on the whole book? I don't want to read comments on parts that I haven't read yet, so should we just title our posts as to what chapters they cover?
I have both books now, and Dean gone all day, so guess what I'm doing!!!!

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Caitlyn

I really like how he writes, but so far all the information was in my first Alien test, so I'm waiting for new info...